If being a semi-active writer again will permit me the insolence, I'd like to nitpick with the Mead Hall writers generally about a little spelling...
Namely:
"Court Marshal" is not what you think it is. A marshal is a person, and therefore a noun, and therefore, if combined with "court", it must be "the marshal of the court." Well, we all know that Marshals in Rohan are military officers, of the highest rank. Whomever Athanar served before coming to Scarburg, you can bet the Marshal of the Edoras Muster was one.
See... what you
mean is "Court Martial"--with "court" as the noun, modified by the adjective "martial"--which you will remember from such phrases as "martial arts" or "martial law"--that is to say, "martial" could be considered to modify a noun such that it now has specific reference to war matters (being a related to the name "Mars"--the Roman god of war). As a soldier, Lithor would be Court Martialled, because he will be tried under martial law--the law that would hold in times of war, when soldiers order justice.
Personally.... I'm not entirely convinced that the Rohirrim of the early 4th Age would have had different judicial systems for commoner and soldier, because I don't think they had a "military" or "standing army" as such. Soldiers, yes--men directly in the employ of the King or Lord to serve martial duty, but I don't think that this would have meant a different relationship to the law than a common Eorling, who, after all, if able to serve and ride would be eligible to be raised in muster during time of war.
However, my personal quibbles about judicial matters aside, if you mean that Lithor will be tried as a soldier in a soldier's court, that court is a Court-Martial. Which is not the say that Elfwine, Erkenbrand, or whomever the Marshal of the Edoras Muster currently is, could not preside in such a court--indeed, I'd think them likely--it's just that they are different things.
~Formendacil - Wannabe Professor and Certified Nerd
