@violent-darts: This is incredible meta and incredibly well-argued in terms of knowledge of the books and the Legendarium as a whole. Thank you for this!
May I add something to strengthen your argument even further? As you pointed out, the Legendarium leaves it unclear if the Rohrrim are descendants of Edain and if they are, it’s probably from the House of Marach. Considering the shit the Edain went through after the Nirnaeth and the way the Númenoreans might have treated their mortal cousins, the legends of the Rohirrim may very well focus on these years of flight and despair – when the High King of the Eldar himself declared that day shall come again and was only partially right, for even that day brought the drowning of an entire continent with it. Grief is indeed the lot of Arda Marred. So the past this young culture remembers is probably one built around the principle that you have to fight to defend what you love and you have to struggle even if it is hopeless.
Thank you! I, um, may have been raised on the Legendarium the way some people were raised on normal fairy-tales or possibly the Bible. I have many thoughts and feelings.
As to the rest: Oh hell yes.
I have Strong Opinions about the lot of the Atani in Arda (short version: it was terrible and frankly the Valar haven’t got grounds to complain fuck all about humans not following their advice since bar maybe Ulmo they’ve never given them a single damn reason to, and that’s taking the most generous possible interpretation of the Silm’s comments about Ulmo continuing to work through the waters and ignore his big brother’s prohibitions), and frankly it’s even more amazing if the Rohirrim aren’t any kind of Edain at all.
Because if they aren’t, then this is the story of their entire history (their culture, and the culture they came from, and whatever) from the awakening of their species:
– monsters – more monsters – darkness – natural disasters – hunger – illness – wild animals that want to eat them – other humans who want to kill them – other humans who want to kill them and have sided with the monsters – DRAGONS (one of whom they had to kill, and that wasn’t EASY) – did I mention monsters? I’d like to mention MONSTERS. – things that may not be monsters as such but which hate them and want to kill them for having to do certain things (like cut down trees) to survive – beings who are strange and unpredictable and often hostile who have a penchant for punishing wandering human groups for breaking laws that they (the Éothed) literally have no way to know ever existed, and who (the Quendi) then blame humans for being barbaric – other beings who do things like decide after they (the Éothed) have killed a dragon that they (the Khazad) get to have all the stuff the dragon stole back, despite never having been able to kill said dragon themselves, and who kill them (the Éothed) for saying “or … not.” – basically an entire universe that seems to be out to kill them, eat them, enslave them and destroy them and punish them for EXISTING – hey did this generation get enough monsters yet?
They never had a Vala come talk to them and tell them it was okay. They never even got to meet a Quendi prince who taught them a lot of healing and sowing and planting and writing. They got monsters, monsters, more monsters, more hostility, more death, more terror, and then occasionally something like Sauron going “hey you know if you do what I tell you then the monsters won’t eat you and you’ll get good stuff.”
Frankly it’s not shocking that humans would, in general, decide that the universe is built to be hostile and malignant to them and literally the only thing they can possibly do is try and make themselves useful to the biggest and meanest monsters out there in hopes of their babies surviving and not being, you know, fed to orcs.
And instead Éowyn’s forebearers went “ … yeah or fuck you,” and were in general noble enough of purpose and behaviour that the horses that were descended from those Oromë hunted with* decided they were Pretty Cool and stayed with them and let their kings ride them. And eventually gave rise to people like Théoden, Éowyn and Éomer.
They’re young (continuous culture-wise) and all they’ve ever known is a world full of things trying to kill them: of course they value the ability to protect their own and the will to fight against incredible odds while laughing and singing at it above all other things. They’ve never had half a chance to value anything else or to even picture the concept of “peace” or knowledge or civilization that could last more than maybe a lifetime, and even then, only because you’d hacked it out of conflict and surrounded it with spears.
Frankly it’s just a miracle they were also able to produce, as a culture, kings who could also see the incredible worth and value of places where people could just grow crops and have small stories and songs and good drink and never think about fighting at all.
One can only hope they had a LITTLE BIT of a chance to learn more about it after the War of the Ring, before the world threw the next round of monsters at them.
But also absolutely: it only deepens what it means when this woman and child of this culture stands in front of the greatest nightmare walking in order to protect someone she loves, while one of the highest-heritage members of the supposedly highest race of the Atani turned into a narcissistic, emotionally abusive murder-suicide.
And I love it.
(*this being why, mind, Shadowfax went *!!!* at Gandalf: the chief of the living Maeras knew a good Maia when he saw one)
Hearseeno 