'The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim' - An Anime Interpretation of Tolkien

‘The War of the Rohirrim’ logo

When it was announced, in 2021, that New Line Cinema would be teaming up with Warner Bros. to produce an anime film set in Tolkien’s Middle-earth, I was cautiously excited as I love Tolkien, and I love anime.

Titled ‘The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim’, the story was reported to focus on Helm Hammerhand, the legendary King of Rohan, and Helm’s Deep; its producer is Philippa Boyens, who, along with Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh, had worked on ‘The Lord of the Rings’ trilogy.

So, I put my caution aside and began to genuinely look forward to the production.

‘War of the Rohirrim’ (Warner Bros.) (CBR)

All Tolkien wrote of Helm Hammerhand can be found in Appendix A of ‘The Lord of the Rings’, and, in my copy, it barely covers 3 pages.

If you’re unfamiliar with Helm’s story, and don’t want to know, the following is all SPOILERS, until the image of Helm Hammerhand after which are my thoughts on the anime.

Tolkien describes Helm as ‘a grim man of great strength.’

His rival, a man named Freca, was rich and powerful and had his own lands on which he ‘made himself a stronghold and paid little heed to the king.’

Even though Helm didn’t trust him, he still called Freca to his councils…
‘To one of these councils Freca rode with many men, and he asked the hand of Helm’s daughter for his son Wulf.’

Helm didn’t agree, instead poking fun at the size of Freca’s girth, which had grown since they’d last met.

After the council, Helm took Freca outside to settle the matter privately, just the 2 of them.

Helm told Freca exactly what he thought of him, then ‘smote Freca such a blow with his fist that he fell back stunned, and died soon after.’

Freca’s son, Wulf, and his men were proclaimed enemies and they fled.

Four years later, Rohan was ‘invaded from the East’ by the Dunlendings led by Wulf.

The Rohirrim were defeated, either slain or enslaved, and their land overrun, with the survivors fleeing to the mountains.

Helm was driven back and took refuge in the Hornburg.

His eldest son, Haleth, fell defending Edoras.

A harsh winter followed.

Helm lost his younger son, Háma, who’d led his men out to find food and they were lost in the snow.

I won’t detail what happened to Helm who ‘grew fierce and gaunt for famine and grief…’ but there is enough to flesh out a compelling story.

Helm Hammerhand by Sheppi-Arthouse (DeviantArt)

A few days ago, I came across an article in ‘Entertainment Weekly’ and the excitement I felt abruptly vanished.

The title alone was enough to get my back up – ‘Meet the ‘rebellious’ heroine and ‘fascinating’ villain of the Lord of the Rings anime prequel’.

I’ll leave you to read the article but will highlight a couple of quotes.

The director, Kenji Kamiyama, told EW, “This is the story of the most powerful king in Rohan’s history, someone who defeated his enemies with his bare fists… Why did his lineage have to end with him?”

Helm’s lineage ended with him because that is what Tolkien wanted to happen; after all, this is Tolkien’s creation, the story he wanted to tell.

It was Fréaláf, Helm’s nephew, the son of his sister, Hild, who became king after he defeated the Dunlendings.

If Helm’s lineage had not ended with him, we would not have had Théoden King who was a descendant of Fréaláf.

We then would not have had Éomer at the head of the Rohirrim, nor would we have had Éowyn facing the Witch King of Angmar to defend her uncle.

Then there’s Philippa Boyens:
‘In the appendices… we get these quite interestingly drawn male characters, and then we get this young female character who is never named – and that was really interesting to me… We know Helm has a daughter, and we know that she was central to the conflict that happened. But myself, and especially screenwriter Phoebe Gittins, were drawn to her. We could feel the weight of being that unnamed daughter, which immediately piqued our interest: Who was she? How did she live?”

What do you mean, ‘who was she?’

She was Helm’s daughter, that’s who she was, and she lived at Edoras along with her father and brothers as a shieldmaiden of Rohan, probably in much the same manner as Éowyn.

Boyens says Helm’s daughter was central to the conflict that happened, yet Tolkien has written Helm’s speech to Freca thus:
“The marriage of your son is a trifle. Let Helm and Freca deal with it later. Meanwhile the king and his council have matters of moment to consider.”

That doesn’t sound like the proposed marriage was central to the conflict.

When you read all that Tolkien wrote of Helm and Freca, the simmering distrust and resentment between then would, sooner or later, have resulted in some sort of conflict.

So, they’ve decided to name her Héra, and the actress who voices her says the character ‘bears a stronger resemblance to the heroines of Hayao Miyazaki films like Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind than to classic Lord of the Rings heroines like Arwen and Éowyn.’

If you want a character who bears a stronger resemblance to a Miyazaki heroine, then place her in an original story, not a Tolkien story.

Seriously, you people had one job – adapt the story of Helm Hammerhand into an anime.

Instead, you decide to imitate Amazon’s travesty, ‘The Rings of Power’, rewrite Tolkien and insist on shoving a girl-boss into the story.

By ‘bigging up’ Helm’s daughter, all you’ll end up doing is undermining Éowyn and what she accomplished in ‘The Return of the King’.

No longer will I pay any attention to any upcoming Tolkien works adapted to film.

Instead of simply delving into the already rich lore that Tolkien spent so much of his life on, these so-called ‘creatives’ are too busy wanting to hitch their fan-fiction onto his works.