Folcred and Fastred were twin sons of Folcwine of Rohan, born in III 2858 while their grandfather Folca reigned as King of Rohan. Folca's rule was a brief one, as he was slain while hunting just six years after the twins' birth. Their father Folcwine then became King, and Folcred was his apparent heir.2
Rohan and Gondor were staunch allies, and the Gondorians had granted great aid to the Rohirrim during the time of the Long Winter, when Dunlendings had invaded the Mark. So Folcwine was quick to respond when Steward Túrin II sought aid against the Haradrim assaulting his realm. Indeed, Folcwine was eager to lead his own army into the field, but he was dissuaded from such a rash course of action. Instead, he sent Folcred and his brother Fastred to lead the Rohirrim to the aid of Gondor.
The Haradrim were threatening the land of South Ithilien, and the combined forces of Gondor and Rohan met them at the Fords of Poros on that land's southern border. The Men of Harad were driven back, but at great cost: both Folcred and his brother Fastred lost their lives in the battle. Following the tradition of the Rohirrim, their Riders buried them in a barrow on the heights overlooking the river, a barrow named Haudh-in-Gwanûr, the 'mound of the brothers'. It was said that the Haradrim feared to pass the mound that entombed the stalwart defenders of Ithilien. In recompense for King Folcwine's lost sons, Steward Túrin sent him a weregild of gold.
Folcred was twenty-seven years old when died, and he was apparently childless, as was his brother Fastred.3 Their much younger brother Fengel, twelve years their junior, thus became the heir of his father King Folcwine. In time, Fengel assumed the throne, and it was his grandson Théoden who would be King of Rohan at the time of the War of the Ring.
Notes
1 |
Folcred's name was doubtless patterned after that of his father Folcwine ('friend of the people'), and his grandfather Folca (simply 'folk'). Thus Folcwine's heir apparent followed a family tradition of naming styles. In the event, Folcred's early death, and that of his brother Fastred, meant that Folcwine was in fact succeeded as King of Rohan by his youngest son Fengel.
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2 |
With the brothers being twins, it is difficult to say for certain which of them would have been Folcwine's natural heir. Folcred tends to be named before his brother, which we might take to imply that he was the elder of the twins. In the event, of course, the order of precedence proved unimportant, as the loss of both twins meant that their younger brother Fengel succeeded to the throne.
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3 |
The brothers are not specifically said to have been childless, but if either of them had had an heir, then the line of the Kingship would have passed to their son, rather than their brother Fengel. It is conceivable that Folcred or Fastred might have had unrecorded daughters, and that Rohan's laws of primogeniture passed over those daughters (there was never a ruling queen of Rohan).
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- Updated 27 February 2023
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