Rohirrim

The Rohirrim were a people of Northmen descent who inhabited the realm of Rohan in central Middle-earth. The names Rohirrim and Rohan referred to their famous horsemanship.
==Description & culture==
The Rohirrim were a tall, blonde, and mostly blue-eyed people, the men were large, husky, and handsome while the women were particularly beautiful. They were noble, brave, strong-willed and fiercely independent, remaining within their own language and culture. Their horses were very important assets in their everyday lives, with their entire culture based around the breeding and trading of them. They lived mostly in villages on the plains of Rohan where their horses grazed, and had few cities.
==History==
The Rohirrim were descended from the Northmen of Rhovanion and the Éothéod, who lived in the vales of the Great River Anduin but were removed to Calenardhon, a plains-land granted them in perpetuity by the Ruling Steward of Gondor, Cirion, in reward for the assistance that they offered Gondor at a time of great need. As a result, they were lifelong allies of Gondor bound by the Oath of Eorl. At that time Calenardhon was renamed Rohan (Horse-land) after their many horses. By the Rohirrim themselves Rohan is usually called "The Mark".
The terms Riders of Rohan and Riders of the Mark are commonly used to refer to horsemen of Rohan. The former is a chapter title in The Two Towers. The "King's Riders" were specifically the horsemen who formed the king's bodyguard.
The Dúnedain of Gondor believed that the Rohirrim were distantly related to them (having descended from the Atanatári of the First Age) and described them as Middle Men, that being inferior to the Númenóreans in both culture and descent, but superior to the "Men of Darkness" who had worshiped and served Sauron.
The Rohirrim had contacts with Elves in their ancient years, and knew of Eru, but, like the Dúnedain, they did not worship him corporately. They seem to have highly valued the Vala Oromë the Hunter, whom they called Béma.
During the reign of Théoden, the largest assembled host of Rohirrim, mustered at the camp of Dunharrow, became crucial in saving Gondor and Minas Tirith from utter destruction by Sauron's host, at the Battle of the Pelennor Fields in TA 3019. Following that and the death of Théoden, many of them rode to Mordor, under Aragorn II Elessar's lead, and fought courageously at the Battle of the Black Gate, without certainty that the One Ring would be successfully destroyed.
==Etymology==
Rohirrim is Sindarin for Horse-riders, and are mostly used by outsiders: the name they had for themselves are Eorlingas, after their king, Eorl the Young, who had first brought them to Rohan. Rohirrim is a collective noun, and when used grammatically as a subject or object is usually used with the definite article (i.e. the Rohirrim). It can also be used as an adjective to modify another noun (e.g., a Rohirrim village, a troop of Rohirrim cavalry, etc.) The pure adjectival form, meaning "pertaining to the Rohirrim," is Rohirric (Rohirric tactics, Rohirric culture, etc.)
==Anglo-Saxon connection==
The Rohirrim seem to resemble the ancient Anglo-Saxons, a Germanic people comprising three tribes, the Angles, the Saxons, and the Jutes, who invaded and conquered Britain around the 5th century. J.R.R. Tolkien was himself a distinguished professor of the Anglo-Saxon language (Old English).
The people of Rohan resemble the Anglo-Saxons in several ways. In appearance they are fair skinned and mostly blond haired, like the Germanic invaders, but they also have cultural links to those ancient tribes. This is shown in the type of armour used by Rohirric warriors, which includes an extensive choice of mail, both chain and scaled, and in their reverence for the sword as an expensive yet symbolically important weapon, to be given a title and passed down through generations.
left|thumb|252x252px|The third marshall of Rohan, Éomer
Rohirric armies are also known to favour the shield-wall, which was a strategy commonly employed by the Anglo-Saxons. Finally, common names given to the people of Rohan tend to resemble names of Old English. For instance, the name Éomer is found in the Beowulf saga (an epic Tolkien built much of his career around), and means "horse-famous" in Old English. While these traits of the Rohirrim could be passed off as typical of any agricultural, Northern society of Europe, such as the Vikings, taken as a whole and with the knowledge that Tolkien was an acclaimed professor of Anglo-Saxon and indeed had set out to create a uniquely "English" mythology, it can be inferred that the descriptions of the Rohirrim were heavily drawn from those of the ancient Anglo-Saxons.
However one aspect of the Rohirrim, their close affinity to horses as beasts of warfare and their extensive and superb use of cavalry, is not a trait that is shared with the ancient Anglo-Saxon tribes, who were predominately foot-soldiers in wartime. (It was, however, characteristic of the Ostrogoths, a Germanic tribe that dominated eastern Europe during the late Roman period, whose language was also studied by Tolkien.) Tolkien's choice to represent the Northern-descended Rohirrim as a horse-loving people is in itself quite interesting, but is obviously part of his unique mythology. Yet it has been argued that one possible reason for the horse inclusion is the events of 1066 in England. According to Tom Shippey, Tolkien imagined the Rohirrim to be a horse-culture because the only surviving Anglo-Saxon words for color were all words for the colors of horses.
At this point the Anglo-Saxons were defeated by the invading Normans, who were able to win the battle through their superior use of cavalry. Therefore, it has been stated that this inclusion may an idea influenced by this, that if the Anglo-Saxon had been horse-lords they could have won the Battle of Hastings thus preserving the Anglo-Saxon culture which Tolkien enjoyed. Certainly, whether the Rohirrim truly are partly or wholly based on the Anglo-Saxons can be a topic of debate among Tolkien fans and scholars.
It should also be noted in Brittany, in France. The ancient House of Rohan, hence the Norman connection with the Rohirrim rather than an Anglo-Saxon connection. The Normans were well known Horsemen.
==Gallery==
Rohancharge.jpg|The Army of Rohan at the Pelennor Fields, in The Return of the King film (2003)
Screen shot 2011-11-05 at 10.56.37 AM.png|A member of the Éored in The Lord of the Rings films
Rohirrim.jpg
Screen shot 2010-12-07 at 6.43.01 PM.png|A Rohirrim soldier preparing for the Battle of the Hornburg in The Two Towers film (2002)
Screen shot 2011-11-05 at 10.53.00 AM.png|Rohirrim commonfolk
Screen shot 2011-11-05 at 10.52.43 AM.png
==See also==
*Kings of Rohan
*Gondor
==Translations==
Foreign Language 	Translated name
Amharic 	ሮሂርሪም
Arabic 	روهيرريم
Armenian 	Ռոհիրիմներ
Basque 	Rohirrimen
Belarusian Cyrillic	Роhіррім
Bengali 	রোহিররিম
Bosnian 	Rohirimi
Bulgarian Cyrillic 	Рохирими
Burmese 	ရိုဟစ်ရင်
Catalan 	Ròhirrim
Chinese 	洛汗人
Croatian 	Rohirrimima
Czech 	Rohirové
French 	Rohirim
Georgian 	როირიმი
Greek 	Ροχιρριμ ?
Gujarati 	રોહિર્રિમ
Hebrew 	רוהירים
Hindi 	रोहिर्रिम्
Hungarian 	Rohírok
Japanese 	ロヒアリム
Kannada 	ರೋಹಿರಿಮ್
Kazakh 	Роһіррім (Cyrillic) Rōhirima (Latin)
Korean 	로 히림
Kyrgyz Cyrillic 	Роhиррим
Macedonian Cyrillic	Рохиррим
Marathi 	रोहिरिम
Mongolian Cyrillic 	Рохиррим
Nepalese 	रोहीरिम
Pashto 	روهیړیم ?
Persian 	روهیریم
Polish 	Rohirrimowie
Punjabi 	ਰੋਹਿਰੂਮ
Russian 	Рохиррим
Sanskrit 	रोहिर्रिम्
Serbian 	Рохирими (Cyrillic) Rohirimi (Latin)
Sinhalese 	රෝහිරිම්
Slovenian 	Rohirrimi
Tajik Cyrillic 	Роҳиррим
Tamil 	ரோஹிரரின்
Telugu 	రోహిర్రిమ్
Thai 	โรเฮียร์ริม
Ukrainian Cyrillic 	Роггірими
Urdu 	روہررام
Uzbek 	Роҳиррим (Cyrillic) Rohirrim (Latin)
Yiddish 	ראָהיררים
ca:Ròhirrim
de:Rohirrim
es:Rohirrim
fr:Rohirrim
it:Rohirrim
pl:Rohirrimowie
pt-br:Rohirrim
ru:Рохиррим
 
Category:Northmen
Category:Sindarin names & words