LotR -- Book 5 - Chapter 03 - The Muster of Rohan

[davem]

Quick one on the significance of the Red Arrow.

In Egil's Saga we find:

King Audbjorn sent around an arrow of war as a signal to call men to arms throughout his kingdom & dispatched messengers to powerful men asking them to meet him.

Or in another translation it reads:

By such persuasion king Arnvid was determined to gather his forces and defend his land. He and Solvi made a league, and sent messengers to Audbjorn, king of the Firthfolk, that he should come and help them. Audbjorn, after counsel taken with friends, consented, and bade cut the war-arrow and send the war-summons throughout his realm, with word to his nobles that they should join him.

'Cutting the war arrow' seems quite similar to the painted mark on the Red Arrow....