Timeline Event
Éomer imprisoned by the counsel of Gríma Wormtongue
Event Type: General
Age: 3rd Age - Ring War
Date: March 1, 3019
Description:
An event in the aftermath of the Attack on the Orc-raiders at Fangorn; see that entry for an overall timeline:
'You speak justly, lord,' said the pale man sitting upon the steps of the dais. 'It is not yet five days since the bitter tidings came that Théodred your son was slain upon the West Marches: your right hand, Second Marshal of the Mark. In Éomer there is little trust. Few men would be left to guard your walls, if he had been allowed to rule.'
The Two Towers, LoTR Book 3, Ch 6, The King of the Golden Hall
[Said Gandalf,] 'Do I not guess rightly that you hold [Éomer] prisoner, by the counsel of Gríma, of him that all save you name the Wormtongue?'
'It is true,' said Théoden. 'He had rebelled against my commands, and threatened death to Gríma in my hall.'
The Two Towers, LoTR Book 3, Ch 6, The King of the Golden Hall
In times of war or unquiet each Marshal of the Mark had under his immediate orders, as part of his "household"... an éored ready for battle which he could use in an emergency at his own discretion. This was what Éomer had in fact done;1 but the charge against him, urged by Gríma, was that the King had in this case forbidden him to take any of the still uncommitted forces of the East-mark from Edoras, which was insufficiently defended; that he knew of the disaster of the Fords of Isen and the death of Théodred before he pursued the Orcs into the remote Wold; and that he had also against general orders allowed strangers to go free, and had even lent them horses.
Unfinished Tales, Part 3, Ch 5, The Battles of the Fords of Isen: Appendix
Notes
1 I.e., when Éomer pursued the Orcs, captors of Meriadoc and Peregrin, who had come down into Rohan from the Emyn Muil. The words that Éomer used to Aragorn were: 'I led forth my éored, men of my own household' (The Two Towers III 2).
Unfinished Tales, Part 3, Ch 5, The Battles of the Fords of Isen: Appendix
Contributors:
Elena Tiriel 13Jan05, 5Feb05
