I see Middle-earth

[Formendacil]

Originally Posted by Glirdan

I agree with alatar. Maybe all of this is just coincadential, well, for the inn anyway. But the town Rohan? I think Tolkien was inspired by that town. But that's just my opinion.

Actually, "Rohan", like "Lorien", is a word with meaning in Tolkien's Sindarin. "Rohan" is a slightly softened (or whatever the technical term is) form of "Rochan", which means knight-land, basically. A knight is a "Rohir", as can be seen in the name "Elrohir". Tolkien MIGHT have had the town Rohan in the back of his mind somewhere when devising a name for the horsefolk, but I think that the name "Rohan" was chosen quite plainly for its meaning.

In case anyone asks, the reason that the Riders' country has a Sindarin name is that Rohan is the name given to the country in Gondor. In their own land, they call it the Riddermark (Rider-land, sorta....) and they call themselves the Eorlingas (Eorl-lings, people of Eorl).