One night, Helm ventured out and did not return. At dawn, Héra found him standing at the gate, frozen solid, still gripping a Dunlending chieftain he had strangled. The enemy saw him and fled in terror. But the legend of Helm Hammerhand ended there.
All that is known is this: The Hornburg was renamed Helm’s Deep. The Deeping Wall was raised higher. And every winter, the children of Rohan whisper the tale of the Hammerhand who froze at his post, and his daughter who chose the wind over a throne.
Helm turned to Wulf, blood on his knuckles. “Leave. Your life is spared as a courtesy to your dead father’s name. If you return, I will crush you as I did him.” The Lord of the Rings- The War of the Rohirrim ...
Wulf besieged the Hornburg. He had no siege towers, only time and ice. Winter came with a fury—blizzards that turned the ravine into a white tomb. Inside, they boiled leather for food. Outside, Wulf’s men froze in their tents.
Two years passed. Wulf vanished into the Dunlending wilds, forging a secret alliance with the Corsairs of Umbar and the wild men of the White Mountains. Meanwhile, Héra grew close to a young noble, Léof, the son of a minor lord. But duty forbade love; her father saw her only as the “Shield of Edoras,” a warrior to be married for alliance. One night, Helm ventured out and did not return
From the Deeping Wall, the defenders charged. From the rear, Héra’s riders fell upon the Dunlending siege lines. In the chaos, she found Wulf. He was no longer the charming boy; he was a beast in armor.
He never returned. Dunlending archers found him at the fords. They sent back his shield, pierced by a black arrow. Héra wept in silence, then went to the armory and sharpened her grandfather’s sword. She was no longer the Shield. She was the Blade. But the legend of Helm Hammerhand ended there
But hunger gnawed deeper. Léof, Héra’s secret love, volunteered to ride for Gondor. “Three days to the Mering Stream,” he whispered to her. “If I return, I return with help.”
Prologue: The Oath of the Mountain
