When you think of The Lord of the Rings, what comes to mind first? For me, it’s always been the people.
Tolkien’s series abounds with meaningful and memorable characters, one of the many features that have captured readers’ hearts over generations. Really, beyond the journey and the battles and the magic, it’s a story about people—the bonds they share, the losses they suffer, and the lengths to which they’ll go to fight for what they believe.
In the early 2000’s, when Peter Jackson adapted the books for the silver screen, that story reached a whole new audience. Including pre-teen me—I watched The Fellowship of the Ring at my brother’s prompting, stole the untouched books off his shelf and devoured them, and counted down the days until the second and third films were released. (The trailer for The Return of the King remains one of the best movie trailers of all time, and I absolutely will not entertain thoughts to the contrary.)
Between Samwise’s loyalty, Aragorn’s wisdom, and Gandalf’s sharp tongue, it would be easy to believe one of the main characters has the best lines of dialogue in Peter Jackson’s cinematic trilogy, right?
Wrong.
[King Théoden has entered the chat.]
The King of Rohan. Lord of the Riddermark. (Puppet of Saruman that one time he was vaguely possessed, but we don’t need to dwell on that.) In which other character will one find the perfect combination of inspirational regal stoicism and total dad energy?
No other.
He could have given into despair and let his people feed off his pessimism instead of standing tall in the face of evil. He didn’t. He could have left another to lead the charge into battle, could have bowed to the might of the Two Towers without a fight. He did not. When the beacons were lit, he bloody well answered, didn’t he?
Now, credit where credit is due—the words themselves are fantastic, but Bernard Hill is the one who brings them to life. His intonation, his facial expressions—good lord, that man commits, and it is awesome. Yes, I love when Gandalf talks about making the most of the time given to us, and of course, my heart lifts near to bursting when the music swells and Samwise tells Frodo, “I can carry you.” But when all is said and done, Théoden’s scenes in the films have an overwhelming tendency to make my throat pinch tight with emotion and my fist fly into the air.
So that we may all see the light, I’ve compiled my list of Théoden’s top five moments in the movie trilogy. I recommend watching the films as soon as possible to get the lines’ full impact—complete with music, costumes, thundering hooves, the whole works. (Extended editions only, of course.)
All hail, Théoden King.
Théoden: So much death. What can men do against such reckless hate?
Aragorn: Ride out with me. Ride out and meet it.
Sweeping in toward the end of the Battle of Helm’s Deep, this is one of those brilliant sets of lines which transcend time and place; they are just as applicable in a secondary fantasy world as in the real one, hundreds of years ago or today. In the face of hatred, ignorance, and cruelty, what can any of us do but ride out and meet it? Soon enough, Théoden embraces Aragorn’s advice in the most epic way:
Théoden: The horn of Helm Hammerhand shall sound in the deep one last time. Let this be the hour when we draw swords together. Fell deeds awake. Now for wrath, now for ruin, and the red dawn. Forth Èorlingas!
I mean. COME ON. If you are able to reach the end of this rallying cry and not shout Forth Èorlingas! alongside Théoden while pumping your fist in the air, I am sorry to say you possess a heart of stone. These lines and the scene that follows take my breath away every time.
Théoden: They will break upon this fortress like water upon rock… Crops can be resewn, homes rebuilt. Within these walls, we will outlast them.
Aragorn: They do not come to destroy Rohan’s crops or villages, they come to destroy its people—down to the last child.
Théoden: What would you have me do? Look at my men. Their courage hangs by a thread. If this is to be our end, then I would have them make such an end as to be worthy of remembrance.
Before leaving Helm’s Deep, I would be remiss if I did not include this exchange. I love, I love, how Théoden turns this moment on its head. Here we are, accustomed to taking Aragorn’s side and expecting him to be in the right. And yet—in this, he misjudges Théoden. Théoden is no fool, not falsely optimistic or naïve. He is providing the show of strength his people need, choosing to offer a shred of morale instead of despair, even when so little hope remains. It’s a beautiful example of leadership at its best.
Théoden: Take up my seat in the Golden Hall. Long may you defend Edoras if the battle goes ill.
Éowyn: What other duty would you have me do, my lord?
Théoden: Duty? No. I would have you smile again, not grieve for those whose time has come. You shall live to see these days renewed. No more despair.
In my opinion, this is one of Théoden’s most moving scenes in the films. It’s dawn before the Battle of the Pelennor Fields. The sun has just begun to rise, the sky aglow, much as it was the morning Théoden rode out from Helm’s Deep. Here, once more, Théoden stands on the edge of battle, and once more, he does not expect to return.
There’s something beautiful about the quietness of this scene. That amidst the burden of leadership, the current circumstances’ smothering tension, and the near certainty of death to come, he takes time to speak to his niece—not as a king to his heir, but as family. Théoden is so wonderfully human, and this scene showcases that dimension in a new and memorable way.
Aragorn: Gondor calls for aid.
Théoden: And Rohan will answer.
What a brilliantly simple pair of lines to follow the beacons being lit. Not only do they pack a huge punch, eight little words to end a sweeping cinematic sequence spanning grand landscapes and dramatic orchestration, but also—they encompass one of the series’ important questions. Will you follow another’s poor example and sink into past hurts, or will you rise and do better?
Arise, arise, riders of Théoden! Spears shall be shaken, shields shall be splintered! A sword day, a red day, ere the sun rises! Ride now! Ride now! Ride! Ride for ruin and the world’s ending! Death! Death! Death! Forth Èorlingas!
Oh, Théoden. How do you manage to give the most amazing rallying speeches before leading your people into battle? (Yes, I cry for, “It is not this day,” I’m not a heathen—but that is for a separate list, another day.) The Battle of the Pelennor Fields has begun. Théoden is shouting at the top of his lungs, cantering Snowmane down the line and scraping his sword across dozens of spears. You know that incredibly moving moment in the book, when a rooster crows in Minas Tirith just as all seems lost, because morning has come regardless? Rohan’s horns call back, and we’re reminded that hope still remains. For me, this speech and the charge it spurs come close to matching that image’s power. It’s simply perfection.
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Elayne Audrey Becker (she/her) is a storyteller with a passion for history, myth, mountains, and magic. She holds a B.A. from Vassar College and a master of science from the University of Aberdeen, and she has worked as an editor at a New York publisher. Born and raised in Georgia, she grew up with a lake and woods as her backyard, spending long days outside and visiting national parks with her family. Forestborn is her first book.
The pregnant pause between ‘Gondor calls for aid’ and ‘And Rohan will answer’ is the stuff of legends.
If this passage doesn’t bring you to tears of joy every time you read The Lord of the Rings you are doing it wrong:
“And as if in answer there came from far away another note. Horns, horns, horns. In dark Mindolluin’s sides they dimly echoed. Great horns of the North wildly blowing. Rohan had come at last.”
Okay, I have to admit Bernard Hill is magnificent as Théoden. It is, without a doubt, his second greatest role.
His greatest role was that of Joe Bradshaw in Shirley Valentine. On this point, I will brook no discussion.
“Death! Ride, ride to ruin and the world’s ending!” Éomer in the books but Théoden in the films. As if he needed more badass lines.
If you watch the extra stuff on the extended DVDs/ Blu Rays of RotK, you learn that the whole Theoden hitting the Rohirrim spears with his sword while shouting ‘Ride, Riders of Theoden, ride, for Ruin and the World’s Ending!’ was actually Bernard Hill’s idea.
That makes him even more awesome in this role.
The scene and lines that always hit me are when Eowyn finds him dying after she killed the Witch King:
Theoden:
I know your face… Eowyn. My eyes darken.
Eowyn:
No, no. I’m going to save you
Theoden:
You already did… Eowyn. My body is broken. You have to let me go. I go to my fathers, in whose mighty company I shall not now feel ashamed. Eowyn…
Ok, time to watch these movies again!
Theoden’s big battle speech. I must confess that I would’ve been that awkward rider of Rohan.
Theoden: Ride now! Ride now! Ride! Ride for ruin and the world’s ending! Death! Death! Death! Forth Èorlingas!
Me: Now, just to clarify, you mean the death of our enemies? And that it’s their ruin and their world ending? Am I right guys? Sir? I mean, Sire? Your grace? It’s their death, right?
Yes! So much this. Théoden, as portrayed by Bernard Hill is sooo good.
For me it has to be the way he delivers the “I know your face.” line in ROTK. Wonderful call back to first seeing Eowyn after Saruman’s spell, back in Two Towers. It hits very hard…
Also, bonus points for the seething stare to Gríma before he gets thrown out of Meduseld. And doesn’t need to utter a single line.
My favorite scene with Théoden is when he’s talking to Gandalf about Simbelmynë and the emotion that he has over having to bury his son:
Théoden: “Simbelmynë, ever has it grown on the tombs of my forebears. Now it shall cover the grave of my son. Alas, that these evil days should be mine. The young perish and the old linger. That I should live to see the last days of my house.”
Gandalf: “Théodred’s death was not of your making.”
Théoden: “No parent should have to bury their child.”
[Théoden starts to cry and covers his face.]
Gandalf: “He was strong in life. His spirit will find its way to the halls of your fathers.”
Gets me every time.
Gets me even reading the lines on a screen 20 years later.
“Where now the horse and the rider? Where is the horn that was blowing?
They have passed like rain on the mountain, like a wind in the meadow;
The days have gone down in the West behind the hills into shadow.”
No comparison between 9 and 10. When the movie came out, I was still a stickler for proper number in our possessive pronouns, and Tolkien would have rolled. Since then, epicene and non-gender pronouns have become common, but at the time? I was one of those who mocked unmercifully.
But Tolkien’s evokation of Old English poetry? Oh, yeah! What a stunning scene!
I love Theoden as a character (in the movies, at least) because he shows how not only Elvish-descended supermen like Aragorn can be numbered among the great kings of Men at the end of the Third Age. After Saruman’s spell is broken and he regains his senses he really shows how he truly was his people’s king every single step of the way until he falls in battle. He is a warrior but he’s a poet too, he leads his armies from the front and commands them during battle, he respects other lords and his common folk and treats people with compassion and kindness. I remember clearly the scene when they arrive at Helm’s Deep after all the common folk have made it there and he and his warriors stayed behind fighting the warg riders, and when Eowyn greets him and remarks that so few made it back as he dismounts from his horse he immediately turns to help one of the other riders to dismount. It always stuck with me how the first thing he did after having made sure he and his men shielded his people is to turn and assist one of his warriors in climbing down from his horse in full armor. And from what we saw during the movies, he obviously raised and taught both Eowyn and Eomer, and I’d assume Theodred, to behave in the exact same way.
In late August 2020, at the height of Covid, my adult son and I got tickets for an 11:30 weekday showing of The Return of the King. We were the only ones in the theatre, and we felt like we were doing something decadent and delicious. We were out of our minds with excitement at the start of the movie: “We’re going to Mordor!” we said! We screamed and yelled as it played, both of us breaking into tears multiple times. What an absolutely exceptional way to spend a few hours. Pretty darn close to Bliss……
Great article! My 11-year-old daughter is a huge Tolkien fan – she’s read the Silmarillion multiple times and could probably match Stephen Colbert in terms of Tolkien trivia. And so one of my favorite moments of the past year was watching the Ride of the Rohirrim with her in a movie theater this past summer. When Theoden rallied the Rohirrim and shouted “Death,” just about the entire theater returned his call by shouting “Death” back. It was an amazing, electric moment – one of the greatest film-viewing experiences I’ve ever had.
#10
That’s what I came here to mention. Man, Theoden has some moving moments in Two Towers. That little poem makes me shiver every time. Crying at Theodred’s burial. His near-hopeless face and vocal inflection in the keep right before Aragorn convinces him to ride out. Really Bernard Hill has such a distinctive delivery as Theoden that almost all his lines are memorable. I can hear them even now.
I wasn’t sure I agreed with the thesis of this article when I saw the title but the argument has swayed me.
@7: in the book, those lines are spoken by Eomer after he discovers Theoden and his sister Eowyn dead (or so he thinks). He’s not rallying the troops so much as expressing his own rage and despair.
And as a generalization, I would say that Tolkien’s writing is best when it’s closest to the Norse literature he studied so thoroughly. Which would be the Riders of Rohan.
My favorite Theoden scene is when Gandalf evicts Saruman from him. The change in him when it happens always gets to me. Then when he picks up his sword. Bernard Hill is a great actor. I truly believe his portrayal of Captain Smith in Titanic was spot on. I’d like to think that’s how Smith chose to go down.
Yes, but can Théoden sing like Aragorn or Pippin?
@7
Theoden: You! Who asks so? You understand this a futile gesture of defiance? Would rather die on your feet or on your knees? For we die either way.
The reading of the ride of the Rohirrim by Tolkien himself always gives me chills: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G6jhKEqtLxM
Theoden’s best moment in the movies doesn’t even have dialogue. The Rohirrim come over the hill at Pelennor and Theoden looks down to see ALL THOSE MILLIONS OF ORCS. He realizes “we’re all going to die” for one brief moment, then decides “to hell with it. We’re attacking. ”
All that in Bernard Hill’s expressions. What great acting.
Another great Theoden moment, albeit one without words: In “The Two Towers,” when they are all standing on the battlements of Helm’s Deep, watching the orc army approach, and it starts to rain, he doesn’t say anything, but his expression is clearly, “Oh, that’s just what else we needed now.”
Yes,. Bernard Hill is a master of non-verbal communication. You can see him recognize Aragorn as his Father’s captain when Aragorn stops him from killing Wormtongue. And you can see him remembering how Wormtongue controlled him when Gandalf urges advice on him.
Théoden’s toast “Hail the victorious dead” is about as Anglo-Saxon as you can get without actually being personally present at the Battle of Maldon.
Yep. Sitting here in tears. Never fails.
@21 – When I saw that scene in the theaters, I was not very familiar with the books. My initial impression was confusion: what a weird thing to yell at your soldiers before battle. Now it makes sense that it was the wrong character and the wrong setting.
“And Rohan will answer,” is made great by the fact that it comes after Hill nailing the desperate fury of “Where was Gondor when the Westfold fell?” in the previous movie. All that pain and betrayal crosses Theoden’s face as he thinks that all he has to do to get his revenge is absolutely nothing, before his better angels reassert themselves and he answers.
Truly the perfect actor for the role.
@17, Tolkien was certainly well-acquainted with the Norse tales, but his specialty was Anglo-Saxon. The Rohirrim are essentially Anglo-Saxons on horseback. Their poetic forms and even some specific words are straight out of A-S. “Simbelmynë” is an example. It originally referred to the leader of a memorial ritual, so it’s something like ‘memory-keeper’, making it very apt for the flower.
Loathe and detest the movies. They leave out key characters in the books, then have to cobble together new stuff to explain later actions that those omitted characters set in motion. Example: Tom Bombadil, who gives the sword that will later on kill one of the Nazgul. Then there’s the hundreds of pages of the books simply left out of the movies, which end with Aragorn’s crowning. Also, the Appendices in the books have more history and background simply deleted so that the films can end on a high note.
#31 Jackson had to make choices to make the films watchable. I think the films are actually better, more engaging and more moving than the books, and I love the books.
#5 That was the scene that immediately occurred to me after reading the headline of this article. One of my three favorite lines of the films, the other two being:
“My friends, you bow to no one.”
and
“I am no man.”
Théoden King has always been my favorite character of the three films. This article and comments cover many of the reasons why.
When I left the theatre after RotK, I said that of all the royalty in the films, Theoden was the only one who made me believe he was a king.
Theoden is a legend, and his dialogue certainly reflects it. You’ve highlighted some of my favorites, but I think the dialogue most indicative of his character comes in the form of mercy after the fall of Isengard. However, in my opinion the best dialogue in the series comes from the ents. Be it Treebeard lamenting that nobody is on the side of the trees, or dichotomy of Quickbeam the impulsive ent, I believe that while less than epic, the dialogue of the trees has the most impactful message of the trilogy.
@1 – That pregnant pause is long enough that, the first time I saw it, I realized it was taking a while to respond, then mentally said to myself “very…long…pause…” before he answered.
@26 You don’t have to go back quite that far to get similar wording. Remember the only words on the Cenotaph in London.
“The Glorious Dead”
Find the print “King of the Golden Hall” by Magdalena Katańska. For a perfect portrait of Theoden.
@26, Théoden’s toast “Hail the victorious dead” is about as Anglo-Saxon as you can get without actually being personally present at the Battle of Maldon.
The Rhohirrim are a depiction of what Tolkien, and C.S. Lewis called the northern spirit. The rather grim Nordic-Germanic mythic ideal of defiance in the face of defeat, of courage without hope. ‘Now for wrath, now for ruin and a red nightfall!’. It’s Gotterdammerung, kids, let’s go down swinging!!
That scene, where Theoden clatters his sword across the spears, and the Riders sweep down towards Gondor was a seminal moment for me in the movies. (I could almost forgive the characterisation of Faramir.) Because it was exactly as I’d imagined it in my head. I think I nearly cried.
#32 The novel is FAR more moving than the films because they actually have well-explored themes. The anti-war/industrialization themes, as well as Tolkien’s gorgeous sorrow at the gradual loss of Middle-earth and its ancient history is completely lost in the adaptation.
The thing that gets me about Théoden is how out of place he is in the story, and what that does to him as a character. He’s caught in the middle of a tussle of gods, surrounded by supernatural beings, demons, and supermen such as Aragorn. But he himself is just a guy. He’s relatively powerless against all of these mighty forces — how would you protect yourself against becoming possessed by a wizard? — but he fights back anyway, because his people and his allies require it. Bernard Hill performs the part with a heavy awareness of Théoden’s inequality and gives it the air of a Shakespearean tragedy.
“I know your face” Actually annoys me to no end, because he specifically did *not* know her face, he thought she was Éomer.
His delivery of ‘the young perish, and the old linger’ always really gets to me, especially the way he really, well, lingers on that last word.
But yes to basically all of this. And I do think the his speech at the Pelennor is a ton better than Aragorn’s. Sorry Aragorn!
@42 – add to that that he’s the king of a proud people, but they’re still not really considered on the level of Gondor or the Elven kingdoms. Even Sauruman kind of twigs him about that.
@31: Tom Bombadil, who gives the sword that will later on kill one of the Nazgul.
Uh…I think you are somewhat mistaken. Merry’s sword merely broke the “spell that knit [the] unseen sinews to [the Nazgul’s] will.” While this act did not kill the Nazgul, it did allow Eowyn’s blow to kill him.