Places in Middle-earth
East-mark
Type: Kingdoms, Realms, Lands
Region: Rohan
Other Names East Marches
Location: The eastern military sector of Rohan; based at Aldburg.
Description:
East-mark The eastern half of Rohan in the military organisation of the Rohirrim, bounded from the West-mark by the Snowbourn and the Entwash.
Unfinished Tales, Index
[West-mark and East-mark] were terms only used with reference to military organisation. Their boundary was the Snowbourn River to its junction with the Entwash, and thence north along the Entwash. [Author's note.]
Unfinished Tales, Part 3, Ch 5, The Battles of the Fords of Isen: Appendix
Marshal of the Mark (or Riddermark) was the highest military rank and the title of the King's lieutenants (originally three), commanders of the royal forces of fully equipped and trained Riders. ... The Second and Third Marshals were assigned commands according to the needs of the time. In the beginning of the year 3019 the threat from Saruman was the most urgent...; the Third Marshal, the King's nephew Éomer, had as his ward the East-mark with his base at his home, Aldburg in the Folde.
Unfinished Tales, Part 3, Ch 5, The Battles of the Fords of Isen: Appendix
[Said Éomer,] '... war is coming. ... The East-mark is my charge, the ward of the Third Marshal, and I have removed all our herds and herdfolk, withdrawing them beyond Entwash, and leaving none here but guards and swift scouts.'
The Two Towers, LoTR Book 3, Ch 2, The Riders of Rohan
Etymology
The term Mark signified a borderland, especially one serving as a defence of the inner lands of a realm.
Unfinished Tales, Part 3, Ch 2, Cirion and Eorl and the Friendship of Gondor and Rohan: Cirion and Eorl
Contributors: Elena Tiriel 22Dec04, 18Jan05