Éomer

Lineage and youth

Éomer was born in 2991, the son of Éomund of Eastfold, chief Marshal of the Mark, and Théodwyn, the youngest and best-loved sister of King Théoden. His father was a hot-tempered horseman who hated Orcs and hunted them recklessly, and in 3002 he rode with too few men after a raiding band and was killed in the Emyn Muil. Théodwyn fell ill and died soon after, and Théoden took Éomer and his sister Éowyn into his own house at Edoras and raised them with his son Théodred. Éomer grew tall and strong, the very type of his people, and he and Théodred loved each other as brothers. In the years before the War of the Ring he was made Third Marshal of the Riddermark, with his seat at Aldburg in the Eastfold, the old house of Eorl, and the charge of the eastern half of the realm.

As Gríma gained mastery over the failing king, Éomer became his chief opponent in the Golden Hall. He distrusted Gríma openly, saw that the king's orders served Saruman more than Rohan, and was increasingly kept from the king's ear.

The Orcs and the strangers

At the end of February 3019 news came to the Eastfold of a great company of Orcs crossing the Wold, bearing the White Hand of Isengard and running west toward Fangorn. Théoden, under Gríma's counsel, would not act, and Éomer rode without leave with his éored of a hundred and twenty Riders. He caught the Orcs at the eaves of the forest on the night of 28 February, surrounded them, and destroyed them at dawn, killing their captain Uglúk himself in single combat and losing fifteen men. He did not know that two hobbits, Merry and Pippin, had escaped into the wood during the fight.

Riding home across the plain, his éored came on three strangers on foot: Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli. Éomer questioned them, half in suspicion, and when Aragorn drew the reforged sword of Elendil and named himself, he chose to trust him. Against the law of the Mark, which forbade strangers to walk the land unsummoned, he lent them two horses and asked only that they come to Edoras afterward to answer for him. Gríma made the most of it: when Éomer returned he was thrown into prison for disobedience.

Helm's Deep and Isengard

On 2 March Gandalf came to Edoras with the three companions and healed the king, and Théoden's first act was to free his nephew and give him back his sword. Éomer rode west with the king and fought through the night at Helm's Deep, standing beside Aragorn on the Deeping Wall and leaping down with Gamling to stop the breach at the culvert. In the morning he rode out in the charge from the gate. He went on with Théoden to Isengard, where he was reunited with the hobbits whose lives he had unknowingly saved, and stood at the foot of Orthanc during the parley with Saruman. When the Grey Company came, he greeted Aragorn again as a friend, and was troubled when the heir of Isildur turned aside to take the Paths of the Dead.

The Pelennor Fields

Éomer commanded the first éored of the muster on the ride to Gondor, and in the charge across the Pelennor on 15 March he led the king's own company. He came to Théoden as the king lay dying beneath Snowmane and received the kingship from his lips. Then he saw his sister lying as if dead beside the fallen Witch-king, and grief turned to battle-fury. He raised the cry of death and led the Rohirrim in a wild charge that carried them deep into the enemy and far from support. When the black sails of Umbar came up the Anduin, Éomer, thinking all lost, set his back to the river and prepared to die with his men, and laughed with joy when the ships unfurled the banner of the King. He and Aragorn met in the middle of the field, and with Imrahil of Dol Amroth they drove the enemy into the river.

Éomer would not be crowned while Théoden's body lay unburied. He named himself king in the field, rode with Aragorn to the Black Gate as one of the captains of the West, and stood on the hill of slag with the last of the Rohirrim until the Ring went into the fire.

King of the Mark

After Aragorn's coronation Éomer went home to prepare his uncle's funeral, and in August he returned to Minas Tirith with an escort of Riders to bear Théoden to Edoras. At the funeral feast he was proclaimed the eighteenth King of the Mark, and he announced Éowyn's betrothal to Faramir. He and Aragorn later renewed the Oath of Eorl and Cirion on the Halifirien, each swearing friendship to the other's people for ever.

His reign was long and prosperous, and the Rohirrim called him Éadig, the Blessed. He married Lothíriel, daughter of Imrahil, and their son Elfwine the Fair succeeded him. When Aragorn rode to war beyond the Sea of Rhûn or to the far fields of Harad, Éomer went with him, and the Oath was kept in both directions. His friendship with Gimli and Legolas, begun in a quarrel about the fairest of ladies, lasted his life: Gimli became lord of the Glittering Caves of Aglarond behind Helm's Deep, and it was said that the two came to the king in Rohan when he lay dying in Fo.A. 63, before they went at last over the Sea.

Reigned as King of the Mark from 3019 to Fo.A. 63 and was succeeded by his son Elfwine the Fair.