Journal #15: Rohan
3/16/16
Cover Photo: “The Horse and the Rider”
Sheep Spotted: ~300

“Out of doubt, out of dark to the day’s rising
I came singing into the sun, sword unsheathing.
To hope’s end I rode and to heart’s breaking:
Now for wrath, now for ruin and a red nightfall!” –Eomer, Commander of the Rohirrim

*Note: I’m running on about 3 hours of sleep in 2 days- so today’s post is a bit of a mess…apologies in advance- tomorrow’s will be better :)*

I waited 14 years, but finally, at long last I reached Rohan.

I’m not sure why I’ve been so fixated on this place in particular- Rohan is a state in the Lord of the Rings books/movies largely consisting of nomadic horseman. The capital of Rohan is called Edoras and sits on a large mount in the middle of a field surrounded by mountains (today’s cover photo).

I went here as part of a organized tour (you basically have to since it requires almost an hour of off-road driving to get to) so I got to learn all about how they filmed here. Evidently they spent 8 months constructing an entire city here, used it for 3 weeks of filming, and then tore it down (a shame really- the set was beautiful).

The real name of the area is “Mount Sunday” and it was found completed by accident by Peter Jackson’s set scout- evidently they were trying to avoid some bad weather while flying over the mountains and found this remote valley that perfectly fit the description of Edoras in the LOTR book “The Two Towers.” From there, they helicoptered in all of the set pieces and built the city.

As you can see- today was a bit cloudy (so no epic snow mountain views unfortunately), but we got to hold Lord of the Ring replica weapons while we climbed all over Edoras (I chose the sword, Andúril, which was the most significant weapon in the series).

Today’s entry is a little short, since I need to get ready to go to Wellington tomorrow. Wellington is the capital of New Zealand- so I should have plenty to report tomorrow!

-MB