Edoras

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Infobox LOTR place
place_name = "Edoras"
place_alias =
place_description= Seat of the Kings of Rohan
place_built= Brego
place_type = Capital City
place_realm = Rohan
place_sub_realm =
place_time=
place_lord = Kings of Rohan

In J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth, Edoras is the capital city of Rohan. It is home to the Golden Hall of the King, called Meduseld. The city of Edoras was built on a hill in a valley of the White Mountains by Rohan's second King, Brego son of Eorl the Young. Before Edoras was completed, Rohan's capital was at Aldburg in the Folde. The Golden Hall was described as having a golden thatch, and the stables were constructed at the top of the hill by Meduseld itself.

Edoras is Rohan's only real city. It is here in Meduseld that Aragorn, Gimli, Legolas, and Gandalf meet with King Théoden in the account of the early stages of the War of the Ring.

The inhabitants of Edoras and the rest of the Rohirrim were often called to war, to defend both Gondor and Rohan. They wore green capes, carried green shields emblazoned with a golden sun and were armed with spears and long swords that were set with green gems.

Edoras is built at the end of the valley of Harrowdale, which lies under the great mountain Starkhorn. The river Snowbourn flows past the city on its way west towards the Entwash. The city was protected only by a high wall of timber, and a one-way road allowed access to the city. Just before the gates, two sets of mounds lined the road, which were the graves of the former Kings of Rohan.

"Edoras" is Old English for "the Courts", which Tolkien held to be a translation of an unknown Rohirric name of the same meaning. "Meduseld", a modernized form of the Old English "Maeduselde", is similarly meant to be a translation of an unknown Rohirric name meaning "mead hall".

Adaptations

For Peter Jackson's "The Lord of the Rings" film trilogy, produced by New Line Cinema, a fully realized set for Edoras was built on Mount Sunday in the upper reaches of the Rangitata Valley, near Erewhon in New Zealand. Some of the set was built digitally, but the main buildings atop the city were built on location: for example the mountain ranges in the background are not added in with computer-generated imagery, but part of the actual location shot. The interiors of buildings such as the Golden Hall, however, were located on soundstages in other parts of New Zealand; when the camera is inside of the Golden Hall, looking out the open gates, the image of the on-set Edoras set is digitally inserted into the door-frame. After filming, Mount Sunday was returned to its original state.