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1396 the return of the king
friendship between the Men of Anduin’s Vale and the people of
Gondor. But in the valley of the River men were now few and
scattered, and slow to render such aid as they could. At last
tidings came to Eorl of the need of Gondor, and late though it
seemed, he set out with a great host of riders.
‘Thus he came to the battle of the Field of Celebrant, for that
was the name of the green land that lay between Silverlode
and Limlight. There the northern army of Gondor was in peril.
Defeated in the Wold and cut off from the south, it had been
driven across the Limlight, and was then suddenly assailed by
the Orc-host that pressed it towards the Anduin. All hope was
lost when, unlooked for, the Riders came out of the North and
broke upon the rear of the enemy. Then the fortunes of battle
were reversed, and the enemy was driven with slaughter over
Limlight. Eorl led his men in pursuit, and so great was the fear
that went before the horsemen of the North that the invaders of
the Wold were also thrown into panic, and the Riders hunted
them over the plains of Calenardhon.’
The people of that region had become few since the Plague,
and most of those that remained had been slaughtered by the
savage Easterlings. Cirion, therefore, in reward for his aid, gave
Calenardhon between Anduin and Isen to Eorl and his people;
and they sent north for their wives and children and their goods
and settled in that land. They named it anew the Mark of the
Riders, and they called themselves the Eorlingas; but in Gondor
their land was called Rohan, and its people the Rohirrim (that
is, the Horse-lords). Thus Eorl became the first King of the
Mark, and he chose for his dwelling a green hill before the feet
of the White Mountains that were the south-wall of his land.
There the Rohirrim lived afterwards as free men under their own
kings and laws, but in perpetual alliance with Gondor.
‘Many lords and warriors, and many fair and valiant women, are
named in the songs of Rohan that still remember the North.
Frumgar, they say, was the name of the chieftain who led his
people to Éothéod. Of his son, Fram, they tell that he slew
Scatha, the great dragon of Ered Mithrin, and the land had peace
from the long-worms afterwards. Thus Fram won great wealth,
but was at feud with the Dwarves, who claimed the hoard of