Incidentally, while researching this answer, I found that the TV show Vikings also used this war cry. Wind-time, wolf-time, | ere the world falls

Hard is it on earth, | with mighty whoredom Īxe-time, sword-time, | shields are sundered,

Skeggǫld, skálmǫld, | skildir ro klofnir.īrothers shall fight | and fell each other, The History of Middle-earth volume VIII - The War of the Ring - page 353Ĭhristopher is likely referring to this stanza of the Völuspá ( translation from here): After the recital of the battle cry, Thoden blew on the horns of Rohan. ', and the likening of Theoden to 'Orome the Great in the Battle of the Valar when the world was young.' Thoden's Battle Cry is spoken by the King of Rohan Thoden before the Battle of the Pelennor Fields. In the remainder of The Ride of the Rohirrim' the final form was achieved in this manuscript almost word for word: the speech of Wídfara about the change in the wind, the disposition of the companies of the Rohirrim, Merry's fear that the king would quail and turn back, his great cry (with echoes of the Old Norse Völuspá) 'Arise, arise, Riders of Theoden. In The History of Middle-earth, when discussing the writing of this passage, Christopher Tolkien says: It was a reference to the Old Norse Völuspá, not Hamlet Is it an intentional reference? Or is it just a coincidence – even though the phrasing sounds a bit unusual to my modern ears (people don't really think of deeds as being things that wake up or arise) maybe this sort of construction wasn't unusual in the older writings that Tolkien was inspired by? There are also parallels between the plots (After saying this, Theoden charges out to face his enemies and receives assistance from a wizard, and in turn Hamlet ventures out and has his own supernatural encounter) I thought it was an interesting coincidence that both authors use phrases that follow a similar formula (f adjective meaning bad/evil + deeds + verb that roughly means arising). Though all the earth o'erwhelm them, to men's eyes. In the play Hamlet, the titular character says this: Spear shall be shaken, shield be splintered,Ī sword-day, a red day, ere the sun rises! In the books, Theoden-King delivers a similar speech/poem before the Battle of Pelenor Fields: Now for wrath, now for ruin, and the red dawn. Let this be the hour when we draw swords together. In the second LOTR movie, Theoden says this before charging out at Helm's deep:

Arise arise riders of theoden