Theoden's selective outrage

[Legate of Amon Lanc]

Originally Posted by Mnemosyne

Also, Theoden is acting in full righteous indignation Kingly Capacity here. To bring up something so terribly personal might lead to a loss of dignity.

That's what I thought too. He was perhaps taking upon himself the role of speaker for the whole nation, a honorable one, not just for his own personal damage (even though - well, depending how exactly it was considered in Rohan - often whatever happened to King or his family was considered in many cultures the same as if it happened to the whole nation). Háma doesn't quite fit into the picture, though, because it sounds like that here Théoden would still be angry (he had had long time to mourn over his son's death, so he could have been okay with that, but Háma's death as a loyal and close servant was perhaps far too recent) and bringing in kind of more individual matters. Though maybe he was just sort of "reminding" the soldiers next to him, who have known Háma, so this was actually not speaking to Saruman, but more to the soldiers (especially face to Saruman's voice - that actually sounds likely to me, Théoden was just "countering" the Voice about himself and wanted to make sure that even his men see the whole truth clearly).