Théoden
In
J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings,
Théoden was the seventeenth
King of Rohan. He first appears in
The Two Towers and remains an important character in
The Return of the King.
Théoden was the only son of King
Thengel and
Morwen of
Lossarnach (a region of
Gondor). He had four sisters, with the eldest of them being older than him. He was closest to the youngest,
Théodwyn.
He was born in Gondor in
T.A. 2948., where his family lived until Thengel became king. Théoden was raised speaking
Sindarin and
Westron rather than
Rohirric, but learned the tongue of his people later.
He became
king after the death of his father in
T.A. 2980.
Théodwyn lived with him in
Edoras. He married one
Elfhild, but she died giving birth to their son,
Théodred. After Théodwyn and her husband
Éomund also died, he adopted their children
Éomer and
Éowyn as his own.
In his prime, Théoden was a strong and vital king. He possessed a powerful and decisive personality, a strong and highly charismatic character. Théoden was (by necessity) a skilled horseman. He was tall and proud, strong and stern, as was the nature of the Men of the Riddermark.
He acted as the First Marshal of the Mark after the death of Éomund, who had filled that position; as First Marshal he commanded the Muster of Edoras. His sword was called
Herugrim (his son and nephew were respectively the Second and Third Marshal).
By the time of the
War of the Ring, Théoden had been king for nearly 30 years, and was getting old and tired. He was increasingly misled by his chief advisor
GrÃma (or
Wormtongue as most others in the
Mark called him), who was secretly in the employ of
Saruman the White, and who may even have increased his ageing through "subtle poisons" (as told in
Unfinished Tales). The king also had a minstrel called Gléowine.
In the last years before the War of the Ring, Théoden let his rule slip out of his hands, and GrÃma became increasingly powerful. Rohan was troubled again by
Orcs and
Dunlendings, who operated under the will of Saruman, ruling from
Isengard.
When Théodred was mortally wounded at a
battle at the Fords of Isen with the Orcs of Saruman, his nephew Éomer became his heir. Éomer was out of favour with Wormtongue, however, and was eventually arrested.
When
Gandalf the White and
Aragorn appeared before him, Théoden initially rebuffed Gandalf's advice to ride out against Saruman, but after GrÃma was exposed by the
wizard, he restored his nephew, took up his
sword, and in spite of his age, led the
Riders of Rohan into
battle at Helm's Deep. After this he became known as
Théoden Ednew, the Renewed, because he had thrown off the yoke of Saruman and GrÃma.
Bound by the
Oath of Eorl the Young (the first king of Rohan), Théoden led the Rohirrim to the aid of Gondor at the
Battle of the Pelennor Fields. In that battle he routed a superior cavalry force of
Harad. But he challenged the
Witch-king of the Nine
Ringwraiths and was mortally wounded when his horse
Snowmane fell upon and crushed him after being struck by an arrow. He was immediately avenged by Éowyn and the
Hobbit Meriadoc Brandybuck, both of whom had ridden to war in secret. In his last moments, he bid farewell to Merry and appointed Éomer the next king.
His body lay in Minas Tirith until it was buried in Rohan after the defeat of Sauron. He was the last of the Second Line of the kings, judging from direct descent from Eorl the Young.
In one of Tolkien's early drafts, Théoden also had a daughter by the name of Idis, but she was eventually removed when her character was eclipsed by that of Éowyn.
The name is taken from the
Anglo-Saxon word
þÄ"oden (also spelled
ðeoden), cognate to the
Old Norse word
þjóðann, both meaning "
leader of the people" (i.e. "King").
In Tolkien's fiction, the name
Théoden is the Old English translation of the original
Rohirric Tûrac, an old word for King, showing influence from the
Sindarin stem
tur- ("power/mastery"), also present in
Turgon and related names.
In
Ralph Bakshi's
1978 animated version of
The Lord of the Rings, the voice of Théoden was provided by Philip Stone. Théoden also appears in
Rankin/Bass's attempt to complete the story left unfinished by Bakshi in their television adaptation of
The Return of the King, but does not speak; his death is narrated by Gandalf, played by
John Huston .
In the
1981 BBC Radio 4 version of The Lord of the Rings , Théoden's death is described in
song rather than dramatised conventionally, which tends to lessen its impact for some. In this adaptation he is voiced by
Jack May of
The Archers fame.
Peter Jackson's film
The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (
2002) deviates from Tolkien's story by having Théoden (played by
Bernard Hill) actually semi-
possessed by Saruman rather than simply deceived (and poisoned) by GrÃma. He then goes to
Helm's Deep to take his people to safety rather than to make a stand against the enemy. In Jackson's
The Return of the King (
2003), he initially refuses to aid Gondor, due to the filmmakers omitting the
Oath of Eorl. Later Théoden is aware of Éowyn's presence at his death, whereas in the book he says his farewells to Merry and does not know that Éowyn is also there. In these films, his sword Herugrim was depicted as a one-handed
broadsword, with a double
fuller on the blade; Tolkien does not go into that much detail on it.
*
Theoden at The Thain's Book
{{sequence|prev=
Thengel|next=
Éomer Éadig|list=
Kings of Rohan
