page_title: Rohan (Middle-earth)
section_title: Horses and warfare
hierarchical_section_title: Rohan (Middle-earth) / In Tolkien's works / Culture / Horses and warfare
caption_attribution_description: English: A saxon man wearing chainmail
context_page_description: Rohan is a kingdom of horsemen, the Rohirrim, in J. R. R. Tolkien's fantasy setting of Middle-earth. It is mainly a grassland, and provides its ally Gondor with cavalry.
  Rohan is grounded in Anglo-Saxon tradition, poetry, and linguistics, in everything but its use of horses. Tolkien used Old English for the kingdom's language and names, pretending that this was in translation of Rohirric. Meduseld, King Théoden's hall, is modelled on Heorot, the great hall in Beowulf.
  In The Lord of the Rings, Rohan is important in the action, first against the wizard Saruman in the Battle of the Hornburg, and then in the climactic Battle of the Pelennor Fields. There, Théoden leads the Rohirrim to victory against the forces of Mordor; he is killed when his horse falls, but his niece Éowyn kills the leader of the Ringwraiths.
context_section_description: The armies of Rohan were largely horsemen. The basic tactical unit was the éored, Old English for "a unit of cavalry, a troop", which at the time of the War of the Ring had a nominal strength of 120 riders. 
  
  In time of war, every able man was obliged to join the Muster of Rohan. Rohan was bound by the Oath of Éorl to help Gondor in times of peril, and the latter asked for their aid through the giving of the Red Arrow. This has a historical antecedent in the Old English poem Elene, in which Constantine the Great summoned an army of mounted Visigoths to his aid against the Huns by sending an arrow as a "token of war". Gondor could also call the Rohirrim in need by lighting the warning beacons of Gondor, a series of signal fires along the White Mountains from Minas Tirith to the Rohan border: Amon Dîn, Eilenach, Nardol, Erelas, Min-Rimmon, Calenhad and Halifirien.
  At the start of the War of the Ring a Full Muster would have been over 12,000 riders. Among the horses of the Rohirrim were the famed mearas, the noblest and fastest horses that ever roamed Arda. It was because of the close affiliation with horses, both in war and peace, that they received their name. Rohirrim (or more properly Rochirrim) is Sindarin for "Horse-lords," and Rohan (or Rochand) means "Land of the Horse-lords".
caption: Anglo-Saxon arms and chainmail armour
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