How Does The War of the Rohirrim’s Helm Hammerhand Die in Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings Canon?

Upcoming anime The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim is already shaping up as a harrowing Middle-earth epic – but just how tragic are we talking? How does War of the Rohirrim‘s Helm Hammerhand die in J.R.R. Tolkien’s original Lord of the Rings canon, exactly?

How Does Helm Hammerhand Die in Tolkien’s Canon?

Tolkien doesn’t supply a definitive cause of death for Helm Hammerhand in The Lord of the Rings or associated works. That said, he does give us several clues, which together sketch out a demise that is (for want of a better word) “metal.” According to Tolkien, after Helm lost both his sons during the Dunlendings’ siege on the fortress at Helm’s Deep, he doubled-down on nightly one-man raids behind enemy lines. He’d dress up in white (for camouflage), blast his war horn, and go kill some Wild Men with his bare hands. But eventually, Helm didn’t come back from one of these solo missions.

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That doesn’t mean the Dunlendings finally brought him down, though. Again, Tolkien doesn’t say exactly what killed Helm Hammerhand; it could’ve been starvation (the Rohirrim didn’t have a lot of food) or the extreme cold (it was a legendarily harsh winter at the time). All we know is that, when Helm’s subjects found him, the old king was still on his feet, frozen solid. So, one possible – and very awesome – reading of Helm Hammerhand’s final fate is that he went out mid-swing while literally punching his foes to death. Is it any wonder the guy’s a legend among his people by the time of The Lord of the Rings proper?

Is Helm Hammerhand’s Death the Same in War of the Rohirrim?

Probably. War of the Rohirrim concept art doing the rounds online certainly suggests that a book-accurate death awaits Helm Hammerhand in the anime. Notably, one of these production paintings depicts a frost-covered Helm standing atop a pile of Dunlending corpses. This doesn’t necessarily guarantee that such a scene will appear in the finished film, but it’s an encouraging sign just the same. Comments by producer Philippa Boyens likewise hint that the animated Helm Hammerhand will die the same way as his OG counterpart.

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Asked why Helm’s daughter Hèra serves as War of the Rohirrim‘s protagonist at Annecy International Animation Film Festival in 2023, Boyens (who also has a story credit on the anime) replied that all the other major characters – including Helm – die. This comes after a 2022 OneRing.Net interview in which Boyens touched on Helm’s weapons-lite approach to taking on his opponents. But does all this mean Helm Hammerhand’s death in War of the Rohirrim will match Tolkien’s version? We’ll just have to wait until the movie hits theaters to find out!

The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim charges into cinemas on Dec. 13, 2024.