When first we meet Theoden in the great hall of Meduseld in Edoras (see above), he is described thus: In Old English þeoden means warlord, or king. My own novels are set in the 11 th century reign of Æthelred Unraed (OE: ill-counseled), and the more I learned about Æthelred the more I was struck by similarities to Tolkien’s Theoden. And because I cannot read about Eowyn’s exploits in The Lord of the Rings without thinking about Æthelflæd, 10 th century Anglo-Saxon warrior queen and Lady of the Mercians, I have to wonder if Tolkien had Æthelflæd in mind when he imagined Eowyn. The name Eowyn, for example, is strikingly similar to the Old English theowen, meaning hand-maiden.
Many scholars, in particular Nancy Marie Brown in her recent book Song of the Vikings have written about the Norse/Icelandic elements in Tolkien’s novels but it seems to me that Rohan is more Anglo-Saxon than Norse – although, admittedly, both societies sprang from common Germanic roots. And of course there are words like shire (OE: scire-precinct), orc (god of the infernal regions), ent (giant), Mordor (OE: morþor-great wickedness), Deagol (secret), or Isengard (Iron fortress). Indeed, the very concept of a great hall comes from the cultures of the Anglo-Saxons and the Norse. The name of that place is Edoras, from, I can only guess, the Old English word edor, which means ‘a place enclosed by a hedge’, just as Legolas describes it. Within there rise the roofs of the houses, and in the midst, set upon a green terrace, there stands aloft a great hall of Men.” A dike and mighty wall and thorny fence encircle it. Tolkien first describes it this way, in the words of Legolas in The Two Towers: For example, Meduseld, the great hall of the kings of Rohan, is the Old English word for mead hall. That did not happen until I began my own study of the history of England before the Conquest, and I began to recognize Old English words that were familiar from Tolkien’s novels. My own first encounter with Tolkien’s trilogy took place when I was 14, and although I loved the book and read it more than once over the decades that followed, I did not perceive the thrumming current of Old English history and language that coursed beneath it. So it is no surprise that even the title of the trilogy that brought him fame, The Lord of the Rings, is a reference to Anglo-Saxon kings who were warriors, lords, and ring-givers. He was, essentially, steeped in the language, history and poetry of Anglo-Saxon England. Most fans of J.R.R.Tolkien know that he was not just the author of one of the greatest works of fantasy ever written, but that he was a professor of English at Oxford and, for many years, the Rawlinson and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon. Where is the hand on the harpstring, and the red fire glowing? Where is the helm and the hauberk, and the bright hair flowing? Where now the horse and the rider? Where is the horn that was blowing?
Where are the seats of the feast? Where are the joys of the hall?įrom The Wanderer, Old English Poem. Where has the horse gone? Where is the rider? Where is the giver of gold?
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