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from-the-coffee-shop-in-edoras · 1 month

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Religion in Rohan

On the recommendation of @sotwk and on the off chance that others find this interesting or useful, here is another summary of some of the background head canons that support how I think of Rohan when I'm writing stories set there. This one is about religion, for lack of a better term, and covers at a high level what they think about gods, the afterlife, etc. and the influence of that on their culture. I fine-tuned some of this recently as part of a back-and-forth with others, and it's (hopefully?) more interesting than my pages of thoughts about changes in Rohan's horse breeding economy over time (the TL;DR there is that Théoden’s grandfather created crown-sponsored horse breeding enterprises to better supply the expanding army, but that ended up forcing some of the traditional horse breeding families into poverty)! Anywho...

Most of what we know about the religious history of Middle Earth (the full Silmarillion-style recounting of Eru, the Valar, the making of the world, etc.) comes via the elves and Númenóreans. But the Northmen ancestors of the Rohirrim didn’t really interact much with these groups, and so their knowledge of that history was limited to what they directly experienced themselves or what filtered through to them in sometimes irregular ways. This means their belief system, which is what became the Rohirrim belief system, is a mix of those Silmarillion-style ideas plus concepts they picked up in other places and some homegrown beliefs and practices.

For example, the Rohirrim don’t make a real distinction between Eru and the Valar. To them, they’re all “the gods” who made the world and are of roughly equal power and importance (though they are particularly attached to one as further discussed below).

They also recognize fewer of the Valar than others do, having a stripped down set of 7 associated with earth, sky, water, plants/animals, battle/protection, weather, and all things to do with the spirit/soul (roughly corresponding to the Silm’s Aulë, Varda, Ulmo, Yavanna, Oromë, Vána and Eru). The compression of all the spirit-based Valar into just one likely happened because these Valar almost never left Valinor and so the evidence of their separate existence for those who had never been there was tenuous at best. Although the Rohirrim gods have spheres of influence as denoted above, the lines between these gods are porous and they might all be involved in anything. They also each have their own Rohirric names.

The Rohirrim don’t practice their beliefs in a form that is anything like organized religion – no formal rites, ceremonies, prayers, etc. They simply pass down beliefs from generation to generation, and individuals or families may all have different ways of expressing those beliefs (or may choose not to express them in any sense). The primary purpose of their beliefs is to explain the world as they see it around them (How was the world created? Where did this storm come from? etc.). People may appeal to a certain god for help in difficult times or they may give thanks to a god for luck or fortune, but they also believe direct, purposeful intervention by a god in the real world is extremely limited since the War of Wrath and the end of the First Age. This causes the Rohirrim to put a lot of weight on both living honorably and taking care of your community, because there probably is no god coming to help you – you can only help each other.

Unlike the Gondorians, who think the ultimate fate of mortals beyond the world is unknown, the Rohirrim believe in a very specific afterlife. They believe the gods come to collect the dead and reunite them with their families so that they can “live” a second existence together with one another (the so-called “halls of our fathers”). Anyone who doesn’t deserve admittance to their family’s halls is put in service of the spirit/soul god until they’ve earned their honor back through deeds.

The Rohirrim are particularly attached to their god that is the Valar Oromë the huntsman, who they call Béma and associate with both battle and protection. He was a great favorite of the Northmen, and this connection was passed on through time to the Rohirrim.

They believe that, just as he did for the earliest elves, Béma rode among early men. They don’t care that the elves and Gondorians don’t believe this happened; they will not be swayed and say that he came in disguise, which is why others didn’t recognize him. They further believe that Béma chose their ancestors among early men to be his loyal foot soldiers in the fight against the evil creatures of the world. He asked for their aid, and they granted it. This established a firm belief among them that coming to the aid of an ally against evil is a sacred duty, never to be refused or ignored when requested in good faith.

As his allies, Béma bestowed horses on them, and the most treasured and best of those horses (the mearas) are thought to be descendants of Béma’s own horse, Hnaegan (whose elvish name, Nahar, is meant to evoke the sound of neighing and so the Rohirrim call him by the Rohirric word for “neigh”). Because Béma always hunted and fought on horseback and usually announced his arrival through the blowing of his great horn, the Rohirrim inherited these same practices from their ancestors.

Béma also influenced the disposition of the people, who adopted his very stern personality and his tendency to pursue thankless duty with grim determination. Showing Béma-like strength and persistence in the face of insurmountable odds is considered one of the very highest demonstrations of character in Rohan, akin to a religious virtue.

While their reverence for Béma shaped many significant elements of Rohirric culture and identity, they also ask/hope for his intervention in times of crisis. As a huntsman, they leave him small offerings of spear heads or bridle bits when they most hope that he will come to their aid, and the phrases “Béma protect us” or “thank Béma” are common parts of the lexicon – as noted above, they don’t necessarily *expect* Béma will show up and intervene, but it doesn’t hurt to ask!

Although their focus is Béma, the Rohirrim also give some primacy of place to his wife, whose name is Vána in the Silmarillion and is called Ácith in Rohan as the rough translation of her epithet “Ever-young”. She’s associated with the weather and turning of the seasons. Much like the other peoples of Middle Earth, the Rohirrim say that flowers bloom in Ácith’s wake as she walks through the world, which she does at the end of each winter to usher in the spring. The Rohirrim also believe that the consistent and otherwise unexplained appearance of simbelmynë on their graves is evidence that Ácith has been there to personally escort the dead to the halls of their fathers. The Rohirric expression that someone “went with Ácith” means that they died.

Other common Rohirric expressions with religious roots: “the light of Hnaegan” (a sign of hope in a bad situation, deriving from the sparks of light that came from Nahar’s golden hooves and were the first light in the world after Morgoth killed the trees); “you’re going to hear Béma’s horn” (you really fucked up and are about to experience someone’s wrath); and “to earn the hall” (doing something good and honorable that would earn your place in the afterlife halls of your fathers).

#lotr #lord of the rings #tolkien #head canons #rohan #religion in middle earth #things no one asked for but i have them nonetheless

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chaifootsteps · 4 months

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RE: https://www.tumblr.com/chaifootsteps/738549834040180736/not-gonna-lie-ive-always-been-bothered-by?source=share

Hi Jewish person here,

Originally, I was willing to tolerate Lilith's presence in a similar way to how I tolerate the inclusion (and often EXTREME mishandling of) golems in video games. But that was also back when Lilith was just going to be the Morticia to Luci's Gomez and only tangentially involved in the narrative.

I.E. before she became a major part of the plot that would draw a LOT of attention to her as a character/cultural figure.

So aside from the implied blood libel in the Rosie situation (which is truly beyond heinous and completely inexcusable) something I do now genuinely worry about is goyim being INSPIRED by Viv. There will no doubt be people who watch this series and then also ignorantly yoink Lilith out of her original culture and context to use her in their BS Xtian girlboss nonsense until she isn't even VIEWED as a Jewish figure anymore.

There's a reason I made the golem comparison above: they've become SO normalized in fantasy video games that almost all goyim I talk to who know about golem are unaware of the fact they ARE Jewish in origin. They just see them as default fantasy rock monsters because they've been reused and repackaged so much outside of their cultural/religious contexts that goyim see them as "free real estate" for their own stories and never bothering to actually learn about them.

AKA: Exactly what Xtians (both religious and non-religious/cultural Xtians) do to Jewish traditions ALL THE DAMN TIME.

To the goyim reading this: no, I'm not saying you can't use Jewish culture, religion, historical figures, or folktales in your stories/art, but FFS, actually acknowledge the origin and do your damn research. It's just basic "Respecting Other People's Cultures 101".

Appreciate the perspective, Anon. Respecting other people's cultures by giving them more than eight seconds of research is about the easiest thing anyone can do, but Viv's demonstrated time and time again that she's unwilling to do that.

#Anonymous #viv stuff #actual blog post #hazbin hotel critical

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normal-horoscopes · 2 years

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You're the only occultist I trust to talk to about this. Occultists have been the biggest headache for Jewish people, and the more time goes on, the more frustrated I get. So many people in Wicca are saying they're going to try and de-colonize it, try to separate it from its appropriation, which (depending on your flavor of Wicca) can be pretty heavily entwined in the religion. Why do I not see occultists doing the same? Like...There is nothing stopping them from using Latin in place of Hebrew for "magic language"; both were used heavily in Abrahamic religions. And Kabbalah....No one has ever explained to me why occultists can't start doing the work, why they HAVE to keep their precious Jewish symbols and mysticism in their craft. I get "Well it's just so heavily twisted in occultism, can't untangle it now!" But why not?? Someone explain to me why it is absolutely impossible to ask these occultists to stop appropriating Jewish stuff.

Even if it is impossible, what is stopping them from starting over, making their own ceremonies and rituals? If it's a sense of tradition, then aren't they falling into the same traps as orthodox Christians, prioritizing "the old way is the right way" over others feelings?

Please explain to me why.

I offer the burn of frustration and the sizzling of lakes.

This is really just a personal opinion, so it's not like I have data to back it up, but I think many people get into wicca and other magico-religious practices because they want to be involved in a religious community, but want to reject Christianity for one reason or another. Which is understandable.

When ends up happening a lot of the time is that people seek familiarity in their new religions, and end up recreating Christianity in every way that matters but with a vague patina of wands and herb jar spread over the top. People want to escape their Christian upbringing, but are hamstrung by that Christian worldview. Christians specifically are brought up to think that every religion is basically just Christianity but slightly different. It's an extremely difficult worldview to escape.

I'm not free from this either. I wasn't even raised Christian, but it feels like every day I have to unlearn religious ideas defined by Christianity, or at least make a conscious effort to expand my understanding beyond what I thought was universal.

This ends up causing problems in that Christianity has a very different relationship to language than Judaism. As a non-jew, I'm not sure I could accurately describe the relationship between Hebrew and Judaism, but many neopagans seem to think that Hebrew is to Judaism as Latin is to Christianity; just an old language that the holy text was printed in. People don't understand how deeply important Hebrew is to Judaism.

I can't really blame them, the relationship of Latin and Christianity is the only context many people have for the relationship between language and religion. I can't blame them, but I can encourage them to learn.

Now, this is just the perspective of an Occultist who was raised atheistically in a Christian culture, I'm also going to ping my colleague @will-o-the-witch if they have any input.

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