And it carries through the thematic, emotional resonance quite powerfully. The charge itself, signaled again by a blast of horns and accompanied by the first romantic tones of the Rohan theme, is a sight to behold. As the camera focuses on Eowyn’s own mighty yell and raised arm, the entire scene, just for a moment, shifts to dizzying slow motion. “Ride now, ride now! Ride for ruin, and the world’s ending…DEEEEEEATH!”ĭelivered so passionately by actor Bernard Hill, it is an incredible battle cry readily taken up by the thousands at his back – and especially Eowyn and Merry, who have sneaked in to join the fight. Theoden leads his people into battle (Photo: New Line Cinema)Īs he urges his soldiers to go “forth, and fear no darkness”, his speech to them becomes a formidable, shiver-inducing and apocalyptic call to arms. When he and his followers arrive over the crest of a hill, and see the city – much like Sauron’s eye – “wreathed in flame”, it might be supposed this would only deepen that despair.Īnd yet on the Pelennor Fields, in the face of the vast and formidable Mordor hordes, Theoden’s resigned acceptance shifts into something far more defiant, brave and heroic. Theoden’s grim soliloquy at Helm’s Deep in The Two Towers, and inner monologue on the ride to Minas Tirith in this film, had already established him as accepting his doom. Of good defeating evil, and never abandoning hope – even in the face of seemingly insurmountable odds.
The entire scene, much like the film and the trilogy as a whole, is about triumph over adversity.
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