Welcome , dear readers, as always, and, as always, I’m interested in Tolkien’s inspirations…

Enter Richard

King    A horse, a horse, my kingdome for a horse.

Cates   Withdraw my lord, ile helpe you to a horse.

King   Slaue I haue set my life vpon a cast,

And I will stand the hazard of the die,

I thinke there be sixe Richmonds in the field,

Fiue haue I slaine to daie in stead of him,

A horse, a horse, my kingdome for a horse.  (Wm Shakespeare, Richard III, Act V,  Scene 4,  First Quarto, 1597  You can read it here at the excellent Internet Shakespeare site: https://internetshakespeare.uvic.ca/doc/R3_Q1/index.html    )

(artist?)

Richard III is clearly not having a good day:  one of his allies has waited out the battle until a fatal moment, then changed sides.  And Richard has lost his horse, which, as a good horseback soldier, gives him an advantage, in terms of mobility on the battlefield, height over enemy infantry,

(Adam Hook)

and even a better chance of escape.  Without it, surrounded by enemy soldiers, he’s about to be dead.  (In the Shakespeare play, he’s killed by the Earl of Richmond, Henry Tudor, who, in turn, is about to become Henry VII, but, in reality, we don’t know who did him in, but see here for more:  https://le.ac.uk/richard-iii/identification/osteology/injuries/how-richard-iii-died )

Soldiers in the West didn’t begin on horseback.  The Sumerians first had yoked wild asses to their battle cars.

The ancient Egyptians had, by the New Kingdom (1550-1070BC), yoked horses to chariots.

(Rameses II, c.1303-1213BC)

The Assyrians, breeding bigger horses, began to sit soldiers upon their backs.

Greeks in the Iliad went to battle in and sometimes fought from their chariots (sometimes called by classical scholars “battle taxis” under the mistaken impression that they used those chariots only for transportation, which a close reading of the text shows not to be the case), although cavalry, as cavalry, are briefly mentioned, though never shown in action.

But cavalry, when it finally appeared in the Greek world, was meant for scouting and pursuit.

(Angus McBride)

All of this changed with Philip II of Macedon. 382-336BC, and his son, Alexander.  Macedon was prime horse-breeding country and Philip was a military innovator, so, with chariots long gone, Philip trained real battle cavalry, which Alexander then led to victory.

(Peter Connolly)

Alexander had a famous horse, Bucephalus (“Ox Head”),

whom he alone could tame. (see Plutarch’s life of Alexander here—section.6:    https://www.lexundria.com/plut_alex/1-77/prr )

He also fancied himself a kind of descendent of the Trojan War hero Achilles, who had two famous horses, Balios (“Dapple”)  and Xanthus (“Palomino”), born of a Fury, Podarge (“Swiftfoot”), and Zephyrus, the god of the West Wind.

This divine lineage for horses made me think about a famous horse in another adventure story:  Shadowfax.

(Luca Michelucci—you can see more of his work here:  https://www.artnet.com/artists/luca-michelucci/  I like especially his image of Gwaihir rescuing Gandalf from Orthanc)

Shadowfax, according to Gandalf, is the chief of the Mearas, horses descended from one Felarof,  the horse of Eorl, the founder of Rohan.  Felarof was said to have understood the speech of men (Rohirric, we can presume) and may have been brought by Orome, the huntsman of the Valar, from across the sea, suggesting a horse of the Valar themselves.  (See The Lord of the Rings, Appendix A, II, “The House of Eorl”)

Mearas is the plural of mearh, one of the Old English words for “horse” and this might suggest that, with his  interest in things early Germanic, we might imagine that Tolkien would have looked towards Grani,

(from the Ramsund Carving—for more:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sigurd_stones )

the horse of Sigurd, descended from Odin’s 8-legged steed, Sleipnir

(on the Tjaengvide image stone—you can read more about it here:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tj%C3%A4ngvide_image_stone     For the story of how Sigurd found Grani, see the Icelandic Volsunga Saga  in this bilingual edition, pages 23-24:   https://archive.org/details/vo-lsungasaga-text-translation-finch/page/n89/mode/2up

And I can’t resist this very clever way of producing a modern Sleipnir—

Lachlan Templar—his work appears at Deviant Art, but, when I try to find out more, the site is blocked.)

as an inspiration, but, remembering that Tolkien had begun his formal education in the traditional way:   studying Classics at King Edward’s School in Birmingham,

and, initially, continuing  in Classics at Oxford,

I wonder—and return to Balios and Xanthus.  These are horses with as distinguished a lineage as Grani, coming from a Fury

and the god of the West Wind.

As well,  Felarof—and, in turn, Shadowfax–understand human speech and Balios and Xanthus show emotion more human than equine, weeping when their temporary master and charioteer, Patroclus, is killed in battle by the Trojan hero, Hector, refusing to return to battle, but, instead—

“…but as a monument remains firmly in the ground, one set up on a tomb

For a dead man or woman,

So they remained, immobile, holding the very beautiful chariot [still],

Leaning [their] heads to the earth, and their hot tears

Flow down from under [their] eyelids to the ground

In longing for [their] charioteer.”  (Iliad, Book 17.434-439—my translation]

And  there’s more.   Felarof and Shadowfax may understand human speech, and Balios and Xanthus may grieve, in a human way for the death of Achilles’ friend and charioteer, Patroclus, but, in an eerie moment, one of them, Xanthus, actually speaks to Achilles, warning him of his own impending doom:

“We will still keep you safe for now, mighty Achilles,

But a deadly day is near to you.”  (Iliad, Book 19.408-409—my translation)

Could there be another link here?

“But lo!  suddenly in the midst of the glory of the king his golden shield was dimmed.  The new morning was blotted from the sky.  Dark fell about him.  Horses reared and screamed.  Men cast from the saddle lay groveling on the ground…Snowmane wild with terror stood up on high, fighting with the air, and then with a great scream he crashed upon his side; a black dart had pierced him.  The king fell beneath him…” 

(Ted Nasmith)

Although we have no idea of Snowmane’s lineage except that he’s “Lightfoot’s foal”, and he never speaks a word, he’s certainly involved in a death and, as Balios and Xanthus might have inspired Shadowfax, could this horse-speech be related to Theoden’s horse, Snowmane?

(Joona  Kujanen, aka Tulikoura, a bit more of whose work you can see here:  https://hole-intheground.blogspot.com/2012/03/fridays-at-mathom-house-joona-kujanen.html )

We have no idea of the fate of Achilles’ horses, though we are told that Achilles himself was buried in a mound—

as Agamemnon says to him in the Underworld, speaking of the cremated remains of Achilles and his friend, Patroclus (over whom Achilles’ horses mourned):

“And over them then we, mighty army of the Argive spearmen,

Heaped up a tumulus…”  (Odyssey, Book 24.81-81—my translation)

Just as Snowmane received a similar grave:

“And afterwards when all was over men returned and made a fire there and burned the carcase of the beast; but for Snowmane they dug a grave and set up a stone upon which was carved in the tongues of Gondor and the Mark:

‘Faithful servant yet master’s bane,

Lightfoot’’s foal, swift Snowbane.’

Green and long grew the grass on Snowmane’s Howe…”  (The Return of the King, Book Five, Chapter 6, “The Battle of the Pelennor Fields”)

All coincidence?   Or were JRRT’s many years of classical training still at work, when he’d long abandoned it for Germanic, Finnish, and Welsh?

As ever, thanks for reading.

Stay well,

Horses are wonderful, but remember that they, like us, have their limits—what would you do if a Nazgul on a frightful thing came down upon you?

(Craig J. Spearing—you can read more about him and his work here:  https://pathfinderwiki.com/wiki/Craig_J_Spearing )

And remember that, as ever, there’s

MTCIDC

O