Rohan

The land

Rohan occupied the broad green country between the White Mountains in the south, the river Anduin and the Emyn Muil in the east, the forest of Fangorn and the Limlight in the north, and the river Isen in the west. The Entwash ran through its middle and divided the Eastemnet from the Westemnet; the higher land in the north-east was the Wold, and the folds of the mountains in the south-west were the Westfold, with the Eastfold lying towards Gondor. The Gap of Rohan, the opening between the two mountain ranges guarded by the Fords of Isen, was the realm's western door and the only easy road between the northern and southern lands.

To Gondor the country was Rochand or Rohan, the Horse-country, and its people the Rohirrim, the Horse-lords. To themselves they were the Eorlingas, the followers of Eorl, and their land was the Mark, or the Riddermark. Their tongue was that of the Northmen from whom they came, unchanged for centuries.

The people

The Rohirrim were tall, fair-haired horsemen, farmers and herders who lived in scattered villages and fortified halls rather than cities. Their wealth was in horses, and the finest of these, the Mearas, were reserved for the King's house. They wrote little and remembered their history in song, and though they were not Númenórean, they were counted among the Middle Men, allies of Gondor rather than its subjects. Their capital was Edoras on a hill at the mouth of Harrowdale, where the Golden Hall of Meduseld stood. In time of war the people withdrew to the mountain refuges of Dunharrow and Helm's Deep, both older than the kingdom.

The kingdom was ruled by a king and organised for war under marshals of the Mark, each responsible for a part of the realm. Every able man was a Rider, and the full muster of Rohan, the éored of éoreds, could put many thousands of horsemen in the field.

Calenardhon

Before the Rohirrim came the land was Calenardhon, the northernmost province of Gondor. Its Númenórean population, never large, was almost wiped out by the Great Plague of T.A. 1636 and never recovered; the fortresses of Isengard and Aglarond fell into neglect, and the Dunlendings of the western hills began to drift in. By the time of the Stewards the province was nearly empty.

The Oath of Eorl

In T.A. 2510 a great host of Balchoth from the east crossed Anduin and joined with Orcs from the mountains to attack Gondor. The Steward Cirion sent messengers north to the Éothéod, the horse-people who lived in the vales of Anduin near its source, and Eorl the Young answered with the whole strength of his people. He rode five hundred miles and came upon the Field of Celebrant, between the Limlight and the Silverlode, as Gondor's northern army was being driven into the river; his charge broke the enemy and saved Gondor. In reward Cirion gave the Éothéod the whole of Calenardhon to hold as their own, and on the hill of Halifirien, beside the tomb of Elendil, Eorl swore an oath of perpetual friendship and aid, and Cirion swore the like for Gondor. Eorl became the first King of the Mark.

The early kings

Eorl fell in battle against Easterlings in the Wold in 2545. His son Brego completed the Golden Hall in 2569; at its feast the King's elder son Baldor vowed to enter the Paths of the Dead and never returned. Aldor the Old ruled seventy-five years and drove the last Dunlendings from the Westfold. Under later kings the Dunlendings crept back and held Isengard, and border wars flared.

The Long Winter

Helm Hammerhand, ninth king, was drawn into war with the Dunlending lord Wulf, son of the ambitious Freca whom Helm had killed with a single blow. In 2758 Wulf, aided by Corsairs raiding Gondor's coast, invaded Rohan from both west and east. Edoras fell, Helm's son Haleth died defending its door, and the King retreated to the Hornburg. Then came the Long Winter, five months of snow and famine; Helm went out alone at night to slay his enemies and died of cold standing upright on the Dike. In spring his nephew Fréaláf led a strike from Dunharrow that killed Wulf and retook Edoras, and Gondor's help cleared the invaders. Fréaláf began the second line of kings, and at his crowning Saruman appeared and was given Isengard.

The later kings

Walda was slain by Orcs in 2851 and his son Folca hunted the Orcs from the Mark before dying of a boar's tusks. Folcwine sent his sons to aid Gondor against the Haradrim in 2885, and both fell. Thengel, who had lived long in Gondor, ruled from 2953; in his time Saruman began to treat Isengard as his own. His son Théoden came to the throne in 2980.

The War of the Ring

In Théoden's last years the counsellor Gríma, Saruman's agent, worked to weaken the King and the Mark. Orcs raided the borders, and Saruman's Uruk-hai carried off Merry and Pippin across the Eastemnet, where Éomer destroyed them on February 29, 3019. On March 2 Gandalf healed Théoden of his despair, Gríma was cast out, and the King rode to war. Saruman's army had already killed the King's son Théodred at the Fords of Isen; it besieged the Hornburg on the night of March 3, and was destroyed at dawn by the sortie of the King, the arrival of Erkenbrand with Gandalf, and the Huorns of Fangorn.

After the parley at Isengard Théoden returned to Dunharrow, where the muster of Rohan assembled. The Red Arrow came from Gondor, and on March 10 the King led six thousand Riders east. Guided through the Drúadan Forest by the Wild Men, the Rohirrim broke the siege of Minas Tirith at dawn on March 15. Théoden fell on the Pelennor Fields when his horse was crushed by the Witch-king's beast; Éowyn, who had ridden in secret, and Merry destroyed the Witch-king beside him. Éomer became king on the field and rode with the Host of the West to the Black Gate.

The Fourth Age

Éomer Éadig reigned sixty-five years and renewed the Oath of Eorl with King Elessar, riding with him to war beyond the Sea of Rhûn and in the far south. He wedded Lothíriel of Dol Amroth. Éowyn married Faramir and dwelt in Ithilien. Rohan remained a free kingdom in alliance with the Reunited Kingdom, and its people prospered on the plains they had won.

Rohan was roughly three hundred miles from east to west and half that from north to south, a country of open grassland rising towards the mountains in the south. The Entwash bisected it, flowing from Fangorn south-east to the marshy Mouths of Entwash on Anduin. The Snowbourn came down from Harrowdale past Edoras to meet the Entwash. The Westfold lay between Edoras and the Isen, with the Deeping-coomb and Helm's Deep in the mountains; the Eastfold stretched from Edoras to the Mering Stream and the Firien Wood, where the border with Gondor ran. The Wold in the north-east was high, rolling and thinly peopled. The Great West Road from Minas Tirith crossed the whole realm to the Fords of Isen.