Human Life

The race of Men is the second race of beings created by the One God, Ilúvatar. Because they awoke at the start of the First Age, while the Elves awoke three Ages before them, they are called the Afterborn (Quenya Atani, Sindarin: Edain) by the Elves.

Men bear the so-called Gift of Men, mortality. Elves are immortal, in the sense that even if their bodies are slain, their spirits remain bound to the world, going to the Halls of Mandos to wait until they are released or the world ends. Elves are tied to the world for as long as it lasts. When Men die, they are released from Arda and the bounds of the world and have rest from its troubles.

Although all Men are related to one another, there are many different groups with different cultures. The most important group in the tales of the First Age were the Edain. Although the word Edain refers to all Men, the Elves use it to distinguish those Men who fought with them in the First Age against Morgoth in Beleriand. Those Men who fought against Morgoth in the First Age were divided into three Houses.

The First House of the Edain was the House of Bëor, which entered Beleriand in 305 F.A. and was granted the fief of Ladros in Dorthonion by Finrod Felagund. The Second House of the Edain, the Haladin was led by Haldad and later by his daughter Haleth and settled in the Forest of Brethil. The Third House, which became the greatest, was led by Marach and later his descendant Hador, and they settled in Dor-lómin. This house was known both as the House of Marach and the House of Hador.

Other Men didn't cross the Misty Mountains or fight against Morgoth. Some such as the Easterlings fought openly on his side. Later on the Haradrim would fight on Sauron's side against the descendants of the Edain. Here below follow the short descriptions of the most important groups of Men in the First, Second and Third Age.

Edain and Dúnedain

Through their services and assistance rendered to the Elves and the Valar in the War of Wrath at the end of the First Age, the Edain were rewarded with a new land of their own between Middle-earth and the Undying Lands. This was the island of Númenor, an island in the form of a five-pointed star far away from the evil of Middle-earth.

They were led to this island by Elros with the help of his father Eärendil, who sailed the heavens as the bright star of the same name. Once there Elros became the first king of Númenor as Tar-Minyatur and the Edain became known as the Dúnedain (Sindarin for Men of the West). The kingdom of Númenor grew steadily in power and the Dúnedain became the noblest and highest of all Men on Arda. Allied to the Elves, Númenor fought against Morgoth's lieutenant Sauron.

Now that the Men of the West had become powerful they came to resent the Gift of Men, Death. They wanted to become immortal like the Elves, and enjoy their accumulated power for all time. The Númenóreans turned away from the Valar, began to call the Gift of Men the Doom of Men and cursed the Ban of the Valar which forbade them to sail west beyond sight of Númenor or to enter Valinor. In 2899 SA Ar-Adûnakhôr became the first king of Númenor who took his royal name in Adûnaic, the language of Men instead of Quenya, the language of the Elves. This led to civil war in Númenor.

The people of Númenor were divided into two factions: the King's Men, who enjoyed the support of the King and the majority of the people. They favoured Adûnaic as language. The minority faction, the Faithful, were led by the lord of Andunië, the westernmost province of Númenor, and favoured Quenya. Sauron who by the second millennium of the Second Age was nearly defeated by the Elves took advantage of the division. He surrendered to the last Númenórean King, Ar-Pharazôn and worked his way into the King's counsels. Ultimately, Sauron advised him to attack Valinor and claim immortality. This he foolishly did, and as a punishment Númenor, the island of the Men of the West fell and only the Faithful escaped and founded the twin kingdoms of Gondor and Arnor.

Black Númenóreans and Haradrim

The Faithful weren't the only Númenóreans left on Middle-earth when Númenor sank. When Númenor grew in naval power many Númenóreans founded colonies in Middle-earth. In the second millennium of the Second Age there was an exodus of Men from overcrowded Númenor. The King's Men because they wanted to conquer more lands, and the Faithful because they were persecuted by the Kings. The Faithful settled in Pelargir and the King's Men settled in Umbar. When Númenor was destroyed the King's Men became known as the Black Númenóreans and remained hostile against the Faithful of Gondor. From their ranks Sauron recruited men who would become some of the nine Ringwraiths in the second millennium of the Second Age. Umbar was conquered by Gondor in 933 Third Age.

Among the Black Númenórean race was the wicked Queen Berúthiel, wife of Tarannon Falastur, King of Gondor.

Further east of Umbar another group of Men lived, the Haradrim. They were dark skinned Men and waged war on great Oliphaunts or Mûmakil. Hostile to Gondor they were subdued in 1050 TA by Hyarmendacil I.

Both Umbar and the Harad were left unchecked by Gondor's waning power by the time of the War of the Ring, and presented grave threats from the south. Many Haradrim fought with Sauron's forces in Gondor in that War.

Easterlings

Most Men who fought in the armies of Morgoth and Sauron were Easterlings, who came from the region around the Sea of Rhûn. Some Easterlings offered their services to the Elvish kingdoms in Beleriand, among them were Bor and his sons and Ulfang the Black and his sons. This proved to be disastrous for the Elves in the Nirnaeth Arnoediad when Ulfang and his clan switched sides and defected to Morgoth, while Bor and his sons died bravely fighting on the side of the Eldar.

After Morgoth's defeat Sauron extended his influence over the Easterlings and although Sauron was defeated by the Last Alliance of Elves and Men at the end of the Second Age, the Easterlings were the first enemies to attack Gondor again in 492 TA. They were soundly defeated by King Rómendacil I, but invaded again in 541 TA and took revenge by slaying King Rómendacil. Rómendacil's son Turambar took large portions of land from them. In the next centuries Gondor held sway over the Easterlings. When Gondor's power began to decrease in the twelfth century Third Age, the Easterlings took the complete eastern bank of the Anduin except Ithilien crushing Gondor's allies, the Northmen.

The Easterlings of the Third Age were divided in different tribes, such as the Wainriders and the Balchoth. The Wainriders were a confederation of Easterlings which were very active between 1856 and 1944 TA. They were a serious threat to Gondor for many years, but were utterly defeated by Eärnil II in 1944. When Gondor lost its royal dynasty in 2050 TA the Easterlings started to reorganize themselves and a fierce tribe called the Balchoth became the most important tribe. In 2510 TA they invaded Gondor again and conquered much of Calenardhon, until they were defeated by the Éothéod, coming to Gondor's aid.

Until the War of the Ring the Easterlings didn't launch any invasion. In the War of the Ring they were amongst the fiercest warriors deployed at the Battle of the Pelennor Fields by Sauron.

Northmen

The Northmen were composed of two principle groups. First, not all the Men who remained east of the Blue Mountains and Misty Mountains were tempted by Morgoth or Sauron. They were joined after the War of Wrath by those of the Edain who did not wish to travel to Númenór (similar to how, at the end of the first age, various Eldar remained and went east, becoming lords of the Silvan elves). The Northmen who dwelt in Greenwood the Great and other parts of Rhovanion were friendly to the Dúnedain, being for the most part their kin, and many of them became Gondorian subjects. The Men of Dale and Esgaroth were Northmen, as were the Woodsmen of Mirkwood, and the Éothéod, who became the Rohirrim.

Dunlendings and Drúedain

When Elendil founded the Kingdom of Arnor its borders were quickly extended towards the river Greyflood (Sind:Gwathló), and Gondor likewise extended up through Enedwaith. In Enedwaith (Middle-land) and Minhiriath (Sindarin for Land between the Rivers) lived a group of Men related to those Men that became the House of Haleth, and they were known as the Dunlendings. They had lived in the great woods that covered most of Eriador, and when the Númenóreans started to chop these woods down to build their ships in the Second Age, the Dúnedain of Númenor earned the hostility of the Dunlendings. The Dunlendings later became bitter enemies of Rohan. The Dunlendings served Saruman in the War of the Ring and participated in the Battle of the Hornburg.

Isildur

Isildur was a Dúnadan of Númenor, elder son of Elendil. He was (briefly) the second king of Gondor and Arnor. His name means "devoted to the moon". In a note written well after the initial publication of The Lord of the Rings, Tolkien gave Isildur's height as 7 feet tall.

Isildur was born in the year 3209 of the Second Age in Númenor, the first son of Elendil son of Amandil, the last Lord of Andúnië. He had a younger brother, Anárion. Isildur had four sons: Elendur, Aratan, Ciryon, and Valandil.

In his youth, Isildur stole a fruit of Nimloth before it was cut down, preserving the line of the White Tree. He planted a seedling in the city of Minas Ithil, and then in Minas Anor.

Isildur, together with his father and brother, fled to Middle-earth when Númenor was destroyed by Ilúvatar. Isildur and Anárion landed in the south and established the realm of Gondor, and their father landed in the north, founding the realm of Arnor.

Isildur settled on the east bank of the Anduin and established the city of Minas Ithil (which would later be named Minas Morgul), as well as the province of Ithilien. However, in 3428 Sauron took Minas Ithil, and Isildur fled northwest to Gil-galad and his father in Arnor, leaving Anárion to rule over Gondor.

He returned with his father and the Elven High King Gil-galad in the Last Alliance of Elves and Men in 3434. His father and brother and Gil-galad were killed in the battle, but Isildur took the hilt shard of his father's sword Narsil, which had broken beneath Elendil in the combat with Sauron, and cut the One Ring from Sauron's finger, destroying Sauron's physical form and winning the war.

Despite the urging of Elrond and Círdan, lieutenant of Gil-galad, Isildur did not destroy the Ring, instead claiming it as an heirloom for his House.

After the fall of Sauron, Isildur left Meneldil, son of his brother Anárion, in charge of Gondor, and returned north to Arnor with his three sons. His fourth son Valandil stayed behind in Rivendell. At the Gladden Fields, Isildur's party was ambushed by roaming Orcs. Isildur put on the ring, hoping to escape under the cover of the Ring's power of invisiblity, but the Ring slipped (of its own volition) from his finger, and he was killed by Orcs on the far bank seeking survivors from the attack.

Isildur was the last king to rule both Gondor and Arnor until King Elessar reunited the kingdoms at the beginning of the Fourth Age.

Faramir

The second of Denethor's two sons, Faramir was a Steward of Gondor after his father's death. Upon the arrival of the true king, King Elessar, he laid down his office as Ruling Steward, but Elessar renewed his hereditary appointment as Steward and advisor to the King. Faramir was also appointed Prince of Ithilien.

Faramir (name means jeweled hunter in Sindarin), a captain of Gondor and brother of Boromir, had a prophetic dream counseling him to see the Sword that was broken in Imladris, which was identified as the Elvish name for Rivendell. His older brother Boromir, who had also had the dream (though Faramir had the dream several times and Boromir only once), claimed the right to the errand and travelled nearly four months to Rivendell, arriving just in time for the Council of Elrond where he reported the dream and its prophetic verses. Aragorn, then a chieftain in hiding serving as a mere Ranger, turned out to be the subject of the verse—the Sword that was broken was an heirloom of his line, Narsil, the sword of Elendil. Yet the news of this revelation was late in coming to Faramir, due to Boromir's long detour and untimely death.

Faramir continued to lead his men in the desperate struggle against the forces of Mordor—they were the Rangers of Ithilien, harassing Sauron from right outside his walls. During a battle with Southrons, Faramir encountered the Hobbits Frodo and Sam, who were on a mission of great secrecy and importance: the destruction of the One Ring.

The Hobbits brought news of the appearance of Isildur's heir, but they were not aware of Boromir's death, which Faramir himself had seen in a vision. He guessed at the cause of the estrangement between his brother and the two Hobbits and through intelligent questioning and intuition he determined that Frodo was carrying some great weapon. At this point, he showed the crucial difference between him and his proud brother: "I would not take this thing, if it lay by the highway," he declared. Later, when he discovered that the weapon was the One Ring, he repeated this statement. He released the Hobbits, enabling them to speed on their quest to destroy the Ring.

Frodo allowed Faramir to briefly take as prisoner their guide to Mordor, the creature Gollum, for questioning about the Ring and Sauron (a former Ringbearer, Gollum had been captured and interrogated by Sauron years earlier.) Angered, Gollum later betrayed Frodo and Sam to the giant spider Shelob, which set in motion a chain of events resulting in the Ring's destruction. Therefore, Faramir indirectly helped Frodo fulfill his quest.

Upon his return to Gondor prior the Battle of the Pelennor Fields in defense of Minas Tirith, Faramir was gravely wounded. He was spared a fiery death at the hands of his insane father by the intervention of Beregond, who loved his captain enough to abandon his post and risk his life protecting him until Gandalf the White's intervention. Faramir was taken to the Houses of Healing, where he lay injured by prolonged exposure to the Black Breath of Sauron, until being healed by Aragorn, the true king. There he met Éowyn of Rohan, who lay languishing and unfulfilled despite having killed the Witch King. He turned her heart from despair and the two fell in love and later married. They had at least one son (Elboron), and their grandson was Barahir. At Aragorn's coronation, Faramir—who very briefly served as Ruling Steward—gladly passed the rule of Gondor to the rightful King. He then became an advisor Elessar, fulfilling the traditional role of the hereditary office of Steward. He was appointed as the first Prince of Ithilien, a position which would have made him warden of Gondor's easternmost outpost and responsible for the rehabilitation of the territory reclaimed from Sauron.

In the extended edition of The Two Towers, Jackson has included a new flashback scene showing that Denethor has been neglecting him and favoring Boromir, so that Faramir wanted to please his father by bringing him the Ring. (The relationship is similarly strained in the books, but there his father's favoritism does not seem to affect his decisions in Ithilien.) On the whole, however, new Extended Edition scenes with Faramir brought the character closer to the sympathetic treatment of the books (the line he is given regarding a fallen Southron belongs to Sam in the books, but is not out of keeping with Faramir's character).

Denethor

Denethor (T.A 2930 - 3019) is known to have secretly used a palantír to probe Sauron's strength. The effort aged him quickly, and the knowledge of Sauron's overwhelming force depressed him greatly. Sauron used the palantír to drive him mad with despair. He retained, however, an air of nobility and power.

In the Appendices found in Return of the King, Denethor was a man of great will, farsight, and intellect. However, he was disappointed in being placed second in the hearts and minds of the people to Thorongil, an outsider who served Denethor's father with great renown, even though Thorongil never openly vied to succeed him. As a result, Denethor refused to trust Thorongil's advice, Gandalf in particular whom Thorongil was a strong supporter of, and Denethor hardened his heart when he discovered that Thorongil was really of Isildur's line, the legitimate but powerless heir of Arnor and Gondor.

In 2976 he married Finduilas of Dol Amroth (2950 - 2988), daughter of Prince Adrahil of Dol Amroth. She gave birth to two sons: Boromir (2978 - 26 February 3019) and Faramir (b. 2983).

The danger of his madness is that it seems to follow a certain logic. Sauron does have vastly superior forces, all of which he has surely shown to the Steward in the palantír. His actions, however, do not immediately proclaim his insanity. The warning beacons of Gondor have indeed been lit, although Denethor expects little help from the Rohirrim. Denethor ordered Gondor's forces to the outer defences of Osgiliath and the Rammas Echor, wanting to make a stand since they had been built at great expense and not yet been overrun. His son Faramir and the other commanders objected due to the Enemy's overwhelming numerical superiority and preferred instead to defend Minas Tirith itself but Faramir nontheless obeyed out of respect for his father's favourite and firstborn, Boromir who had earlier been killed. Seeing Faramir's near death during the retreat, combined with apparent doom of his capital city to vastly superior forces, drove him over the edge into insanity.

Denethor committed suicide on 15 March 3019, having ordered his men to burn him alive on a pyre prepared for him and Faramir. As a Steward of the House of Anárion, he refused Gandalf's request to vacate his office in favour of the legitimate heir, Aragorn. He threw a torch onto the pyre. He took the white rod of his office and broke it on his knee, casting it into the flames, symbolizing the end of his stewardship and the end of the rule of the Stewards. He laid himself down on the pyre and so perished, clasping the palantír in his hands. He also attempted to take the grievously injured and apparently dying Faramir with him, but was thwarted in that by the timely intervention of Peregrin Took with the aid of Beregond, a guard of the City, and ultimately Gandalf the White.

The Stewardship passed to Faramir, who remained in the Houses of Healing for a time, although the command of the city fell to the Prince of Dol Amroth during the remainder of the Battle of the Pelennor Fields.

Éomer

He was the eighteenth King of Rohan, and first of the Third Line.  Éomer, of the House of Eorl, was the son of Théodwyn, sister of King Théoden of Rohan, and Éomund, a Chief Marshal of the Riddermark. He had a sister Éowyn. After they were orphaned Théoden adopted them as his own children. He was tall, strong and possessed of great passion also was considered the most valiant and splendid warrior and a discerning and descent man. Eomer had became a great, wise and a skilled warrior and rider.

Éomer was third Marshal of the Riddermark, and was a strong leader of Men. 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 gave them two horses.

Éomer returned to Edoras, and reported on meeting the Ranger and friends. However, under the poisonous advice of Gríma Wormtongue, he was arrested.

He was set free when Théoden recovered from the influence of Saruman the White, and was with his king at the battle of Hornburg, where he and his éored drove the Orcs and Dunlendings of Saruman into the walls of the Hornburg and in the Huorn forest, where they were killed.

Afterwards he rode with Théoden, Aragorn, and Gandalf to Isengard, where they confronted a trapped Saruman. Éomer rode with his king to the Battle of the Pelennor Fields, and fought bravely for Rohan and Gondor.

In the year T.A. 3019 at the Battle of the Pelennor Fields Théoden was killed, and Éomer became his successor. He stayed long behind in Minas Tirith to help Aragorn rebuild his kingdom, before returning home to be crowned king himself.

Éomer renewed the Oath of Eorl for 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 Princess Lothíriel, daughter of Prince Imrahil of Dol Amroth during his stay in Gondor, and they were wed. She bore him a son Elfwine the Fair, who succeeded his father as the King of Rohan, after Éomer's death in the year F.A. 63.

In the Lord of the Rings movie trilogy by Peter Jackson, Éomer is exiled by Gríma 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 that Gandalf returns to Helm's Deep with. In these movies, Éomer was played by New Zealand actor Karl Urban.

Théoden

Théoden was the seventeenth King of Rohan, and last of the Second Line.  By the time of the War of the Ring, Théoden had been king for nearly 30 years, and was getting old and tired. He was increasingly misled by his chief advisor Gríma (or Wormtongue as most others in the Mark called him), who was secretly in the employ of Saruman the White; Gríma may even have been poisoning his lord. He also had a minstrel called Gleowine.

In the last years before the War of the Ring, Théoden let his rule slip out of his hands, and Gríma became increasingly powerful. Rohan was troubled again by Orcs and Dunlendings, who operated under the will of Saruman, ruling from Isengard.

When Théodred was mortally wounded at a battle at the Fords of Isen with the Orcs of Saruman, his nephew Éomer became his heir. Éomer was out of favour with Wormtongue, however, and was eventually arrested.

When Gandalf the White and Aragorn appeared before him, Théoden initially rebuffed Gandalf's advice to ride out against Saruman, but after being healed by the wizard, he restored his nephew, took up his sword, and led the Riders of Rohan into battle at Helm's Deep. After this he became known as Théoden Ednew, the Renewed, because he had thrown off the yoke of Saruman.

He led the Rohirrim to the aid of Gondor at the Battle of the Pelennor Fields. In that battle he challenged the Witch-King of the Nine Ringwraiths, and died when his horse Snowmane fell upon him after being frightened by the Ringwraith's fell beast. He was immediately avenged by Éowyn and the Hobbit Meriadoc Brandybuck, both of whom had ridden to war in secret.

Éowyn

She is also known as the Lady of the Shield-arm, the White Lady of Rohan and is later titled Lady of Ithilien. Éowyn was very beautiful; she was tall, slim, and graceful, with golden hair. In temperament she was idealistic, spirited, brave, high-minded, and lonely.

Éowyn, Lady of Rohan, a daughter of the House of Eorl and the niece of King Théoden of Rohan, is introduced in his palace in Meduseld at Edoras. She was the daughter of Théodwyn (sister to Théoden) and Éomund, and the sister of Éomer. Frustrated by unrequited love for Aragorn and longing for the glory of battle, she disguised herself as a man, and under the alias of Dernhelm, traveled with the Riders of Rohan to the Battle of Pelennor Field outside the White City of Minas Tirith in Gondor, carrying with her Merry, who was also ordered to remain. Théoden in fact names her as the ruler of Rohan in his and Éomer's absence when they go to attack Isengard if they fail during the battle, when the Doorward Háma recommends that "The House of Eorl" rule (Théoden first only thought of male members, said that he and Éomer are the last of the House, but Háma points out Lady Éowyn, who is "fearless" and "all love her").

During the battle of Pelennor Fields, she fought by King Théoden; when he was injured when fighting the Witch-king of Angmar, Lord of the Nazgûl, she and Merry (Meriadoc Brandybuck) scrambled to help him.

Just as MacDuff disconcerted Macbeth by revealing he was not "of woman born", Lady Éowyn found the loophole in the 1,000-year-old prophecy by an Elf Lord Glorfindel, fulfilling that the Witch-king would not be slain by a man. However, the Witch-king actually recited the prophecy incorrectly: he said that "no living man may hinder me," though the prophecy actually said that "Not by the hand of Man will he fall." Glorfindel's prophecy, unlike his own version, implies that the Witch-king will eventually fall, and the Witch-king likely overestimated his own power and believed he would never be defeated.

Lady Éowyn slew the Witch-king after Merry stabbed him behind the knee. Strictly speaking, Merry is also "no man," being a hobbit. However, the stab behind the knee likely wouldn't have been fatal, even if it did break the bonds that "bent his unseen sinews to his will." The consensus seems to be that Merry's stab made the Witch-King vulnerable while Eowyn's slash actually resulted in death. She was granted the title "Lady of the Shield-arm" after the Battle in recognition of her triumph over the Witch-king.

Lady Éowyn was severely injured in this fight, and because of the poisonous effect of the Black Breath of the Nazgûl, she faced near-certain death and was brought up to the House of Healing; however, she was treated in time by Aragorn, to whom she had earlier been strongly attracted, during his brief rest in Minas Tirith. Since she didn't yet recover completely, she couldn't join Aragorn's army on their way to Mordor for the last confront with Dark Lord army. However, while recuperating in the Houses of Healing, she met Faramir, with whom she fell in love.

After the demise of Sauron, the happily-wedded couple settled in Ithilien, of which Faramir was made the ruling Prince of Ithilien by King Elessar. Éowyn was not known as the Princess of Ithilien, rather as the Lady of Ithilien. They had at least one son (likely Elboron), and their grandson was Barahir, who wrote The Tale of Aragorn and Arwen in the Fourth Age. The date of Éowyn's death is nowhere recorded.

Gríma

Gríma, son of Galmod, and a native of Rohan, was secretly in thrall to Saruman, and worked to weaken Théoden and his kingdom. It is likely that Saruman had promised him Eowyn, the king's niece, as a reward for his services; in the novel, Wormtongue is accused of "watching her under his lids and haunting her steps" and in the film, he makes clumsy romantic overtures to her as she weeps for her dead cousin Theodred. It is also possible that he has Dunlending ancestry, since he is darker-haired and physically smaller than the other Rohirrim.

Upon Gandalf's arrival, "many things which men had missed" were found locked in his trunk and he was given a grim choice: ride into battle or into exile. Choosing the latter, he went to dwell with Saruman at Orthanc. Saruman had cause to regret this when, following the confrontation between Saruman and Gandalf, he mistakenly threw a "heavy rock"—which was actually the palantír of Orthanc—at the Rohirrim accompanying Gandalf, an act for which Saruman seems to have punished him severely.

He then accompanied Saruman to the Shire, where the two sought revenge in petty tyranny over the hobbits (though Saruman had already been exerting control from afar by sending evil Men to the Shire). During this time he became increasingly degraded until he was a crawling wretch, almost resembling Gollum, and Saruman shortened his nickname to "Worm". During this time he killed Lotho Sackville-Baggins, and may have eaten him.

Spurred by the words of Frodo that he did not have to follow Saruman, and being pushed over the edge when Saruman scorned him, he used a hidden knife to slit the throat of Saruman and darted down the road. He was quickly killed by several Hobbit arrows.

The reason for Gríma's pale and emaciated appearance in the movie is not entirely clear. Perhaps it is meant to suggest that by throwing in his lot with Saruman he has started down the same path to physical and mental corruption that caused Gollum to become a twisted parody of his original self, although it is just as likely that Jackson simply wanted to make it clear that Wormtongue was one of the "bad guys" in the large cast of characters. According to Dourif, Peter Jackson also encouraged him to shave off his eyebrows so that the audience would immediately have a subliminal reaction of unease to Gríma.

The "Scouring of the Shire" episode does not appear in the film version, so the deaths of Saruman and Gríma have been moved to an earlier scene, The Voice of Saruman. This scene was cut from the theatrical releases of the films, but can be found on the Extended Edition DVD of The Return of the King. Other than the location, the manner of the characters' deaths is very much the same. As in the book, Gríma kills Saruman, but by stabbing him in the back, not slitting his throat (probably because this would have been too graphic for a PG-13 movie). Saruman's body then falls from the tower and is impaled on a spiked wheel, a remnant of his war machine. Gríma himself is shot by an arrow fired by Legolas, thereby mirroring his death in the book. This scene was to have included a line where Saruman blamed Gríma for killing Théodred, replacing Lotho in the context of that scene, but the line was cut out.

Théodred

He was the only son and heir of King Théoden of Rohan. His mother, Elfhild, died in childbirth.  Théodred was slain in the First Battle of the Fords of Isen, making his cousin, Éomer, heir to the throne of Rohan.

Little else is known about Théodred, except that he loved Éomer like a brother, and the only person he loved more than Éomer was his father, Théoden.

In Peter Jackson's film version, the death of Théodred is a major event early in The Two Towers, whereas, in the book, it has already happened by the time the focus comes to Rohan. In the film, he is not killed immediately, and Éomer manages to find Théodred among the dead after a battle. Théodred later succumbs to his wounds, though it is hinted that Grima Wormtongue aided in his death. Also, Theodred is portrayed as a young man of 20-25 years old.