In the northern White Mountains lay a defensible valley and gorge, and when the Gondorians settled Calenardhon they fortified this valley. A great wall was built across its mouth, and a fortress keep was constructed to guard the wall, known as the fortress of Aglarond after the Glittering Caverns that lay within the gorge behind.
When the Rohirrim came south long afterwards to settle Rohan, the valley and its castle came into their keeping. They called the valley the Deeping-coomb, and at first they named the fortress the 'Súthburg', 'southern fortress' in their own tongue. This name incorporates Old English 'burg', a general word for a fortified town or keep. The same element was kept when the fortress was renamed some centuries later as the 'Hornburg', taking this new name from the great hero Helm Hammerhand and his famous horn. In both cases the word 'burg' was retained within the name, and the castle would at times be referred to simply as 'the Burg'.
Notes
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Our only records of the castle being known as the 'Burg' come from the end of the Third Age, when it was more fully known as the Hornburg. It acquired that name from the time when Helm Hammerhand sheltered in the Deep that bore his name (Helm died in III 2759, some 260 years before the War of the Ring). So, the castle may have been known as the 'Burg' only during that period, but the Rohirrim had earlier named it as the Súthburg (simply, 'southern fortress'), and that name could also easily have been shortened to the 'Burg'. In principle, then, the use of the shortened name might have dated back to the coming of the Rohirrim to Rohan, more than two centuries before Helm's time.
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- Updated 19 October 2025
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