Háma was the doorward of Théoden King at Meduseld, the golden hall of Edoras, and captain of the king's guard. When Gandalf, Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli came to Edoras, it was Háma who met them at the doors and asked them to lay down their weapons, as the king's command required.1
The others gave up their swords and bows, Aragorn unwillingly. Gandalf would not give up his staff, and Háma, after some thought, let him keep it, saying that a staff in the hand of a wizard might be more than a prop for age, but that he trusted the stranger as a friend.1
That choice let Gandalf bring Théoden out of Wormtongue's shadow. Afterwards the king sent Háma to bring Gríma before him, and Háma found Théoden's own sword, which Gríma had been keeping.1
Háma rode with the king to the Hornburg and fought in the defence of Helm's Deep. He fell before the gates, and when the battle was over he was laid in a grave of his own beneath the shadow of the Hornburg.2,3
On screen
Where the best-known adaptation departs from the books. Nothing in this section is evidence for the books themselves.
In Jackson's The Two Towers Háma is killed by a Warg on the road from Edoras to Helm's Deep. In the book he reaches the Hornburg and dies defending it.4,3
Sources
Citations name the chapter rather than the page, so they work in any edition. The colour of each note shows what kind of source it is.
- Published story The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings as Tolkien published them.
- Adaptation Films and other adaptations. Never evidence for the books.
- Published story The Two Towers, Book III, ch. 6, “The King of the Golden Hall”
- Published story The Two Towers, Book III, ch. 7, “Helm's Deep”
- Published story The Two Towers, Book III, ch. 8, “The Road to Isengard”
- Adaptation Peter Jackson's film trilogy (2001–2003), The Two Towers (2002)