A History of Rohan

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Wbweather
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A History of Rohan

Post by Wbweather » Mon Jun 11, 2018 4:07 am

From Horse-lords of Rohan by Cubicle 7 Games

Songs of the Riders
The Riders of the Mark have long memories but not deep. They share their history in songs, not books, and loremasters in Gondor seem to know more about the history of Rohan than do many Rohirrim. But the Riders have wisdom in their ways, and in the bright fragments of ancient lays the minstrels have hidden truths that cannot be found among hoarded scrolls of lore.

The ancestors of the Rohirrim first settled in the Vales of Anduin in forgotten years, where they found swift horses
running wild and strong and took the name of Éothéod, the horse-people. Their kinship was with the dwellers of those lands in the North; the Bardings of Dale, the Woodmen of Mirkwood and the Beornings.

But their past reaches further back, into days half-legendary. For the horse-lords descend from the ancient
Northmen of Rhovanion, princes bound to Gondor by oaths of fealty.

Bonds of Blood
The ties between the Horse-lords and Gondor began in the days of Minalcar, regent of that realm. In those days,
about 1700 years ago, Minalcar made war upon the Easterlings east of the forest of Mirkwood, aided by his
allies among the Northmen living in that region. In the year 1248 of the Third Age, Minalcar succeeded in driving
his enemies beyond the Sea of Rhûn and took the name of Rómendacil, “East-victor.” He fortified the western shore
of the Anduin up to the river Limlight and built the Pillars of the Argonath.

Among the allies of Rómendacil in his wars against the Easterlings was a powerful prince of the Northmen, Vigudavia, who called himself the King of Rhovanion. Rómendacil’s son Valacar lived with Vidugavia as an ambassador for many years, and eventually married Vidumavi, daughter of Vidugavia, to the displeasure of many among the high men of Gondor. It was thus that Vinitharya, son of Valacar and Vidumavi, grew up among the Northmen and the Men of Gondor alike.

As regent of the realm, Rómendacil ruled Gondor in the name of the King, his uncle Narmacil. Narmacil died without an heir, and was succeeded by Calmacil, father of Rómendacil. But being already ancient, Calmacil asked Rómendacil to retain his position as regent. When the old King died, Rómendacil finally ascended to the throne of Gondor in 1304.

King Rómendacil reigned for many years in peace, despite a disquiet spreading among the long-lived aristocracy of Gondor and provoked by the King’s family ties to the Northmen, a folk seen by many as a foreign race removed from the nobility of the Men of Westernesse. His son Valacar became king in 1366, and the disquiet slowly turned to concern, to finally erupt into open rebellion in the southern provinces of Gondor. When Vinitharya, the son of Valacar and his Northman wife Vidumavi ascended to the throne 60 years later with the name of Eldacar, the rebellion spread and there was war in Gondor.

The war was a bitter struggle fought by brother against brother and came to be remembered as the Kin-strife. Eldacar’s main enemy was Castamir, a cruel and ruthless man who burned the city of Osgiliath in his attempt to
overcome Eldacar, resulting in the destruction of the city and its many treasures. Eventually, Eldacar prevailed upon
Castamir with the help of the Northmen of Rhovanion, thus forever cementing the bond of friendship between
them and Gondor.

The Horse-lords
For all their great deeds recorded in the annals of Gondor, the Rohirrim count their days only from the gathering of
the Éothéod, the horse-people, as they called themselves in the long years before they ever came to the land of
Rohan.

It was around the year 1851 of the Third Age that the Northmen of Rhovanion found themselves scattered and
conquered by the Wainriders. They were fierce invaders from the East who fought from chariots and war-wagons,
and who enslaved the Northmen and ruled Rhovanion for 40 years. One of the Northmen tribes sought to escape
slavery by travelling west beyond Mirkwood and north into the Vales of Anduin. They settled in the middle vales
of the Great River and there they became known as the Éothéod for their love and mastery of horses.

In time, the Éothéod moved again, as the darkness in Mirkwood grew and threatened their fortified homesteads
and villages. The dreaded realm of Angmar that extended from Eriador into the vales of Anduin in the north-west
had been shattered and defeated, and it was so that a young and brave chieftain named Frumgar led his people
to the far northern dales where the river Greylin met the Langwell and the Misty Mountains met the Grey. That
land was home to mighty horses, and the Éothéod drove out the hill-folk who were in league with Angmar and built
a great city on a hill.

Frumgar was followed by his son Fram, who lived to become the greatest hero of the horse-people of Wilderland,
for he slew the great dragon Scatha of Ered Mithrin. The city of the Éothéod was renamed after the Dragon-slayer
and its halls made magnificent with the treasure Fram claimed from the hoard of the great worm. (The Dwarves
of the Grey Mountains pressed Fram for a share in the treasure, saying Scatha had despoiled their people. Fram
refused, and legends tell that there was enmity between the Dwarves and the Northmen from that day).

Quiet years passed, then centuries, and the Éothéod prospered in the vales that became their ancestral
kingdom.


The Host of Eorl
Five hundred years went by as the Éothéod grew, generation after generation, filling their far northern lands with herds and homesteads. Then came an alliance with Gondor that would shape the fate of the horse-people. At that time, Eorl son of Léod was their lord. He was called the Young, as he succeeded his father at the age of 16, when Léod captured a wild white foal and died when the horse threw him from its back.

In the year 2510 a messenger sent from distant Gondor reached the halls of Eorl, bringing tidings of war and a
request for aid, in a message bearing the seal of Cirion, Steward of Gondor. A host of wild men from the north-east
assisted by Orcs from the mountains had invaded the land of Calenardhon, a wide region to the north of the White
Mountains of Gondor. These Balchoth (“cruel horde”) had already overrun the lands east of Mirkwood, leaving the
Northmen of Rhovanion incapable of honouring their ancient oaths.

But the Éothéod remembered their old allegiance, and Eorl assembled a great force of riders and set out south along
the Great River. Songs tell how Eorl’s seven thousand riders and seven hundred horsed archers passed through
the lands in might and splendour, defying even the dark shadow of Dol Guldur. Some minstrels remember how
a shimmering mist issued from the Dwimordene, an unexpected gift from the sorcerous Lady of the Golden
Wood, lending speed and strength to both horses and their riders.

The riders rode into the southern lands none too soon. The army of Gondor had been driven by Easterlings and
Orcs through the Wold of Calenardhon and cornered against the river Limlight. The Éothéod crossed the Anduin
where the river meandered in a great loop and became shallow enough to ford and attacked the Balchoth from
the rear. The Éothéod and the Men of Gondor destroyed the Balchoth and the Orcs throughout the land.

In the aftermath of the glorious victory, which later became known as the battle of the Field of Celebrant,
Cirion decided to recognize the great service that the Éothéod had given to Gondor.

With the authority of the Stewards of the Kings, Cirion offered to Eorl son of Léod the gift of all the land of
Calenardhon, for him and his heirs to hold in kingship. Eorl accepted, and in a secret hollow known only to the
Stewards of Gondor, the two rulers swore solemn oaths of friendship and mutual aid before the Tomb of Elendil.

The Kings of Rohan

Eorl made his house on a green hill on the slopes of the White Mountains, and there a fortified city grew, the
capital of the new kingdom. His riders grew in number steadily, but it took many long years for the Éothéod to take
possession of the land granted to them, and for the length of his life Eorl retained the title of Lord before his folk,
adding to it that of King of Calenardhon. In time, the land of the riders would be known in Gondor with the name of
Rohan, land of horses, and that of the Riddermark, the realm of the horse-lords.

To ensure the safety of their settlers the Eorlings chased away the tribes of Men that occupied the region before
their arrival, a hostile folk who had expanded east into Calenardhon from Dunland, in the years when Orc-raids
had plagued the scattered folk of Gondor who lived in the region. The Riders now drove the Dunlendings out with
spear and torch – a deed that the Dunlendings never forgot nor forgave for centuries to come.

Eorl the Young died in battle at 60, his hair still a bright yellow, when Easterlings invaded yet again. He was the
first in a line of kings destined to last for nine generations.

The Hammerhand
Helm was the ninth King of Rohan, and the last of his line, as both he and his two sons died in war against
the Dunlendings. Such grim events had their roots many years before, when Helm felled a man who had
insulted him with a single blow, thus earning the name of Hammerhand.

The man he had killed was called Freca, and he was a wealthy noble and counselor to the King, with many loyal
followers among the Dunlendings. When in the year 2758 more invaders swept into Rohan from the East, Wulf,
the son of Freca, rebelled against the King to avenge his father’s death, leading an army of Dunlendings across the
river Isen from the West.

The Riders of Rohan were overrun. Helm Hammerhand took refuge in the mountains, in the fortress then called
the Súthburg and the ravine beyond. In his absence, Wulf seized Edoras, slew Helm’s son Haleth, and proclaimed
himself King of Rohan.

In the following months, the region was gripped by a cruel cold season, afterwards known as the Long Winter,
and laid under snow from November to March. Helm and his men were starving, and many desperate deeds
were committed. The King’s younger son, Háma, died in a vain attempt to find provisions, and Helm himself
froze to death some time later, after one of his many crazed attempts at breaking the siege; Helm would leave
the fortress to go out by himself, it is said, in search of enemies to kill, like a beast hunting for prey.

The Long Winter broke at last. Fréaláf, the son of Helm’s sister Hild, led a small, desperate raid out of Dunharrow,
where he had found refuge with many followers, and he surprised Wulf in Edoras, killing him. The Dunlendings
dispersed, while their allies the Easterlings were dying of sickness in the West, as the snow melted and the land was
flooded, becoming a great marsh.

Gondor, which until that time had been beset by enemies from Umbar, came at last to the rescue of Rohan, forcing
the Easterlings to withdraw. The Riders and Gondor together then marched East to drive the Dunlendings out,
and dislodged them from Isengard for the first time in 50 years.

Fréaláf Hildeson was crowned in Edoras, the first of the second line of Kings of the Mark. Saruman the White
honoured his coronation, bearing gifts and praise. With the blessings of King Fréaláf and the leave of Beren,
Steward of Gondor, Saruman entered Isengard and made his home in Orthanc. The Rohirrim were glad to have a
friend in the high tower. It would be many years before they regained the strength that they lost in the war that
nearly destroyed them.

The Stranger King
Fengel was to be succeeded by his son Thengel, who would become the sixteenth King of Rohan, and the seventh of his line. He was the King’s only son, and he left Rohan as soon as he came of age, as it is said that his temper disagreed with that of his father. He made his home in Gondor, seeking in the service of Turgon, the ruling Steward, that honour he could not find in the eyes of his father.

Thengel became fluent in Sindarin, the language favoured by the Dúnedain, and after many years in the lands of the
South he took Morwen, a young woman of Lossarnach, in marriage. Tall and graceful and black-haired, Morwen
was much younger than her husband, and she bore him five children, four daughters and one son, Théoden.

Thengel was 48 years old when news came that his father had died. The people of Rohan called him to return to
Edoras as their king, but the tidings were ill-received by Thengel; Gondor was his adopted home, a land where he
had lived most of his life, where he had won renown and a happy marriage. But duty could not be ignored, and
heavy-hearted Thengel brought his family north to Rohan. It was the year 2953.

The Rohirrim greeted Thengel as king and they named his tall queen Morwen Steelsheen. But the King and Queen
were strangers, and their ways were foreign to the people they ruled. In the Golden Hall, Westron and Sindarin were
heard rather than the northern speech of the Riders. The same year when Thengel King took the throne,
Saruman declared himself Lord of Isengard rather than merely its caretaker. He began openly taking Dunlendings
as his followers and troubling the borders of Rohan. And in the year 2954, Mount Doom, silent for three thousand
years, burst into flame again. When Thengel was new and strange to the throne of the Riddermark, shadows were growing long on Middle-earth.

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Wbweather
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A History of Rohan

Post by Wbweather » Mon Jun 11, 2018 5:40 pm

The Second Line of Kings

King Fréaláf ruled for nearly 40 years, as did his son Brytta after him. Brytta was called Léofa, the Beloved,
because like his father he was active and generous in helping his people rebuild the herds and lands that had been
ravaged by war. In his days the Orcs troubled Rohan, driven south from the Misty Mountains in defeat from the
War of the Dwarves and Orcs. They sought to hide in the White Mountains and Brytta and his son Walda fought
them relentlessly, but at a cost. Walda had ruled for only nine years when in the year 2851 Orcs ambushed him and
his companions in Dunharrow, slaying him. His son Folca waged a war of vengeance against the Orcs. A famous
hunter, Folca swore that he would chase no wild beast while there was an Orc in his kingdom. After 13 years the
Rohirrim found and destroyed the last Orc-hold – and Folca died on the tusks of the Great Boar of Everholt in the
Firien Wood, even after he dealt the beast the fatal thrust with his spear.

Folca’s son Folcwine had a long reign. At his time, the Riddermark could be said to have finally recovered its full
strength – one hundred years had passed since the rebellion of Wulf and the invasion of the Easterlings – and the
King drove the Dunlendings out of Rohan’s West-march, freeing the lands between the Adorn and Isen rivers that
they had long occupied.

55 years into Folcwine’s reign, a messenger from Gondor arrived carrying the Red Arrow, a token of impending
war. Armies from Harad had invaded and Gondor summoned their allies. Folcwine honoured the Oath of Eorl,
sending a great host of riders led by his twin sons Folcred and Fastred. To Folcwine’s sorrow, the twins died side by
side, fighting in Ithilien. Túrin II, ruling Steward of Gondor, sent a great weregild of gold to King Folcwine for
his loss.

But the deaths of Folcred and Fastred were even more grievous for Rohan; for when King Folcwine died nearly 20
years later, his younger son Fengel took the crown. He was 33 years old when he sat on the throne of the Golden
Hall, and he ruled for 50 troubled years. King Fengel was voracious, notoriously avaricious and quarrelsome, and
he spent his long reign in strife with his marshals and his people. Rohan faced no invasion from East or West in
those years but suffered under a feckless king. In his days, Rohan was a kingdom ruled by caprice and greed.

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