Théoden

Lineage and youth

Théoden was born in 2948, the second child and only son of Thengel, heir to the Mark, and Morwen of Lossarnach, a lady of Númenórean blood whom the Rohirrim later called Steelsheen. He was born not in Rohan but in Gondor, where his father had gone to serve the Steward Turgon after quarrelling with his own father, King Fengel. The speech of Gondor was used in the family, and Théoden grew up hearing both the tongue of the Mark and the Sindarin of the southern lords. In 2953 Fengel died and Thengel went home to Edoras to take up the kingship, bringing his wife and children; Théoden was five years old. He grew to manhood in the Golden Hall in the days when his father was restoring the Mark after Fengel's greedy rule, and in those years a captain calling himself Thorongil, who was in truth Aragorn son of Arathorn, rode in Thengel's service.

He married Elfhild, who died in 2978 giving birth to their only child, Théodred, and he did not marry again. His youngest sister Théodwyn, born in Rohan in 2963 and dearest to him of all his family, married Éomund of Eastfold, chief Marshal of the Mark. Éomund was killed by Orcs in 3002 in a rash pursuit, and Théodwyn sickened and died soon after. Théoden took their two children, Éomer and Éowyn, into his own house and raised them as a son and daughter beside Théodred.

King of the Mark

Théoden succeeded Thengel in 2980 as the seventeenth King of Rohan and the eighth of the second line. For most of his reign he was a strong and well-loved king, and Gandalf came now and again to Edoras as he had in Thengel's day. But in the last years before the War of the Ring his strength began to fail, and the failing was not natural. Gríma son of Gálmód, whom the Rohirrim named Wormtongue, had risen to be his closest counsellor, and Gríma was secretly in the pay of Saruman. Under his advice the king grew feeble and fearful. He did nothing while Saruman's Orcs and Dunlendings raided the Westfold and stole the black horses of the Mark; he let the passage of Orcs across his land go unpunished; he closed his borders to strangers; and he sat in his hall bent over a staff while his marshals were kept from his ear. Gríma meanwhile watched Éowyn, who waited on the king and saw him dwindle.

In September 3018 Gandalf came to Edoras on foot after escaping from Isengard and warned Théoden that Saruman had turned traitor. Gríma persuaded the king that the wizard was a bringer of ill news and a beggar, and Théoden told him to take any horse and be gone. Gandalf took Shadowfax, the greatest of the Mearas, which no man had tamed, and Théoden was angry at the loss for months afterward.

The awakening

On 25 February 3019 Théodred was killed at the Fords of Isen holding back the first stroke of Saruman's war, and Gríma used the king's grief to keep him from acting. Éomer, who had ridden without leave to destroy a band of Orcs on the edge of Fangorn and had lent horses to three strangers he met on the plain, was thrown into prison on Gríma's word.

On 2 March Gandalf rode into Edoras on Shadowfax with Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli. Háma the Doorward let the wizard keep his staff, and in the hall Gandalf answered Gríma's mockery, silenced him, and called on Théoden to stand up and walk out of the dark of his own house into the daylight. The king rose, let the staff fall, and stood on the steps of Meduseld in the sun as a man waking from a long dream. He listened to Gandalf's counsel, released Éomer, and gave Gríma the choice of riding to war with him or leaving; Wormtongue spat at his feet and fled to Isengard. Théoden gave Shadowfax to Gandalf as a free gift, took up his sword Herugrim, and ordered the whole strength of the Mark to muster. He left Éowyn to rule the people in his absence, and rode west with about a thousand Riders.

Helm's Deep

On the road the king learned that Saruman's main host had broken the Rohirrim at the Fords a second time, and on Gandalf's advice he turned aside to the fortress of Helm's Deep. On the night of 3 March Saruman's army of Uruks and Dunlendings, many thousands strong, came up the valley and assailed the Deeping Wall and the Hornburg. The wall was breached with blasting fire from Orthanc and the defenders were driven into the caves and the keep, and Háma fell before the gate. At dawn Théoden rode out through the gate at the head of his guard with Aragorn beside him, and as the horn of Helm sounded from the cliffs, Erkenbrand and Gandalf came down over the Dike with a thousand men of the Westfold. The Orcs fled into a forest that had not been there the night before, and none came out.

Isengard and Dunharrow

On 5 March Théoden rode to Isengard and found it drowned and broken by the Ents, with Merry and Pippin sitting on the rubble of its gate. At the foot of Orthanc he heard Saruman's voice at its most persuasive and refused it, which was as great a proof of his recovery as anything he did in battle. On the ride back Merry offered the king his sword and Théoden accepted him as his esquire, promising to hear all about the Shire and its pipe-weed when there was time.

At the Fords on 6 March the Grey Company found them, and Aragorn parted from the king to take the Paths of the Dead. Théoden went on to Dunharrow, where the muster of the Mark was gathering, and there on 9 March an errand-rider of Gondor brought him the Red Arrow and the news that Minas Tirith was about to be besieged. He had promised six thousand spears; on 10 March he led them down out of the Harrowdale, leaving Éowyn as ruler and telling Merry, who could not keep pace on a pony, to stay behind.

The Pelennor Fields

The host rode along the mountain road through Anórien, and at the Drúadan Forest Théoden accepted the guidance of Ghân-buri-Ghân, who led the Rohirrim by the forgotten Stonewain Valley around the enemy waiting on the road. In the dark before dawn on 15 March they came to the wall of the Pelennor and saw the city burning. Théoden sat for a moment as if his old doubt had returned, then took a horn from his banner-bearer and blew it until it burst, and every horn of the host answered. He rode at the head of the charge on Snowmane, outpacing his own knights, and the Rohirrim swept the Orcs and the Southrons from the northern fields. The king himself rode down the chieftain of the Haradrim and cut him from the saddle, and the black serpent banner went into the mud.

Then the Witch-king came down out of the sky on his winged beast. Snowmane was struck by a dart, reared in terror and fell, and the king was crushed beneath him. Of his guard only Merry and Éowyn, who had ridden with the host in disguise, stood over him, and between them they killed the Lord of the Nazgûl. Théoden lived a little while. He spoke to Merry, forgave him for disobeying, sent his farewell to Éowyn, whom he did not know lay near him, and named Éomer his heir as the banner of the Mark came up. He died as the enemy fled, satisfied that he had not been shamed before his fathers.

Funeral and legacy

His body lay in state in Minas Tirith through the last days of the war, and in August the kings and lords of the West rode with it to Edoras. He was laid in the eighth mound of the second line, beside the mound of Thengel, and the Riders sang his death-song as they rode about the barrow. Éomer was proclaimed king at the feast that followed and announced Éowyn's betrothal to Faramir. Snowmane was buried where he fell, and his grave on the Pelennor was marked with a stone in the tongues of both realms.

The Rohirrim remembered Théoden as Ednew, the Renewed, for the last months of his life in which he rose from the dark and led the Mark to its greatest deeds. He kept the Oath of Eorl when Gondor's need was greatest, and his ride to the Pelennor was the fulfilment of the friendship that Cirion and Eorl had sworn on the Halifirien five hundred years before.

Crushed beneath Snowmane on the Pelennor Fields on 15 March 3019 after the Witch-king's fell beast struck the horse down; died on the field after naming Éomer his heir. Buried in the eighth mound of the second line at Edoras.