The Lord of the Rings: Helm’s Deep (Part One)

 

The Tale

The sun is already going down in the west when they leave, turning the fields of Rohan before them into a golden haze. They take the beaten way north-westward, to the Fords of Isen, where they hope to find the king’s men holding back the hosts of Saruman. The sun sets, but the army of Rohan rides into the night, driven by need.

At last, they stop and make camp. More than half their journey is still before them. They bivouac in a great circle under the waxing moon, lighting no fires, but setting mounted guards around them with scouts to watch for any approach. After an uneventful night they ride forth with the dawn.

There is a strange heaviness in the hot air, with growing darkness in the East, and in the North-west a creeping shadow coming from the Wizard’s Vale. Gandalf drops back to where Legolas rides in the host and asks him what he can see off towards Isengard. There is a shadow there with great shapes moving in it, the elf proclaims, but there is a veiling power that defeats his eyes as the darkness marches along the distant stream. ‘It is as if the twilight under endless trees were flowing downward from the hills.’

‘And behind us comes a very storm of Mordor,’ said Gandalf. ‘It will be a black night.’

As this second day of riding goes on, the air gets heavier and heavier and the dark clouds from the East draw nearer. The sun sets in blood and fire, and a lone rider approaches the host in the last glow. They halt and wait for his approach.

He approaches, a weary man with dinted helm and cloven shield. He asks if Eomer is there. They come too late, as things have gone badly at the Fords of Isen. Their forces have been driven back and scattered. Saruman must have emptied Isengard, and his Orcs are joined by the wild hillmen of Dunland. They broke the shieldwall, and now Erkenbrand of Westfold is trying to draw together as much folk as he can and fall back to Helm’s Deep. He again asks for Eomer, and says they must fall back to Edoras.

Theoden, who has been listening, rides forward and recognizes the man as Ceorl, and tells him the Eorlingas have ridden forth, and will not return until they have seen battle. They will go to the help of Erkenbrand. Ceorl is ordered a new horse and will ride with them.

While Theoden is speaking, Gandalf has ridden a little way ahead, gazing north and west. He now comes to Theoden and urges him to ride on to Helm’s Deep and not go to the Fords of Isen, or tarry on the plain. The wizard must leave him for a while on an errand, but they will see him again at Helm’s Gate. He speeds off into the sunset. ‘Gandalf Greyhame has need of haste.’

The host now heads southward, riding into the night. Ahead of them lies a green coombe (a short valley or hollow on a hillside) out of which a gorge opens in the hills, called Helm’s Deep after an ancient warrior who had refuge there. At Helm’s Gate before the mouth of the Deep is a heel of rock, and on its spur are high stone walls and a lofty tower, said to have been built by the sea-kings of Gondor in the days of old. It is also called the Hornburg because of the peculiar echoes aroused there if a horn is blown: it sounds as if ancient armies are issuing forth from the hollow hills. It is further protected by a ditch and a dike. Fearing war, Erkenbrand has been repairing the fortress and it is a strong refuge.

Bits and Bobs

The growing heaviness of the day might well have to do with Saruman’s opposition to the riding forth, as his power slowed the pursuit of Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli before. That strange grey darkness coming down from the hills has nothing to do with Saruman’s power, ominous though it looks.

Ceorl is of course named after the Anglo-Saxon ‘ceorl, also spelled Churl, the free peasant who formed the basis of society in Anglo-Saxon England. His free status was marked by his right to bear arms, his attendance at local courts, and his payment of dues directly to the king.’ – Encyclopedia Britannica.  Churl was a technical term and did not bear the onus now attached to it as of someone lowly and unmannered, as when someone is called ‘churlish’.   It looks like but is almost the opposite of Eorl, ‘Earl’.

Greyhame (‘grey mantle’), though another Rohirric title, recalls the earlier elven-king Thingol Greycloak, if only in literal meaning. Not related to the Scottish name ‘Graham’ at all. The element ‘hame’ can also mean a skin or hide. ‘Erkenbrand is a name that possibly was derived from two Old English words: eorcan ("precious") and brand ("fire-brand, torch; sword").' - Tolkien Gateway.