From dark Dunharrow in the dim morning <br />With thane and captain rode Thengel's son: <br />To Edoras he came, the ancient halls <br />Of the Mark-wardens mist-enshrouded; <br />Golden timbers were in gloom mantled. <br />Farewell he bade to his free people, <br />Hearth and high-seat, and the hallowed places, <br />Where long he had feasted ere the light faded. <br />Forth rode the king, fear behind him, <br />Fate before him. Fealty kept he; <br />Oaths he had taken, all fulfilled them. <br />Forth rode Theoden. Five nights and days <br />East and onward rode the Eolingas. <br />Through Folde and Fenmarch and the Firienwood, <br />Six thousand spears to Sunlending, <br />Mundberg the mighty under Mindolluin, <br />Sea-kings city in the South-kingdom <br />Foe-beleaguered, fire-encircled. <br />Doom drove them on. Darkness took them, <br />Horse and horseman; hoofbeats afar <br />Sank into silence: so the songs tell us.<br /><br />John Ronald Reuel Tolkien<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/theoden/
