![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Tumblr crosspost (12 May 2020)
Tolkien frequently shifted around his ideas about how language was used in Gondor and Rohan, but I wanted to settle my headcanon in my own mind. So, headcanons for the royal house of Rohan + language!
- The language of the Mark/Rohan is called Rohirren in Gondor, but the Rohirrim rarely refer to it by that name. When necessary to name it for some reason, they just call it Markish.
- The “speech of Gondor” used in Thengel’s court was the Common Tongue/Westron (not Sindarin). Most people in Meduseld could speak it already, but some resented giving it priority over Markish.
- Morwen picked up enough Markish to understand it quite well, but was self-conscious about speaking it. She was fully fluent in both Westron and Sindarin, though she more often spoke Westron, especially in Rohan. Mostly she used Sindarin when she wanted to be absolutely sure her husband/children would listen to her. Théoden, Théodwyn, and the other girls grew up with an understanding that Sindarin = serious business.
- Théoden spoke Westron and Sindarin as a child, and learned Markish later on, after Thengel returned to Rohan with Morwen and the children. He always preferred it aesthetically to his native languages (he also preferred it politically, later). But he retained enough Sindarin to use it affectionately with his mother.
- Théodwyn, born and raised in Rohan, knew Markish, Westron, and a good deal of Sindarin (though she found the latter strange and difficult). She and Éomund generally used Markish with each other and their household, but their children were brought up with both Markish and Westron from the cradle.
- Théodred knew Morwen much better than Éomer and Éowyn, and loved her dearly. He took pains to learn Sindarin and almost always addressed her in it.
- Éomer and Éowyn learned some Sindarin in their early days in Meduseld, but it fell into general disuse after Morwen’s death, and in the wake of the following years, they largely forgot it.
- Éomer has no real preference between Westron and Markish and speaks both equally well. He remembers a little Sindarin, picks up some more from Lothíriel, and even more than that in his campaigns with Aragorn and Gondor. He’s still only semi-fluent, but he’s perfectly ready to use it as well as he can when the situation seems appropriate.
- Éowyn also switches between Westron and Markish equally well. At first, she mostly uses Westron in her married life, since she can be sure that everybody understands her that way. She does become fluent in Sindarin; it’s all around her, she has vague memories of it, she’s good with language anyway, and it seems a way of showing respect to both her new people and Morwen, whose legacy she feels much more strongly after her own marriage.
- It does take a little while, so there’s a phase when she makes Faramir stop courteously using Westron with her and instead do dramatic recitations of epics in Sindarin. He makes her do it with Rohan’s epics in return, in part to get a better grasp on the language and partly out of genuine interest, and they’re both super interested in how they both tell the story of Cirion and Eorl. Apart from that one, Éowyn likes the Narn and Eärendil vs Ancalagon best of the Sindarin-language epics, though her favourite Gondor-beloved historical figure is Haleth.
- She also gradually shifts from using Westron to using Sindarin in her letters to Lothíriel, who has a very strong preference for Sindarin and is somewhat at sea in Rohan.
- Elfwinë and his siblings are equally fluent in Westron, Markish, and Sindarin, though each has their own preference. He himself is a lover of lore and also knows some Quenya.
- The language of the Mark/Rohan is called Rohirren in Gondor, but the Rohirrim rarely refer to it by that name. When necessary to name it for some reason, they just call it Markish.
- The “speech of Gondor” used in Thengel’s court was the Common Tongue/Westron (not Sindarin). Most people in Meduseld could speak it already, but some resented giving it priority over Markish.
- Morwen picked up enough Markish to understand it quite well, but was self-conscious about speaking it. She was fully fluent in both Westron and Sindarin, though she more often spoke Westron, especially in Rohan. Mostly she used Sindarin when she wanted to be absolutely sure her husband/children would listen to her. Théoden, Théodwyn, and the other girls grew up with an understanding that Sindarin = serious business.
- Théoden spoke Westron and Sindarin as a child, and learned Markish later on, after Thengel returned to Rohan with Morwen and the children. He always preferred it aesthetically to his native languages (he also preferred it politically, later). But he retained enough Sindarin to use it affectionately with his mother.
- Théodwyn, born and raised in Rohan, knew Markish, Westron, and a good deal of Sindarin (though she found the latter strange and difficult). She and Éomund generally used Markish with each other and their household, but their children were brought up with both Markish and Westron from the cradle.
- Théodred knew Morwen much better than Éomer and Éowyn, and loved her dearly. He took pains to learn Sindarin and almost always addressed her in it.
- Éomer and Éowyn learned some Sindarin in their early days in Meduseld, but it fell into general disuse after Morwen’s death, and in the wake of the following years, they largely forgot it.
- Éomer has no real preference between Westron and Markish and speaks both equally well. He remembers a little Sindarin, picks up some more from Lothíriel, and even more than that in his campaigns with Aragorn and Gondor. He’s still only semi-fluent, but he’s perfectly ready to use it as well as he can when the situation seems appropriate.
- Éowyn also switches between Westron and Markish equally well. At first, she mostly uses Westron in her married life, since she can be sure that everybody understands her that way. She does become fluent in Sindarin; it’s all around her, she has vague memories of it, she’s good with language anyway, and it seems a way of showing respect to both her new people and Morwen, whose legacy she feels much more strongly after her own marriage.
- It does take a little while, so there’s a phase when she makes Faramir stop courteously using Westron with her and instead do dramatic recitations of epics in Sindarin. He makes her do it with Rohan’s epics in return, in part to get a better grasp on the language and partly out of genuine interest, and they’re both super interested in how they both tell the story of Cirion and Eorl. Apart from that one, Éowyn likes the Narn and Eärendil vs Ancalagon best of the Sindarin-language epics, though her favourite Gondor-beloved historical figure is Haleth.
- She also gradually shifts from using Westron to using Sindarin in her letters to Lothíriel, who has a very strong preference for Sindarin and is somewhat at sea in Rohan.
- Elfwinë and his siblings are equally fluent in Westron, Markish, and Sindarin, though each has their own preference. He himself is a lover of lore and also knows some Quenya.
no subject
no subject