The Marshals of the Mark faithfully serve the King by leading their trained Riders in battle; Matt faithfully serves Alan by… well, we’re still figuring that one out. Join The Man of the West and The Nerd of the Rings as they dive into the inner workings of Rohan’s command structure in our final episode on The Battles of the Fords of Isen from Unfinished Tales. Turns out Théoden was pretty young as far as Kings of Rohan go, Éomer gets all the duties of a job without its title, and it turns out keeping the key to a fortress hundreds of miles away doesn’t work out so well. We spend more time with French than we’re comfortable with, issue extra pedantry points, and speculate about all the terrible things that would have happened had Gandalf stayed dead. Also, Alan alarmingly (and annoyingly) alliterates again.
Recommended Reading
The Return of the King: Being the Third Part of the Lord of the Rings
Tolkien, J. R. R. (William Morrow, paperback)
Unfinished Tales of Númenor and Middle-earth
Tolkien, J. R. R. (Christopher Tolkien, ed.) (Mariner Books, paperback)
The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien
Carpenter, Humphrey ed. (William Morrow, paperback)
The Lord of the Rings: A Reader’s Companion
Scull, Christina & Wayne Hammond (William Morrow, hardcover)
