The Funeral of Théoden

The funeral of Théoden, King of the Mark, was the last great ceremony of the old line of the Eorlingas, a solemn passage that closed the reign of a warrior-king and opened the age of his successor. After the victory on the Pelennor Fields, the king's body was borne from Gondor to Rohan in a great wain, with Meriadoc Brandybuck, his esquire, riding upon it and keeping the king's arms. The journey took fifteen days, and the company that accompanied him included Aragorn, Gandalf, Éomer, and the Lady Éowyn, as well as the lords of Gondor and the Elves of Rivendell and Lórien.

The Laying of the King

In Edoras, the Golden Hall was arrayed with fair hangings and filled with light for the highest feast it had known since its building. After three days, the Men of the Mark prepared the funeral of Théoden. He was laid in a house of stone with his arms and many other fair things that he had possessed, and over him was raised a great mound, covered with green turves of grass and of white evermind. The mound was the eighth on the east-side of the Barrowfield, joining the line of his ancestors. The Riders of the King's House upon white horses rode round about the barrow and sang together a song of Théoden Thengel's son that Gléowine his minstrel made, and he made no other song after. The slow voices of the Riders stirred the hearts even of those who did not know the speech of that people; the words of the song brought a light to the eyes of the folk of the Mark as they heard again the thunder of the hooves of the North and the voice of Eorl crying above the battle upon the Field of Celebrant, and the tale of the kings rolled on until the Darkness came and King Théoden arose and rode through the Shadow to the fire, and died in splendour, even as the Sun, returning beyond hope, gleamed upon Mindolluin in the morning.

Meriadoc's Farewell

Meriadoc Brandybuck stood at the foot of the green mound and wept. When the song was ended, he arose and cried: 'Théoden King, Théoden King! Farewell! As a father you were to me, for a little while. Farewell!' The hobbit's grief was deep and personal, for the old king had taken him into his service as an esquire and had treated him with a kindness that Merry would never forget. The king's last words to him—'Grieve not! It is forgiven. Great heart will not be denied. Live now in blessedness; and when you sit in peace with your pipe, think of me!'—remained with Merry for the rest of his days.

The Succession and the Feast

When the burial was over and the weeping of women was stilled, and Théoden was left at last alone in his barrow, folk gathered to the Golden Hall for the great feast and put away sorrow. Éowyn Lady of Rohan came forth, golden as the sun and white as snow, and bore a filled cup to Éomer. A minstrel and loremaster stood up and named all the names of the Lords of the Mark in their order, from Eorl the Young to Théoden the latest. When Théoden was named, Éomer drained the cup. Then Éowyn bade those that served to fill the cups, and all there assembled rose and drank to the new king, crying: 'Hail, Éomer, King of the Mark!' The feast also saw the trothplighting of Faramir and Éowyn, binding the friendship of the Mark and of Gondor with a new bond. The funeral thus served not only as a farewell to a fallen king but as the foundation of a new era for Rohan, one in which Éomer would reign for sixty-five years, longer than all his predecessors save Aldor the Old.