Cirion

Lineage and accession

Cirion was the son of Boromir, eleventh Ruling Steward, of the House of Húrin, and he succeeded his father in 2489. His father had spent his rule fighting the Uruks of Mordor, who first appeared in 2475, took Ithilien and ruined Osgiliath, and had died early of a Morgul-wound. Cirion inherited a realm that was still strong but had shrunk to the lands west of the Anduin and south of the Emyn Muil, with the great northern province of Calenardhon, between the White Mountains and the river, nearly empty of people since the Plague and the loss of its watch on the Anduin.

The Balchoth

In the years around 2500 the shadow of Dol Guldur stirred a new people in the east. The Balchoth, a confederation of Easterlings related to the Wainriders and stiffened, as Gondor believed, by the will of Sauron, spread into the Brown Lands and along the east bank of the Anduin, building boats and rafts. Cirion saw the danger. He knew that Gondor alone could not hold the Anduin against a horde of that size while its southern coasts were also threatened, and he remembered that far in the north lived the Éothéod, the horse-people descended from the Northmen who had once served Gondor's kings. Their fathers had ridden with Eldacar; their oaths had long since lapsed. Six riders were sent north in 2509 to seek their aid, each carrying a message in the Steward's name. Only one of them, Borondir, arrived.

In the spring of 2510 the Balchoth crossed the Anduin on rafts in overwhelming numbers, and Orcs from the Misty Mountains joined them. Cirion led the northern army out himself but was driven north past the Limlight and cut off between the invaders and the river, with the enemy closing on the Field of Celebrant. On that day Eorl came with seven thousand riders from the north. The Balchoth were taken from behind, broken, and hunted through Calenardhon until none remained.

The Oath of Eorl

Cirion's response to his deliverance was the boldest act of statesmanship by any Steward. Unfinished Tales tells that he took Eorl three months later to the hill of Halifirien, where the tomb of Elendil had lain in secret since Isildur's day, and there, in the presence of Eorl and a few witnesses, he gave the whole of Calenardhon to the Éothéod as their own realm for ever, free of Gondor and under their own kings, on condition of friendship and aid in war. Eorl swore the Oath of Eorl, calling on the Valar and the One as witnesses, and Cirion swore a like oath for Gondor. Cirion removed the tomb of Elendil to the Hallows of Minas Tirith, since the hill was now on the border, and Halifirien became the sanctuary of the oath. The alliance thus made was kept for five centuries and honoured on the Pelennor Fields, and Cirion is remembered in both Gondor and Rohan as its author.

Later rule and legacy

Cirion ruled for another fifty-seven years after the gift, and in that time Gondor's border along the Anduin was held by the new kingdom of Rohan and its own strength was concentrated in the south. The gift cost Gondor a province it could no longer people and won it a friend that outlasted the Stewards. Cirion died in 2567 and was succeeded by his son Hallas, who gave the horse-lords their name in the speech of Gondor, Rohirrim, and named their land Rohan.

Died in 2567 after a rule of seventy-eight years; succeeded by his son Hallas.