Rohan

Rohan fills the middle of the southern map. The White Mountains wall it off from Gondor's fiefs, the Isen and the Gap of Rohan close it in the west, the Anduin runs down its eastern edge, and in the north the Limlight and Fangorn Forest mark its boundary with the Wold beyond. Almost all of it is rolling grass, well watered by the Entwash and the Snowbourn, which is why it feeds so many horses.

The land was once Calenardhon, a thinly held province of Gondor. Its people had drifted away after the Great Plague. In TA 2510 an army of Gondor was trapped by Balchoth invaders on the Field of Celebrant, and Eorl the Young brought the riders of the Éothéod down from the far north at speed and broke the enemy. Steward Cirion gave him the whole province, and Eorl swore the oath of perpetual alliance with Gondor that his descendants kept.

The Rohirrim call themselves the Eorlingas and their land the Mark. They are horse-people first: Éomer's éored, the muster of the Mark, the mearas whose line produced Shadowfax. Their kings are buried in mounds at Edoras and their speech and names are rendered in Old English by Tolkien on purpose, to mark them as older and plainer than Gondor.

The War of the Ring reached Rohan before it reached Gondor. Saruman turned the Gap into an invasion route, killed Théodred at the Fords of Isen, and sent his host to Helm's Deep. Rohan survived that night, rode east on 10 March TA 3019, and arrived on the Pelennor at dawn on 15 March, where Théoden died and Éowyn and Merry killed the Witch-king. Éomer took the crown and the alliance with Gondor held into the Fourth Age.

Events at this place

1. TA 2510 · Appendices

   Battle of the Field of Celebrant

   Eorl the Young rode south with the Éothéod and destroyed the Balchoth host that had trapped Gondor's army between the Limlight and the Anduin.

2. TA 2510 · Appendices

   The Oath of Eorl

   Cirion gave Calenardhon to Eorl, who swore lasting friendship with Gondor. The province became the kingdom of Rohan.

3. TA 2758 · Appendices

   The Long Winter and Helm Hammerhand

   Dunlendings overran the Mark and took Edoras. Helm died at Helm's Deep, and Fréaláf recovered the realm the next spring.

4. TA 3019, March 3 · The Lord of the Rings

   Battle of the Hornburg

   Saruman's army was destroyed at Helm's Deep on 4 March, freeing Rohan to answer Gondor's call for help.

5. TA 3019, March 10 · The Lord of the Rings

   The Ride of the Rohirrim

   Six thousand riders left Dunharrow on 10 March and reached the Pelennor Fields at dawn on 15 March, breaking the siege of Minas Tirith.

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