Quote:
|
Also, concerning the infantry, presumably there would not have been enough time for the majority of them to march in from outlying districts, so potentially there could have been many more that 10,000.
|
In a 'national call-up' situation, I perhaps (more on this further down), but this would have taken quite a long time. The wars of the Rohirrim did not normally allow such time to be had.
On a call-up, though. I would guess that cavalry warriors could be found from among the populace quite as well as could foot-men. The country has horses abounding, quite possibily (even probably) enough for one apiece; and they are said to as a people love fighting on horseback considerably more than on foot.
Most if not all men of Rohan would have been familiar with riding. Obviously there is the problem of training, but I would have thought that as many horsemen could be gathered from Rohan as footmen, and therefore it is possible that more than 10,000 infantry gained from a call-up (while only 10,000 cavalry) is improbable.
I should think that a considerable proportion of the eligable men of Rohan would have fought in the army at some point, or would have been willing to at a Muster -- which might well have gathered up about as many men in each Muster-area that it was possible to gather.
That in the reign of Eomer
'Men had peace who wished for it' seems to imply that they were forced to fight before; Rohan's population is quite possibly smaller than the million we have estimated it at.
(This may seem like rather a turn-around, but so be it. [img]smilies/smile.gif[/img])