The War of the Rohirrim: Rhymes with Éowyn

Finally a good reason to return to Middle Earth.

Contains spoilers for ‘The Lord of the Rings’ trilogy and ‘The War of the Rohirrim’.

Some of my fondest movie theater memories are of the original Lord of the Rings trilogy. I still remember sitting there in the dark as the four hobbits hid from the Ring-Wraith, as the Ents marched on Isengard, as the Rohirrim charged into battle at the Pelennor Fields. Since then I've watched and rewatched the films, particularly the extended versions, to the point I know much of them by heart.

Then something happened that The Lord of the Rings did not intend. It was picked up in the most unlikely way imaginable: The Hobbit. The new trilogy, based on Tolkien's short novel that predates The Lord of the Rings, expanded itself to practically the length of the entire original trilogy. The bloat made for three ultimately disappointing films, however much I was initially excited to return to Middle Earth on the big screen (and I did, for all three).

The Rings of Power picked up the banner of Middle Earth in 2022. I've only watched about half of the first season, partly because I don't really watch that many new television shows and partly because I found the series disappointing. Admittedly, the two are not unconnected: it generally takes a lot to push me toward loyal viewership in any new series. But I stand by the assertion that Rings of Power is still not the Tolkien adaptation we deserved.

Instead, I'm going to argue that The War of the Rohirrim picks up most effectively where Peter Jackson's opus left off. The new animated film takes place in the kingdom of Rohan nearly 200 years prior to the events of The War of the Ring. During the war, Rohan plays a pivotal role as a strategic territory, taking the brunt of an assault by Saruman and later coming to the the aid of Gondor. Rohan is led by King Théoden, played by the late Bernard Hill (who sadly passed away earlier this year), and in The War of the Rohirrim, we will see his line begin.

The film centers on Helm Hammerhand, namesake for the Helm's Deep that will be familiar to viewers of The Two Towers, and is led by his daughter, Héra, who rebukes marriage proposals in the gayest possible way by specifically insisting she won't marry any man. The problems of Rohan are caused when, following Hera's refusal of a marriage proposal from Wulf, Helm kills Wulf's father with a single blow in unarmed combat. But really, Wulf more or less goes to war with Rohan because Héra won't marry him, and in a Middle Earth full of soulless evil incarnate, it's nice to see a villain with more human drivers, even if Wulf could have simply overcome his problems with a therapist and a positive male role model instead.

Héra, Helm, and the people of Edoras retreat to the Hornburg, soon to be known as Helm's Deep, where a siege and and a long winter take a brutal toll on both sides. The crux of the film is the siege of the Hornburg, which echoes the siege of the Hornburg in The Two Towers, right down to the finale in which Frealaf, banished by a rash Helm, rides an army to the aide of the embattled keep.

The ways in which The War of the Rohirrim rhymes with parts of The Lord of the Rings satisfy the fan in me to a truly magnificent degree. Narrated by Miranda Otto, reprising her role as Éowyn, the film’s protagonist Héra is reminiscent of the legendary woman who slew the Witch-King, which is perhaps why she is telling us this story in the first place: to do justice to another woman who fought valiantly within an entrenched patriarchal system.

In my perusing of the appendix of The Lord of the Rings which concerns Rohan, I can find no name given to “Helm’s daughter”. In filling in these narrative gaps, The War of the Rohirrim expands on Tolkien’s writings in a satisfying way, and I hope future films set in Middle Earth will look at The War of the Rohirrim and take its lessons to heart.