men of middle-earth ♞ house of éorl ♞ headcanon disclaimer
Marhari was a Lord of the Northmen of Rhovanion, a descendant of King Vidugavia, who had flourished 500 years earlier. During his rule, a confederacy of warriors from the East, called the Wainriders, assaulted Gondor and the North. King Narmacil II of Gondor rallied his soldiers and called upon the Northmen, his nation’s ancient allies, to fight against the chariot-mounted warriors. Marhari led his folk to battle against their foe, but the threat was greater than they knew: Narmacil was slain, and Marhari fell in his rearguard. The Battle of the Plains was lost, and much of Rhovanion was overrun and its people conquered. Erelieva, the wife of Marhari, fought by his side and led the remnant of their warriors from the battlefield. She was grievously wounded in their retreat, surviving only long enough to ensure the safety of her people and pass leadership to her son Marhwini, who gathered a remnant of the Northmen and led them westward in search of freedom. The refugees wandered until they reached the untamed land between the River Anduin and the forest of Mirkwood, where Marhwini halted their journey. There he wed the warrior Samanilde, and they took the mantle of Lord and Lady of the Éothéod, the horse-people, for they loved and revered their mighty steeds. The Éothéod lived a wary life in the Vales of Anduin, aware of the fragility of their peace. At last their respite ended when Lady Samanilde was captured by a chief of the Wainriders and slain in Marhwini’s rescue attempt. From this tragedy, Marhwini learned of the Wainriders’ plot to raid Calenardhon, and of his enslaved kin’s preparations for revolt. Swiftly, he sent a message to King Calimehtar of Gondor, warning him of the enemy’s plans and offering the aid of his people and their allies. Calimehtar swiftly planned an attack luring the Wainriders to the Dagolrad, where horsemen of Gondor and an éored of mounted Northmen lay waiting. The ambush was an overwhelming victory, freeing the Éothéod and their allies from the trials of war for forty-five years. But troubles returned during the rule of Marhwini’s son Forthwini, who discovered that the Wainriders plotted to revenge themselves upon Gondor at the same time as the Haradrim attacked. Forthwini warned King Ondoher of their approach and offered aid to their allies of old. When the time came, Forthwini was too aged to ride to war himself, especially as he grieved the recent death of his wife Cunihilda, so instead he sent his son Marhswinthi to strengthen Gondor’s troops. The battle soon turned ill with the deaths of Ondoher and his elder son Artamir, and Marhswinthi retreated into the Dead Marshes. He rescued a wounded soldier on his way, but the lad died in his arms, and upon searching his body Marhswinthi discovered he held no other than Faramir, the younger prince of Gondor; he was forced to bear this ill news to Minohtar, the dead King’s nephew, and as a result Minohtar faltered and was himself slain. Yet Marhswinthi survived, returning to the Vales of Anduin to marry his sweetheart Dawfled, a wise woman who warned their son, Frumgar, that this home was too dangerous for the Éothéod to remain there forever. Frumgar came of age with that foreboding heavy in his heart and looked to his wife Sunngifu for hope. Yet shortly after she bore him a son, Fram, Sunngifu was slain in an orc raid, and amid his mourning Frumgar knew it was time to leave. The Kingdom of Angmar had recently been destroyed, freeing up land to the north, and so Frumgar led the Éothéod to the land between the rivers Greylin and Langwell in the hope that there they could find peace. Alas, they faced a different kind of trouble at the feet of the Grey Mountains, where they were troubled by the dragon Scatha. Frumgar was killed by Scatha, and his son Fram swore revenge against the beast. First, however, he needed to ensure the safety and prosperity of his people, and he spent many years fortifying the first city of the Éothéod, named Framsburg in his honor. When at last he felt secure in Framsburg’s defenses, he and his wife Adgith set out to conquer the monster who killed Frumgar. The battle of Scatha and Fram was long and terrible, but in the end Fram slew his foe with the aid of Adgith. Together they claimed the dragon’s hoard and returned to Framsburg in victory. But the dwarves of that region also laid claim to the treasure, as Scatha had pillaged it from their ancestral halls. Fram rebuked their demands, instead sending them the dragon’s teeth along with the message, “Jewels such as these you will not match in your treasuries, for they are hard to come by.” This rebuke angered the dwarves, and the Éothéod believe that Fram’s death ten years later on a hunting trip was orchestrated by Dagmar, the dwarvish leader at the time.
