#mearas

Mearas

Shadofax leading his herd through a thunderstorm over the fields of Rohan.

2024

Shadowfax is my favorite Middle-earth horse. Majestic, clever, loyal, and brave, he was the only free horse of the world that could endure the terror of the Nazgûl, and did so many times. One of my favorite little details from the (extended edition) films is how he tries to protect Gandalf from the Witch-king and his fell beast. And they sure did pick a breathtakingly beautiful horse to play him.

Mearas: Shadowfax, Lord of Horses

"That is Shadowfax. He is the Chief of the Mearas, lord of horses, and not even Théoden, King of Rohan, has ever looked on a better. Does he not shine like silver and run as smoothly as a swift stream? He has come for me: the horse of the White Rider. We are going to battle together."

- The Lord Of The Ring, J.R.R TOLKIEN

The Mearas were a breed of wild horses in the north of Middle-Earth. They surpass normal horses in intelligence, speed and strength. According to lore, the ancestors of the Mearas were brought from the West by Oromë.

The Mearas were strong, wild, and intelligent. They would bear no man but the kings or princes.

think about it. a race of extraordinary horses, enhanced in every way compared to “normal” equines, intelligent enough to understand human speech, described as exceptionally beautiful, and only a very specific group of people may ride them (with the exception of Gandalf)? I believe environmentally Rohan is even supposed to have fenlands, especially close to the river Entwash (kelpies are water-spirits and technically they would inhabit lakes and rivers, but fen is still a wetland, right?).

(yeah yeah, I know, Eorl tamed Félarof not in Rohan but in the ancient homeland of Éothéod in the north of Rhovanion, but bear with me - there could be wetlands in the north, too.)

so Eorl the Young, the first king and founder of the royal house of the Riddermark, tamed this pretty awesome horse - partly as some kind of a revenge because that same horse had just killed his father, Léod. but even then, the bond that grew between Eorl and this horse Félarof was so special that the white horse became the symbol of a whole people, and only Eorl’s own descendants could ride this breed of horses (which were inherently magical/supernatural because the Vala Oromë himself had brought them to Middle-earth). 

(Gandalf, being originally a Maia himself, probably rang up to his buddies in Valinor to get a special access.)

a magical, wetland dwelling, potentially deadly race of horses that are apparently bound to the family/descendants of the one guy who tamed one of them? kelpies.