(Warning: subtitles are messy =/) Hi and welcome to the Philosopher's games, it's Lord of the Rings lore time again. Also this video obviously contains spoilers. Last time, we talked about the humans - the
Dúnedain to be precise. So I thought to expand this a little bit and
look at their neighbours in Rohan. You remember these warning beacons of Gondor
in Return of the King or the Horse Shadowfax? And who was that Helm Hammerhand? We come to that later. The people of Rohan are no Dúnedain, which
means west-men, but are probably related to them and so called north-men. In the other video I talked about the Edain,
which were some tribes of men, who settled in Beleriand - in the west of Middle-earth
during the First Age. It is believed, that the north men are related
to the Edain, but probably did not go Beleriand. So they did not experience the War of Wrath
to that extend, were not gifted the island of Númenor and didn't receive expanded lifespans. Not much is known, what was going on with
them. We know, that in the 2nd Age Númenor started
to visit Middle-earth and found men who spoke a related language to their own, so in conclusion
they must be related to the Edain's ancestors, the Atanatári. The Numenoreans called themselves the High-men
and the north men and some others Middle-men. The High-men, the Dunedain, developed a good
relationship and taught them many things, thanks to their advanced knowledge. Some of the middle men even looked upon those
"Lord of the West" as some kind of gods. How much this includes the ancestors of the
Rohirrim - the people of Rohan - is not known. The story of the North-men goes on in the
Third Age. They settled in the north-east of Middle-earth,
in the region called Rhovanion. This Region is quite large and men, elves
and dwarf lived there. At some point the region was raided and conquered
by the Wainriders. The Wainriders were men from the east. They expanded to the west and fought against
men from Rhovanion and later Gondor. They used big horse wagons and chariots, were
well armed and a real threat. They also enslaved many north men and Gondor
lost many of its northern regions to them. In the "Battle of the Plains" both the Northern
Lord Marhari and Gondor's King Narmacil II died. Some of the north men who called themselves
the Éothéod - which could be translated with horse people - under the northern lord
Marhwini, who was Marhari's son, fled with is people to the west. He is also a descendent of Rhovanion's self-styled
King Vidugavia, whose daughter Vidumavi married the Gondorian prince and later Gondorian King
Valacar, which led to the kin-strife - mentioned in my first lore video -, because their son
Eldacar, who would become King, was not of pure Numenorean blood anymore. This also caused Umbar to become hostile to
Gondor. This is a prime example of how Gondor is connected
to the North and Rohan, so we will have more dips into the history of Gondor later. But back to Lord Marhwini. The Wainriders were not strong enough to
further attack Gondor, so they continued to trouble the north, regaining strength and
Gondor backed off. Many years later Marhwini warned Gondor, who
were not aware of the situation in the north and the plans of the Wainriders. So he warned them, that the Wainriders, want
conquer Calenardhon, you should keep this name in mind. Btw. The King of Gondor back then was Calimehtar. And if you have seen my last video: that is
the Grandfather if Firiel, who married the King of Arnor Arvedui and this is where the
Bloodlines of Kings of Gondor and Arnor reunite, and whose descendants are the chieftains of
the Dunedain and Aragorn. You see why all these family trees make things
complicated. But again back to Lord Marhwini. As mentiond the Wainriders were still in Rhovanion,
enslaving north-men and establishing settlements. After warning Gondor he fought together with
King Calimehtar against them. In addition many enslaved north men started
to rebel in the Wainrider's settelemnts too and so they could be defeated and fled. At the time of Marhwini's son Forthwini the
Wainriders would recover, attack and raid Rhovanion again esp. the south. But also the Southern enemies of Gondor, the
Haradrim, allied with the Wainriders and attacked in the South simultaneously. King Ondoher, Calimehtar's son, had to split
the army. One big Nothern army, which he led himself
and one smaller army to defend the south. He put the southern army under the command
of someone you might also know from my other video: Eärnil II, the father of Eärnur,
the last King of Gondor. Ondoher and his army, including the Éothéod
and his son Artamir went to fight the wainriders somewhere in Dagorlad. He left his youngest son, Faramir (that is
not the Faramir from the movies) behind, so if something should happen to them, there
would be a rightful heir for the throne. And it should happen something. The worst case. The Wainriders moved faster, then expected
and attacked the army - so to say by surprise. King Ondoher and his son died in this battle. The son of Ondoher's sister Minohtar took
command and tried to built a defence against the Wainriders - also he could have become
king too - but he received very bad news. Faramir did not stay in Gondor. He disguised himself and rode with some of
the Éothéod, but got trapped during retreat in the Dead Marshes and was mortally wounded
there. He was found by the leader of the Éothéod
and died in his arms. The leader brought Faramir's body to Minohtar. A short time later Minohtar's defence was
overwhelmed and the next heir of the throne died. Meanwhile in the south, Eärnil II was victorious
and destroyed the Haradrim forces. After this he rode as fast as possible to
aid against the Wainriders. But he was too late. He collected the remaining forces of the retreating
northern army and attacked the already celebrating Wainriders by surprise in the so called "Battle
of the Camp". They defeated the unprepared Wainriders and
drove them into the Dead Marshes where they perished. Many dead from different ages lie in the Dead
Marshes. Men, elves, silver elves from the War of the
Last Alliance at the end of the Second Age, but also men from Gondor, Éothéod and Wainriders
from the Third Age. A strange place. With the death of Minohtar Gondor had no heir. Well I said Firiel, was not from the reigning
bloodline in the last video. This was not 100% precise. Originally she was from the reigning line,
but after these events the reigning line changed. In the Appendix A we can read, that the King
of the Arthedain Arvedui claimed the right to rule over Gondor, because his wife Firiel
was the daughter of Ondoher, but it was granted to Eärnil II, who was victorious in this
war. The Steward Pelendur played a big part in
this and Gondor and Arvedui where discussing the matter - even that Firiel becomes Queen
and how this was a Numenorean tradition. I recommend reading the Appendix A for a more
complete overview. In the end Gondor looked at Arthedain which
was all that was left of the Dunedain kingdom of Arnor, after long wars against Angmar as
quite small and close too its end. Also there was this Prophecy. Arvedui means last King. And Malbeth the Seer foretold, that name and
that if the Dunedain take a choice, that is less hopeful, then Arvedui will become King
of a great realm and he will change his name, else much sorrow will be the result. Well probably this choice was meant. And it did not run out well. Even though Eärnil II was wise and promised
his support to Arvedui and also noted, that he does not deny their kinship, because they
are both descendants of Elendil, Isildur's father. But Eärnil II would be late to keep his promise
as explained in the last video. So their claim of the crown was refused and
Firiel stayed with her husband Arvedui in Arthedain, the only thing left of the Kingdom
of Arnor, which was plagued by Angmar and the witchking. But let's move back to Rohan. After the war against the Wainriders, the
Éothéod were well known and respected in Gondor. As mentioned the last part of the war against
Angmar and the fall of the Kingdom of Arthedain are next in history. After this war Angmar was defeated and lands
of it in the north were freed. But many orcs and easterlings probably from
Dol Guldur were troubling the Éothéod around the Gladden Fields. So they had to move again, this time further
into the north of Rhovanion. later under their next King Frumgar, son of
Forthwini, they started building their new capital and Frumgar's son Fram should become
their next king. Fram had to deal with a Dragon, named Scatha,
who plagued this region. He had a big treasure from the dwarves. Fram went out and slew the Dragon claiming
his hoard or treasures. To his honour, the capital was named Framsburg. The dwarves also claimed the treasure of the
dragon, but Fram refused and just sent them a few Dragon teeth and a witty answer. The dwarves were not amused and it is rumoured,
that they would kill him for it later. Though parts of the treasure were probably
saved by his ancestors. For the next 500 years we don't know what
was going on there, unil Lord Léod a descendant of Fram. He tried to tame a white horse. But it was wild and threw him off. He fell on a rock with his head and died. So his son and you should keep his name in
mind Eorl succeeded him. Eorl was a very important person in the history
of Rohan. As mentioned his father died, because of that
horse. He was quite young, about sixteen. So he hunted that horse and argued with it,
that it shall give up his freedom for the death of his father. It agreed and he gave it the name Felaróf
and was the first of the Mearas. It is said, that only the Descendants of Eorl
could ride them and that they understood the speech of men. You remember Shadowfax, the horse of Gandalf? It is a Mearas and probably a descendant of
Felaróf. Ofc. Gandalf being a Maia on an important mission
and sent by the gods, could convince Shadowfax to help him out too. Keep in mind, that I said the story continues
500 years later. At this time Gondor was faced by a new threat. A clan of Easterlings called Balchoth, probably
related to the Wainriders from back in the day and under the influence of Dol Guldur,
where Sauron hid. In addition Gondor was weakened, because of
the mentioned wars against the wainraiders and Angmar in the past, they had lost their
king and were under the rule of the ruling Stewards, they lost Minas Ithil and the Éothéod
moved further to the north, so more and more easterlings could pressure the north of Gondor,
building a new threat. The Ruling Steward Cirion sent out 6 massagers
to Eorl, but only one made it there alive, named Borondir. He brought a red arrow with him. Your probably know this from the books, because
this should become the sign, to call Rohan for help and was also used when Gondor called
Rohan to help defend Minas Tirith against Sauron. The arrow wasn't present in the movies. But those warning becaons of Gondor on the
mountains - as seen in the movies - were build too, but in the books they were build in the
Second Age so there was a fast way for north and south Gondor to warn each other. The Steward Cirion did not know, if his message
arrived Eorl and he gathered a big army and faced the Balchoth, but was surprised by an
additional orc attack from the misty mountains. They were in a hopeless situation until Borondir,
Lord Eorl the Youg on his horse Felaróf and the Éothéod army arrived. They destroyed the Balchoth and orcs completely. Borondir died in this battle. The battle itself was called "Battle of the
Field of Celebrant". For the service to Gondor in greatest need,
Eorl was gifted the province of Calenardhon, which was pretty much still deserted from
the great plague several hundred years ago. And so Eorl and the Éothéod moved from Framsburg
to this new region. And named it the Riddermark or as Gondor calls
it: Rohan. And the Éothéod became the Eorlingas or
as Gondor calls them, the Rohirrim - the horse lords. Eorl and Cirion swore an oath of friendship
and Cirion even called Eru for this oath, even though he was not King. This took place at Halifirien at the side
of Elendil's tomb and was called the Oath of Cirion and the Oath of Eorl. And with this Rohan was founded and Eorl became
the first King of Rohan. His name "the Young" came from the fact, that
he was about 16 when he became the Lord of the Éothéod and he never became grey. Eorl build the probably first city and first
capital Aldburg. He and his people also drove out the Dunlendings,
who also tried to settle there, but without Gondor's permission. They should become a constant thread, but
also Easterlings tried to invade Rohan and so Eorl the Young died in a battle against
Easterlings. He and his horse Felaróf were buried together
in the first royal mound. He was succeeded by his son Brego. Under him the migration of his people to Rohan
was making further progress and he continued to defend Rohan's borders from the Dunlandings
and Easterlings. He also build the Golden Hall called Meduseld,
the house of the King in Edoras and made it the new capital. I could not find out, if Edoras was build
under Eorl or his son Brego. But it was around that time. Brego had 3 sons: Baldor, Aldor and Eofor. All have something to do with the story of
Lord of the Rings. Baldor, for some reason went to the Paths
of the Dead, this path I assume connects Rohan and Gondor. You know this place from Lord of the Rings,
Aragorn goes through this path to come to the Stone of Erech - at this stone some tribes
of men from the mountains once swore an Oath to Isildur - here Aragorn also summons the
Oathbreakers - these ghost warriors - to aid him. Baldor never returned and Aragorn and his
friends probably found his body later, while going through this path. Eofor is an ancestor of Éomund, the father
of Éomer and Éowyn, very important characters in Lord of the Rings. Interestingly Éomund was married to Théoden's
sister Théodwyn. And this leads to Eofor's older brother Aldor. Aldor would succeed his grieving father Brego
as a King after his death and he is an ancestor of King Théoden and ofc Théodwyn. He would be known as Aldor the old, because
he reigned as King the longest of any King of the Riddermark. Under his rule Rohan grew. he had 3 daughters and a son, named Fréa,
who became king when he was 75 years old. He only reigned for 14 years. His son Fréawine succeed him. There is a note, that he probably had other
relatives who mingled with the Dunlendings. We come later to that. After this: we have his son Goldwine. Succeeded by Déor. Now things slowy start to become interesting
again. With Deor the peaceful time in Rohan ended
and Dunlendings started to raid over the river Isen or Isen. A short note here regarding the pronunciation. I use mainly the old english pronunciation
rules, because the language of Rohan is pretty much old english. And there it is Isen. Tolkien himself red it Isen once, so I assume
later in history people might have said Isen and Isengard. But we are still several hundred years before
Lord of the Rings and I will continue using the old english pronunciation rules, because
I'm used to it and it makes sense. Keep in mind that I mess up some times. But let's continue. As mentioned Dunlandings were raiding the
land. King Deor formed a little army and found out,
that the Dunlendings were coming from the direction of Isengard. With an expedition he defeated Dunland raiders
on his way and found Isengard taken by enemy forces. he was not able to conquer it back and he
called for the Oath of Cirion, but Gondor could not sent help at this time, because
I assume they had some problems with orcs. So Deor kept an army close to Isengard, so
he could keep an eye on his enemies. Now we come to a very interesting point in
Rohan's history. The Son of Deor was Gram and he continued
the work of his father and had to defend Rohan against the Dunlendlings. You probably have heard of his son: Helm Hammerhand. Helm succeeded his father and had also to
bother with Dunland. A Dunleding named Freca with Rohirric blood
came. He claimed, that he was not only a Dunlending,
but also a descendent of King Fréawine - maybe you still remember, that I mentioned something
when I talked about Fréawine. Freca had a fortress and even Helm had council
with him sometimes. At some point he came to helm with a great
force of men and wanted that his son Wulf marries Helm's daughter. They even threatened the King. But Helm did not accept and punched Freca
so hard in the face, that he died from this mighty blow. And this is why he is called Helm Hammerhand. Freca's men left Edoras and reported to Wulf. Wulf was not amused and gathered an army and
allied with other enemies of Rohan and totally overrun the Riddermark. Helm and his army faced them, but lost and
Helm and his son Hama had to withdraw. Helm's other son Haleth died defending Edoras
at the doors of Meduseld as one of the last defenders. Helm, Hama and many Eorlingas fled to the
Súthburg, while Wulf sat on the throne in Meduseld and declared himself the new King
of Rohan. The Suthburg was once build during the glory
days of Gondor and Rohan used it as base to defend the gap of Rohan. Wulf sieged the Suthburg but also the so called
long winter begun. This was an exceptionally harsh and long winter,
that lasted 5 month. And it caused heavy losses for Helm's people,
but also for Wulf's. Helm's son Hama, against the advice of his
father, tried to sneak out the fortress to seek for food. He never returned and got lost in the snow. His grieving father Helm clad in white, blew
his mighty Horn in the night and sneaked into the camps of the Dunlendings. There he killed some of them with his bare
hands and sneaked back every night. He continued this for quite some time, so
that hearing his horn struck fear into the hearts of the Dunlendings. Also the Súthburg was renamed into Hornburg,
because of this. And now you know why it has this name, with
burg meaning something like stronghold or fortress. But one night Helm's body was discovered,
standing, still ready to fight, but dead. He probably froze to death, but also famine
was most likely part of his death. The son of Helm's sister Hild, Fréaláf Hildeson,
was in Dunharrow, that also was under siege. After Helm's death, he became his heir. In the early spring he rode out of Dunharrow
and surpirsed the Dunlendings. He rode to Edoras with a small band and caught
Wulf by surprise killing him and recapturing the Capital. Also Gondor sent troops to help their ally
and together they drove the Dunlendings out of Rohan and even conquering Isengard back
again. Fréaláf became the next King of Rohan. At this time also Saruman returned from a
journey to the east. He offered friendship and asked if could have
Isengard. In return he would protect it and the area
around it. Fréaláf accepted and recommended, that Beren
the Steward of Gondor may give the keys of Orthanc to Saruman. Orthanc is the black tower in Isengard, that
was once build by the Numenoreans. And so Saruman made Isengard his new home. He was very interested in the Palantir of
Isengard, which he kept hidden from the white council. Fréaláf was succeeded by his son Brytta,
who was later called Léofa - the beloved. He looked after his people and helped those
in need and so was given this name. Rohan still recovered from the war against
the Dunlednings and the Long winter, but a new threat was on its way. In the misty mountains, the dwarfs were fighting
against the orcs. This is the Story of Thorin, his father Thrain
II and his grandfather Thror, you probably know it from the first Hobbit movie. Even though it is quite different from the
books. After Thror's death in Moria through Azog,
the exiled dwarfs called all allied dwarf houses and mobilized a giant army, to revenge
Thror. They fought on many places and especially
underground against all orcs they could find. In the end at the East gate of Moria they
won and killed Azog at least in the books, but did not try to reclaim Moria for several
reasons, Durin's Bane being one of them. After the "War of the Dwarves and Orcs" many
orcs fled from the misty mountains to the white mountains, which led them through Rohan,
and which caused again a lot of trouble, but Rhohan fought against it. When Brytta died it was believed that the
orc threat was beaten. But his son Walda, who succeeded him after
his death, would 9 years later later be killed by an orc and avenged by his son Folca, who
also could finally drive the remaining orcs out of Rohan. He was a great hunter. he went out to hunt
the mighty Boar of Everholt. he was successful, but also was killed by
the boar and succeeded by his son Folcwine. Folcwine again had to deal with Dunlendings. He had 3 sons. To fulfil the Oath of Eorl he sent troops,
led by his twin sons to Gondor, to help in the war against Harad. His twinsons Folcred and Fastred died during
this war. So his third son Fengel succeeded him. Fengel was not very popular and known for
his greed and love of gold. Because of conflicts his son Thengel left
Rohan to life in Gondor with his wife. When Fengel died his son Thengel returned
to Rohan, but was not happy with this decision. Thengel was married to a woman named Morwen
Steelsheen. She was of Numenorean blood and quite tall. When Thengel was king, a mysterious man called
Thorongil joind his service. We better know this man as Aragorn II. If you have only have seen the movies, maybe
you remember, the scene where Éowyn mentions that she was told, that Aragorn rode together
with her Grandfather and asked him how old he is. Well that was him in his youth and if you
have seen my last video, you also know, why Aragorn has such a long life, and the people
of Rohan not. During Aragorn's time with Thengel: Saruman
also fortified Isengard even more. Well and Thengel was succeeded by his son,
who you probably know very well: Théoden. Théoden was married to Elfhild and they had
a son Théodred, who dies in lord of the Rings. Théoden also had a sister named Théodwyn,
the mother of Éomer and Éowyn. And now we are finally at the time of Lord
of the Rings. What we understand now, is probably why the
Dunledings agreed to help Saruman in his war against Rohan, because they still have not
forgotten, how Freca was killed by Helm Hammerhand and how they killed their King Wulf. We also understand now why Saruman rules over
Isengard, living in the Numenorean Tower Orthanc. We know why the Hornburg has this name and
why the people of Rohan have normal lifespans, but also the origin of the Mearas and that
Shadowfax is a descendant of Eorl's horse. This gives also additional meaning to Gandalf
riding it and leading the army against the sieging orcs and Dunlendings at the hornburg. the Dunlandings surrendered and Théoden allowed
them to return to their land, but let them promise to cease all hostilities and not come
back. Also when Éomer becomes the new King, he and
Aragorn renew the Oath of between Gondor and the Riddermark. You see how everything is connected and how
the circle closes here. I hope you enjoyed this video. it took me longer this time, because I was
quite busy the last weeks and it took a ton of research, esp. pronunciation rules for
old english and gothic. I messed up quite a few times, but I tried. So Sorry for the late uplaod. I try to amp up my video output again. E3 is coming and i have a lot of ideas for
new videos, also lore videos. If you liked the video, do the Twitter and
Youtube things, thank you for watching and good bye.
