Cirion and Eorl and the Friendship of Gondor and Rohan
the oath of Eorl and the gift of Calenardhon
Nature
Cirion and Eorl and the Friendship of Gondor and Rohan is the narrative in Unfinished Tales (Part Three, II) of the founding of the alliance between Gondor and the horse-people of the north: how Cirion, Steward of Gondor, called upon Eorl the Young and the Éothéod, and how, after the Battle of the Field of Celebrant, Eorl swore the famous oath and received the green land of Calenardhon — henceforth Rohan — from the Steward’s hand.
Contents
The tale recounts the danger of Gondor when, under the Stewardship of Cirion, the Balchoth pressed the northern marches past the Anduin; Cirion sent messengers into the far north asking aid of the Éothéod; and Eorl the Young rode south with his riders. At the Field of Celebrant the enemy was destroyed in a great victory, and thereafter Eorl and Cirion met upon the hill of Amon Anwar, where Eorl swore the oath of friendship — the “Oath of Eorl” — by which the Éothéod bound themselves to the service of Gondor “until the end of their days”; and Cirion granted them the open lands of Calenardhon to dwell in as a free people. An appendix traces the ancestry of the Éothéod and the earlier history of the horse-lords; the friendship sworn here endured until it was proven again in the War of the Ring.
Composition
Written among the later Third Age essays, with genealogical and historical notes edited by Christopher Tolkien; the shorter account in the Appendices records the same events and the oath.