Arise, and Fear No Darkness!

A smell of burning was in the air and a very shadow of death. But the king sat upon Snowmane, motionless, gazing upon the agony of Minas Tirith, as if stricken suddenly by anguish or by dread. He seemed to shrink down, cowed by age.
Merry himself felt as if a great weight of horror and doubt had settled on him. Time seemed poised in uncertainty. They were too late! Too late was worse than never! Perhaps Theoden would quail, bow his old head, turn, and slink away to hide in the hills.
Then suddenly Merry felt it at last, beyond doubt: a change. The bent shape of the king sprang suddenly erect. Tall and proud he seemed again; and rising in his stirrups he cried in a loud voice, more clear than any there had ever heard a mortal man achieve before:

Arise, Arise, Riders of Theoden!
Fell deeds awake: fire and slaughter!
Spear shall be shaken, shield shall be splintered,
A sword-day, a red day, ere the sun rises!
Ride now, ride now! Ride to Gondor!

Suddenly the king cried to Snowmane and the horse sprang away. Behind him his banner blew in the wind, white horse upon a field of green, but he outpaced it. After him thundered the knights of his horse, but he was ever before them. Eomer rode there, the white horsetail on his helm floating in his speed, and the front of the first roared like a breaker foaming to the shore, but Theoden could not be overtaken.” (excerpts from LOTR p 818)




Lord of the Rings has always been a family favorite. Apart from all of us reading the books and having the movies memorized, it’s the only movie we ever got mom and dad to go to a midnight showing of. Everyone has their favorite part, Elizabeth always cries when Sam carries Frodo up the slopes of doom, Dave at the end when Gandalf leaves, Dad loves Aragorn’s last speech, but this is the part that always gets me.

Earlier in the story Theoden and Aragorn are talking and they see that only half as many horsemen came as they had hoped, and they know that only six thousand spears won’t be enough to break the lines of Mordor. So, when Theoden rides up and sees Minas Tirith, he knows he doesn’t have enough men to make the difference, or to change the war. He also knew that he would most likely die, leading the charge of his riders. Being the first one into a battle that you’re not going to win doesn’t give you very good odds of survival. But, he went anyway. Even though no help came from Gondor at Helm’s Deep, he would give his life for Gondor when they needed aid.
Sometimes you have situations that look hopeless and it feels like you won't even make a difference, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't try. At the end you'll find that you did more than you thought possible.

But, perhaps the most important difference of all is what Theoden said as he was dying, "I go now to my fathers in whose mighty company I shall not now feel ashamed." The biggest difference of all was in the king himself.