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Where now are the horse and the rider? Where is the horn that was blowing?
The Horse-lords of Tolkien’s Middle-earth rode into New York Comic Con with a star-studded panel for New Line Cinema’s forthcoming animated feature, The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim. This prequel takes place approximately 200 years before the events of The Fellowship of the Ring, when Helm Hammerhand, ninth king of Rohan and the namesake of Helm’s Deep and Rohan’s legendary horn, escalated a family feud against his Dunlending neighbors and brought war and tragedy to his realm.
Emmy Award-winning Brian Cox, fresh from playing another commanding patriarch on HBO’s Succession, gives his rich voice to Helm Hammerhead. Newcomer Gaia Wise (A Walk in the Woods) is Hèra, Helm’s headstrong daughter who was unnamed in Tolkien’s writings. Skins’ Luke Pasqualino voices Wulf, the rage-filled son of Freca and new chieftain of the Dunlending wildmen, who finds his marriage proposal to Hèra rejected by Helm, with dire consequences for all of Rohan. Hèra’s epic tale is narrated by Rohan’s most famous future shieldmaiden, Èowyn (Miranda Otto, reprising her role from Peter Jackson’s films.)
Attendees of The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim panel were treated to exclusive footage from the film, introduced by late night host and unmatched Tolkien expert, Stephen Colbert.
Snow blankets the White Mountains, while outside the fortress walls of the Hornburg, Dunlending warriors spread the tale of a ferocious Helm Hammerhand who moves through the Dunlending camps like a wraith, tearing men apart with his bare hands, feasting on their flesh.
Meanwhile, his daughter Hèra paces nervously in the bowels of the Rohirrim stronghold, wondering where her father has disappeared to during a crucial evening’s battle. Hèra’s friend, a fellow shieldmaiden, hushes an elderly servant who relates the gossip about their king’s preternatural vengeance. At the precise moment she says it is impossible for Helm to have disappeared from his locked, windowless room, Hèra, in a hallway nearby, accidentally unlocks a secret panel in the stone wall, leaving her own bedroom empty.
Hèra feels her way along the secret passageway in the dark, visions of a ghost’s arm, shining armor –Helm’s – flitting by. She rounds a corner and sees the light of dawn ahead. This cave leads Hèra to exit onto a snowy mountainside… right into the paths of two orcs looting the dead.
The orcs are under orders from Mordor to remove every golden ring from every corpse they come across. Smartly, the two orcish foot soldiers don’t want to think too deeply about the reason behind such a directive; it’s clearly above their paygrade. “Fresh meat,” the lead orc says, salivating at the scent of Hèra, crouched behind a rock. Just as the two orcs and their giant companion are about to swarm the human girl, the mighty Helm Hammerhand falls upon the orcs from above, in a flash of shining armor, white hair, and his teeth bared with his war cry.
The orcs quickly dispatched, father and daughter walk across the bridge and return to the main gates of the Hornburg, chased by Dunlendings. The door mechanisms fail, however, and the door can only open a crack. Helm understands what he must do next to protect the daughter who is the light of his life. Protesting, Hèra is pushed inside to safety by her father, who stands alone against the approaching horde. He squares his broad shoulders and, with a gleam in his eyes, faces his fate as only a proud warrior-king can.
Kenji Kamiyama, who has told exciting original stories in some legendary sandboxes before, including Blade Runner: Black Lotus and Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex, was thrilled to work with Academy Award-winning Lord of the Rings screenwriter and producer Philippa Boyens. The War of the Rohirrim is a much smaller story in actual word count, taking up only four pages in the Appendixes of The Return of the King, but it nonetheless examines the human and moral ravages of war.
Boyens hopes the return to Middle-earth will feel familiar, with concept art provided by Weta Workshop and artists Alan Lee and John Howe, and variations of Howard Shore’s iconic musical score. But there’s plenty new to see, including the land of Edoras in flames, a deeper peek into the Hornburg and the culture of Rohan –as well as some characters careful readers will surely recognize.
“It’s never not a gift to go back to Tolkien’s world,” Boyens said.
The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim opens on Dec. 13.
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