HerenIstarion:
Somehow I had it in my mind that the Eotheod were the kin of the Marachians who never entered Beleriand, but Faramir's quote certainly seems to make them descendants of the people of Hador who came back east after refusing the summons to Numenor. But this is the only time such a thing is suggested, as far as I can recall. I will search HoMe for more on the origin of the Eotheod.
In any case, it still seems a bit surprising that the Rohirrim would preserve something so similar to "minlamad thent/estent" through the intervening six thousand years.
Davem:
Interesting thoughts. You may be right that:
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the peoples who eventuallly settled in Rohan were more culturally Elvish than we might think.
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Still, a close affinity between the Rohirrim and the Elves seems strange, at least to me. In the context of LotR, at the least, the Rohirrim seem to represent all that is primitive, natural, and Mannish, in opposition to the "high" culture of the Elves. It is the Numenoreans that love knowledge and preserve the lore of the Noldor, and even speak Sindarin sometimes. They also have a kind of Elvish nostalgia that the Rohirrim lack. I do take your point though about seeing something like an Anglo-Saxon ideal in the Elves. It would be interesting to know whether the Numenoreans employed anything like alliterative verse. The only alliterative poem I can think of at the moment that could likely be Gondorian is the somewhat curious Istari poem from UT. But that is scarce evidence indeed.
There does seem to be a movement away from the Anglo-Saxon and toward the Classical in Numenor - but I think there was similar move toward the Classical for the Eldar in Valinor, and even to some extent for the Sindar. Possibly, things are also confused by a trend away from the primitive through Tolkien's life.