Hey! It's been a few years and this is STILL a great story; the narrow focus works so well for it. I wonder where his interest in leading comes from? We don't really see what he does with the power, pre-Saruman (as your question indicates), and I find myself really curious. It sounds like Eorl had a reputation for being a kind of hicklike dynasty, and I bet there was a lot of work to be done getting things up to some sort of administrative standard, work which would liiiikely not make the most interesting fanfiction.