Riddermark
Riddermark or simply the Mark was the name among the Rohirrim for the land, more commonly known to outsiders as Rohan.[1]
Etymology
Riddermark means "land of the riders", derived from the Old English compound Riddena-mearc ("riders' mark"[2] or "territory of the knights"[3]).
Knight here must be understood as a somewhat anachronistic term for horsemen and not a social rank, since Rohan - and Middle-earth in general - is inspired more by the Early Middle Ages (colloquially known as the Dark Ages), the first few centuries after the fall of Rome, instead of the High Middle Ages where knighthood and chivalry developed. Mark here is used in the sense of "borderland, especially one serving as a defence of the inner lands of a realm".[1]
The original untranslated Rohirric term of the country was Lōgrad.[4]
Inspiration
J.R.R. Tolkien might have been inspired by William Morris's use of 'Mid-mark' in The House of the Wolfings, a book which Tolkien owned and from which he took inspiration.[5]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Wayne G. Hammond and Christina Scull (eds), The Lord of the Rings: A Reader's Companion, p. 248
- ↑ Jason Fisher, "Horns of Dawn: The Tradition of Alliterative Verse in Rohan", in Middle-earth Minstrel: Essays on Music in Tolkien (ed. Bradford Lee Eden), p. 21 (note 18)
- ↑ Greg Harvey, The Origins of Tolkien's Middle-earth for Dummies, "The Rohirrim"
- ↑ J.R.R. Tolkien, Christopher Tolkien (ed.), The Peoples of Middle-earth, "II. The Appendix on Languages", p. 53
- ↑ Wayne G. Hammond and Christina Scull (2006), The J.R.R. Tolkien Companion and Guide: Reader's Guide, "Morris, William", p. 600
