Riddermark

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Riddermark or simply the Mark was the name among the Rohirrim for the land, more commonly known to outsiders as Rohan.[1]

Etymology

Riddermark means "land of the knights", derived from the Old English compound Riddena-mearc ("riders' mark"[2] or "The Territory of the Knights")[3]. Mark here is used in the sense of "borderland, especially one serving as a defence of the inner lands of a realm".[1]

The original untranslated Rohirric term of the country was Lōgrad.[4]

J.R.R. Tolkien might have been inspired by William Morris's use of 'Mid-mark' in The House of the Wolfings, a book which Tolkien owned and from which he took inspiration.[5]

References

  1. 1.0 1.1 Wayne G. Hammond and Christina Scull (eds), The Lord of the Rings: A Reader's Companion, p. 248
  2. Jason Fisher, "Horns of Dawn: The Tradition of Alliterative Verse in Rohan", in Middle-earth Minstrel: Essays on Music in Tolkien (ed. Bradford Lee Eden), p. 21 (note 18)
  3. Greg Harvey, The Origins of Tolkien's Middle-earth for Dummies, "The Rohirrim"
  4. J.R.R. Tolkien, Christopher Tolkien (ed.), The Peoples of Middle-earth, "II. The Appendix on Languages", p. 53
  5. Wayne G. Hammond and Christina Scull (2006), The J.R.R. Tolkien Companion and Guide: Reader's Guide, "Morris, William", p. 600