ROHIRRIM

The Rohirrim were a horse people, settling in the land of Rohan, named after them. The name is Sindarin for People of the Horse-lords (sometimes translated simply as Horse-lords) and was mostly used by outsiders: the name they had for themselves was Eorlingas, after their king Eorl the Young who had first brought them to Rohan.

The Rohirrim were descended from the Éothéod, a race of Men that lived in the vales of the Great River Anduin, but that removed to Calenardhon which was granted them in perpetuity by the Ruling Steward of Gondor, Cirion in reward for the assistance that they offered Gondor at a time of great need. At that time Calenardhon was renamed Rohan (Horse-land) after their many horses. By the Rohirrim themselves Rohan was usually called The Mark.

The terms Riders of Rohan and Riders of the Mark are commonly used and refer specifically to their mounted soldiers. The former is a chapter title in The Two Towers. The King's Riders were specifically the Riders who formed the bodyguard of the King.

The Rohirrim were tall, fair, pale, and had blond hair (which they wore long and braided) and mostly had blue eyes. They prized their horses very much, and their entire culture was based around these. They had few cities, but lived in many villages on the plains of Rohan. They were by nature stern, fierce, and grave, yet generous.

They are proud and wilful, but they are true-hearted, generous in thought and deed; bold but not cruel; wise but unlearned, writing no books but singing many songs, after the manner of the children of Men before the Dark Years.

—The Two Towers

The Rohirrim were skilled fighters on horseback; they were armed with swords, shields, spears and bows. They used helms and hauberks of chain mail. In time of war, every able man was obliged to join the Muster of Rohan. They were bound by the Oath of Eorl to help Gondor in times of peril.

They were ruled by a line of kings descended from Eorl the Young.

The Dúnedain of Gondor believed that the Rohirrim were distantly related to them (having descended from the Atanatári of the First Age) and described them as Middle Men, that being inferior to the Númenóreans in both culture and descent, but superior to the Men of Darkness who had worshipped and served Sauron. However J. R. R. Tolkien calls this a piece of Númenórean fiction meant to satisfy the national pride of the people of Gondor for the surrender of the territory of Calenardhon — in reality there had been no common ancestry between the people of Rohan and of Gondor.^{[citation needed]}

The Rohirrim had had contacts with Elves in their ancient history, and knew of Eru, but like the Dúnedain they did not worship him in any temples. They seem to have venerated the Vala Oromë the Hunter, whom they called Béma.

ELVES

Originally, in the 1910s and 1920s, Ingwë, Finwë and Elwë (their final names) were the eldest of the Elves. By 1959 or 1960, Tolkien wrote a detailed account of the awakening of the Elves, called Cuivienyarna, part of Quendi and Eldar. Ingwë, Finwë and Elwë now became the first ambassadors and the Kings of the Elves. This text only saw print in The War of the Jewels, part of the analytical The History of Middle-earth series, in 1994, but a similar version was included in The Silmarillion in 1977.

According to the earliest account, the first Elves are awakened by Eru Ilúvatar near the bay of Cuiviénen during the Years of the Trees in the First Age. They awake under the starlit sky, as the Sun and Moon have yet to be created. The first Elves to awake are three pairs: Imin ("First") and his wife Iminyë, Tata ("Second") and Tatië, and Enel ("Third") and Enelyë.

Imin, Tata, and Enel and their wives join up and walk through the forests. They come across six, nine, and twelve pairs of Elves, and each "patriarch" claims the pairs as his folk in order. The now sixty Elves dwell by the rivers, and they invent poetry and music in Middle-earth (the continent). Journeying further, they come across eighteen pairs of Elves watching the stars, whom Tata claims as his. These are tall and dark-haired, the fathers of most of the Noldor. The ninety-six Elves now invented many new words. Continuing their journey, they find twenty-four pairs of Elves, singing without language, and Enel adds them to his people. These are the ancestors of most of the Lindar or "singers", later called Teleri. They find no more Elves; Imin's people, the smallest group, are the ancestors of the Vanyar. All in all the Elves number 144. Because all Elves had been found in groups of twelve, twelve becomes their base number and 144 their highest number (for a long time), and none of the later Elvish languages have a common name for a greater number.^[16]

They were discovered by the Vala Oromë, who brought the tidings of their awakening to Valinor.

The Silmarillion states that Melkor, the Dark Lord, had already captured some wandering Elves, and twisted and mutilated them until they became the Orcs. However, Tolkien ultimately became uncomfortable with this Elvish origin, and devised different theories about the origin of Orcs.