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Gwaihir, one point where I do not agree with you is that the Rohirrim are based upon the Anglo-Saxons.
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Surely you agree that they are similar? There are two exceptions for what I said, I think, that is that direct basings in Britain for the
developed mythology are not to be found; and they are the Hobbits of the Shire, and the Men of the Riddermark.
I simply have to say that the Rohirrim and the Saxons share a kinship. The old, English Anglo-Saxons. As the land of Rohan is akin to England to an extent -- not the same England as the shire, but the wild green grassland and moor of the North;
'... this land itself, rich and rolling in part, and else hard and stern as the mountains.'
They were not wholly Anglo-Saxon, the Rohirrim, but as I say they are most definitely strongly based, rooted, inspired or are at least too similar for it to be of a random relationship to each other (was it done inadvertently? maybe). Tall, fair-haired, free, fighting to defend their land; the king is an Old English style king of mighty legend, not a tyrant but with the same spirit as the people themselves, there is a peerage or lords (common not just in England, although it was structured (still is) particularly well and with a British identity, in Britain, whether or not that's just for British people [img]smilies/smile.gif[/img]); living in a somewhat somewhat scattered fashion in a land that, as I have mentioned, hearkens to the land of England. As the Man of Old Hope says, look at the language. There is no doubt that Rohirric is Old English, and Tolkien deliberately rendered it so.
A (in many aspects and to many an extent true) legend of the ancient Saxons of England.
Tolkien himself acknowledged the fact that the Rohirrim were distinctly Anglo-Saxon in image, and interestingly, on discussion of the subject, said this:
'This linguistic procedure [i.e. translating Rohirric into Old English] does not imply that the Rohirrim
closely resembled the ancient English otherwise...'
Thomas Shippey (internet reference =]) holds that they are nonetheless quite noticably and in a few ways like the ancient English of legend.
Rohan was not the same as ancient England. There were many distinct differences between the two, one of them as you say, that the Rohirrim were always a united tribe while England, as a united kingdom under
one king, was only forged after some centuries of there being around four kingships in England. This isn't really a big issue, though, but the horses are. Anglo-Saxon England wasn't the 'horse-power' that Rohan was. It is a commonly known fact that the Conqueror's mounted knights, in the Battle of Hastings, were an important factor in steadying a Norman superiority whenever the English footmen came down from the hill -- the Anglo-Saxons made much use of horses, but they didn't fight on horseback until the practice was brought in by the Normans.
There are areas such as the horses, that seperate old England from Rohan. The people, who as I mentioned contain elements of the Saxons of legend, are rather too solemn (situatiion?). Denying that the Rohirrim have a distinctly Anglo-Saxon
flavour -- while not being the
same, again I stress that! -- is, though, not true. Not as I feel it.
[ September 25, 2003: Message edited by: Gwaihir the Windlord ]