Out of doubt, out of dark to the day's rising I came singing into the sun, sword unsheathing. To hope's end I rode and to heart's breaking: Now for wrath, now for ruin and a red nightfall!

This is a battle-cry from Théoden, King of Rohan, as he leads the Rohirrim in their charge at the Battle of the Pelennor Fields during the War of the Ring. It occurs at dawn as the Riders arrive to relieve the besieged city of Minas Tirith, after a night march and great uncertainty about whether they would come in time. Théoden, facing overwhelming odds and expecting death, transforms fear and darkness into defiant song and action, urging his men into a final, furious assault against Sauron’s forces.

The lines compress Théoden’s arc from despair to recovered kingship into a single surge of heroic resolve. “Out of doubt, out of dark” signals emergence from paralysis and dread; “singing into the sun” frames courage as a chosen, almost sacramental joy rather than mere grim endurance. The ride “to hope’s end” acknowledges that the charge is likely suicidal, yet it is precisely this acceptance that makes it morally luminous: action taken for duty and love even when outcomes are hopeless. The “red nightfall” anticipates blood and death, turning tragedy into a consciously embraced sacrifice.