Painting Gizur and the Huns by Peter Nicolai Arbo, 1886 When Éomer appears in a helmet recalling the Sutton Hoo helmet, he is plainly Anglo-Saxon.Īspects of Éomer such as fighting on horseback and his flaxen hair suggest a Gothic influence. Scholars have noted that while in a book the imagery remains ambiguous, and can combine suggestions of Gothic as well as Anglo-Saxon origins, film such as Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings trilogy inevitably has to choose. Despite the evident Old English connection, Tolkien denied that Éomer and the Riders of Rohan directly represented the Anglo-Saxons. The name Éomer, meaning 'Horse-famous' in Old English, is from Beowulf, a work that Tolkien had studied extensively.
He appears in The Lord of the Rings as a leader of the Riders of Rohan who serve as cavalry to the army of Gondor, fighting against Mordor. For the eponymous figure in Anglo-Saxon legend, see legendary kings of the Angles.
