'Ride now to Gondor!' - In Praise of the Riders of Rohan

First, I want to give thanks for Jef Murray's post (which is excellent BTW) for inspiration for my own; though I've been meaning to post this reflection for a while. (all songs and quotes are from The Lord of 
the Rings unless otherwise noted)

the banner of the White Horse: the flag of Rohan

'Were now the horse and the rider?...

Where is the horn that was blowing?...

Darkness took them, horse and horseman.

Hoofbeats from afar sank into silence...

The days have gone down in the West...

To hope's end I rode, and to heart's breaking...

Ride now to Gondor...

Fell deeds awake; fire and slaughter...

Red fell the dew in Rammas Echor.'

The above lines are a mix-mash of various Rohirric poetry as is found scattered throughout The Lord of the Rings. In these laments and songs - 'laden with the sadness of Mortal Men' - can the whole belief-system of the Sons of Eorl be derived. The Rohirrim are Tolkien's most respected and exalted sub-created tribute to the Northern pagan peoples of the pre-Christian ages. Although the Rohirrim do have a fuzzy knowledge of the Valar (they credit Orome the Great for bringing the sire of the ancestors of Shadowfax to Middle-Earth) no specific religious practices (apart from King Theoden blessing Merry) are mentioned or described by Tolkien anywhere in the book (which was delibrete on Tolkien's part). Instead, the Men of Rohan's worldview and beliefs can be found in the songs that they sing, for they have yet no written language of their own. Reading these poems, I am struck by the desperate joy in the face of death and doom these people express in their songs. At the Battle of the Pelennor fields King Theoden and Eomer the Marshal know almost for a fact that they are riding to their deaths, yet even with this knowledge the aged King still says to his men as they rally about him before the ride to Minas Tirith: ' ''Now is the hour come, Riders of the Mark, sons of Eorl! Foes and fire are before you, and your homes far behind. Yet, though you fight upon an alien field, the glory that you reap shall be your own forever. Oaths ye have taken: now fulfill them all, to lord and land and league of friendship!'' '

Theoden-King riding into battle

This little pre-battle speech by Theoden is a vital insight into the whole Rohirrim code of honor: First, he reminds his warriors of their oaths: long ago Eorl the Young lent unlooked for aid to the Steward Cirion of Gondor and in thanks for this the Steward gave to Eorl's people the lands that they now dwell in to be their own forever, and both Eorl and Cirion swore oaths (and here Cirion called upon God - Eru the 'One' - and the Valar to be witnesses of the event) that the two kingdoms would live in perpetual alliance and friendship with each other, unless one or the other should full under the Shadow of Sauron. Now, hundreds of years later, Theoden fulfills these same oaths, still seeing himself bound by them, regardless of the great passage of time. They are just as relevant today as they were when they were made, for 'now is the hour.' Second, he bids them to remember who they are: the sons of Eorl and Riders of Rohan, uplifting them with the honor of their ancestry and heritage which (to them) is long and glorious. Third, he does not deny the doom and death facing them but makes mention of a reward. But what reward can there be if they all should die? Not an earthy reward, certainly, but one that touches more on eternal truths, even though the Rohirrim have only a very dim understanding of God and the Powers: 'the glory that you reap shall be your own forever,' Theoden says but what does he mean? Basically he is saying that by honoring the ancient Oath of Eorl and riding to the aid of Gondor and fighting on the Pelennor Fields the Rohirrim are fulfilling themselves in the highest way they know, and that their deeds, even though they may not be remembered, will nonetheless remain great and glorious; not lessened in worth by whatever should happen in the future, even if Sauron should win. And last, Theoden brings forth the chief values of his people (which are the chief values of any honest, noble-hearted people): the love of their lord, their land, and their league of friendship. The Riders of Rohan are not just Gondor's allies, they are also their friends, and as they have done so many times in the past, so also they do now in the War of the Ring, arriving beyond hope just as the Gates of Minas Tirith fall, 'for morning came, morning and a wind from the Sea; and darkness was removed, and the hosts of Mordor wailed, and terror took them, and they fled, and died, and the hoofs of wrath rode over them. And then all the host of Rohan burst into song, and the sang as they slew, for the joy of battle was on them, and the sound of their singing that was fair and terrible came even to the City.'

The Rohirrim fighting in the Pelennor Fields

During this battle, King Theoden slays the leader of the Southrons before he and his knights are attacked by the Witch-King. He is crushed beneath the body of his horse and passes out and does not witness the final confrontation between Eowyn, Merry and the Black Captain. When he comes to he finds Merry the hobbit (who he has become good friends with and who has sworn himself into his service) weeping alone by his side. Their brief conversation is quite moving, for Theoden, now dying, speaks of his gladness to depart this life in honor, seeing his efforts as neither wasteful nor tragic: ' ''Farewell Master Holbytla! My body is broken. I go to my fathers. And even in their mighty company I shall not now be ashamed...
A grim morn, and a glad day, and a golden sunset!''  
So the King of Rohan dies in peace in the middle of a bloodied battlefield, having fulfilled his oaths, content to have been able to fight against Sauron once more after many years of uselessness and weakness under the influence of Grima Wormtongue. ''Ride now to victory! Bid Eowyn farewell.'' are his last words to Eomer, who is now the King of the Mark. But when Eomer he sees his sister also lying near Theoden, he believes that she too is dead, and is filled with rage and despair and he cries out in out in anguish over the hosts of Rohan, saying: ''Death! Death! Ride to ruin and the world's ending!'' But although their charge is powerful and their swords bitter and skilled, the armies of Mordor and Harad greatly outnumber the Rohirrim and Eomer, when he sees the black ships of the Corsairs of Umber coming up the Auduin, knows that the hour of their doom is at hand and death is come to him and all his warriors. But still even then, he does not flee, but riding to a hill he displays the banner of the White Horse and raises his sword in defiance, singing his death-song:

''Out of doubt, out of dark to the day's rising

I came singing in the sun, sword unsheathing. 

To hope's end I rode, and to heart's breaking:

now for wrath, now for ruin and a red nightfall!'' 
   

       

Eomer; Marshal of the Riddermark

''To hope's end I rode and to heart's breaking.'' This line
alone is gut-wrenching because here Eomer is expressing very deep powerful emotions that normally an author wouldn't let a grown, mature, battle-seasoned man show. Hope has ended; his loved ones lie dead; what then is left for him to do but prepare in the only way he knows how to meet his own end?
Eomer is a much more dynamic character in the book then he is in the movies (he smiles a lot more for one thing), and when you read this song you are reading the desperate lament of of a man who
believes that he is about to die along with his King, his sister, and all the Riders under his command as well as all those in Minas Tirith whom they are trying to aid. Yet still he intends to fight to the utmost end, 'and do deeds of song on the fields of Pelennor, though no man should be left in the West to remember the last King of the Mark.'
Eomer is in the prime of his life, healthy and strong, a great warrior and leader of men, but even he is not immune from the agony of loss and defeat and the knowledge of impending death. And the death-toll is indeed massive 'for it was a great battle and the full count [of the slain] no tale has told.'
There is no movie Green-Ghost-Army to come and save the survivors from all those annoying orcs and
Oliphaunts, only living men with blood, sweat and tears who come with Aragorn to fight and die to win victory for Minas Tirith and Osgiliath. But they are remembered, and many of the minstrels of Rohan are busy long after the War with the making of laments and dirges for those who fought and fell in the Great Battle, with 'The Song of the Mounds of Mundburg' being chief:

From oath-keeping to death-dealing (and taking) the people of Rohan exhibit great courage in the face of overwhelming odds, coming to the aid of their allies even though many know that the giving of such aid will only add their bodies to those of their friends. But their love for 'lord and land and league of friendship' override their their fear of peril and death, and they ride to Gondor, to fell deeds under a red sun, their war horns echoing like thunder in the mountains. The language Tolkien utilizes to capture the 'Ride of the Rohirrim' is for me the most awesome and glorious in all of The Lord of the Rings; epic in scope, brief yet profound. One moment you're looking over Merry's shoulder at King Theoden as he gazes in grief upon the burning City of the Sea-Kings, looking old and frail, inwardly debating whether to charge or to ride quietly away and hide in the hills, and then suddenly he rises up in his stirrups and cries out:

''Arise, arise, Riders of Theoden!

Fell deeds awake: fire and slaughter!

Spear shall be shaken, shield be splintered,

a sword-day, a red day, ere the sun rises!

Ride now, ride now! Ride to Gondor!''

He charges, and Tolkien takes you and sets you on a high place where the whole battle can be viewed in
its entirety, and we see King Theoden being 'borne up on Snowmane like a god of old' riding far ahead of
his hosts and the orcs of Sauron wailing and dying and the sun rising, and we are filled with hope and joy
and it is the heroes we are cheering for and the good we are affirming - for these are Men, like us, doing
deeds of valor and honor for their friends that will remained ingrained in our imaginations - to help and
heal and console us when we ourselves sit in our own falling cities under the shadow of death, waiting for
the hope of the Dawn and the rising of the Sun.

The Ride of the Rohirrim

'Doom drove them on. 
Darkness took them, 
horse and horseman;

Hoofbeats afar sank into silence: 
so the songs tell us.'

''So the songs tell us.'' These lines of this poem were made long after the War of the Ring was over and already one gets the impression that the events are already sinking into the realm of lore and myth, to fireside stories and long Beowulf-style poems sung by minstrels in other Golden Halls, recalling the fading memories of the 'Ride of King Thoeden the Old to the Battle of the Pelennor Fields', even as they recalled in earlier ages the 'Ride of Eorl the Young to the Battle of the Field of Celebrant'. It is this rich sense of history that makes Middle-Earth such a believable world. Tolkien never intended Middle-Earth to be set in a parallel universe or on another planet. The events of The Lord of the Rings happened in this world, in a 'imaginative space' created by the lore-wise Professor, and the book itself is written in such a way that can make you believe that once upon a time, an old king named Theoden, a simple lord of plains and vales and horses, led his Riders to the aid of the great City of a highly advanced civilization founded by the survivors of the kingdom of Atlantis, and did deeds of song that were eventually written down (along with many other great tales) in a Red Book by three Hobbits, a copy of which was eventually translated by John Ronald Ruel Tolkien for the enjoyment and uplifting of those dwelling here and now in the Age of Men. For the Rohirrin are Men like ourselves, fallible, mortal and forgetful, but they are brave and courageous and steadfast in keeping their oaths, which is far better then many of us can say of ourselves in this current age. Yes, Elves are awesome, Hobbits are delightful and Ents are flat-out-amazing, but in the end, we the readers are 'Mortal Men doomed to die' and Tolkien presents to us a vision of our own race magnified and exalted, winning honor and glory in spite of mortality and death, in spite of the fact they lived in a pre-Christian age, long before the Incarnation of Eru, not knowing what lay in store for them after they'd left their fallen bodies upon the fields of Gondor. But that did not stop them from doing the deeds at hand. ''Doom drove them on. Darkness took them...'' Yet still they rode on, on to the 'Sea-King's city in the South-Kingdom: foe-beleaguered, fire-encircled' dying far from home and hearth and the green pastures of their fair land. No men display greater love then those who lay down their lives for their friends. King Theoden and his Riders did so, and their rewards will truly be great.

Theoden the Renowned; Lord of the Rohirrim

  

'Forth rode the King, fear behind him; fate before him.
Fealty kept he; oaths he had taken; all fulfilled them.'

'Red fell the dew in Rammas Echor'