Rohan

Rohan is a Mannish kingdom on the northern borders of Gondor, founded in T.A. 2509 (497 years ago). It is the territory of the Rohirrim, a people of farmers and herdsmen. Well-known for their horses and cavalry, they are Gondor's most important ally.

Description

The borders of Rohan are the river Isen from its junction with the river Adorn and then northwards to the outer walls of Isengard and the river Adorn in the west; from the outer walls of Isengard eastwards and northwards along the eaves of Fangorn Forest to the river Limlight in the north; and the river Anduin and the west-cliff of the Emyn Muil hills down to the marshes of the mouths of the river Entwash and the Mering Stream in the east. The White Mountains are its southern border.

The most significant feature of Rohan's geography is the river Entwash, which marks the border between the Eastemnet and Wold and the rest of the kingdom. Other lands were the Westemnet, Westfold, the Folde and Eastfold. The Adorn region to the west of the White Mountains is nominally under Rohan's control, but its people have a great deal of Dunlending blood and remain mostly independent.

The Rohirrim found abandoned Gondorian fortresses and refuges in the White Mountains, such as Aldburg and the Hornburg which they restored and used themselves.

The capital of Rohan is the hill fort of Edoras which lies on the slopes of the White Mountains. Another large settlement is Aldburg, which was the first capital after the Steward Cirion granted the land to the Rohirrim.

Rohan is roughly a third the size of Gondor, whose borders have slowly been shrinking for decades. On the server, it has a population of approximately 9500 people (550'000 at 1:1).

Inspiration

Several aspects of Rohan's culture and history seem to be inspired by both Goths, Scandinavians and the medieval Anglo-Saxons.

Just like the Germanic Ostrogoths, Rohirric culture was a mounted culture. It had separated from the Northmen, moved south, and had settled in close proximity with a civilization. In the Goths' case it was the Byzantine Empire and in the case of the Rohirrim, it was Gondor.

The Hervarar saga, with its Mirkwood, Gothic horsemen and shieldmaidens, appears to have inspired Tolkien when creating the Rohirrim, although he exchanged the Gothic tongue with the Anglo-Saxon.

The antipathy between the Rohirrim and the Dunlendings resembles the historical tension between the Anglo-Saxon settlers of Britain and the native Celts.

Architecture

As Rohan is a relatively young kingdom whose people typically use timber, thatch, and wattle and daub in their buildings, there is not a great deal of architectural variation. The basic unit is the longhouse, which is based upon the the Germanic cattle-farmer longhouse. These emerged along the southwestern North Sea coast in the third or fourth century BCE and may be the ancestors of several medieval house types such as the Scandinavian langhus, the English, Welsh and Scottish longhouse variants and the German and Dutch Low German house. The longhouse is a traditional and simple form of shelter.

Meduseld, the great hall of the Kings of Rohan, is likely to have been inspired by the mead-hall Heorot — the "golden hall" of King Hrothgar in the poem Beowulf.

Villages, hamlets and homesteads have land divided into family plots. These plots include one or more residential longhalls, buildings for food and grain storage, space for vegetable allotments - and in many cases, animal enclosures. Plots often also have a barn and/or profession-related workshop. The vast majority have bakehouses and/or weaving houses as well. The larger settlements are quite spread out - effectively a series of interconnected homesteads around a central alehouse.

In the Westemnet, Eastemnet and Wold, there are a subset of the people of Rohan who live a more nomadic existence. In the warmer months, they live out on the plains in camp and tent, with large herds of horses, cattle and sheep. In the winter, some go to live in permanent structures.