Lord of the Rings fans give far too little love to Éomer son of Éomund. He sometimes gets lost in the great cast of heroes. Of course Aragorn, Faramir, Théoden, and others are worthy of devotion, but we must not forget the Third Marshal of the Riddermark. It’s time for him to get the respect he deserves.
His introduction in the second chapter of The Two Towers is a thrilling literary moment. Things hit a different gear immediately when he rides into the story—returning from a mission to exterminate some Orcs trespassing in his country. It’s worth mentioning that this mission has just saved the world. If those Orcs carrying Merry and Pip had made it to Saruman, they surely would have spilled the details about Frodo’s quest and gravely imperiled everything. Saruman would have known what to look for and would have secured the ring. Éomer’s raid gives them the opportunity to escape.
Here’s a brief catalog of the virtues this hero displays in the scene that follows.
1) Prowess
The first thing we learn about Éomer is that he rides at the head of a frightening cavalry unit and can make war with the best of them. Upon spotting Aragorn and company, the Rohirrim encircle them with speed and precision, wordlessly but in unison, and Aragorn immediately finds a “thicket of spears” in his face. The image of Éomer’s cavalrymen moving in perfect coordination inspires confidence that goodness still has some strength even in these dark times, and it shows how little a chance those Orcs stood.
When Aragorn mentions his task of pursuing the Orcs that took Pip and Merry, Éomer simply responds that they need not pursue further: “The Orcs are destroyed.” It’s an incredible understatement. Often you see the passive voice used so as to dodge the blame for an ill-deed (“Mistakes were made…”), but in this case it’s the opposite: a great warrior giving a charmingly minimalistic report of his doings, without needing to trumpet them. It’s another day in the saddle for him.
“And our friends?” Aragorn asks.
“We found none but Orcs.”
“Did you search the slain?”
“There were no dwarves nor children. We counted all the slain and despoiled them, and then we piled the carcases and burned them, as is our custom. The ashes are smoking still.”
This is how a man of prowess speaks.
2) Frankness
Staying with this theme of his speech, when Éomer is not downplaying his own deeds he is admirably direct. He’s a man of action, but he’s also very skilled with his words; he speaks as forcefully as he wields arms. From the first, he gets immediately to the point, greeting Aragorn and company: “Who are you, what are you doing in this land?” His frankness is brutal, but funny too. When Gimli threatens to teach him some manners (for his skepticism of the Lady of the Woods), Éomer tells him, “I would cut off your head, beard and all, Master Dwarf, if it stood but a little higher from the ground.” He is up for literal and metaphorical jousts.
Éomer was born into a truth-telling culture. “All that you say is strange, Aragorn,” he says later, once he has warmed up to the strangers. “Yet you speak the truth, that is plain: the men of the mark do not lie, and therefore they are not easily deceived.” It is a remarkable line about an invigorating way of life, and Éomer embodies it to the nth.
3) Prudence
As much as any man in the saga, Éomer must confront political pressures and make difficult decisions in the face of them. While others are primarily concerned with the war to save Middle-earth, Éomer is preoccupied (at least at first) with the problems that arise when bad actors vie for control of your country. He has duties as a cavalry commander, a nobleman, a brother, a nephew—he is fully immersed in a political community.
The virtue of prudence is required when facing such difficulties, when one’s king has been compromised, when one’s sister has been threatened by perverts, and when one’s country is pushed to the brink of ruin. There is no guidebook on how to handle these problems. His personal judgments on how to proceed will make or break everything.
There are several examples in this chapter of Éomer’s exercise of prudence. One of the best comes when Aragorn directly asks him to violate the letter of the laws of Rohan—laws which do not allow Aragorn and company to wander through without the king’s leave. Éomer is legally required to bring them in, and he is not one to take the laws lightly. But he judges it better to allow the company to continue and he even gives them horses for their quest—to the grumbling of some of his men.
Josef Pieper describes one of the key components of the virtue of prudence as a receptivity to reality. The truly prudent man is always attentive to information, clues, developments, and signs that might guide him to the best decisions. When Aragorn explains that the laws of Éomer’s country surely weren’t intended for situations such as this, Éomer is open enough to see his point. But Éomer is no pushover. He imposes terms: “This only do I ask: when your quest is achieved or is proved vain, return with the horses over the Entwade to Meduseld, the high house in Edoras where Théoden now sits. Thus you shall prove to him that I have not misjudged. In this I place myself, and maybe my very life, in the keeping of your good faith. Do not fail.” He has judged Aragon to be worthy of such trust, and he was correct.
4) Courage
Prudence is sustained by courage. When the situation before you is perilous, the right choice involves much risk. It’s not enough to know the right course of action—one must also have the heart to take it and to face the consequences.
Even riskier than his decision to assist Aragorn was Éomer’s earlier decision to undertake his raid against the Orcs without Théoden’s permission. Very difficult questions of loyalty arise in this situation: Éomer serves a king under the sway of evil counselors. So loyalty to the bewitched Théoden is effectively loyalty to Grima Wormtongue and Saruman, whereas loyalty to the real Théoden requires some difficult maneuvering. Éomer may have been executed for going rogue, but for the arrival of Gandalf in Théoden’s hall. (This rescue should be seen as a sign that Providence approved of Éomer’s course of action.) Regardless of possible consequences, it was the correct thing to do and it saved his country and even the world, in ways he couldn’t have understood immediately.
Courage demands that a man risk himself in order to achieve the good. Éomer is, again, a textbook embodiment of that willingness.
5) Wonder
This is perhaps an extension of the openness to reality that I mentioned as part of prudence. Though he scoffs at first, the reports about legends coming to life touch Éomer. He is no scholar like Faramir, but he appreciates the enormity of the discoveries thrust upon him. All the more endearing is that this heart for wonder beats in the chest of a hardened commander and a man of intense practical necessity.
It says something about Éomer that he sees Aragorn for what he is. Drawing his sword upon the stranger before he knew him to be a friend, Éomer “survey[ed] him keenly, and not without wonder.” “There is something strange about you, Strider,” he says. Tolkien again uses the same word—but this time it’s “renewed wonder”—to describe the Marshal as the conversation ensues, and then notes “a look of awe … in his face.” “These are strange days,” Éomer says, “Dreams and legends spring to life out of the grass.” A complete man recognizes these wonders for what they are.
Conclusion
Prior to Éomer’s arrival, readers had already been introduced to several grand figures—Aragorn, Gandalf, Elrond and other lordly elves, and others. For Éomer to show up and establish his presence so immediately and distinctively marks the work of a very good story-teller.
In these ways, Éomer proves everything Aragorn had said about the people of Rohan: “They are proud and willful, but they are true-hearted, generous in thought and deed; bold but not cruel; wise but unlearned, writing no books but singing many songs, after the manner of the children of Men before the Dark Years.”
Remember his name!
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An excellent typological example of the knight.
All men would do well to meditate on
"I believe you, John Carter; I do not know what a 'gentleman' is, nor have I ever heard before of Virginia; but on Barsoom no man lies; if he does not wish to speak the truth he is silent." --Dejah Thoris Princess of Barsoom.
“All that you say is strange, Aragorn,” he says later, once he has warmed up to the strangers. “Yet you speak the truth, that is plain: the men of the mark do not lie, and therefore they are not easily deceived.”
This is clear evidence that, in some astonishing distant epoch, the Riders of the Mark and the Red Men of Barsoom were once one people.