Helm Hammerhand
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This Middle-earth-related article describes a work or element of fiction in a primarily in-universe style. Please help rewrite it to explain the fiction more clearly and provide non-fictional perspective. (October 2009) |
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Helm Hammerhand is a fictional character in J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth legendarium. His story appears in the appendices of The Return of the King, and he is referred to briefly in the main story of The Lord of the Rings.
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[edit] Appearances
[edit] Literature
In the narrative Helm was the ninth King of Rohan and last King of the first line, becoming King at the death of his father Gram during a time of crisis. His father had already fought open warfare with the Dunlendings, who operated from the captured fortress of Isengard.
Later in Helm's reign, a man named Freca appeared, a Dunlending with Rohirric blood. Freca held lands at either side of the river Adorn, the border of Rohan, and claimed to be a descendant of King Fréawine of Rohan. He planned to marry his son Wulf to Helm's daughter. Freca marched to Edoras with a great force of men, planning to threaten the old King to comply with his demand. Helm denied his request, and insults were exchanged. Helm struck Freca with his fist and killed him in a single blow (giving rise to the name Hammerhand). Enraged, the men of Freca left Edoras. Four years later they returned with a great force of Dunlendings under the leadership of Wulf, and Gondor could not help for the Corsairs of Umbar were attacking them in great force and war raged up and down its coasts. The Dunlending force overran Rohan and took Edoras, but Helm withdrew to the Hornburg which was later renamed Helm's Deep in his honour, where a long siege endured.[1]
The siege of Helm's forces in the Deep lasted through the long winter; their supplies were low and they were desperate. Helm began to launch sorties alone against the Dunlendings: wearing white clothing and under the cover of storms he would go into their camps and slay the enemy with his bare hands. So ferocious were his attacks that the Dunlendings began to believe that, as he bore no weapons, no weapons could hurt him. Before each sortie he would blow the great horn of the Hornburg, which echoed through the deep, and the Dunlendings learned to fear his coming. One night the great horn sounded and Helm left, never to return. When the sun rose, his body was found frozen in the snow where he stood, knees unbent. Even after his death the Rohirrim believed that his wraith continued to stalk their enemies and kill men with fear.
His burial mound near Edoras was known for its snow-like covering of simbelmynë flowers.
Helm was succeeded by his nephew Fréaláf Hildeson, who, with a small party of men, surprised Wulf in Edoras and killed him, and at last Gondor sent help both by land and sea. Together, the forces of Rohan and Gondor defeated the Dunlendings, and Fréaláf became the first king of the second line.
[edit] Film
In Peter Jackson's version of The Two Towers, Helm is referenced when Gimli blows The Horn of Helm Hammerhand as a rallying call for the mounted charge of Rohirrim at the end of the Battle of the Hornburg.
[edit] References
[edit] External links
- Helm Hammerhand at the Tolkien Gateway
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