 {|align=right |- | |}  in j. r. r. tolkien's legendarium, gamling is a man of rohan. he appears in the two towers, the second volume of the lord of the rings. an older man (he is called "gamling the old"), he was from the westfold. gamling means "old man" in old english, (cf. oe gamol "old") which is used to represent the language of rohirric. thus "gamling" is not the character's actual name. nevertheless it is a linguistic pun reflecting the character's age. the word and its meaning still survive in modern scandinavian languages such as; danish, norwegian, swedish and icelandic. gamling understood the language of dunland and was familiar with the hatred that the dunlendings had for the rohirrim. in tolkien's book, gamling is left in charge of the forces defending helm's dike (a fortification across the deeping-coomb before the stronghold of the hornburg defending helm's deep) by command of erkenbrand. about 1,000 men had been left to defend helm's dike, including gamling's grandson, and gamling notes that most of the defenders were either very old (like himself) or very young (like his grandson). king thÃ©oden of rohan arrives at helm's deep with reinforcements from edoras on march 3, 3019. as the forces of isengard approach, gamling and his men pull back from helm's dike and enter the stronghold of the hornburg. gamling hears gimli's warning that orcs have entered a culvert under the wall and leads the men of the westfold in a charge that drives them back. gamling then asks gimli to help block up the opening with small boulders and broken stones with the remark, "we must stop this rat-hole. dwarves are said to be cunning folk with stone. lend us your aid, master!" however, saruman's forces later breach the deeping wall using an explosive device. gamling retreats into the deep with gimli and Ãomer. there they defend the narrows before the entrance to the glittering caves until dawn, when gandalf and erkenbrand arrive with reinforcements, and the battle of the hornburg is won. he is not mentioned again, but presumably rides with the rohirrim to minas tirith and fights in the battle of the pelennor fields, or goes wi
Fictional_characters_introduced_in_1954 Middle-earth_Rohirrim The_Lord_of_the_Rings_characters