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the muster of rohan 1045
a man’s voice crying the name of Théoden, and the challenge
of the guard.
Presently the captain of the Guard thrust aside the curtain.
‘A man is here, lord,’ he said, ‘an errand-rider of Gondor.
He wishes to come before you at once.’
‘Let him come!’ said Théoden.
A tall man entered, and Merry choked back a cry; for a
moment it seemed to him that Boromir was alive again and
had returned. Then he saw that it was not so; the man was a
stranger, though as like to Boromir as if he were one of his
kin, tall and grey-eyed and proud. He was clad as a rider with
a cloak of dark green over a coat of fine mail; on the front of
his helm was wrought a small silver star. In his hand he bore
a single arrow, black-feathered and barbed with steel, but the
point was painted red.
He sank on one knee and presented the arrow to Théoden.
‘Hail, Lord of the Rohirrim, friend of Gondor!’ he said.
‘Hirgon I am, errand-rider of Denethor, who bring you this
token of war. Gondor is in great need. Often the Rohirrim
have aided us, but now the Lord Denethor asks for all your
strength and all your speed, lest Gondor fall at last.’
‘The Red Arrow!’ said Théoden, holding it, as one who
receives a summons long expected and yet dreadful when it
comes. His hand trembled. ‘The Red Arrow has not been
seen in the Mark in all my years! Has it indeed come to that?
And what does the Lord Denethor reckon that all my strength
and all my speed may be?’
‘That is best known to yourself, lord,’ said Hirgon. ‘But
ere long it may well come to pass that Minas Tirith is surrounded,
and unless you have the strength to break a siege
of many powers, the Lord Denethor bids me say that he
judges that the strong arms of the Rohirrim would be better
within his walls than without.’
‘But he knows that we are a people who fight rather upon
horseback and in the open, and that we are also a scattered
people and time is needed for the gathering of our Riders. Is