Take heart; be strong; and if you can’t muster hope, keep fighting anyway.

For this he has been long prepared since first hearing the songs of his people in the halls of Théoden. In any case Théoden’s sense of weakness and dependence on Gríma was largely due to the cunning and skill of this evil counsellor’s suggestions” (371). Indeed we could describe her as being one who has already died and so feels no fear. Ride out and meet them. What the hobbit sees as a bitter disgrace, Théoden sees as a generous mercy. First, Tolkien points out in a letter that Éomer and Théodred did all in their power to lessen Gríma’s influence when Théoden began to fall ill. “This occurred early in the year 3014,” Tolkien wrote, “when Théoden was 66; his malady may thus have been due to natural causes, though the Rohirrim commonly lived till near or beyond their eightieth year. Theoden : Eomer.

Theoden's speech to the army of Rohan, prior to the Battle of Pelennor Fields: Arise! Théoden is overthrown at the last by the Lord of the Nazgûl but dies at peace and without shame as he prepares to meet his ancestors.

He could have been writing about Théoden. He has seen much, endured much, and lost much. All his siblings and (presumably) their spouses and children have been laid to rest, even dear Théodwyn—with the sole exception of her children, Éomer and Éowyn. Having lost his own son, the king takes the little hobbit under his protection and treats him with respect and love. Grimbold, take your company right, after you pass the wall. It is Prince Imrahil of Dol Amroth who leads a charge from the city to come to the aid of the Rohirrim, led now by Éomer, but even with their forces combined upon the field and with their great skill in battle upon horseback the sheer number of their foes is ultimately too great and Éomer prepares to make a final stand. At that moment and for that moment only it is as if no power can stand before them. Remarkably, courageously, Théoden rises.

He does not speak (TI 444).

At the end of his great book, Man’s Search for Meaning, Viktor Frankl, a survivor of Auschwitz, puts it like this, “Man is that being who invented the gas chambers of Auschwitz; however, he is also that being who entered those gas chambers upright, with the Lord’s Prayer or the Shema Yisrael on his lips.” Frankl recognised that our choice to find life as meaningful is the greatest one that we make and that we must make it daily. Even Tolkien knew it well.

Even after Théoden dies and is laid to rest, he continues to bless his people, according to one of Tolkien’s drafts: King Théoden is laid on a bier in [the] Hall of the Tower covered with gold. A sword-day, a red day... ere the Sun rises! His body is embalmed after the manner of Gondor.

“Begone, foul dwimmerlaik, lord of carrion! —The Return of the King, Chapter 5: "The Ride of the Rohirrim". His spiritual formation has been made there and he knows that what is expected of him is to make a good death with his face turned towards his foes and with his men about him. Théoden thus spent the early years of his life surrounded by the so-called “higher culture” of the people of Gondor and speaking the Common Tongue as his “native language” rather than Rohirric (The Peoples of Middle-earth, hereafter PM, 296). It is said that Thengel “returned unwillingly,” and retained the use of the Common Speech in his house, much to the chagrin of many among the Rohirrim (LotR 1069).

we are not bound for ever to the circles of the world, and beyond them is more than memory.”. What can med do against such reckless hate?”, “For he was a gentle heart and a great king and kept his oaths; and he rose out of the shadows to a last fair morning.”, Be a Hobbit, Save the Earth: the Guide to Sustainable Shire Living. There aren’t that many stories about how to make a good death. For your people. The text says that “the sky above and to the west was still dark with thunder, and lightning far away flickered among the tops of hidden hills.

[…] A grim morn, and a glad day, and a golden sunset!” (842). Catch her on Twitter @MeganNFontenot1 and feel free to request a favorite character while you’re there! Barcelona's Multiverse | Art | Culture | Science, a journey through the imaginative worlds of C.S. One of my favourite movie scenes of all time is the death of Théoden in The Return of the King. Very fair was her face, and her long hair was like a river of gold. Now fulfil them all, TO LORD AND LAND!

After reuniting with Éowyn and while resting, a Gondorian named Hirgon entered his tent, bringing the Red Arrow from Denethor II. His father, Thengel, had left Rohan for Gondor when only a young man; there, he met Morwen, whom he married much later. Hope he rekindled, and in hope ended; over death, over dread, over doom lifted, out of loss out of life, unto long glory”. Welcome back.

Yes.

“Out of doubt, out of dark, to the day’s rising he rode singing in the sun, sword unsheathing. Spears shall be shaken, shields shall be splintered! You look upon a woman.

And it was from this that Gandalf freed him so that he could lie broken before the wreck of the Lord of the Nazgûl and the foul monster that the Ringwraith had ridden through the air into the battle. Last march of the Ents!

Musings from a Data Analyst, podcast enthusiast and history lover. Let’s Celebrate Tolkien Week (By Force of Hobbit)! I cannot help but be inspired. The Ents are going to war.

They drove your people into the hills to scratch a living off rocks! It is the scene of restoration and renewal that serves as the anchor of his narrative, and it seems that once it was established, Tolkien understood precisely what the man’s story involved. In this biweekly series, we’re exploring the evolution of both major and minor figures in Tolkien’s legendarium, tracing the transformations of these characters through drafts and early manuscripts through to the finished work. Théoden’s “adoption” of Merry is another touching and powerful aspect of his story.

From the information available to us then, Tolkien did not here agonize over names like he so often did for other characters.

And even in their mighty company I shall not now be ashamed. Theoden grew to love her. The fear was palpable in the presence of the black-cloaked Ringwraiths, and I could taste the sulfurous fumes of Mt. The King and Lord of the Mark of Rohan, he appears as a major supporting character in The Two Towers and The Return of the King. Take back the lands they stole from you. I rose again with Eowyn’s defiance of the Witch King. We can still choose to look ahead to better days even if over our heads the storm still rages. This is one of the more important lessons The Lord of the Rings has for us these days, I think. He is in the midst of a storm. And then he does what must be done. “In sorrow we must go,”  he says, “but not in despair.

(Notice, however, that at this point she is unfortunately sent back into the house by Gandalf. Ride now! A blog about Tolkien, St. Thomas, and other purveyors of the Philosophia Perennis. Ride now! By the time The Lord of the Rings begins, however, Théoden is an old man. When JRRT transferred many of Théoden’s words to Gríma, he still didn’t give any indication that the latter is wicked and a pawn of Saruman. Suddenly through a rent in the clouds behind them a shaft of sun stabbed down.”. In the very moment he cries out to his men to “Fear no darkness!” he is overshadowed by the fell, chilling presence of the Nazgûl.

Tolkien, and the Inklings. The best GIFs are on GIPHY. By all that you hold dear, on this good earth, I bid you STAND, MEN OF THE WEST! Arwen finds the choice of her husband to lay down his life a hard one but Aragorn replies, “Take counsel with yourself, beloved, and ask whether you would indeed have me wait until I wither and fall from my high seat unmanned and witless.”, Aragorn chooses the grace given to the Númenorians by the Valar of old to lay down their lives freely and so entrust themselves to the mystery of death unafraid. “So much death! The Rohirrim will know that they are a great people and boys will know, as they grow to manhood, that the worst thing that they could possibly do is to bring shame upon the memory of their ancestors. Burn every village! When Fengel, father of Thengel and King of the Mark, died, Morwen and her husband were summoned back to Rohan. Gríma is that quiet voice in the back of all of our minds that tries to convince us we aren’t worthy, good enough, strong enough, young enough, old enough, smart enough—whatever it is—to face life, succeed, reach our goals, be loved.