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Originally Posted by lmp
Tolkien, however, did indeed write a nostalgic revisionary feigned history for "The Mark". (For those of you who might feel as if you're a little 'outside' this particular aspect of the conversation, Bethberry and I are referring to the West Midlands, that part of England with which Tolkien so closely identified himself; this land was known historically as Anglo-Saxon Mercia, which just happens to be the Latinate form of "The Mark".) I know he says so himself ... somewhere. But what does this say to us, beyond the fact that Tolkien wrote about what he loved?
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Funnily enough I've just been reading the passage in
The Road to Middle-earth which refers to the Rohirrim. Here Shippey says that Tolkien aimed to recreate not the
real Anglo-Saxons but the version of them as seen in poetry and legend. I think he is correct - the real Saxons revered the horse but were not known as great riders in battle, and much Anglo-Saxon culture was in fact concerned with trade and land. They did not ride around with spears looking for battles, much as the Rohirrim sometimes seem to do! Tolkien's 'version' of this culture does seem to be his own vision, rather than what 'actually happened'.
I think as well that there is another difference between the Rohirrim and the 'real' Anglo-Saxons. The Rohirrim are on the cusp of developing a written literature of their own, but they are still in the oral stage; the Anglo-Saxons had a period of relative stability in which to develop a rich culture in England - this was then cut off as it was flowering.