#I have 99 problems and all of them are the Rohirrim | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

elfwines · 10 years

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because I haven't written any proper headcanons in a while, here comes (since I keep staring at that Thor gif and snickering to myself)

canonically we know Théoden was born in Gondor and I seem to recall he spent his youth there (though if the dates on Tolkien Gateway hold true, his father Thengel became king when he was five)

I can't find any canon explanation on this so instead I've developed my own, and that is Théoden was sent to Gondor for a while when he was young, because Thengel just really really liked their culture (which could stem from the bad relationship he had with his father -- maybe he had come to resent Rohirric culture on some level) and wanted his son raised and educated in their ways

my head canon goes Théoden lived with this formidable aunt figure who was pretty stern about things, so his boyhood/adolescent years were spent strictly in studies and battle-training and whatnot. so when he returns to Rohan (in my mind he's still pretty young, maybe not in his twenties yet) he's in many ways pretty innocent still.

when he returns he meets and befriends this lad who happens to be a marshal's son. Éomund is his name, and he has been sent to live in Edoras for a while because his father thinks it's going to make him take things more seriously and grow the fuck up. Age-wise Éomund is probably somewhere between Théoden and Théodwyn but to say he's in any way innocent would be very very wrong. But even then he's good-natured and wouldn't wish ill for anyone, and that's why he and Théoden and Éomund become friends.

and because Théoden has lived this sheltered life in Gondor he has no idea what goes around in taverns or how to hold one's ale, and when they're young men it turns out Éomund will have to carry him home many a night, and that's how the Marshal's son eventually meets Théodwyn (plus together they probably smuggle the unconscious Théoden into Meduseld more than just once)

it's several years before they really get interested in each other, though. that only comes when Éomund's father dies and he has to man up, and after he has proved himself a good man even Queen Morwen gives consent for "that impossible boy" to marry her beloved youngest child.

#Éomund #Théodwyn #Théoden #headcanon #I have 99 problems and all of them are the Rohirrim

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