Eomer - Marshall of the Riddermark

Eomer -Marshall of the Riddermark, and nephew to King Theoden of  Rohan.

Info from LOTR WIKI:

Éomer means "one who is famous in terms of horses" (Old English). His name was likely derived from the Anglo-Saxon words "eoh" ("war-horse"), "maer" (famous), and "éadig" ("blessed").

Eomer, riding Firefoot

Éomer, born in TA 2991, of the House of Eorl, was the son of Éomund, a descendant of Éofor, and of Theodwyn, sister of Theoden King. In TA 3002, when Éomer was eleven, Éomund was slain in battle with Orcs. Theodwyn died of grief shortly afterward. Éomund also had a daughter named Éowyn, Éomer's sister. After they were orphaned Théoden adopted them as his own children.

Éomer was third Marshal of the Mark, and was a strong leader of Men. Éomer was faithful to his country, and people. He was honored highly, and prized extensively by the king and was good friends with Théodred, son of Théoden who loved him like a brother.

His éored hunted down the Uruk-hai that had taken Meriadoc Brandybuck and Peregrin Took as they camped near Fangorn forest, slaying them all. He never saw the Hobbits, as they fled during the battle. Afterwards he met Aragorn, Gimli, and Legolas in the plains of Rohan, and he lent them two horses, Arod and Hasufel.

Éomer returned to Edoras and reported on meeting the Ranger and friends and allowing them to go free, a violation of the king's law. Under the poisonous advice of Gríma Wormtongue, he was imprisoned by Théoden, who had grown weak, aged, and suspicious under Saruman the White's influence.

After Aragorn, Gimli, and Legolas reunited with Gandalf, the four hastened to Edoras, where Gandalf broke Saruman's influence over Théoden and restored him to health and vitality. Théoden freed Éomer, who offered his sword to Théoden in token of his loyalty. Théoden named Éomer his heir prior to riding away from Edoras to the defense of the Hornburg.

Eomer
At the Battle of the Hornburg, he and his éored drove the orcs and Dunlendings of Saruman into the walls of the Glittering Caves and in the Huorn forest, where they were killed. One of the main defences that Éomer was involved in was the defence of the gate where he, Aragorn, and a small band of men left through a small door at the side of the Hornburg and led an assault on the forces attempting to break the gates of the Hornburg. After this attack Éomer and Aragorn attempted to return through the door when Éomer was jumped upon by several orcs who had laid low during the assault though Éomer was saved by Gimli who had secretly followed him out to the gate.

Afterwards he rode with Théoden, Aragorn, and Gandalf when they went to Isengard, where they confronted a trapped and defeated Saruman. Éomer then rode with his king to the defense of Gondor, leading the first éored in the charge against the forces of Mordor besieging the city.

In the year TA 3019 at the Battle of the Pelennor Fields, Théoden was fatally crushed by his horse, Snowmane, after being thrown by the Witch King's Fell Beast. Éomer became King of the Mark upon his death. Following the battle, Éomer and his men went back to Edoras to attend to affairs of the kingdom, returning later to bear the body of Théoden back to his home for burial.

Eomer at the coronation
Éomer King at Aragorn's coronation
Éomer renewed the Oath of Eorl with Aragorn after Aragorn had been crowned King Elessar of the Reunited Kingdom, and Éomer had been crowned King of Rohan, swearing everlasting friendship between Rohan and Gondor (and legalizing Cirion's grant of Calenardhon to the Éothéod.)

He became known as Éomer Éadig, or "the Blessed", because during his reign Rohan recovered from the hurts of the War and became a rich and fruitful land again.

Éomer had met Lothíriel, daughter of Prince Imrahil of Dol Amroth during his stay in Gondor, and they were wed. She bore him a son Elfwine, who succeeded his father, after Éomer's death in the year FO 63.

Éomer's sword was called Gúthwinë (Old English battle-friend). He also used a spear. In the movie Return of the King, Éomer also wields a bow during the fight with the mumakil. Also, in the Return of the King he is shown wielding a shield while fighting dismounted at the Black Gate.

Eomer, dismounted.

In the Lord of the Rings film trilogy by Peter Jackson, Éomer is exiled by Gríma Wormtongue before meeting Aragorn, and is an outcast until he arrives at Helm's Deep, summoned by Gandalf. In this sense, his character has been combined with the character of Erkenbrand, who, in the book, is the one with whom Gandalf returns to Helm's Deep. At the Battle of the Pelennor Fields in the third film, Éomer kills the Chief of the mumakil riders. Éomer was played by New Zealand actor Karl Urban.

In terms of painting, I decided to tone down the colour of the leather armour as I feel the GW crew painted it much too bright, virtually red. Perhaps they were trying to make the figure stand out more so on the table top, but it was too much for my liking so I used Foundry 6A as a base and highlighted with 6B.

I feel the way the model has come out is more in keeping with how the armour looks in the movie...

Karl Urban, as Eomer.

In game terms, Eomer can be fielded in two forms, a medium level hero as the Marshall of the Riddermark, and an upgraded more powerful version entitled the Knight of the Pelennor, for which GW produced a separate model. But frankly, I really dislike the pose of that model... I am not a big fan of the 'sideways' pose for heroes in general, especially if you're on a horse and supposed to be charging headlong leading your men forward... and in the this case the horse also looks like its about to sit down!

So I will stick with the above model, which I think is a wonderfully dynamic pose, and simply tell my opponent which version he is pointed for and represents in the game.

So finally I have Eomer, or as a certain Yorkshireman refers to him; the "B*stard of the Riddermark", to lead my Eored. I hope he enjoys every success, crushing foul orcs ands uruks under his horses hooves, clearing their blight from the lands of the Riddermark!

-----o0o-----

This model will be the last I complete before the Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge commences on the 5th December, and as such was my last chance to clear the decks of outstanding work before the 3 month painting madness begins, so between then and now, I'll continue trimming, preping and undercoating - busy assembling Radagast on sleigh... I have decided this will be a wonderful entry for the 'Comedic' round of scoring...