From: IarwainBen-adar1 Sent: 4/20/2003 6:06 PM
A Meara Image
I noted a great discussion about these wonderful equine characters going on in two places simultaneously on The RotK Study Board and The LotR Trilogy Board. I had attempted to post most of the information I had located about this subject earlier but MSN sent my dissertation to cyber-limbo instead of TR’s. Needless to say I was a bit vexed by this, (I crushed another keyboard, glad their cheap!) but within the “Big Picture” it is a lesson learned:
If you are ever writing a long or wordy post, always do it in “Word” or other publishing/word processor program and then copy and paste your work to the site. This avoids frustration, as you will not lose your literary efforts to the “Gates-keepers Hick-ups! ”
So to start with the word Meara (according to Tolkien’s Tales) is a Rohirric word, which has no concrete definition. Most of the texts attest it means “the horses of Rohan” but none of the information I’ve encountered implies this means “all” the horses of Rohan.
In Old English the word Méara could be defined as “War Horse” based in part from “Beowulf, here is a quote from stanza 1030:
“Heht ôá eorla hléo eahta méaras”
{Next the King ordered eight horses}
“Fæted-hléore on flet téon,”
{With gold bridles to be brought through the yard}
“In under eoderas;”
{Into the hall;}
So to avoid infringing on the “Beowulf Study” I won’t include the entire passage. But several lines later it is implied these are not just horses, but horses saddled, bridled, and tacked (probably trained as well) for combat. Other forms of “Horse” in Old English are: Eoh, hengest; hors, and mearh, (pl. méaras) but I have found no solid evidence at this point to really support the “war horse” definition. There is an obvious separation within the Rohirric language of the words Meara and Eo however, and this implies that the Mearas, and horses, are held or considered different by the Rohan. Eo being the (R) root word from “horse” dissected from: Éomund- “Horse-hand (grip)”, Éothéod- “Horse folk”, and several others.
[As a side bar for StormRider: It is possible I am in error with regards to Tolkien’s meaning of the name Éomer. After looking at the literal meaning “Horse-mare” and considering his fate, it may be “mer” is intended to be a suffix form of Meara, and not the O.E. meaning but “Horse-War-Horse” or poetically “Lord of the lord of Horses?”]
So from the linguistic angle “Mearas” is a Rohirric exclusive, and pretty much a dead end. There are some texts which imply the meaning to be “Lords of Horses”, “Horses of the Kings”, and “Horse Princes”. None of which I have been able to verify from within the LotR text proper (as yet!). No other tongue within the trilogy has any such word, which relates or translates into Meara, or any mention of them for that matter except one….
“Set the time on the Way-back machine Sherman!” When linguistics fail I turn to the history, and the history of Arda’s first horse, Nahar, must have some bearing and influence in the siring of these noble steeds. In fact I hope to prove he should be numbered as one of the Meara.
Nahar- (Q)- N- “?”, Aha- “Rage”, r- “implies plural”.
No definition to be found for this name, but it is written he was named for his *voice. This is the horse of Oromë (A Valar who delighted in Horses, Hounds, and the hunt.). Oromë or Béma as the Rohan refer to him, would ride upon Nahar across Middle-earth hunting the fell and evil monsters of Morgoth afore rising the Sun and Moon.
“Then on a sudden Nahar set up a great *neighing, and stood still. And Oromë wondered and sat silent, and it seemed to him that in the quiet of the land under the Stars he heard afar off many voices singing.”
“The Silmarillion” Of the Coming of the Elves- page 39.
“Thus it was that when Nahar neighed and Oromë indeed came among them, some of the Quendi (Elves) hid themselves, and some fled and were lost.”
“Sil.” Of the Coming of the Elves- page 40.
So at this point the Valar encounter the Elves for the first time, and the Elves encounter both the Valar (Oromë), and a horse for the first time. Since Nahar is listed as a Quenya word, one might very easily assume it is the sound the Elves heard him make, since it was the first horse they encountered. Remember although the Valar have a language of their own, they took the Elves tongue as their own, and all the written names of the Valar and their vassals are of Elvish origin.
“Creation does not exist if none are there to perceive it.”
-Mirror Images?-
With each “named” Meara the color is described as white or silver:
Felaróf- “He captured a white foal, and it grew quickly to a horse strong, and fair, and proud.”
“RotK” Appendix A- page 430
Shadowfax- “Does he not shine like silver, and run smoothly as a swift stream”
“TTT”- The White Rider- 108
Nahar is as well, described as being “white in the Sun, and shining silver at night.”
“Sil” Valaquenta- page 17.
“and his white horse Nahar shone like silver in the shadows”
“Sil” Of the Beginning of Days- page 29.
Apparently Oromë had a deal working with Aulë (Valar who delighted in forging, iron craft, and the making of things.) because we now find out:
“Oromë rode at their head upon Nahar, his white horse shod (horse-shoes) with gold”
“Sil” Of the beginning of Days”- page 44.
In “Sil” Of the Darkening of Valinor- page 69, we find reason to believe there is more than just one horse at this point.
“and the earth shook beneath the horses of the host of Oromë, and the fire that was stricken from the hooves of Nahar was the first light that returned to Valinor.”
So we know there are horses in Valinor, but where did Nahar and these others come from? Well based on how Manwë (Chief of the Valar and lover of the winds and air.) sub-created the Eagles before the awakening of the Elves. When he and Yavanna’s (Valar and lover of things which grow) thought of protecting all of the growing creations within Middle-earth, became manifest as the Eagles and the Ents. Eagles were the known as “Eagles of the Lords of the West”. “Sil” Of Aulë and Yavanna- page35. I have to suspect much the same situation of sub creation in Oromë’s case; only Nahar would become in effect: “Lord of the Horses of the Lords of the West”. There is nothing directly noted in the Silmarillion of Nahar’s creation, but perhaps some ‘jools’ are yet to be found within the “History of Middle-earth series.
So how did these Valinorean mounts come to exist in Middle-earth?
“Sil” Of Beleriand and its Realms- page 113.
(This is the explanation of Fingolfin’s and his son Fingon’s Calvary of Ard-galen.)
“Of these horses many of the sires came from Valinor, and were given to Fingolfin by Maedhros in atonement of his losses, for the had been carried by ship to Losgar.”
Fingolfin’s horse Rochallor, being one of the sires of Valinor, might be considered of the Meara linage, as Fingolfin was the High King of the Noldor and it seems they were considered as the Kings Mounts.
“and would suffer none to mount them save the Lord of the Mark (Lord of the Peoples) or his sons.”
Perhaps this quote used much later in Middle-earths history might be amended as such for Fingolfin, and this earlier Age? It is however not stated anywhere Rochallor is of such blood, but nor is it denied.
So the “many” in this quote sort of implies there were horses in Middle-earth before this Valinorean herd, but I have no other evidence but this one sentence. So in theory this seedling herd of Valinor might all be Mearas, although not referred to as such since we are still in the First Age of Arda, and have yet an Age and a half to go before Eorl the Young of the Éothéod, would command Felaróf to become his mount. But even after all those many years, with few written records of Eldar Days, the Rohan honored and remembered Béma the hunter of the Valar:
“RotK” Appendix A- page 431.
“These were the Mearas, who would bear no one but the King of the Mark or his sons, until the time of Shadowfax. Men said of them that Béma (whom the Eldar call Oromë) must have brought their sire from West over the Sea.”
-Musing on Mearas-
As with all things in Middle-earth there seems to be a dwindling, or a reduction of former glory. So would this be the way of the “known” Mearas. They came with the Elves and breed to great number, but their blood became mingled with lesser horses. The greatest animal’s births would occur less and less until Shadowfax the last of the Mearas.
“Unfinished Tales” Notes- page 328
“and Felaróf submitted, though he would allow no man but Eorl to mount him. He understood all that men said, and was as long-lived as they, as were his descendants, and Mearas, “who would bear no one but the King of the Mark or his sons, until the time of Shadowfax.”
This quote causes me to be of a mind to think Mearas really were not all that common, seeing how the wording “and Mearas” implies Felaróf didn’t sire a Meara colt. In fact much of the Tolkien study literature regard Snowmane and Lightfoot as Mearas but I would debate that based on this condensed quote gleaned from Animals of Arda.
www.valarguild.org/varda/Tolkien/encyc/animals.htm#Mearas“Gandalf told the Council of Elrond of his gaining Shadowfax after the his rescue from Saruman's tower by the great eagle, Gwaihir. The eagle landed him in Rohan when he requested a horse "surpassingly swift". In Rohan Gandalf found that the lies of Saruman had preceded him so that Theoden, king of Rohan, would not heed his warnings of the treachery of Saruman and the coming of the Nine. Instead the king told Gandalf to take a horse and be gone, not expecting him to take the finest horse in Rohan.
Boromir said the Rohirrim, people of Rohan, would not even buy their lives with the horses they so treasured. These horses came from fields of the North, far from the Shadow, from the free days of old.
Gandalf described Shadowfax as a horse that might have been from the earliest time of the world. No man had ever ridden him before. *By day his coat was like silver, by night like unseen shade. His footsteps were light, and not even the horses of the Nine were his match for speed or stamina.”
* (Very like the description of Nahar previously quoted)
So it seems apparent that Théoden hadn’t ridden Shadowfax, and being he had Snowmane I wonder if two Mearas could co-exist. I mean two “Lords of Horses” in the same land might lead to a conflict.
Here is one more tidbit I uncovered, but this bit is for your entertainment:
Solo in Old English (Rohirric)
for ðon hé wæs scea hé fæx wæs ford ealra mé du and hé fæx hlá [2.14]
Chorus in Old English (Rohirric) (simultaneous with above):
for ðon hé waes Sceadufæx [2.14]
hláford ealra méara
'For he was Shadow...., he, ...fax, was ...lord of all hor..., ...dow..., and he, ...fax, lord...'
'For he was Shadowfax,
Lord of all Horses.'
-This is a fragment of The Mearas by Philippa Boyens-
I’m looking for the complete Song, if any have it or links to it let me know!
To conclude my “rabid ramble”, I see Meara as a descriptive Rohirric word for a very special breed of horse. In my opinion, based on what I’ve written here, the Mearas are in effect direct decedents of Nahar’s linage and not of Middle-Earth, but ‘of something greater’ such as the Elves. There are many study guides which names Nahar as the “Father of the Mearas” (and offering far less or no proof to the ‘assumption’.) but since the people of Rohan didn’t exist to label them “Mearas” they were considered (by the Elves) just horses. With this in mind I leave you with this quote from Tolkien about Shadowfax and his departure from the Grey Havens. It concisely proves out some of my conclusions:
“The Letters of J.R.R.Tolkien” #268- page 354.
“I think Shadowfax certainly went with Gandalf {across the Sea}, though this is not stated. I feel it is better not to state everything (and indeed it is more realistic, since in chronicles and accounts of ‘real’ history, many facts that some enquirer would like to know are omitted, and the truth has to be discovered or guessed from such evidence as there is). I should argue so: Shadowfax came of a special race (II 126, 129, III 346) being as it were an Elvish equivalent of ordinary horses: his ‘blood’ came from ‘West over Sea’. It would not be unfitting for him to ‘go west’.”
So I will add to this as I find more, I hope others do likewise.
Namárië,
Iarwain
