ext_30808 ([identity profile] lady-branwyn.livejournal.com) wrote in [personal profile] lady_branwyn 2011-03-20 03:05 am (UTC)

I'm neither Lombard, Hun or Goth or any of that eastern crowd
We're Anglo-Saxon to the core although we fight on horses proud


Hee! I've read essays claiming that since the Rohirrim were a horse culture, they couldn't be modeled on the Anglo-Saxons. My theory is that Tolkien put the Rohirrim on horses because he himself had trained with a cavalry unit (King Edward's Horse) while an undergrad at Oxford. His understanding of non-mechanized warfare (this was a few years before WW1) was probably influenced by his experiences as a cavalryman. Also, he is supposed to have had a natural affinity for horses, and that is easy to believe based on how he wrote about them.

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