The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim is seemingly sidelining Helm Hammerhand in favor of his unnamed daughter who will now lead a long-lost tribe of female warriors to reclaim Rohan from an invasion of Dunlendings.
A still from The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim (2024), Warner Bros. Pictures
In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, writer Philippa Boyens confirmed that the unnamed daughter of Helm would be the main protagonist of the film. She said, “When they suggested anime, that’s when my brain really started whirring. Immediately, the idea of telling this story came to me. They had a number of different ones they were going to pitch me, but I was quite bossy, and I was like, ‘No, I know exactly what this needs.’”
She continued, “I immediately felt that it would work for anime because it’s so character-based and also contained within its own world. It speaks to certain things that work really well with Japanese storytelling.”
Philippa Boyens via Nerd of the Rings YouTube
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Speaking specifically to Helm’s unnamed daughter she said, “In the appendices where the story is drawn from, 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,” she said. “We could feel the weight of being that unnamed daughter, which immediately piqued our interest: Who was she? How did she live?”
A still from The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim (2024), Warner Bros. Pictures
Not only is Helm’s unnamed daughter, which the film has named Héra, the main protagonist of the film, but according to Drew Taylor at TheWrap, she is able to “ride horses and … communes with the Great Eagles.”
Furthermore, she calls “on the power of a seemingly long-lost tribe of female warriors” to drive out the Dunlendings from Rohan.
A still from The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim (2024), Warner Bros. Pictures
Jonathan Watson at The One Ring reacted to this information, “I went through The People of Middle-earth. I went through the Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien. The Peoples of Middle-earth, it has the notes to the House of Eorl, which is part of the Appendix in The Return of the King, the notes that Tolkien wrote that Christopher Tolkien, his son, put through the ringer to give us guidance and information on how Rohan was envisioned and how the House of Eorl was envision in The Return of the King.”
He continued, “And then I also went through this here, which is The J.R.R. Tolkien Companion Guide and Reader’s Guide. It has pretty much everything you could want when it comes to researching characters, people, places in Middle-earth. It’s the most complete resource you can get. Shield maiden is never, is never, never — there is no shield maidens anywhere, anywhere in this.”
He later added, “Here’s the thing: people are tired, I’m tired of the girl boss thing becoming the only way to tell a story. The only way to tell an action tale is to drive these girl bosses right into the front, smother us with the things we don’t believe, and change the story that Tolkien wrote.”
“It’s boring. It’s predictable. And it’s not even as good as anything he wrote,” Watson declared.
Based on reporting by Slashfilm it appears that Boyens and Warner Bros. are going to try and get around this by having Miranda Otto’s Éowyn narrate, “Don’t look for her in the ancient accounts, for there are none.”
Miranda Otto as Éowyn in The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002), Warner Bros. Pictures
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As noted by Boyens, Helm’s daughter is unnamed in the appendix. And while the rejection of a marriage offer between her and Wulf is central to the short story, she as a character is not. This is what Tolkien wrote of her, “To one of these councils Freca rode with many men, and he asked the hand of Helm’s daughter for his son Wulf.”
Instead, the central characters of the story are Helm Hammerhand, Wulf, Helm’s sons Haleth and Háma, and Helm’s nephew Fréaláf Hildeson.
Gandalf leads the Rohirrim at the Battle of the Hornburg in The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002), Warner Bros. Pictures
In Tolkien’s story, the invasion of Rohan is preceded by a confrontation between Helm Hammerhand and Freca. Freca asks for Helm’s daughter in marriage to his son Wulf. Hammerhand rejects it and calls him fat. Freca responds saying, “Old kings that refuse a proffered staff may fall on their knees.” The two then participate in a king’s council. However, after it is concluded Hammerhand confronts Freca, rebukes him for his words of rebellion, and kills him with a single punch. He then declares Freca’s son, Wulf, and his men enemies of the king.
Four years after this confrontation Rohan is invaded by Dunlendings led by Wulf. They were joined “by enemies of Gondor that landed in the mouths of Lefnui and Isen.”
A still from The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim (2024), Warner Bros. Pictures
Rohan loses to the forces of the Dunlendings and their allies led by Wulf in a battle at the Crossings of Isen. After being defeated, Helm Hammerhand flees to the safety of the Hornburg, where the invading forces set up a siege.
The invading forces also split with Wulf leading a portion of the army to Edoras to take the city. Tolkien wrote, “Wulf took Edoras and sat in Meduseld and called himself king. There Haleth Helm’s son fell, last of all, defending the doors.”
A still from The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim (2024), Warner Bros. Pictures
Meanwhile at the Hornburg a Long Winter sets in and Rohan is covered in snow for five months. Both forces suffer from the cold and a lack of provisions. In an attempt to acquire provisions and against his father’s council Háma leads sortie, but does not return and “were lost in the snow.”
Following this Tolkien detailed, “Helm grew fierce and gaunt for famine and grief; and the dread of him alone was worth many men in the defence of the Burg. He would go out by himself, clad in white, and stalk like a snow-troll into the camps of his enemies, and slay many men with his hands. It was believed that if he bore no weapon no weapon would bite on him.”
One morning Helm did not return and he was discovered “dead as a stone, but his knees were unbent.”
A statue of Helm Hammerhand as seen in The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002), Warner Bros. Pictures
As for Fréaláf, when the winter broke, he “came down out of Dunharrow to which many had fled; and with a small company of desperate men he surprised Wulf in Meduseld and slew him, and regained Edoras.”
Aid from Gondor would eventually arrive and he would drive out the Dunlendings from the rest of Rohan and even Isengard. He would eventually be crowned king of Rohan with the wizard Saruman arriving to give him gifts.
Helm’s body would be taken from the Hornburg and laid to rest in the ninth mound where “the white simbelmynë grew there most thickly so that the mounds seemed to be snow-clad.”
The Horn of Helm Hammerhand as depicted in The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002), Warner Bros. Pictures
What do you make of this confirmation that the unnamed daughter of Helm Hammerhand will be the main protagonist and that she will call on a long-lost tribe of female warriors?
I will say, the character designs actually do look good. Better than the Cal-Arts, and the “realistic” designs from AAA video games.
Yes, because they got the Japanese to do it instead of woke Western animation studios. But such attempts to grossly change the emphasis in the plot still bother me.
This is not a welcome sign, though I suppose there’s still a chance she’s just “regular” heroic, and not “girlboss Mary Sue” heroic.
The most alarming thing is that this time it’s not the original trash Rings of Power, but content that claims canonical status at least within the framework of Jackson’s movies.
If the Lord of the Rings trilogy came out today, made by the exact same people, would it be anywhere near as good as it actually was?
No, because there would be massive creative interference from the financing studio — the way Warner Bros decisions bulked up the HOBBIT trilogy…