Arise, arise, Riders of Théoden! Fell deeds awake: fire and slaughter! Spear shall be shaken, shield be splintered, a sword-day, a red day, ere the sun rises! Ride now, ride now! Ride to Gondor!
In the times of the Saxons and Danes personal charisma of the leaders of an army was quite important. The Saxon Chronicles often mention leaders of men by name and sometimes they would make speeches to their men before battle, start taunts against the enemy and such.
Just gonna point this out. But Helm's Deep was build by Gondor and then handed over to Rohan when they also handed over all of the land Rohan is now placed on after receiving their aid. Rohan has never build any stone fortress themselves.
It was never even mentioned what happened to the Hornburg after that atleast not as far as I know but I'd assume ownership was handed over to Gimli when he started his colony in the glittering caves right behind it. If it got repaired it probably got repaired by dwarves.
The Rohirrim in the Lord of the Rings don't speak Westron but a distant relative of it and neither language bears any similarity to Old English. Tolkien explains the use of Old English in the Lord of the Rings with a fictional translation from the "Red Book" (written in Westron language by hobbits). He said that to the Hobbits (who used to live close to the Rohirrim's ancestors and spoke a similar language long ago), the Rohirrim's language sounded familiar but archaic - and that's why he used Old English to convey that feeling of relation the Hobbits had.
And that the word Hobbit comes from the word Holbylta (If I'm correct) meaning hole-builder, building more of a connection to the two groups from when they lived in the Vales of the Anduin.
Thanks pal - I assume you could add a lot to this video with all your Germanic knowledge as well! And likewise, I doubt we'll ever encounter a fictional world as rich as that created by Tolkien.
ever heard saxons are germanized scythians ('saka'), and their name actually does not come from some type of generic household cutlery... not from migration period like sarmatians (King Arthur and his knights, paralel legends found in caucasic Osetia/Alania), but from early iron age...
History with Hilbert. Even without cavalry the Saxon army may well have beaten the Normans at the battle of Hastings if wasn't their lack of discipline at the vital moment. The Saxon's had the high ground and were more than holding there own until William had his men withdraw. On seeing this the Saxons broke there lines and started to chase the Norman cavalry who in turn just simply turned around and cut there pursers to pieces. Now had the Saxons kept there discipline the longer the battle lasted the more it would have been in Harold's favour. The Housecarl Harold's personal bodyguard would have come into there own and would have been more than match for best William had to offer.
I highly recomend to watch video the myth of the sampo by TED-ed. Tolkien learned Finnish just to read our national epic Kalevala in native language. It has all the same story elements. Suomenlinna was inspiration for Shire, old sea fortress in Finland.
And so you can imagine that the Battle on the Pelennor Fields is inspired by the Battle of the Catalaunian Plains in 451 where Romans and Visigoths fought together against the Huns.
@Maes Mydog Yes! This was a huge frustration for me watching this video. Theoden is modelled on Theodoric I, Eomer on his son. The invasion from the east on Atilla and the Hunns. The Rohirric cavalry on gothic cavalry (that was estimated higher in Tolkiens time than today). Pre rehorric names, before Eorl the Young "rode down from the north" (which corralates to gothic legends) the names are Gothic. Tolkien used what germanic history and what germanic languages available to him. To craft a great story. To remind us of traditionalism. The migration era history might be forgotten today, but it was not in Tolkiens time.
Speaking of white horse, this reminded me of something Western Slavs used to do. White horse was used to predict the future. Two spears were placed in the ground, crossed. Then the priest would take the horse through those spears. Or, to predict win or failure in the upcoming battle, three rows of spears were placed. The horse was also led through them. If he began with his left hoove even once, any raid or war was called off. Rugians were famous for having a statue of a (presumably white) horse at their temple in Arkona. Seeing how horses were prominent not only in Slavic, but also in Germanic and Baltic mythologies, did Germanic peoples had done something like that?
@Vitalis Yes, the Norse of the Viking Age used horses for divination. Don't remember exactly how they did the divination though. Horses could also be dedicated to the Gods.
I remember reading somewhere that for Germanic Pagans a White Horse was quite a "Holy" animal, that was often used in sacrificial rituals, not entirely sure if it's true but there you go.
Well they're both Indo-European cultures, who originated on the steppe and domesticated horses, so the connection probably goes back almost 10,000 years to their common ancestor
What I also found interesting, is that Tengriism also is similar to Indo-European religions. Holbert's video on Tengriism: th-cam.com/video/mgdqhG6tvxo/w-d-xo.html
My class is reading Lord of the Rings in English, I'm one of the only ones who have read them prior to this class. I adore J.R.R. Tolkien's works and I felt weird trying to explain stuff without going on ramblings about "son of this who slew the great beast who was the son of..." you get what I mean. Also this girl I was planning on asking out said she hated Lord of the Rings after class, not asking her out now xD
This is absolutely fascinating. For me the biggest question this raises is why Tolkien did this. He created his own version of Welsh - Sindarin, and his own version of Finnish - Quenya. These are quite different to the source languages, but easily recognisable as inspirations of them. And then he pretty much lifted Old English, changing very little. I wonder why he didn't give Old English the same treatment as he did Welsh and Finnish.
You did a great job breaking down Old English/Anglo-Saxon etymologies for all of these various peoples and places of Rohan. However, while you rightly pointed out Beowulf as a source of inspiration for the Rohirrim and King Theoden, you should have also mentioned Theodoric I, King of the Visigoths and son of Alaric I. He died at the Battle of the Catalaunian Plains as a Roman client ruler and ally against the Huns of Attila, who were defeated, saving the Western Roman Empire for a time. Gondor is basically the equivalent of the Western Roman Empire here, since Theoden also died on the plains of battle defending his ally and liege lords as a loyal vassal king. If you think about it, the two kingdoms of Arnor and Gondor represent the western and eastern halves of the Roman Empire, while Numenor represents the united Roman Empire or even ancient Greece and obviously the mythical Atlantis. The Huns obviously served as a partial inspiration for Tolkien's Mordor and the Orcs, while Harad was obviously connected to the Islamic Middle East and Umbar could be viewed as something like Jerusalem or Constantinople.
A few people have mentioned the Gothic and Visigothic influence which I hadn't thought about at all so that'll be interesting to look at perhaps in another video!
Supposedly, the names of the Rohirrim before Eorl the Young rode down from the north and gained land from Gondor (rome) was modelled on Gothic, such as Vidugavia and Forthwini. tolkiengateway.net/wiki/Gothic Something that makes me curious is Eorl the Young. Among Germanics, this apears in several languages. Such as the "Ynglinga" divine dynasty in sweden (Yngling meaning "young man"). Or maybe "yeoman" in english has a similar origin? Or maybe that just means young man. In German is the word "Junker" which means nobleman, i dont know the ethymology of that thought. In archeology the roman iron age is a time of huge upheaval in at least the scandinavian wolrd, but probably in all of the germanic world. Settlements disapear but a new settlment inexplicably apears just a few hundered meters away. Maybe this was caused by young men coming back from being mercenaries in rome, unseating old political orders by superior knowledge of violence? Anyway, pure conjecture. Even though i do blieve Eorl the Young might was modelled on the Ynglinga dynasty.
Tolkien later also described Orcs (in a letter after he sold the film-rights) in a very similar way as the Hunnic King Attila was described by a contemporary source. Regarding Umbar, I think it's very much inspired by the Corsairs of the Barbary Coast, a long time enemy of European merchants till the early 1800s.
@Berzelmayr, you are right that the Corsairs are related to the real Muslim Corsairs of North Africa, but I'm talking about the city of Umbar itself, with its monuments such as the ruins of the great pillar and the havens. In that case it is almost like ancient Carthage with its great seaport, and something like Jerusalem in that the western power Gondor desires to reclaim it in southern arid lands (Harad) resembling the Middle East.
Very interesting video! Also, is worth mentioning that the rohirrim were not native from the land which is now called Riddermark. They came from the north, and received this land from the gondorians, but also had wars with the original inhabitants of that region, the Dunlendings (they appear in the book Two Towers, in the battle of Helm's Deep, alongside with the uruk-hai). This conflict reminds me a lot of the migrations of the angles, saxons and jutes to Britain, and the wars that they had with the britons. I think this is a funny coincidence (or maybe an intentional inspiration)
The tale of the rohirrim and their fightback against mordor eerily resembles the story of kishkindha and sugriva fighting vaali to recapture the kingdom of kishkindha..and how king sugriva took help from ram parallels the king of Rohan taking help of the fellowship
Another interesting point; when we leave the kingdoms of Rohan and Gondor at the end of the book, they are been ruled by Eomer and Elessar (Aragorn) respectively. According to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, the first king of Mercia was Icil son of Eomaer, and the first king of Wessex was Cerdic son of Elesa. it's as if Lord of the Rings ends where English history starts.
Ridder-Mark Dan-Mark (Denmark) "Borderlands of the danes" and Ridder is still used for a mounted person in danish (litteraly meaning: The person who rides)
great video again! a bit different from what you usually do, hence this is fictional history, and also has some linguistic aspects to it, but it's still very much a history with Hilbert experience! Lotr is still my favorite francise, so I loved this video haha. Keep it up mate
This is very well researched and presented, Hilbert, and everything you say is true. But Tolkien had another historical inspiration for the Rohirrim in the Goths.
Unlike the Anglo-Saxons the Goths were noted horsemen. And the Visigoths in particular at one period in their history had much the same relationship with the Eastern Roman Empire as the Rohirrim had with Gondor: they lived in what had been Roman Dacia on the frontier of the Empire and were allied with it, guarding its territory against the savage Huns.
He had a pet theory that the Goths and Anglo-Saxons were more closely related than was traditionally believed, but it was just a hunch, and he couldn't defend it academically. Instead, he made tongue-in-cheek references to the idea in the LotR appendices and other writings on the history of the third age by giving the people of ancient Rhovanion (Wilderland) Gothic names (before they were wiped out by various Easterling attacks) and suggesting they were related to the Eotheod, the ancestors of the Rohirrim.
Duh, the Scandinavian people, the Danish Vikings etc., were also renowned horsemen. Even though they had not much opportunity to breed large numbers of horses, they showed to be quite adept with horseriding when given the opportunity. Example: the Normans easily switched from fighting on foot to fighting on horseback, becoming the elite cavalry of all of France. There's also a Viking story of a young Danish noble who has just been given his first real sword. Galloping on horseback through the countryside, he is looking for objects to test his new sword on. After hacking down a few branches and small trees, he finally sees the ultimate object: a lowly farmer working the fields! Galloping swiftly in position and riding up from behind, the young noble raises his sword and lo and behold! The sword is of very good quality! As the poor farmer's head rolls on the ground, the Danish noble rides on, waving his sword with great pride and joy.
@@AudieHolland what are you on about!? The Vikings were by no means renowned horsemen?! Most of them had probably never seen one! They couldn’t put a horse on a longship!
I really like how you spit through history to get the slightest thing that has to with the Netherlands And then make a video about it And then roll the music when the Netherlands is mentioned.... Ga zo door!!!
Helm‘s deep wasn‘t build by the Rohirrim. It was an old gondorian Castle, that they gained with the land and just kept in shape. The defensive structures build by the Rohirrim were all out of wooden pallisades. ;)
Riddermark. Loved that word and the explanation behind it. For those of you interested, one old german name for the nowadays Austria is "Ostmark", which literally means "Borderlands in the East". There are several other areas of nowadays german speaking countries which had this name over the period of nearly 2000 years, but this one is the most prominent and probably best known. The Nazis revived the term at least for a short period of time after the Anschluss of Austria if I recall correctly.
I always thought the Rohirrim of Rohan were based on the Bulgarians but given "Old English" and Old Germanic names. The Bulgarians actually were masters of Calvary who lived on the Borderlands of the Byzantine Empire (aka the fictionalized Gondor). In 718AD when Constantinople was being sieged by Umayyad Caliphate (aka Mordor) the Byzantines lit beacons to alert the Bulgarians who brought their Calvary to lift the Siege. The real life battle of Pelenor fields was fought at the gates of Constantinople in 718AD. The Bulgarians who came to the rescue of Constantinople after the lighting of the beacons were the deciding factor in the war.
@Novusod: Problem is most of Tolkiens inspirations came from British and Northwestern European mythology, he borrowed almost nothing from Latin, Greek or Middle Eastern sources. Beacons were a fairly common way of passing on such messages, especially in hilly or mountainous areas, they made a lot of sense and people all around the world came up with various beacon towers or similar signalling systems more or less independantly. Not to mention Lighthouses had been around well over a thousand years before 718. Also a fairly little known fact that many of the 'Celtic' Tribes were in fact also known for the quality of their cavalry. The Romans used Celtic Auxillaries as Light and Medium Cavalry right up until the fall of the Western Empire, though tended to use Clibanarrii and cataphractii (probably little difference between the two) from various Sassanid or Persian lands as their heavy shock cavalry. The latter of course would become famous as the Heavy Shock Cavalry of the Byzantine Empire. As for Mordor, given Sauron's Backstory I very much doubt Mordor was based on any of the Calliphates, though there may be some argument for some of the Eastron men being based on them. Being one of the Ainur, more specifically a Maiar Sauron was more analagous to an Angel who fell, very much a supernatural force, a fallen angel next to the Satan who was Morgoth. Mordor was more closely modelled on Hell with a very large dose of the ugliness of Industrial Revolution townscapes thrown in (which Tolkien despised, note the Scouring of the Shire for example). Incidentally, Gandalf was also a Maiar....
Another thing of the significance of the "mark" part is that Rohan is situated in the valley between the two mountain ranges that seperate Gondor and the eastern kingdoms from the old kingdoms of the west. I think the main one was Eriador, and there were two more, but they fell to Angmar long before the events of the books and nerver recovered.
Truly beautiful analysis sir, I'm subscribing. Remember thou however, Tolkien's opus was influenced to an incredible degree by his own wartime experiences and the march of industrialisation of the British countryside. He lost so many good, close friends in WW1 and saw the bucolic fields of his childhood ruined by industry that he FELT as well as intellectualised the Wanderer's journey. He physically and emotionally had no home to return to. RIP Beren and Luthien.
in ethiopia, there is a huge types of coincidences with cities having reassemble names to ones in LOTR. gonder-gondor en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gondar shire-shire en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shire_Inda_Selassie and lalibela, which was named roha in medieval ethiopia geographic.org/geographic_names/name.php?uni=-873763&fid=1720&c=ethiopia
Rohan is also a region of Brittany, which has a celtic language and some relation to the britons in britain. The founder of the IRL House of Rohan is also Conan Meriadoc (Merry!) a mythical hero.
The Battle of the Pelennor Fields is based (loosely) on the Battle of the Catalaunian Plain in 451. This makes plain that the Rohirrim aren’t modelled on the English but on the Visigoths who were riders. Theoden’s death is based on that of Theodoric who was crushed by his own side’s horses.
I loved the language breakdown. Another mention could be the arms and armour of the anglo-saxons are clearly the inspiration for the Peter Jackson adaptations. One thing I wasn't aware of was the use of the white horse in Saxon culture, I volunteer at Jarrow Hall (formerly Bede's World) which is an open air Anglo-Saxon museum which opened my eyes to the obvious influence upon Tolkien's Rohan. Would love to know more about this, perhaps even suggest a small nod to him at the museum, do you have any suggestions or any tips on how I should go about this? Thanks for the video, really great content just subscribed. I'd like to see a follow-up video of the Persian or Arabic influence of the Harad or Easterlings!
It's a miracle how Lithuanian language still have lots of old words. I needed no translation to understand what "Medu" and "sael" means :) In Lithuanian Honey is Medus and Mead is Midus, and Hall in Lithuanian is Salė (very similar to sael).
I made a comparison like this but saw Poland more suitable for the Rohirrim, because one could say that the holy Roman empire was Gondor and Vienna Minas tirith, being the siege of viena in 1683 comparable to the battle of pelenor fields and the siege of Minas tirith.
THAAANK YOUU! I was hoping you’d make a video on Rohan, but even after all this is still feel like they have a huge Scandinavian influence as well, for instance, Theoden’s speech before the Ride of the Rohirrim into Pallenor Fields resembled Ragnarök which I’m sure you know is the Norse/Viking ‘end of days’ so to speak, which kind of ties in with Theoden’s decision to die in battle, which was seen as an honourable thing to do in Norse culture.
I love your video's man! Easy to follow, yet super interesting. And for the first time since ever i guess someone actually linked the Saxon region of Twente to the Rohirrim (a similarity I already guessed, we have alot of farms with those horse-head gables, even new buildings have them). But I digress, can you make a video about Gondor/Númenor aswell? These made-up people have a lot of resemblance to real-life civilisations too!
The Saxons in Germany were better known for their horsemanship as they provided, next to the Franks, the heavy cavalry in the battles against the Hungarians in the 10th c.. Those early knights were a counter against the Hungarian horse archers raiding into Germany and France. The Saxons in Britain didn't partake in this development. Also Lower Saxony is famous for horse breeding and has several endemic breeds of high international esteem. Thus maybe Tolkien thought a bit about Old Saxonlands when imagining Rohan as a horse country.
1. Eowyn is his niece, not his daughter. 2. Eomer is her brother, not her cousin. 3. The Rohirrim did not build Helm's Deep, it was originally a Gondorian fortress. The rest is great! Well done :)
There is also a place in germany that inspired Tolkien in in vision about Edoras. It´s a celtic city on top of a flat mountain, called Menosgada.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Menosgada It was known even to the greek historian Ptolomy and it was, like many celtic towns, a place of worship to the godess of horses, Epona.
Yet another similarity that the people of Rohan have with the anglo saxons is that they migrated. They are originally from the north of middle earth and migrated south to the area just north of Gondor that we all know. Kinda like the angels and saxons migrated from what is now denmark to the isle of great Britain and there established the anglo-saxon kingdoms
Technically the Rohirrim hadn‘t an alliance with Gondor but were a type of vassal that didn‘t had to pay tribute but had to secure the borders. Similar to the spanish march under Charlemagne.
Sorry maybe I am wrong but I thought Widukind didn't die in the Frankish-Saxon war but accepted in 785 AD to convert to Christianity. And became a vassal of Charlemagne. (at 2:06)
As a Germanic-type people living in wide, open plains, I always thought of them as being like the 3rd & 4th century Goths, before they were pushed into Roman territory by the Huns
hello, You just forget a thing.... Rohan name.... It's the name of a most important noble family from Britany. Look at Duchy of Rohan, this family pretend to be from the first legendary king of Britany Conan of Meriadec ( yep, Conan is the nanme of several king in Britany). great video for the reference of anglo-saxon and old english.
This video overlooks a HUGE part of the Rohirrim. Theoden is modelled, rather obviously, on the Visigothic king Theodoric the first. The battle of Pellenors plains is modelled on the battle of the Catalaunian fields 451 between the alliance of Rome and the Visigoths against the invasion of Atilla the Hun. Thorismund, Theoderics son, played about the same role in that battle as Eomer in Pellenor, after Theodoric the first fell. It also fits very neatly with Gonder - Rome and the Rohirrim being given land when they "rode down from the north". The goths had origin legends of coming down from the north. The Goths also had potent cavalry, as was seen in the battle of Adrianople. Modern Rohirric spoken by Theoden and Eomer is modelled on old english. But supposedly Tolkien built in language change in Rohirric, modelling older Place names on Gothic.
Such an interesting and educational video! I was just going to point out that Eowyn and Eomer are, in fact, siblings and Theoden's niece and nephew, respectively, but I think others have already mentioned it. I would love to learn more about the history that inspired the Numenoreans and Gondor and the city of Esgaroth; or, to be honest, anything regarding historical aspects of Tolkien's writings.
Even though most of the influence is obviously Germanic, I always assumed there was some inspiration from the Alans, Scythians, and other Indo-Iranian steppe peoples.
And the Scythians and other nomadic peoples that you mention were the inspiration, for the easterlings, the balchot and other tribes that I dont remember the English name, along with Mongols I guess, so Rohirrim are inspired more broadly in Germanic tribes but not in other ethnic or linguistic group.
Yeah, I don't want to start an internet war, but there's zero reason to think Turkish tribes migrated that far west at that point, and as far as I know all evidence says they were Indo-Iranian.
@@IoannesThrax loughable, i gather you learned that from Erdogans Propaganda, you probably believe turkic Muslims discovered america, like Erdogan once claimed
Of all the peoples of Middle Earth, I loved those of Rohan the most. My love for them grew, once I learned their people were based on the Norsemen/Saxons. Their architecture, their armor even their culture just SCREAMS Norse myth; to me
Actually, 'ridder' is/was an equivalent for 'ruiter' in my opinion. Ruiter has the same 't' sound as in the German Ritter. And all these words pointed to the fact that the knight was riding a horse. He was a rider. Dutch word for driving is 'rijden.' Which today means to drive a vehicle but in the old days it could have stood for riding a horse.
3:18 Theoden is the name of three kings of Bavaria who were ancestors of Charlemagne. Theod means people; it derives from a PIE word, so Cornish has Tud and Welsh has Twyd.
Mark in Norse means 'land', as in an area of land. Land areas were divided into three basic kinds; Innmark, mark and utmark. Innmark was well developed farmland. Which was the most productive kind of land and also taxed the highest. Then mark was just regular land, not of the best quality and taxed less than innmark. Utmark was the least productive kind of land, what we would call land of marginal production. Only suitable for limited grazing and not for any planted crops. Innmark is a word consisting of 'inn' meaning 'in' and 'mark' meaning 'land'. Why this was used for the most productive farmland isn't really clear, but may have been because it was the closest to where most of the people lived. Whereas the utmark - the 'out land' was the wastelands further away from more populated areas. I think the whole assertion that 'mark' is the same as the word 'march' is just not correct. It is just false. Then the Danes would be living in the borderlands of the Danes. But they ARE the Danes. This makes no sense to assume that Denmark is the borderlands of the Danes. There are other regions in Scandinavia with the -mark ending. Like Hedmark which is a county in Norway. And Telemark, another county in Norway. The -mark endings in these names only mean 'land', nothing more.
I dont know about old Norse, but in german, Mark clearly means borderland. Under the Nazis, for example, Austria was called the "Ostmark", the eastern borderland.
Helm is old word for Balcan,Faramir, Boromir, - Slavic names, Gondor is based on Belgrade, white city on werge of dark and destruction, funeral of Teodred is in ancient Balcan way, Tolkin was very good at ethnolingustic of Slavs, same as ethnolingustic of Scandinavians and English, real names and battles are in base of his stories it gives them that real feel
Great video! FYI the Numenoreans built Helm's Deep and not the Rohirrim. Rohan never really built in stone and Edoras was pretty much the only city they built. So in respect they are even more like the Anglo-Saxon. Also Éowyn was King Théoden's niece not his daughter.
Rohan is based upon Slav nations. All I see about them point to Slavs. From culture to the way of fighting. Especially battle for White City, which is basically 1683 Siege of Vienna where Rohan warriors are basically Winged Hussars.
Hilbert if you ever come to Fryslân to sniff some history and culture hit me up. I have very few friends who enjoy walking in Frisian or dutch medieval towns who can enjoy the richness of whatever they're seeing. Like I can walk up to an old church and tell how the bricks are too perfect to be old and enjoy the fact that you can see the history of a building by something as basic as that. I wanna walk through the 11 cities with you and talk about that stuff man, in Frysk or English, I don't mind either one.
Check out Hervarar saga. It comes complete with an assault on a fortress by a huge army, a shield maiden and a desperate defense. From the Wikipedia article: "There is much in this saga that readers of J. R. R. Tolkien's work will recognize, most importantly the riddle contest. There are for instance warriors similar to the Rohirrim, brave shieldmaidens, Mirkwood, haunted barrows yielding enchanted swords (see Barrow-downs), a mithril mailcoat, an epic battle, a flaming sword and two Dwarves named Dwalin and Durin. J. R. R. Tolkien's youngest son, Christopher, translated the work in 1960, entitling his version The Saga of King Heidrek the Wise.[6]" en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hervarar_saga_ok_Heiðreks
But the plot where they ride to the rescue of Minas Tirith, ever since Sabaton and EU4 memes I always thought that event is modeled after Battle of Vienna.
There is an island at this time meant to represent Britain! Tol Eressëa. In the 3rd age and the start of the 4th it is an Elf kingdom. Men aren't allowed except by special permission. It's the destination for the members of the Fellowship at the end of the books and movies.
Eowyn is Théoden's niece. Her and Eomer are siblings. Théoden only had a son, Théodred.
Eomer and Eowyn are siblings as you say children of Theoden's sister.
And their father was slain while fighting Orc bands raiding their borders.
Their mother was Théodwyn.
He’s probably confused because Théoden calls Eomer several times his son, since he is the heir of the throne. (Theodred was killed in battle.)
To right all :)
Arise, arise, Riders of Théoden!
Fell deeds awake: fire and slaughter!
Spear shall be shaken, shield be splintered,
a sword-day, a red day, ere the sun rises!
Ride now, ride now! Ride to Gondor!
DEAAAATH
Ride for ruin....and the world's ending! Death! ...Death ... Death!
this always gives me goose bumps. Tolkien sure knew how to write rousing speeches
In the times of the Saxons and Danes personal charisma of the leaders of an army was quite important. The Saxon Chronicles often mention leaders of men by name and sometimes they would make speeches to their men before battle, start taunts against the enemy and such.
AND THEN THE WONGED HUSSARS ARRIVED...COMING DOWN THE MOUTAINSIDE
Just gonna point this out. But Helm's Deep was build by Gondor and then handed over to Rohan when they also handed over all of the land Rohan is now placed on after receiving their aid. Rohan has never build any stone fortress themselves.
it's called the Hornburg, the valley is helm's deep
My point still stands. Rohan never build a stone fortress.
what about fixing the deeping wall after the war of the ri- I answered myself there.....
It was never even mentioned what happened to the Hornburg after that atleast not as far as I know but I'd assume ownership was handed over to Gimli when he started his colony in the glittering caves right behind it. If it got repaired it probably got repaired by dwarves.
BlueRainDrop after the battle of the hornburg out is said that the Dunnish prisoners helped rebuild after the battle.
The Rohirrim in the Lord of the Rings don't speak Westron but a distant relative of it and neither language bears any similarity to Old English.
Tolkien explains the use of Old English in the Lord of the Rings with a fictional translation from the "Red Book" (written in Westron language by hobbits).
He said that to the Hobbits (who used to live close to the Rohirrim's ancestors and spoke a similar language long ago), the Rohirrim's language sounded familiar but archaic - and that's why he used Old English to convey that feeling of relation the Hobbits had.
And that the word Hobbit comes from the word Holbylta (If I'm correct) meaning hole-builder, building more of a connection to the two groups from when they lived in the Vales of the Anduin.
Lovely stuff btw mate. Tolkien is easily my favourite author.
Thanks pal - I assume you could add a lot to this video with all your Germanic knowledge as well! And likewise, I doubt we'll ever encounter a fictional world as rich as that created by Tolkien.
Raymond E. Feist comes close.
ever heard saxons are germanized scythians ('saka'), and their name actually does not come from some type of generic household cutlery... not from migration period like sarmatians (King Arthur and his knights, paralel legends found in caucasic Osetia/Alania), but from early iron age...
History with Hilbert. Even without cavalry the Saxon army may well have beaten the Normans at the battle of Hastings if wasn't their lack of discipline at the vital moment. The Saxon's had the high ground and were more than holding there own until William had his men withdraw. On seeing this the Saxons broke there lines and started to chase the Norman cavalry who in turn just simply turned around and cut there pursers to pieces. Now had the Saxons kept there discipline the longer the battle lasted the more it would have been in Harold's favour. The Housecarl Harold's personal bodyguard would have come into there own and would have been more than match for best William had to offer.
I highly recomend to watch video the myth of the sampo by TED-ed. Tolkien learned Finnish just to read our national epic Kalevala in native language. It has all the same story elements. Suomenlinna was inspiration for Shire, old sea fortress in Finland.
Thank you so much...the Anglo Saxon part of Tolkien's inspiration makes so much sense and deepens my understanding of his works.
Now I want a vid about Gondor
Gondor was modelled on Rome. As Rohirrim were largely inspired by the Visigoths, if modelled on anglosaxons.
And so you can imagine that the Battle on the Pelennor Fields is inspired by the Battle of the Catalaunian Plains in 451 where Romans and Visigoths fought together against the Huns.
@Maes Mydog
Yes! This was a huge frustration for me watching this video. Theoden is modelled on Theodoric I, Eomer on his son. The invasion from the east on Atilla and the Hunns. The Rohirric cavalry on gothic cavalry (that was estimated higher in Tolkiens time than today). Pre rehorric names, before Eorl the Young "rode down from the north" (which corralates to gothic legends) the names are Gothic. Tolkien used what germanic history and what germanic languages available to him. To craft a great story. To remind us of traditionalism. The migration era history might be forgotten today, but it was not in Tolkiens time.
Martin Andersson That's a great analogy, thanks for sharing.
Yes, a Gondor video would be great, do you think the Gondor was based on Ancient Rome?
Speaking of white horse, this reminded me of something Western Slavs used to do. White horse was used to predict the future. Two spears were placed in the ground, crossed. Then the priest would take the horse through those spears. Or, to predict win or failure in the upcoming battle, three rows of spears were placed. The horse was also led through them. If he began with his left hoove even once, any raid or war was called off. Rugians were famous for having a statue of a (presumably white) horse at their temple in Arkona.
Seeing how horses were prominent not only in Slavic, but also in Germanic and Baltic mythologies, did Germanic peoples had done something like that?
@Vitalis Yes, the Norse of the Viking Age used horses for divination. Don't remember exactly how they did the divination though. Horses could also be dedicated to the Gods.
I remember reading somewhere that for Germanic Pagans a White Horse was quite a "Holy" animal, that was often used in sacrificial rituals, not entirely sure if it's true but there you go.
Well they're both Indo-European cultures, who originated on the steppe and domesticated horses, so the connection probably goes back almost 10,000 years to their common ancestor
What I also found interesting, is that Tengriism also is similar to Indo-European religions. Holbert's video on Tengriism: th-cam.com/video/mgdqhG6tvxo/w-d-xo.html
I’ve never thought of this kind of video. Great stuff!
Glad you enjoyed it!
I really like your conversational delivery. It's very pleasant to listen to. It doesn't hurt that the content is good too. You've earned a subscriber.
Dutch Rolled -- like a rick roll whenever Netherlands is mentioned
We must resist the cultural appropriation of Scandinavians who claim anything that involves round shields, axes, and blonde hair
Fun fact;
Dutch-rolling is a term used for a maneuver in aviation.
Interesting. I thought it was a type of pastry
Like the profile pic
all the cool kids hung their floyd posters upside down :)
My class is reading Lord of the Rings in English, I'm one of the only ones who have read them prior to this class. I adore J.R.R. Tolkien's works and I felt weird trying to explain stuff without going on ramblings about "son of this who slew the great beast who was the son of..." you get what I mean.
Also this girl I was planning on asking out said she hated Lord of the Rings after class, not asking her out now xD
I am very happy to have discovered this channel today.
great video Hilbert ! do gondor or numenor next; can't wait to see that
This is absolutely fascinating. For me the biggest question this raises is why Tolkien did this.
He created his own version of Welsh - Sindarin, and his own version of Finnish - Quenya. These are quite different to the source languages, but easily recognisable as inspirations of them. And then he pretty much lifted Old English, changing very little. I wonder why he didn't give Old English the same treatment as he did Welsh and Finnish.
You did a great job breaking down Old English/Anglo-Saxon etymologies for all of these various peoples and places of Rohan. However, while you rightly pointed out Beowulf as a source of inspiration for the Rohirrim and King Theoden, you should have also mentioned Theodoric I, King of the Visigoths and son of Alaric I. He died at the Battle of the Catalaunian Plains as a Roman client ruler and ally against the Huns of Attila, who were defeated, saving the Western Roman Empire for a time. Gondor is basically the equivalent of the Western Roman Empire here, since Theoden also died on the plains of battle defending his ally and liege lords as a loyal vassal king. If you think about it, the two kingdoms of Arnor and Gondor represent the western and eastern halves of the Roman Empire, while Numenor represents the united Roman Empire or even ancient Greece and obviously the mythical Atlantis. The Huns obviously served as a partial inspiration for Tolkien's Mordor and the Orcs, while Harad was obviously connected to the Islamic Middle East and Umbar could be viewed as something like Jerusalem or Constantinople.
A few people have mentioned the Gothic and Visigothic influence which I hadn't thought about at all so that'll be interesting to look at perhaps in another video!
Supposedly, the names of the Rohirrim before Eorl the Young rode down from the north and gained land from Gondor (rome) was modelled on Gothic, such as Vidugavia and Forthwini.
tolkiengateway.net/wiki/Gothic
Something that makes me curious is Eorl the Young. Among Germanics, this apears in several languages. Such as the "Ynglinga" divine dynasty in sweden (Yngling meaning "young man"). Or maybe "yeoman" in english has a similar origin? Or maybe that just means young man. In German is the word "Junker" which means nobleman, i dont know the ethymology of that thought.
In archeology the roman iron age is a time of huge upheaval in at least the scandinavian wolrd, but probably in all of the germanic world. Settlements disapear but a new settlment inexplicably apears just a few hundered meters away. Maybe this was caused by young men coming back from being mercenaries in rome, unseating old political orders by superior knowledge of violence? Anyway, pure conjecture. Even though i do blieve Eorl the Young might was modelled on the Ynglinga dynasty.
History With Hilbert no problem dude! Your videos are great.
Tolkien later also described Orcs (in a letter after he sold the film-rights) in a very similar way as the Hunnic King Attila was described by a contemporary source. Regarding Umbar, I think it's very much inspired by the Corsairs of the Barbary Coast, a long time enemy of European merchants till the early 1800s.
@Berzelmayr, you are right that the Corsairs are related to the real Muslim Corsairs of North Africa, but I'm talking about the city of Umbar itself, with its monuments such as the ruins of the great pillar and the havens. In that case it is almost like ancient Carthage with its great seaport, and something like Jerusalem in that the western power Gondor desires to reclaim it in southern arid lands (Harad) resembling the Middle East.
and I'm off to listen to the Rohan theme yet again
"What are a Man, an Elf and a Dwarf doing on the Riddermarkh?"
"Tell me your name horse master and I shall tell you mine..."
my name is jeff
reeek
Frolicking about.
Still sounds like the start of a joke
Very interesting video! Also, is worth mentioning that the rohirrim were not native from the land which is now called Riddermark. They came from the north, and received this land from the gondorians, but also had wars with the original inhabitants of that region, the Dunlendings (they appear in the book Two Towers, in the battle of Helm's Deep, alongside with the uruk-hai). This conflict reminds me a lot of the migrations of the angles, saxons and jutes to Britain, and the wars that they had with the britons. I think this is a funny coincidence (or maybe an intentional inspiration)
The tale of the rohirrim and their fightback against mordor eerily resembles the story of kishkindha and sugriva fighting vaali to recapture the kingdom of kishkindha..and how king sugriva took help from ram parallels the king of Rohan taking help of the fellowship
Another interesting point; when we leave the kingdoms of Rohan and Gondor at the end of the book, they are been ruled by Eomer and Elessar (Aragorn) respectively. According to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, the first king of Mercia was Icil son of Eomaer, and the first king of Wessex was Cerdic son of Elesa. it's as if Lord of the Rings ends where English history starts.
Ridder-Mark Dan-Mark (Denmark) "Borderlands of the danes" and Ridder is still used for a mounted person in danish (litteraly meaning: The person who rides)
Its the case for every germanic language. Englisch: rider
German: Reiter
great video again!
a bit different from what you usually do, hence this is fictional history, and also has some linguistic aspects to it, but it's still very much a history with Hilbert experience! Lotr is still my favorite francise, so I loved this video haha. Keep it up mate
Great knowledge of language and history. Great commentary.
Now I love this channel even MORE
-> Sael - hall
In portuguese -> Sala
I love finding these unexpected anglo roots to my native language once in a while! 😀
This is very well researched and presented, Hilbert, and everything you say is true. But Tolkien had another historical inspiration for the Rohirrim in the Goths.
Unlike the Anglo-Saxons the Goths were noted horsemen. And the Visigoths in particular at one period in their history had much the same relationship with the Eastern Roman Empire as the Rohirrim had with Gondor: they lived in what had been Roman Dacia on the frontier of the Empire and were allied with it, guarding its territory against the savage Huns.
He had a pet theory that the Goths and Anglo-Saxons were more closely related than was traditionally believed, but it was just a hunch, and he couldn't defend it academically. Instead, he made tongue-in-cheek references to the idea in the LotR appendices and other writings on the history of the third age by giving the people of ancient Rhovanion (Wilderland) Gothic names (before they were wiped out by various Easterling attacks) and suggesting they were related to the Eotheod, the ancestors of the Rohirrim.
Very good point!
Duh, the Scandinavian people, the Danish Vikings etc., were also renowned horsemen. Even though they had not much opportunity to breed large numbers of horses, they showed to be quite adept with horseriding when given the opportunity. Example: the Normans easily switched from fighting on foot to fighting on horseback, becoming the elite cavalry of all of France.
There's also a Viking story of a young Danish noble who has just been given his first real sword. Galloping on horseback through the countryside, he is looking for objects to test his new sword on. After hacking down a few branches and small trees, he finally sees the ultimate object: a lowly farmer working the fields!
Galloping swiftly in position and riding up from behind, the young noble raises his sword and lo and behold! The sword is of very good quality! As the poor farmer's head rolls on the ground, the Danish noble rides on, waving his sword with great pride and joy.
@@AudieHolland what are you on about!? The Vikings were by no means renowned horsemen?! Most of them had probably never seen one! They couldn’t put a horse on a longship!
I really like how you spit through history to get the slightest thing that has to with the Netherlands
And then make a video about it
And then roll the music when the Netherlands is mentioned....
Ga zo door!!!
Thank you very much for this very interesting and informative video.
I only wish it was longer.
And I'm a subscriber.
Fabulous piece of research, thank you Hilbert!
Helm‘s deep wasn‘t build by the Rohirrim. It was an old gondorian Castle, that they gained with the land and just kept in shape. The defensive structures build by the Rohirrim were all out of wooden pallisades. ;)
Riddermark. Loved that word and the explanation behind it.
For those of you interested, one old german name for the nowadays Austria is "Ostmark", which literally means "Borderlands in the East".
There are several other areas of nowadays german speaking countries which had this name over the period of nearly 2000 years, but this one is the most prominent and probably best known. The Nazis revived the term at least for a short period of time after the Anschluss of Austria if I recall correctly.
“Which is famous in old English”
Me: “famous for what?”
Scrolls back to read screen.
Facepalm
Nearly at 100k mate, keep up the good work!
I always thought the Rohirrim of Rohan were based on the Bulgarians but given "Old English" and Old Germanic names.
The Bulgarians actually were masters of Calvary who lived on the Borderlands of the Byzantine Empire (aka the fictionalized Gondor). In 718AD when Constantinople was being sieged by Umayyad Caliphate (aka Mordor) the Byzantines lit beacons to alert the Bulgarians who brought their Calvary to lift the Siege. The real life battle of Pelenor fields was fought at the gates of Constantinople in 718AD. The Bulgarians who came to the rescue of Constantinople after the lighting of the beacons were the deciding factor in the war.
Interesting!
No, Rohan was English saxon, gondor was Rome, arnor was the old Roman empire in Britain long died out.
@Novusod: Problem is most of Tolkiens inspirations came from British and Northwestern European mythology, he borrowed almost nothing from Latin, Greek or Middle Eastern sources. Beacons were a fairly common way of passing on such messages, especially in hilly or mountainous areas, they made a lot of sense and people all around the world came up with various beacon towers or similar signalling systems more or less independantly. Not to mention Lighthouses had been around well over a thousand years before 718.
Also a fairly little known fact that many of the 'Celtic' Tribes were in fact also known for the quality of their cavalry. The Romans used Celtic Auxillaries as Light and Medium Cavalry right up until the fall of the Western Empire, though tended to use Clibanarrii and cataphractii (probably little difference between the two) from various Sassanid or Persian lands as their heavy shock cavalry. The latter of course would become famous as the Heavy Shock Cavalry of the Byzantine Empire.
As for Mordor, given Sauron's Backstory I very much doubt Mordor was based on any of the Calliphates, though there may be some argument for some of the Eastron men being based on them. Being one of the Ainur, more specifically a Maiar Sauron was more analagous to an Angel who fell, very much a supernatural force, a fallen angel next to the Satan who was Morgoth. Mordor was more closely modelled on Hell with a very large dose of the ugliness of Industrial Revolution townscapes thrown in (which Tolkien despised, note the Scouring of the Shire for example).
Incidentally, Gandalf was also a Maiar....
@Ron Lewenberg Agreed, Goths are a far better fit.
Funny thing is, after saving them they later on betray us again and again...
Interesting video as always! And you're about to have 100k subs, cheers for that
Another thing of the significance of the "mark" part is that Rohan is situated in the valley between the two mountain ranges that seperate Gondor and the eastern kingdoms from the old kingdoms of the west. I think the main one was Eriador, and there were two more, but they fell to Angmar long before the events of the books and nerver recovered.
My mum studied english lit at bristol. Apparently the professor of her professor was JRR himself.
Truly beautiful analysis sir, I'm subscribing.
Remember thou however, Tolkien's opus was influenced to an incredible degree by his own wartime experiences and the march of industrialisation of the British countryside.
He lost so many good, close friends in WW1 and saw the bucolic fields of his childhood ruined by industry that he FELT as well as intellectualised the Wanderer's journey. He physically and emotionally had no home to return to.
RIP Beren and Luthien.
Would love to see a video about the Easterlings, that could be incredibly interesting! Far Harad is very interesting as well!
Another great vid realy enjoyed as always. Always wondered why Rohan was based on the Anglo Saxons but was a cavalry cultur like the Mongol.
maybe inspired by the scythians or the proto indoeuropeans
Nice video. I learned some stuff about the Rohirrim I didnt new.
She's his niece of course, rather than daughter but this was fascinating and I really enjoyed it. Wonderful work, sir!
I litteraly did a presentation about the parallels between the anglo-saxons and rohirrim a few years ago for english
in ethiopia, there is a huge types of coincidences with cities having reassemble names to ones in LOTR.
gonder-gondor
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gondar
shire-shire
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shire_Inda_Selassie
and lalibela, which was named roha in medieval ethiopia
geographic.org/geographic_names/name.php?uni=-873763&fid=1720&c=ethiopia
Rohan is also a region of Brittany, which has a celtic language and some relation to the britons in britain. The founder of the IRL House of Rohan is also Conan Meriadoc (Merry!) a mythical hero.
The Battle of the Pelennor Fields is based (loosely) on the Battle of the Catalaunian Plain in 451. This makes plain that the Rohirrim aren’t modelled on the English but on the Visigoths who were riders. Theoden’s death is based on that of Theodoric who was crushed by his own side’s horses.
Great video Hilbert.
Could u do a history of elves as i have always thought they are slightly based off of the celtic people and welsh language?
Eyyy Hilby is almost at 100k subs!
There are in fact various white horse hillside artworks in the UK, not just the one in Oxfordshire.
I loved the language breakdown. Another mention could be the arms and armour of the anglo-saxons are clearly the inspiration for the Peter Jackson adaptations. One thing I wasn't aware of was the use of the white horse in Saxon culture, I volunteer at Jarrow Hall (formerly Bede's World) which is an open air Anglo-Saxon museum which opened my eyes to the obvious influence upon Tolkien's Rohan. Would love to know more about this, perhaps even suggest a small nod to him at the museum, do you have any suggestions or any tips on how I should go about this? Thanks for the video, really great content just subscribed.
I'd like to see a follow-up video of the Persian or Arabic influence of the Harad or Easterlings!
It's a miracle how Lithuanian language still have lots of old words. I needed no translation to understand what "Medu" and "sael" means :) In Lithuanian Honey is Medus and Mead is Midus, and Hall in Lithuanian is Salė (very similar to sael).
Yep Lithuanian language is very archaic, sadly J. R. R. Tolkien wasnt an expert in Lithuanian :D and Teuton order its just "people/nation" order.
Oh yes, this is a language which has got so many traces of the old Indo-European. It's a treasure for researchers.
Great video!
I did really enjoy this, thank you
Really fascinating video
I admire the skill with which you include The Wilhelmus in every video. Lol
That was fantastic! Thank you and Hail!
I made a comparison like this but saw Poland more suitable for the Rohirrim, because one could say that the holy Roman empire was Gondor and Vienna Minas tirith, being the siege of viena in 1683 comparable to the battle of pelenor fields and the siege of Minas tirith.
neon night Poland is also mostly plains and flatlands with mountains in the south.
I never would have thought of the white horse in the coat of arms of my home North Rhine Westphalia to be connected to Rohan 😅 nice!
THAAANK YOUU! I was hoping you’d make a video on Rohan, but even after all this is still feel like they have a huge Scandinavian influence as well, for instance, Theoden’s speech before the Ride of the Rohirrim into Pallenor Fields resembled Ragnarök which I’m sure you know is the Norse/Viking ‘end of days’ so to speak, which kind of ties in with Theoden’s decision to die in battle, which was seen as an honourable thing to do in Norse culture.
I love your video's man! Easy to follow, yet super interesting. And for the first time since ever i guess someone actually linked the Saxon region of Twente to the Rohirrim (a similarity I already guessed, we have alot of farms with those horse-head gables, even new buildings have them). But I digress, can you make a video about Gondor/Númenor aswell? These made-up people have a lot of resemblance to real-life civilisations too!
The Saxons in Germany were better known for their horsemanship as they provided, next to the Franks, the heavy cavalry in the battles against the Hungarians in the 10th c..
Those early knights were a counter against the Hungarian horse archers raiding into Germany and France. The Saxons in Britain didn't partake in this development.
Also Lower Saxony is famous for horse breeding and has several endemic breeds of high international esteem. Thus maybe Tolkien thought a bit about Old Saxonlands when imagining Rohan as a horse country.
Wonderful video.
Fun fact "ridder" is still the Norwegian translation of the word "knight"
I guess, all germanics but the english call the knights something like Rider, Ridder, Ritter or along that line.
1. Eowyn is his niece, not his daughter.
2. Eomer is her brother, not her cousin.
3. The Rohirrim did not build Helm's Deep, it was originally a Gondorian fortress.
The rest is great! Well done :)
Hilbert,,,You are the BEST
There is also a place in germany that inspired Tolkien in in vision about Edoras. It´s a celtic city on top of a flat mountain, called Menosgada.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Menosgada
It was known even to the greek historian Ptolomy and it was, like many celtic towns, a place of worship to the godess of horses, Epona.
Yet another similarity that the people of Rohan have with the anglo saxons is that they migrated. They are originally from the north of middle earth and migrated south to the area just north of Gondor that we all know.
Kinda like the angels and saxons migrated from what is now denmark to the isle of great Britain and there established the anglo-saxon kingdoms
Technically the Rohirrim hadn‘t an alliance with Gondor but were a type of vassal that didn‘t had to pay tribute but had to secure the borders. Similar to the spanish march under Charlemagne.
That’s exaclty what a March is.
Sorry maybe I am wrong but I thought Widukind didn't die in the Frankish-Saxon war but accepted in 785 AD to convert to Christianity. And became a vassal of Charlemagne. (at 2:06)
As a Germanic-type people living in wide, open plains, I always thought of them as being like the 3rd & 4th century Goths, before they were pushed into Roman territory by the Huns
hello, You just forget a thing.... Rohan name.... It's the name of a most important noble family from Britany. Look at Duchy of Rohan, this family pretend to be from the first legendary king of Britany Conan of Meriadec ( yep, Conan is the nanme of several king in Britany). great video for the reference of anglo-saxon and old english.
Can you please do more of these LoTR inspiration videos?!
Mark can also (in norwegian) mean woodlands or fields. A large uncultivated area. And ridder is also knight in norwegian.
I thought, how can Hilbert possibly tie this to Friesland and I was again proved wrong.
This video overlooks a HUGE part of the Rohirrim.
Theoden is modelled, rather obviously, on the Visigothic king Theodoric the first. The battle of Pellenors plains is modelled on the battle of the Catalaunian fields 451 between the alliance of Rome and the Visigoths against the invasion of Atilla the Hun. Thorismund, Theoderics son, played about the same role in that battle as Eomer in Pellenor, after Theodoric the first fell.
It also fits very neatly with Gonder - Rome and the Rohirrim being given land when they "rode down from the north". The goths had origin legends of coming down from the north.
The Goths also had potent cavalry, as was seen in the battle of Adrianople.
Modern Rohirric spoken by Theoden and Eomer is modelled on old english. But supposedly Tolkien built in language change in Rohirric, modelling older Place names on Gothic.
I'd like to see the inspiration behind Rivendell
Plz make more LOTR vids, and maybe make one about dwarves since they're the most kewlest of the 4 races
Gamling is the word for "old (male) person" in swedish modern language. Fun fact. Many things a swedish person recognize in Rohan.
Such an interesting and educational video! I was just going to point out that Eowyn and Eomer are, in fact, siblings and Theoden's niece and nephew, respectively, but I think others have already mentioned it. I would love to learn more about the history that inspired the Numenoreans and Gondor and the city of Esgaroth; or, to be honest, anything regarding historical aspects of Tolkien's writings.
Even though most of the influence is obviously Germanic, I always assumed there was some inspiration from the Alans, Scythians, and other Indo-Iranian steppe peoples.
Anders Schmich The Goths were a Germanic people that adopted the steppe lifestyle so they are even closer to what JRRT was imagining here.
And the Scythians and other nomadic peoples that you mention were the inspiration, for the easterlings, the balchot and other tribes that I dont remember the English name, along with Mongols I guess, so Rohirrim are inspired more broadly in Germanic tribes but not in other ethnic or linguistic group.
Yeah, I don't want to start an internet war, but there's zero reason to think Turkish tribes migrated that far west at that point, and as far as I know all evidence says they were Indo-Iranian.
@@IoannesThrax loughable, i gather you learned that from Erdogans Propaganda, you probably believe turkic Muslims discovered america, like Erdogan once claimed
Do something similar for game of thrones!!!!!
I second that
Yus!!!!!!
Of all the peoples of Middle Earth, I loved those of Rohan the most.
My love for them grew, once I learned their people were based on the Norsemen/Saxons. Their architecture, their armor even their culture just SCREAMS Norse myth; to me
There defo is a good amount of Norse influence, but to me I see more of the Anglo Saxon aspects.
@@Dom-fx4kt That's true as well, I mention the Norse elements because Edoras reminded me of those awesome mead halls Vikings would gather in
@@sadlobster1 I hear you in that, they were both very similar cultures tbh, only the Anglo Saxons became Christian much earlier.
Actually, 'ridder' is/was an equivalent for 'ruiter' in my opinion. Ruiter has the same 't' sound as in the German Ritter. And all these words pointed to the fact that the knight was riding a horse. He was a rider. Dutch word for driving is 'rijden.' Which today means to drive a vehicle but in the old days it could have stood for riding a horse.
Its ridder in Danish.
It's ridder in Dutch.
How about the history that inspired Tolkien's Numenoreans?
Why is Ride of the Valkyries playing in the background lmao?
Was wondering how you'd squeeze Het Wilhelmus into a video about Lord of the Rings. Never disappointed
Faithful servant yet master's bane.
Lightfoot's foal, swift Snowmane
Very interesting, thanks. Rohan is a glorious country.
3:18 Theoden is the name of three kings of Bavaria who were ancestors of Charlemagne. Theod means people; it derives from a PIE word, so Cornish has Tud and Welsh has Twyd.
Mark in Norse means 'land', as in an area of land.
Land areas were divided into three basic kinds; Innmark, mark and utmark.
Innmark was well developed farmland. Which was the most productive kind of land and also taxed the highest.
Then mark was just regular land, not of the best quality and taxed less than innmark.
Utmark was the least productive kind of land, what we would call land of marginal production. Only suitable for limited grazing and not for any planted crops.
Innmark is a word consisting of 'inn' meaning 'in' and 'mark' meaning 'land'. Why this was used for the most productive farmland isn't really clear, but may have been because it was the closest to where most of the people lived.
Whereas the utmark - the 'out land' was the wastelands further away from more populated areas.
I think the whole assertion that 'mark' is the same as the word 'march' is just not correct. It is just false.
Then the Danes would be living in the borderlands of the Danes.
But they ARE the Danes. This makes no sense to assume that Denmark is the borderlands of the Danes.
There are other regions in Scandinavia with the -mark ending.
Like Hedmark which is a county in Norway.
And Telemark, another county in Norway.
The -mark endings in these names only mean 'land', nothing more.
I dont know about old Norse, but in german, Mark clearly means borderland. Under the Nazis, for example, Austria was called the "Ostmark", the eastern borderland.
Helm is old word for Balcan,Faramir, Boromir, - Slavic names, Gondor is based on Belgrade, white city on werge of dark and destruction, funeral of Teodred is in ancient Balcan way, Tolkin was very good at ethnolingustic of Slavs, same as ethnolingustic of Scandinavians and English, real names and battles are in base of his stories it gives them that real feel
Great video! FYI the Numenoreans built Helm's Deep and not the Rohirrim. Rohan never really built in stone and Edoras was pretty much the only city they built. So in respect they are even more like the Anglo-Saxon. Also Éowyn was King Théoden's niece not his daughter.
Rohan is based upon Slav nations.
All I see about them point to Slavs. From culture to the way of fighting.
Especially battle for White City, which is basically 1683 Siege of Vienna where Rohan warriors are basically Winged Hussars.
Hilbert if you ever come to Fryslân to sniff some history and culture hit me up. I have very few friends who enjoy walking in Frisian or dutch medieval towns who can enjoy the richness of whatever they're seeing. Like I can walk up to an old church and tell how the bricks are too perfect to be old and enjoy the fact that you can see the history of a building by something as basic as that. I wanna walk through the 11 cities with you and talk about that stuff man, in Frysk or English, I don't mind either one.
Check out Hervarar saga. It comes complete with an assault on a fortress by a huge army, a shield maiden and a desperate defense.
From the Wikipedia article:
"There is much in this saga that readers of J. R. R. Tolkien's work will recognize, most importantly the riddle contest. There are for instance warriors similar to the Rohirrim, brave shieldmaidens, Mirkwood, haunted barrows yielding enchanted swords (see Barrow-downs), a mithril mailcoat, an epic battle, a flaming sword and two Dwarves named Dwalin and Durin. J. R. R. Tolkien's youngest son, Christopher, translated the work in 1960, entitling his version The Saga of King Heidrek the Wise.[6]"
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hervarar_saga_ok_Heiðreks
But the plot where they ride to the rescue of Minas Tirith, ever since Sabaton and EU4 memes I always thought that event is modeled after Battle of Vienna.
This was great
There is an island at this time meant to represent Britain! Tol Eressëa. In the 3rd age and the start of the 4th it is an Elf kingdom. Men aren't allowed except by special permission. It's the destination for the members of the Fellowship at the end of the books and movies.
Love this video!