Region
Rohan
The grass kingdom of the horse-lords, between the White Mountains and the River Limlight
Rohan, which its own people call the Riddermark, is the great open grassland at the center of the southern Middle-earth map. The White Mountains form its southern wall, the River Isen and the Gap of Rohan its western gate, the Limlight and the Anduin its northern and eastern edges, and Fangorn Forest crowds its northwestern corner. The land drains into the Entwash, which rises in the mountains near Dunharrow, crosses the plain and spreads into a marshy delta where it joins the Anduin. The northern grasslands are called the Wold.
Edoras is the only real town: a hill in a valley at the feet of the mountains, crowned by the golden hall of Meduseld. Behind it up the Harrowdale lies Dunharrow, a refuge cut into the mountainside and reached by a switchback road, with the ancient standing stones of the Pukel-men along it and the Dark Door of the Paths of the Dead at its far end. West along the mountain wall is Helm's Deep, a gorge closed by the wall of the Hornburg, with the caves of Aglarond behind it. Further west the Fords of Isen carry the road, and beyond them Isengard and the black tower of Orthanc stand in a ring of rock in the Gap of Rohan.
The land was Gondor's province of Calenardhon and had emptied out by the time the Balchoth invaded in TA 2510. Eorl the Young rode down from the north with his people and turned the Battle of the Field of Celebrant, and Steward Cirion granted him Calenardhon in return. The Oath of Eorl bound Rohan and Gondor to answer each other's need, and that oath is what the whole story turns on in TA 3019.
In The Lord of the Rings, Rohan is where the war in the west is decided. Saruman's Orcs seize Merry and Pippin near Amon Hen and are destroyed on the eaves of Fangorn. Gandalf frees Theoden at Edoras, the Rohirrim hold Helm's Deep on the night of March 3, and the Ents drown Isengard the same night. Theoden musters the Riders at Dunharrow, and on March 15 the host arrives at dawn on the Pelennor, where Theoden falls and Eowyn and Merry kill the Witch-king.
Frequently asked questions
Where is Rohan on the Middle-earth map?
Rohan is the wide plain in the center-south of the map, between the White Mountains in the south and Fangorn Forest and the Limlight in the north, with the Isen to the west and the Anduin to the east.
Where is Edoras on the map?
Edoras sits on a lone hill at the mouth of Harrowdale, against the northern face of the White Mountains, near the head of the Snowbourn river in the south of Rohan.
Where is Helm's Deep in relation to Edoras?
Helm's Deep is roughly 60 miles west of Edoras along the mountain wall, near the head of the Deeping-coomb. Riders covered the distance in about a day.
Is Isengard part of Rohan?
Isengard stands in the Gap of Rohan at the southern tip of the Misty Mountains, inside Rohan's borders. Gondor gave Orthanc's keys to Saruman in TA 2759, and he seized the valley for himself.