You know whatâs interesting? How the Rohirrim named their own land. I donât mean âRohan,â which is a name that Gondor cooked up and that the Rohirrim use sometimes. I mean the two versions of their name that came from the Rohirrim themselves: âLĹgrad,â which means âBorderlands of the Horsemenâ in actual Rohirric and âthe Riddermark,â which means essentially the same thing in the Old English that stands in for Rohirric in the text.
BOTH of those terms explicitly position Rohan first and foremost as a border zone, and that seems to me like a notably odd way to conceptualize your own country because itâs relational. You arenât defined as yourself; youâre defined as the edge of someone else. Itâd be like if the U.S. was called âLand of the People South of Canada.â (I donât hate that, TBH.)
In Rohanâs case, the border theyâre talking about can only be Gondorâs. Itâs the most consequential border they have by far, and itâs the border that explains their entire existence as a kingdom. Itâs why Cirion gave the land to Eorl in the first place â yes, he was grateful for Eorlâs help, but also (and explicitly) he wanted a friendly neighbor on Gondorâs northern/western edges whose kingdom would insulate core Gondorian territory from historical enemies.
With that being the founding purpose of Rohan, itâs not surprising for that role to become inextricably tied to the identity of the kingdom. But I do find it surprising that it was the Rohirrim themselves who chose to reflect that borderland identity in their kingdomâs own native name. They didnât call their country Land of the Horses (which is essentially what the Sindarin word âRohanâ means) or name themselves after Eorl or import some name of an ancestral place from their northern days. In the most authentic expression of who they are â how they identify themselves in their own language and when speaking only to each other â they chose to identify themselves as the riders who protect Gondorâs flank. You can put forward several different theories about why that might be the case,* but whatever the ultimate cause I just think itâs INTERESTING to think about.
* There is a large, popular blog around here that gets irritated with me whenever I say that there is a hierarchy being enforced between Gondor and Rohan so I wonât get into it. But thatâs an explanation that resonates for me!
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