Rohan, Middle-earth

I can't bear it.

Oh, another thing I thought was great is when Gandalf and them get to Rohan at first and they're taking their weapons away from them.

And Gandalf says...

would not part an old man from his walking stick

You did not kill me.

You will not kill him.

Rohan is mine.

And then when he dismisses him and we see Saruman like get flung back and his face is shocked that he was able to do it.

He rules.

Bernard Hill, who is also Captain Smith in Titanic, plays Theoden, the King of Rohan.

Brad Dourif, Chucky himself, plays Grimma Wormtongue, an agent working for Saruman.

Miranda Otto, who is also Tom Cruise's ex-wife in War of the Worlds, plays Eowyn, Theoden's niece.

Right.

You know, something like that.

Plus, Elijah Wood's sister, Hannah Wood, makes a cameo in this movie as Rohan, a woman in a cave, along with Peter Jackson's kids.

And that actually makes this an Elijah Wood reunion, Mike, because she is also... a bit part in radio flyer she's in that movie as well no way yes these are the two she's not in any other elijah wood movies but she's in uh two towers and radio flyer wow yeah so there you go uh so this movie was once

But even so, it's a bit...

If you lose that move off... on a turn that you've broken they're all off so that's that so that's my army and that's the time we've got four games at 700 points and obviously weaknesses i've kind of pointed them out um the the army is absolutely it's going to crumple um after breaking and i and it's probably quite easy to break because it's low fight value and it's defense four so if i lose the charge i'm or if i don't get the charge i should say there's there's very little hope for me here and i need to be super cautious and make sure that when i get that charge um i've got mike there ready for the call the move the next turn but also that i really capitalize on that very first charge so the advantage of having really long range um wag riders you know a long distance i can i can kind of deny the charge a little bit against most armies except the odd cavalry army but even then do cavalry model armies really want to send I don't know except maybe Riders of Rohan or whatever but like say you've got an army with a couple of Knights of Minas Tirith or a couple of I don't know Rivendell Knights or a couple of whatever's Do you want to send those in to pin down the WAGs when you know you're going to get 13 or whatever it was WAG riders afterwards? Probably not.

So I think I've got the advantage in mobility.

It also means I can try and deny flanks.

It is.

Imrahil with his horse and lance, and a knight of Dol Amroth, sorry, a captain of Dol Amroth on foot as well.

So you've got quite a sizeable Rohan contingent, mostly on foot, and in the inverse as to what most people might expect is you've got very few riders of Rohan but lots of knights of Dol Amroth.

So what inspired the build of this list and why have you done it this way?

So there's an echo here.

This chapter and the Rohan chapter that came just before is, they're purposely echoing each other.

Merry's experience is to be in more like a family setting of Eremir, Erwin and Theoden looking after him.

Here, Pearl Pippin is sent off on his own and he gets dressed up in this small gear, which makes him look like the Prince of Halflings.

So he loves playing with this idea that the two are sort of part of a mythology.

Anyway, so yes, I think we're allowed to think they are in some way like a pterodactyl, that kind of creature.

So how do you keep ringing the changes about a battle? If you've got a long battle, so if you think about the phases in the Battle of Palenor, you've got the invasion of the enemy, the siege, and this chapter ends with the horns of the Rohan arriving.

And then later chapters are about the actual fighting on the ground in the Battle of Palenor.

Eowyn it was, and Durnhelm also, for into Merry's mind flashed the memory of the face that he saw at the riding from Dunharrow, the face of one that goes seeking death alone.

having no hope pity filled his heart and great wonder and suddenly the slow kindled courage of his race awoke he clenched his hand she could not die so fair and desperate at least she could not die alone unaided the face of their enemy was not turned towards him but still he hardly dared to move dreading least the deadly eyes should befall upon him slowly slowly he began to crawl aside but the black captain in doubt and malice intent upon the woman before him heeded him no more than a worm in the mud suddenly the great beast beat its hideous wings and the wind upon them was foul again it leaped into the air and then swiftly fell down upon eowyn shrieking striking with beak and claw she did not Maiden of the Rohirrim, child of kings, slender, but a steel blade fair yet terrible.

A swift stroke she dealt, skilled and deadly.

The outstretched neck she clove asunder, and the hewn head fell like a stone.

For upon that road I was put to shame, Gimli, glowing sun.

who had deemed himself more tough than men and hardier than the earth, hardier than any elf, but neither did I prove, and I was held to the road only by the will of Aragon.

And by the love of him also, said Legolas, for all those who came to know him, came to love him, after his own fashion, even the cold maiden of the Rohirrim.

It was at early morn of the day, ere you came here, Merry, that we left Dunharrow." save lady owen who lies now hurt in the house below there was grief at that parting and i was grieved to behold it he fell silent but mary and pippin were so eager for news that at last legola said i will tell you enough for your peace for i felt not the horror and i feared not the shadows of men powerless and frail as i deemed them swiftly he told each of the haunted road under the mountains and the dark tryst of the each four days and nights and on to the fifth we rode from the black stone and the darkness of mordor made hope rise and in the gloom the shadow hosts seemed to grow stronger some i saw riding some striding yet all moving with the same great speed silent they were but there was a gleam in their eyes in the uplands they overtook our horses and they swept around us and they would have passed us by if aragon had not forbidden them and then he goes on and on to explain in a lot more detail Particularly about how their curse isn't broken by slaughtering another army, it's broken because they finally keep their word.

Mariotic, however, actually records that the king of Rohan used the word kudukon, holdweller.

Since, as has been noted, the hobbits had once spoken a language closely related to that of the Rohirrim, it seems likely that kuduk was a worn-down form of kudukon.

The latter I have translated by hobbit law, and hobbit provides a word that might well be a worn-down form of hobbit law, if that name had occurred in our own ancient language.

So there you go.

Of course, you know, it means sheriff, you know, but like, it's just a funny little, it just seems like kind of a funny little hobbitism, right? They call it, they call them the sheriff.

But I had not put two and two together on this, but it turns out sheriff is actually a now obsolete form of English sheriff, meaning shire officer, used by me to make the connection with shire planar.

In the story, it and shire are supposed to be special hobbit words, not generally current in the common speech of the time, and so derived from their former language related to that of the Rohirrim.

English sheriff is derived from shire reeve, i.e. the reeve or local official of the shire.

He calls it the standard of comparison.

And in comparison, the Rohirrim, he says, would speak with a slower tempo and more sonorous articulation than modern urbans.

That is interesting.

Even that doesn't really explain it, because what kind of London accent does he mean? I know, I was

That's more confusing.

And I'm not hearing one.

He does say the Rohirrim, no doubt, as our ancient English ancestors in a similar state of culture and society, spoke their own tongue with a slower tempo, more sonorous articulation, the quote that I just read.

But he says in the part I didn't include, it is safe to represent them when using common speech, as they practically always do, as speaking the best Minas Tirith.

certainly not no not a chance certainly not

uh okay my number one it wildly predictable so much so that it was brought up during my honorable mentions it's the moment in two towers when Gandalf the White and the Rohirrim ride into Minas Tirith to save the day

interesting I I almost put right at the Rohirrim but it's the one where they're riding into Gondor

Yeah, I mean, both great.

Yeah, they're both incredible.

I guess a yawn is great at number one.

A yawn and a warm cup of Earl Grey.

The Ride of the Rohirrim.