 Shippey notes that this allows Tolkien to display Rohan both as English, based on their Old English names and words like ""éored "" (troop of cavalry), and as "alien, to offer a glimpse of the way land shapes people".The Tolkien scholar Thomas Honegger, agreeing with Shippey's description of the Rohirrim as "Anglo-Saxons on Horseback", calls the sources for them "quite obvious to anyone familiar with Anglo-Saxon literature and culture".The resemblances, according to Honegger, include masterly horsemanship, embodying the Old English saying "Éorl sceal on éos boge, éored sceal getrume rídan" ("The leader shall on horse's back, warband shall ride in a body").