The Religion of the Éothéod
by Soledad

Author's notes:
This is not a real study. It's just a little intellectual game - something I've made up out of thin air while writing several stories concerning the Rohirrim. Part of my background research, if you want. Part of my private Rohirric Lexicon I've been working on for quite some time.

Since there are already some connections between the Rohirrim and the Anglo-Saxons, I used as a basis a study found on the page of the Anglecynn Anglo-Saxon Society, concerning the religion of the pagan Anglo-Saxons. I changed the names of some deities and several things in the practice of the cult, but about 90% of the details were borrowed from there. Also:

Disclaimer:
The data concerning the religion of the pagan Anglo-Saxons are not mine. They belong to the source named above. This is something I made up for my own pleasure (and those interested in all things Rohirric, canon or not), for private use alone. I don't make any money from it - would I still work if I did?

Now that we have cleared up the all-important question of true ownership, on we go.

I. General questions

As in the case of the pagan Anglo-Saxons, the supreme deities of the Éothéod were goddesses, not gods. This might be explained by the fact that though they were known as excellent horse-breeders, they had to have been just as good at agriculture, since they were a settled population. And, despite common belief, even nomadic peoples could not go on without any agricultural activities.

Let me give an example from the history of my own people, the Hungarians - since this is what I know the best. They were a people of loosely allied tribes (seven in the legends, but there might be more, or even less), occupied primarily with animal husbandry, mostly horses. But they also had sheep and cattle - an especially tough sort of sheep and cattle, which could take really long trips through the steppes of Middle-Asia, where my people originated.

Now, all the families - and the word usually meant extended relations, something akin clans by other people - had two dwellings: one for the winter and one for the summer. Winter dwellings usually had some sort of houses (large, shallow holes dug in the earth, roofed with tree-branches), at least for the servants and slaves. The elite lived in so-called jurts: very big, round tents of thick broadcloth on a skeleton of wooden grating.

When the time came to move to the summer dwellings, these jurts were taken apart, put onto wagons (pulled by oxen) and built up again when they reached their summer home. It usually didn't take longer than a few hours, and it's said that in the largest of these jurts was enough room for several hundred people. I don't know whether this is true, though.

Corn (usually millet, because it grew quickly) was sowed and harvested in the summer dwelling area. Then, when they returned to the wintering grounds, they carried a great part of the harvested corn with them. Apparently, some herds and horse-masters remained on the summer pastures during the whole year, while the families spent the winter in more sheltered conditions. This was a custom our people kept for about two hundred years after they had come to the land that is called Hungary today, even though they had by then permanently settled here.

Now, this might be a somewhat forced Analogy to the Rohirrim, and I don't want to assume that there is much likeness between the two peoples. I only wanted to illustrate the fact that being a folk of horse-breeders does not automatically exclude having a well-developed agriculture.

And now back to Rohirric deities, as I made them up thanks to the Anglo-Saxons! I'll give a simple listing below, with short descriptions of the deity in question. Then I'll describe a few important festivals and give a list of the Rohirric (i.e.: Anglo-Saxon) names of the months.

II. The Pantheon of the Éothéod

NOTHGYTH (= the Old English goddess Nerthus)
She was the Earth Mother, called the Harvest Queen among the Rohirrim in the late Third Age. She looked after the fertility and well-being of man and beast (especially horses). The month dedicated to her was called Halig-monaţ (holy month), roughly equivalent to our September. This was a month of festivals in honour of Nothgyth in her aspect as giver.

The biggest festival was the Harvest Feast, when the last sheaf of the current harvest - the very symbol of the goddess - was clad in precious robes, impersonating the goddess herself, crowned with flowers and carried through the whole settlement on a richly adorned wagon, drawn by cows. After having much singing and drinking and dancing, the sheaf-puppet was buried in the freshly-turned Earth again, in order to secure fertility for another year.

Nothgyth originally had no husband in the Rohirric pantheon and was considered as the mythical mother of all Éothéod, since -according to ancient legends - she bore Eoh, the forefather of the horse-lords, after getting pregnant by swallowing a red berry in the forest. (1)

In the late Third Age, though - presumably under Gondorian influence - Nothgyth became partially identified with Yavanna, one of the Valier, even though her role in Rohirric beliefs and the ways she was worshipped changed only very little, if at all, through this identification.

FREA (alternate name: Frija)
Definitely a separate goddess, not just another aspect of Nothgyth.

She was usually associated with love, lust, yearning and friendship. Like her male counterpart, Fraec, her symbol was a wild boar, the shape of which her worshippers bore as an emblem of her rites. The boar symbolized more than weapons or human protection[SB1]: it was a guarantee that her followers were without fear even when surrounded by enemies.

Her Valar equivalent was Vána, the Ever-young, though only in her gentler aspects. Still, this was the closest analogy the Éothéod could find on the rare occasion when they were willing to discuss their beliefs with other people.

EOSTRE
Goddess of dawn, spring and new life. The Eostre-monaţ (Eostre's month), roughly our April, was dedicated to her, and she is especially celebrated during the Spring Festival. Her symbols are the hare and the egg, both seen as symbols of rebirth and the spring. Like the old English, the Éothéod - at least as long as they lived in the North - actually believed that hares laid eggs, since the hare's ''scratch'' and a lapwing nest look the same and are both forst seen in the spring.

Valar equivalent: probably Nessa, but only from afar. No real likenesses here, I'm afraid.

HREDA (alternate name: Hređ)
A wálcyrie (valkyrie) and goddess of the winter.

Hređ-monaţ (Hreda's month) was dedicated to her, which is our March, approximately, as the last month of the winter. Sacrifices were made to her in this month.

Valar equivalent: Nienna might be the closest, but still far from accurate.

These were the most important goddesses; now we go to the gods.

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TIR BLAED (= the Old English god Tir; blaed simply means glory)
God of glory and honour, and a favourite among warriors. The first rune of his name (a primitive variation of the cirth the Northmen used occasionally) was frequently used as a charm of protection. The Éothéod didn't use written language a lot, but still remembered the runes of their forefathers.

Considered to be the husband of Hređ.
Valar equivalent: probably Tulkas.

BÉMA (= the Old English god Woden)
The most important of the three know gods of the Rohirric pantheon. Unlike his Anglo-Saxon counterpart, he had nothing to do with magic or shamanism (the Éothéod had no use for such things and were extremely suspicious towards anything supernatural), but was the protector of horses and herds, the patron of hunters and the Lord of the Wild Hunt.

The Rohirric concept of the Wild Hunt is slightly different from that of the German or Nose mythology. The souls of dead warriors didn't ride to some equivalent of Valhalla but were supposed to hunt evil spirits with Béma in the enchanted forests, while waiting for the last battle against the returning Dark Lord. So, the Éothéod definitely did have some idea of the Dagor Dagorath - just a different one than the Elves or the Dúnedain.

Béma is considered to be the husband of Eostre, which doesn't match the Oromë-analogy, of course. But the Rohirrim never really cared for the Valar and made their analogies only in order to help their allies to understand their ways.

Valar equivalent: Oromë, of course (since this is a canon fact), but also Mandos, to a lesser extent.

THUNOR
Also popular among warriors; but more so among craftsmen (not all Rohirrim were horse-breeders alone). His commonest symbol was not the hammer, as many believe, but the fylfot cross, which symbolised the four main winds as well as the shield of a mounted warrior.

In the pantheon of the Éothéod Thunor had no wife.
Valar equivalent: Aulë, most likely, though it is a very loose analogy.

FRAEC (= the Old English god Frey)
Although his usual symbol - the boar - is commonly associated with warriors, Fraec was actually a fertility god, ruler of rain and sunshine and thus of the produce of the earth. He was not counted among the three major deities, however, and there is much doubt whether he truly was a separate entity (in some legends Frea's brother, in others her husband) or simply the male aspect of an originally female deity. It was considered unwise to ask any of the Rohirrim about him, for they usually reacted rather badly to such questions.

Valar equivalent: probably Irmo (Lórien).

LESSER DEITIES
The folklore of the Éothéod was densely populated with the most wondrous entities of which only a few are named in the chronicles.

ELVES
Yes, Elves - or, to be more accurate, faeries - were originally part of the pantheon of the early Northmen. Which probably explains the supertitious fear of the Rohirrim of the Golden Wood and their general mistrust towards Elves in the Third Age. There are legends among them that tell about Elven spirits taking possession of the bodies of Rohirric warriors, in order to continue living after their bodies were killed. (At least according to Michael Martinez. We don't have to buy it.)

ETTINS
Ettins are trolls, basically. Since these monsters survived into the Fourth Age (presumably), it's small wonder that the Rohirrim had legends and tales about them. Their superior size and strength could make them look like lesser (and most evil) deities in the eyes of the early Northmen.

WÁLCYRIAN
The valkyrie are only mentioned as the escort of Hređ, who was their queen. The shieldmaidens of the Rohirrim usually chose a patron among them.

OTHER ENTITIES
In very old legends - primarily those about Fram, the Dragon Slayer - mention is made of small, sprite-like creatures like the earth-wights and the moss-wives. The only thing that is know about them is that they were about one foot tall and they could be bribed into helping people - but everyone did well not to anger them, for they could be very mischievous.

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The Éothéod had no temples or shrines in the common sense of the word. Their sacred places were groves or woodland glades mostly, where they held the great feasts of the year in the presence of the whole clan or family.

Also, they had no priests or priestesses of any sort. All ceremonies were performed by the head of the given Clan, House or family, with the single distinction that the feasts of the goddesses were celebrated by the eldest mother and the feasts of the gods by the highest-ranking male family member.

The analogies to the Valar are made by me, based completely on superficial likenesses. The only Vala who is ever mentioned by Tolkien in context with the Rohirrim is Oromë (Béma).

III. The Major Feasts of the Year

Some of the following descriptions are directly quoted from the above-mentioned source about the religion of the pagan Anglo-Saxons. I only changed the spelling of a few names (to get rid of some letters that might not show up in an html file) and deleted modern-time references. Please remember that everything that is in quotes in not my creation.

''The year of the Éothéod was full of religious significance, and was divided into only two seasons: summer and winter. These were divided by moon-lives (months), six to each season; but the year was governed by the sun. The two greatest festivals were at the two Solstices, Midsummer (Litha) and Midwinter (Geola or Yule). These times were so important that each was ''guarded' by two moons: Éarra Litha (the month before Midsummer) and Áftera Litha (the month after Midsummer) - June and July, and Éarra Geola and Áftera Geola flanking Midwinter - December and January.

At Yule-tide (which was the first day of their new year - author's note) warriors made their vows for the coming year on a sacrificial boar. The boar's head had the place of honour at Yule-tide feasts'' - and its processional entry into the feasting-hall was greeted with a hymn to Hređ, the goddess of winter.

''Winter began with the first full moon in October and was called Winterfylleţ. November was Blot-monaţ (Blood-month or the month of sacrifice) when the winter slaughtering of livestock took place and feasts were held in honour of the gods, to whom many of the livestock were sacrificed. [...] The Midwinter festival, the most sacred night, when the new year began, was called Modranect - Mothers' night. [...] The ceremonies which took place then'' were associated with the birth of Eoh, the mythical ancestor of all Éothéod, born by Nothgyth, the Earth Mother.

February was called Sol-monaţ - mud-month, probably [beacuse of the] weather at this time of year. [...] Also called the 'month of cakes', which the Éothéod offered to the gods in that month. ''Ploughing had begun, and the cakes were [actually] the loaves placed in the first furrow as an offering to [Nothgyth] for a good harvest.''

IV. The Listing of Months

For better understanding, I listed them up accoding to our modern calendar. All these names, too, were adopted from the Anglecynn website.

January = Áftera Geola

February = Sol-monaţ

March = Hređ-monaţ

April = Eostre-monaţ

May = Tri-milce (three milkings)
Called thusly because of that time of year there was such abundance that cattle were milked three times a day - probably a mythical reference to the ''golden days'' when the forefathers of the Éothéod lived in the fertile valleys of Anduin.

June = Éarra Litha

Midsummer rituals involwed the lighting of bonfires, with singing and dancing all night. Many weddings were performed in this night.

July = Áftera Litha

August = Weod-monaţ
Called weed-month because the weed grew most in this month.

September = Halig-monaţ (dedicated to Nothgyth, the Earth-mother)

October = Winterfylleţ (winter-begin)

November = Blood-monaţ

December = Éarra Geola

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Based on: Anglo-Saxon Society: Pagan Religion of the Anglo-Saxons
See: http://www.angelcynn.org.uk/society_religion.html
The wonderful people who created that site own all the copyrights. I just borrowed from them to play a little with my favourite horseboys.

(1) This is actually an old pagan Finnish legend from the great folk epos Kalevala. One of the heroines, Marjatta, got pregnant by swallowing some red berry.