View source for Éomer

== Analysis ==
The name Éomer, meaning "Horse-famous" in [[Old English]],<ref>{{ME-ref|LMH|p. 21}}</ref> occurs in ''[[Beowulf]]'', at line 1959, as that of a king descended from [[Offa of Mercia]]. Tolkien [[On Translating Beowulf|had studied ''Beowulf'' extensively]] and [[Beowulf and Middle-earth|drew material from it]] in writing ''[[The Lord of the Rings]]''.<ref>{{ME-ref|Letters|No. 25}} "Beowulf is among my most valued sources ..."</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last=Kennedy |first=Michael |journal=Tilkal |issue=1 |title=Tolkien and Beowulf — Warriors of Middle-Earth |year=2001 |publisher=The Australian smial of [[the Tolkien Society]] |url=http://tolharndor.org/tilkal/issue1/beowulf.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090912054343/http://tolharndor.org/tilkal/issue1/beowulf.html |archive-date=2009-09-12}}</ref>

The critic [[Paul Harold Kocher|Paul Kocher]] notes that in his first meeting with [[Aragorn]] on the plains of Rohan, Éomer is moved by affection more than just by the policy of the Mark, and indeed he risks both his command and his life by assisting Aragorn, contrary to orders.<ref>{{cite book |last=Kocher |first=Paul |author-link=Paul H. Kocher |title=Master of Middle-earth: The Achievement of J.R.R. Tolkien |title-link=Master of Middle-earth |date=1974 |orig-year=1972 |publisher=[[Penguin Books]] |isbn=0140038779 |page=134}}</ref>

The Tolkien scholar [[Tom Shippey]] contrasts Éomer's behaviour with that of [[Faramir]], son of the [[Ruling Stewards of Gondor|Ruling Steward]] of [[Gondor]]. In his view, Faramir is courteous, urbane, and civilised where Éomer is "compulsively truculent",<ref name="Shippey Faramir"/> in both cases reflecting the character of their nations: Gondor "a kind of [[Ancient Rome|Rome]]",<ref name="Shippey Faramir"/> subtle and calculating, Rohan a simple but vigorous [[Anglo-Saxon]] society.<ref name="Shippey Faramir">{{cite book |last=Shippey |first=Tom |author-link=Tom Shippey |title=[[The Road to Middle-Earth]] |date=2005 |publisher=Grafton ([[HarperCollins]]) |isbn=978-0261102750 |edition=Third |orig-year=1982 |pages=146–149}}</ref> In his view, Rohan resembles Anglo-Saxon society in every way, except for one: the Anglo-Saxons did not like to fight on horseback.<ref name="Shippey Horses">{{cite book |last=Shippey |first=Tom |author-link=Tom Shippey |title=[[The Road to Middle-Earth]] |date=2005 |publisher=Grafton ([[HarperCollins]]) |isbn=978-0261102750 |edition=Third |orig-year=1982 |pages=139–141}}</ref>

Shippey writes further that prominent at the critical moment of the [[Battle of the Pelennor Fields]], the decisive charge of the Riders of Rohan, is [[panache]], which he explains means both "the white horsetail on [Eomer's] helm floating in his speed" and "the virtue of sudden onset, the dash that sweeps away resistance."<ref name="Shippey Panache">{{cite book |last=Shippey |first=Tom |author-link=Tom Shippey |title=[[The Road to Middle-Earth]] |date=2005 |edition=Third |orig-year=1982 |publisher=Grafton ([[HarperCollins]]) |isbn=978-0261102750 |pages=142–145}}</ref> Shippey notes that this allows Tolkien to display Rohan both as English, based on their [[Old English]] names and words like "''eored''" (troop of cavalry), and as "alien, to offer a glimpse of the way land shapes people".<ref name="Shippey Panache"/>