Questions for the Lore Masters.

I think the Rohirim and the elves bread (is it really bread? to breed, breeds, bread?) their own horses. I've always imagined the rohirim to have icelandic horses or lyngs-horses(Norenglish ftw!) but taller and a bit more elegant. the elves had slender horses, a bit like themselves, dwarves had small, shaggy icelandic-horse-types and hobbits ofc, ponies. that's my idea. The dwarves could also have big working horses like the shire-horse and similar types. Big, heavy work-horses to work in the minds carrying up whatever they found.


Lyngs-horse, distant relative of the icelandic one (just less fur I guess..)

my sister knows more about horses, I'll ask her maybe I'll find more specific breeds that suits better ^_^

Now this I remember. Shadowfax is silver/grey and his ancestors come from Valinor.
PJ made him white.

Borrowing a quote from the dark planet (thank you, Grondy) :
During 'The Council of Elrond', FOTR:

'And there is one among them that might have been foaled in the morning of the world. The horses of the Nine cannot vie with him; tireless, swift as the flowing wind. Shadowfax they called him. By day his coat glistens like silver; and by night it is like a shade, and he passes unseen. Light is his footfall! Never before had any man mounted him, but I took him and tamed him...

I ADORE Icelandic horses

And Norenglish rocks! It’s not only only, but but you know!

Thanks for the quote Amarie- but do you know where the reference to Shadowfax being a descendant from steeds from Valinor is from?

According to our lore master Galin:

Tolkien commented in letter 268: 'I should argue so: Shadowfax came of a special race (...) being as it were an Elvish equivalent of ordinary horses: his 'blood' came from 'West Over Sea',

Though there are probably more quotes to be found when the local Lore Masters wake up.

Interesting- but if memory serves the Kings of Rohan always rode one of these type of horses- if so I wonder if by 'an elvish horse' Tolkien is implying an elvish lifespan and it has been the same horse, Shadowfax, all along.
If not then there would need to be a breeding pool of 'elvish' horses otherwise they would be reduced over time as the elvish lifespan is when mixed with mortal.

The Maeras were a separate breed of horses descending from Oromë's horse, apparently. Theoden's horse was also a Maera, but Shadowfax couldn't be tamed until Gandalf came along. Seems the other Maeras mentioned were white?

I think Tolkien just means they were as different to ordinary horses as Elves are to Men. That's just me guessing though.

There's definitely a bit about the Maeras in the Appendices concerning Eorl and Rohan, I just read it. It said that only the descendants of Eorl could tame them, and that Gandalf had some difficulty doing so. That's why Theoden didn't really like Gandalf because he took his best horse and made him un-rideable!

them? So a plural- so there must have been a breeding stock of them somewhere out there in Rohan.

Just re-read that bit. Leod, Eorl's father, tamed horses. He raised a white foal that became a strong, fair, and proud horse. No man could tame it though. When Leod tried to, he was thrown off and died because his head struck a rock. Eorl was just 16. So Eorl vowed to avenge his father and searched far and wide for the horse, and when he did, instead of killing it, he said, "Come hither, Mansbane, and get a new name!" The horse went and stood by his side. "Felarof I name you. You loved your freedom, and I do not blame you for that. But now you owe me a great weregild, and you shall surrender your freedom to me until your life's end." so the horse was forever loyal to his master, and "that horse proved as long-lived as men, and so were his descendants. These were the mearas, who would bear no one but the King of the Mark or his sons, until the time of Shadowfax. Men said of them that (Orome) must have brought their sire from West over Sea."

Appendix A II The House of Eorl

Thanks Tin thats pretty unequivical seems to me.

(That story would make a great amatuer film project!)

it's equivical. "Men said...". Not a flat out statement they came from Orome's horse, just a rumor.

Not when you add in the quote from Tolkien Amarie provided.

'I should argue so: Shadowfax came of a special race (...) being as it were an Elvish equivalent of ordinary horses: his 'blood' came from 'West Over Sea',

It's been ages since I've seen the theatrical versions (I don't even own them, actually) and I wouldn't call FOTR the best of the EE trilogy, but I would probably call it the best of the TE trilogy, based on my memories of it. However, that's mainly just because Jackson got lazy when it came to TTT and ROTK and left out so many important scenes since he knew he could just add it to the DVD later. With FOTR I think he was more conscious of how he was structuring the story in a number of ways, and it paid off.

On the other hand, I think that FOTR gets way too much credit from some circles. It's undeniably the most faithful of the three, but that's really only because Jackson was more wary of adding his own material when the movies were unproven at the box office. FOTR has just as many cuts as the others, if not more, and it introduces a lot of the character alterations that people complain about in the later movies. To be fair, it's not as "bad" as the later two movies, but I think it gets too much credit. It also feels that some people (at least on other forums) act like this faithfulness automatically means FOTR is the best of the trilogy. I could see someone making a legitimate case for FOTR on cinematic grounds, but naming it the best just because it's the most faithful is a very narrow way of looking at the films.