Warning: Major spoilers for The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim ahead
The latest cinematic adventure set in J.R.R. Tolkien’s Middle-earth, The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim, is marked by a bloody conflict that takes the lives of several of the story’s primary characters. Set nearly 200 years before the events of The Lord of the Rings, The War of the Rohirrim chronicles one of the most significant events in Rohan’s history, the uprising of the Dunlendings under Wulf of the West-March against Rohan’s Helm Hammerhand and the siege of the fortress that would come to be known as Helm’s Deep.
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Despite being an anime-style animated feature, The War of the Rohirrim is loaded with connections to Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings trilogy. However, one of the big differences is how few of the main characters survive the action of The War of the Rohirrim. While the entirety of the Fellowship of the Ring survived the War of the Ring, all but a few characters meet violent ends by the end of The War of the Rohirrim. Between Helm Hammerhand’s family and his enemies, there are seven noteworthy deaths that occur over the course of the war.
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7 Freca
The Local Leader Of The West-March Came To Blows With Helm
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Lord Freca was the much-maligned local lord from the West-March of Rohan, and his actions were the impetus for the entire conflict at the center of The War of the Rohirrim. Freca approached Helm with a proposition: instead of Hèra marrying a lord from Gondor, she should marry his son Wulf (who happened to be a childhood friend of Hèra) and strengthen the ties of Rohan’s people. Helm’s deep mistrust of Freca led to him not only denying the proposal, but mocking Freca and calling him out as inferior, essentially not worthy of his lordship.
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The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim – Key Details |
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Release Date |
Budget |
Box Office Gross |
RT Tomatometer Score |
RT Popcornmeter Score |
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December 13th, 2024 |
$30 million |
$10.3 million (and counting) |
51% |
83% |
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Despite their status as lords, the two leaders’ egos led them to settle their differences by quite literally “taking it outside”. The two men agreed to a fistfight, and after some posturing, began to brawl in front of the members of Helm’s court and Freca’s son, his right hand General Targg, and guards. While Freca landed some blows on Helm quickly, all it did was enrage the mighty king. Helm finally smashed Freca with one vicious punch, which killed Freca instantly from the sheer force.
As a further insult, Helm banished Wulf and his followers from Rohan, stoking his bloodlust for vengeance beyond reason. Wulf already viewed his father’s death as a murder at the hands of Helm, whether that was Helm’s intent or not. Freca’s death set the entire narrative of The War of the Rohirrim in motion.
6 Lord Thorne
The Lord Of Rohan Was Swiftly Rewarded For His Betrayal
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Lord Thorne was a lord of Rohan and a member of Helm’s inner council, and more than once preached patience and peace in the face of Helm’s wrath concerning Freca’s disrespect of the king. It’s eventually revealed that Thorne had his own motivations and ambition regarding the throne of Rohan, and as a means of furthering his own position, he sided with Wulf when he returned with his army of Dunlendings to attack Helm at Edoras. Thorne betrayed Helm by not only removing his soldiers from the flank of Helm’s defense, but by committing them to Wulf in the attack.
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Thorne returned to Edoras himself as part of the attacking force, and confronted its lone defender, Hèra, in one of the barns as she attempted to ride out. Thorne revealed his true intent, and attempted to assassinate the princess. However, he ran afoul of her horse in the process, which lashed out and kicked him, knocking him forward into the tines of the pitchfork that Hèra was using to defend herself. Throne died right there in the barn, with his treachery laid bare and nothing to show for it.
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5 Haleth
Helm’s Eldest Son Fell After An Extreme Act Of Courage
The hilltop city of Edoras stood virtually no chance against Wulf, with Fréaláf and his soldiers banished to Dunharrow and a massive horde of Dunlendings, Corsairs, and Southrons on the warpath. That didn’t stop Helm from mustering his Rohirrim, and both Hèra and her valiant brother Haleth did everything they could to defend the city. The gates of Edoras were broken down by several mûmakil, the massive elephantine beasts referred to as “oliphaunts” by Samwise Gamgee in The Lord of the Rings. As one charged towards the Golden Hall of Meduseld, Haleth sprang into action.
In Peter Jackson’s
The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
, Théoden’s doorward who is later killed by a Warg rider is named Hama. His son, whose sword Aragorn inspects before the Battle of Helm’s Deep, is named Haleth, both likely in deference to Helm’s sons, who become well-known figures in Rohan’s history.
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The warrior prince managed to slay every Southron solider riding atop the massive beast, and with his axe he cut through the tough skin at the top of the monster’s neck, killing it just before it could lay waste to the hall. As the beast came to a stop and Haleth stood over his conquered foes, Wulf grabbed a bow and shot Haleth through the neck from afar, killing him almost instantly. Haleth’s death was the killing blow in the fall of Edoras, as it spurred his siblings and injured father to flee to the Hornburg.
4 Hama
Helm’s Young Son Was Almost Used As A Trade Chip
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Helm’s youngest son, Hama, was depicted as a more gentle soul than his warrior brother, but lacking in none of his courage. Hama was a talented singer, he played the harp, and even refused to abandon his beloved horse on the eve of battle, despite her old age. That decision wound up having disastrous consequences, as Hama fell behind his sister and father as they fled for the Hornburg with Edoras lost to Wulf and the Dunlending raiders. When his horse ran out of breath, Hama dismounted and attempted to shoot Wulf and his guard, only to be captured.
Wulf and Targg presented Hama at the gates of the Hornburg, and a desperate and grieving Helm immediately began to beg for his life. Helm even offered to exchange his own life for Hama’s, with the throne of Edoras already captured by Wulf and no army to retake it. While Targg advised Wulf to take the offer and exchange Helm’s life for Hamas as a way to increase Wulf’s own claim to the throne, the hot-tempered and vengeful young man cut Hama’s throat as a means of further devastating Helm, leaving his body to rot in plain view.
3 Helm Hammerhead
The Mighty King Died Defending His Keep
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Helm was brought into the keep at the Hornburg grievously injured and in a state of inconsolable mourning after the death of his two sons, both at Wulf’s hands. After many nights of what appeared to be an unending slumber despite returning to health, Hèra discovered her father gone from his bedroom. Helm had been sneaking out of the keep via a series of secret tunnels through the mountains and out into the snow, where he killed scores of Dunlendings using nothing but his hands and his mighty war horn, which he blew to strike fear into their hearts.
The fortress known as the Hornburg (formerly the Súthburg) was renamed Helm’s Deep following Helm’s almsot supernatural defense of the fortress and the people inside.
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The Dunlendings were so disturbed by the violence and suddenness of Helm’s attacks that they grew to believe him an unkillable wraith. He all but proved them right when he and Hèra made a break for the fortress after being caught out in the open; after forcing Hèra through the frozen gates, which he held open with no more than his prodigious strength, Helm continued to kill countless enemies with his bare hands in the middle of an unyielding blizzard. He was discovered dead the next morning, frozen solid yet still standing in defense of his fortress and his people.
2 Targg
Wulf’s General Had His Good Sense Ignored
General Targg was the right hand of Freca when he served as lord of the West-March, and when Freca was killed, Targg’s loyalty passed to his son Wulf. While Wulf was reckless and driven by hate and vengeance, Targg was calm and sensible, often preaching good sense to the young lord when it came to actually obtaining the throne and holding on to it. Despite being a true voice of reason, his words often fell on the deaf ears of the impetuous Wulf.
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While Targg might have made for a far more effective leader of the Dunlendings than Wulf, his loyalty overrode his better judgment until it was too late.
That reason held true to the last, as Targg was a witness to Hèra and Wulf’s final one-on-one battle at the end of The War of the Rohirrim. Hèra proposed that the two settle the fate of the people inside the fortress with single hand-to-hand combat, and made Wulf promise to call of his siege if she bested him, which he did. After a ferocious sword fight, Wulf found himself at the end of Hèra’s sword, beaten.
However, Wulf ordered Targg to continue the attack on the fortress despite his promises, which Targg refused to do knowing what promise was made, and what little sense it made to continue the siege. Because of what he saw as a betrayal, Wulf stabbed Targg in the midsection and killed him. While Targg might have made for a far more effective leader of the Dunlendings than Wulf, his loyalty overrode his better judgment until it was too late.
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1 Wulf
The Leader Of The Dunlendings Fell To A True Shieldmaiden Of Rohan
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With nothing but rage and vengeance on his mind, Wulf accepted Hèra’s one-on-one challenge blindly, not seeing it for the mere distraction that it was. He lost in single combat to his childhood friend, just as he had when they were children and she gave him the scar across his eye. It was then that Fréaláf, dressed in Helm’s armor and wielding his war horn, appeared atop the ridge overlooking the valley and frightened Wulf’s troops into a retreat. The desperate and defeated Wulf lashed out one more time violently at Hèra with all seemingly lost.
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The warrior princess managed to fend off his attack with an assist from Olwyn, a former Shieldmaiden of Rohan herself. Olwyn tossed Hèra the small forearm shield that she and her kin used for both offense and defense; her shield, which had seen plenty of battle in her life, was worn with jagged edges along its exterior. Hèra managed to subdue Wulf and pressed the edge of the shield against his neck, simultaneously choking him and cutting into his throat, which ultimately killed him.
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7/10 6.1/10 The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim PG-13AnimationActionAdventureFantasy
Set before the events of the original Lord of the Rings trilogy, The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim is an animated action-adventure fantasy film that follows a King of Rohan named Helm Hammerhand. When his home comes under siege by Dunlendings, Hammerhand prepares himself and his allies to fight back against them, with the war leading to the eventual establishment of Helm’s Deep.
Release Date December 13, 2024 Runtime 134 Minutes Main Genre Fantasy Franchise(s) The Lord of the Rings Cast Brian Cox , Miranda Otto , Gaia Wise , Luke Pasqualino , Laurence Ubong , Shaun Dooley Director Kenji Kamiyama Sequel(s) The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring , The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers , The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King Studio(s) New Line Cinema , Warner Bros. Animation , Sola Entertainment Distributor(s) Warner Bros. Pictures Expand