It has been a few years since The War of The Ring, and Rohan is not recovering as fast as it would be prudent. They are not actively dying , but they're one bad winter away from catastrophe. What more, the attacks of the Harradrim and Coursairs are getting way too frequent, so Aragorn is planning a campaign against them. And since Éomer had renewed The Oath of Eorl, he will, of course, have to come too. Now, that in itself would not be a problem, but... Éomer is the king and still DOES NOT HAVE AN HEIR.
However, there is an elegant solution to all of these problems: arranged marriage to a Gondorian lady.
After a bit of a debate, it is decided that Éomer shall marry Princess Lothíriel in only a few short months.
Éomer is ecstatic (feel the sarcasm). Éomer's only experience with Gondorian ladies are the noblewomen that have been throwing themselves at him in a bid for the throne while calling him "The Barbarian King" behind his back and being very fake in general. So he is expecting the same from the princess.
On the other hand, as Éomer's best friend Èothain points out, she is the daughter of Prince Imrahil, who also does not like the general fakeness of the Gondorian court, so presumably he would not raise his daughter to be fake.
After a short debate, they agree that it is better to do their best to facilitate a good relationship between Éomer and his soon to be bride than ruin any chance of friendship by preemptively acting like the lady is an asshole.
The problem? They do not know the lady, so they do not know what she likes and what would make her feel welcome in her new home. And because they are nitwits, they decide to base their decisions on what Amrothos likes, because they know Amrothos, out of all her brothers he is closest in age to Lothíriel and most of the stories of her they had heard were told by Amrothos. There weren't many of them, and they were from when the siblings were young, but in all of them, they were doing stuff Amrothos likes doing, so they must like similar things, right? Right.
And so, when they, because of course Éothain is helping, make decisions about the wedding, they ask themselves: " What would Amrothos like?" and choose accordingly.
The wedding comes, and Lothíriel spends the whole wedding pretending that pretty much all of the Gondorian wedding traditions that have been included aren't the ones she would gladly do without. She is grateful that they even included Gondorian marriage traditions, don't get her wrong! She is just not particularly happy about the traditions they have chosen.
Éomer of course notices that his new queen has the Gondorian polite mask on and worries that he will have this fake pretty shell at his side for the rest of his life.
Meanwhile, in the background, Amrothos is having a blast.
The night comes, and the newlyweds are sent to their rooms. It takes Lothíriel's ladies a while to prepare her for the marriage bed, so Éomer has time to fret. He is kind of loosing hope that he will manage to build at least a friendship with his wife, considering how fake she had been the whole evening. But then he remembers the conversations he's had throughout the celebrations with people that know them both, like Éowyn and Imrahil and all of her brothers, even Aragorn mentioned that this is going to be good for both of them. "More time," he decides, "I'm going to give it more time. There were a lot of Gondorian nobles here and a lot of attention on her this evening. Mabye, she will be more open once most of them leave."
Finally, Lothíriel joins Éomer in their room (previously only his room and it showes because Éomer is a nitwit, and he didn't think to change anything in his room to make it more inviting for her). Her polite society mask is firmly on because she is internally freaking out. Not only does she have to deal with the typical nerves of a bride about having sex for the first time, but she has also just find out that many of the Gondorian lords and ladies present are expecting them to follow the tradition of hanging the sheets from the marriage bed in a public space. There is, of course, a lore about celebrating the fertility of the newlyweds for this tradition but it is pretty much only ever brought up when there's doubt that the bride has been a virgin before the wedding or when someone wants to discredit the marriage. And many lords and ladies want to discredit this marriage because they want their daughters/themselves to become the queen of Rohan.
She had hoped to have an open conversation with her new husband about maybe waiting with the consummation of their marriage until they get to know each other better, because her father and brothers told her that Éomer is a reasonable man, so she thought he might agree or at the very least not be mad at her for bringing it up. Except now she can't and she is freaking out.
Éomer sees Lothíriel's mask and also freaks out before remembering that he has decided to give her more time. He suggests that the postpone the consummation until they know each other better. Lothíriel is both relieved and freaking out even more than before, because her father and brothers were right, Éomer is a reasonable man, but they really need to consummate their marriage tonight or the whole arrangement will be for nothing. So she tries to convince Éomer to have sex now and in her desperation her mask slips. Éomer is glad he is no longer dealing with the mask but now he is disturbed because he sees she is both desperate and apprehensive and thinks the only reason she would push for something she does not want is if someone was forcing her into it. He is not forcing her and he very much doubts that her father or brothers would, so it must be someone else.
Finally Lothíriel remembers to use her words and tells Éomer about the tradition. After a little bit of planning, they come up with a Rohirric tradition of burning the sheets. Éomer sends a note to Éothain to spread the new tradition among the Rohirrim.
In the morning, before breaking their fast, all Rohirrim present in Edoras, nobles included gather in the town square and make a big bonfire. They also invite the Gondorian guests.
Once the flames are blazing high, the newlyweds show up, carrying their bed sheets neatly folded up and wrapped up in a pillow case.
Éothain immediately improvises an explanation of this very important and very old tradition. About how the neatly folded sheets represent a calm and problem free life and the pillow case represents the restraint the both of them will have to show in order to work together for said problem free life.
Then Éomer and Lothíriel chuck the sheets, pillow included, into the fire. Some of the Gondorians cry out because there goes their chance at discrediting the wedding. Some of them are desperate enough to try and pull the sheets out of the fire, but they are stopped by the watching Rohirrim.
Éothain proceeds to explain that this is a sacred symbol of the love for each other that will consume the newlyweds' lives from now on.
When some of the Gondorians ask whether someone checked the sheets to make sure the marriage has been consummated, Éothain and other Rohirrim (the Riders of Éomer's éored in particular) act appalled. "Do you want our king and queen to live unhappy lives, where they end up not loving each other forever?! How dare you even mention someone else so much as looking at the bedsheets of their marriage bed! The burning of the sheets is an extremely important tradition. It symbolises that nothing will ever stand between the newlyweds, and they will love each other forever, and their love will bear fruit (meaning: they will have children). Do you want our king to end up without an heir? I didn't think so! You are our allies, you want us to do well. So do not dare touch the sheets and do not touch the fire until it dies out on its own."
It gets a bit away from them because somewhere along the lines, it turns into: " No one can leave until the fire dies out." which leaves the servants scrambling to bring out food for breakfast.
Some Gondorians bring up that they have never heard of this tradition, but Aragorn (who has not been brought in on the plan for some reason but is a good sport about it) confirms its legitimacy. They believe him since everyone knows that Aragorn had served as a soldier in Rohan before he became a king.
Years later, Éomer and Lothíriel are happily in love. They end up talking about their wedding, and Éomer admits to his wedding planning strategy (What would Amrothos want?). Lothíriel nearly dies, she's laughing so hard. Then proceeds to tell the story to all of their friends and family, so they can also die laughing.
Lothíriel and Éothain's wife form a club called: "I married an idiot and I love him anyway."
Amrothos admits, that he was a bit disappointed with his own wedding, because their wedding was the best and nothing could top it.
When Éomer is on his deathbed, someone still brings up the wedding that was planned for the brother of the bride.
