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Frumpus

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    Does anyone have...

    in The Green Dragon

    Posted

    Yeah, I was just reading something about this last week.

    When Tolkien began writing "The Sequel to the Hobbit" (aka LotR), he realized that the "Riddles" scene was much more significant than he had originally intended. Originally, Bilbo was promised the magical ring as a prize for winning the riddle game (I think), but was shown the way out by Gollum instead when it was realized Bilbo had already found it. However, ... when it became clear that the Ring was MUCH more sinister than that, Tolkien deftly changed the script to read as if Bilbo had lied to the Dwarves and Gandalf (and to Tolkien, the transcriber! and to US, the readers) about how he got the Ring. In later editions, the story was "set straight" as Gandalf pressed Bilbo later on (as if the "real" manuscripts had been found by Tolkien).

    I'll direct you back to THIS page for more info: http://tolkien.slimy.com/tfaq/Tolkien.html...b@#$%anges

    The textual situation thus reached was that there now existed two versions of the episode. Tolkien deftly made this circumstance part of the story by suggesting that the first time around Bilbo was lying (under the influence of the Ring) to strengthen his claim. (Bilbo had written this version in his diary, which was "translated" by Tolkien and published as "The Hobbit"; hence the error in the early editions, later "corrected".) This new sequence of events inside the story is laid out clearly in "Of the Finding of the Ring" (Prologue) and is taken for granted thereafter for the rest of the story (e.g. in "The Shadow of the Past" and at the Council of Elrond).

    ...quite a work of genius on Tolkien's part, I think.

    I'd like to read the original version, too.

    8 time so far, hoping for a 9th...

    in The Green Dragon

    Posted

    I've watched the EE scenes from TTT, and though I respect them all the more because of it, the thorn in my side is still their changes to Faramir's character - they basically said the way Tolkien did it was "wrong", and they were going to do it the right way (i.e. he "should have been" tempted by the ring).

    This and others will always itch me, though as I've said before, I have enjoyed ALL three of the films to date. They just won't ever compare with the source though (nor should I really compare them, actually; I'd probably save myself some grief if I kept from doing that over and over! ;) )

    8 time so far, hoping for a 9th...

    in The Green Dragon

    Posted

    (I can't BELIEVE I've only seen it twice!) B)

    P.S. I don't care about the "larger croud"... ;) ... those movie-goers who haven't read the books I'm gonna be selfish on this one. I was hoping for a "good adaptation" of the book. It came "close", but if having a "shorter" ending than what we saw in theaters is going to get them to read the books - simply because it's shorter - then this type of audience wouldn't READ a book anyway (i.e. the book is FAR LONGER!)

    I dunno.

    One problem I see with modern movies... they are made for "dumb" audiences, mostly; audiences who have been brainwashed. It's obvious that the reason most of the characters from the "book" were left out is because film-makers believe we can't handle random new characters being introduced into a story - because "other movies don't do that". Well? Why was Tolkien's LotR SO successful? It didn't follow the "rules" of story-telling, of film-making, yet people loved it. Why? Because it's realistic. Fact is, real life isn't simple, constrained to "just a few main characters". Plus, there are no "extras" - EVERYbody has a story - though we may never hear it. Tolkien treated all his new characters with this dignity - even if they only had "bit" parts (i.e. take Gamling in Rohan). Tolkien risked believing that the audience would care about these "minor" characters (and we do!).

    I would have loved to see the Southern Gondorians, the Dunedain, Erkenbrand, etc... but these were all "condensed" into other characters (or omitted completely) for the sake of making a "marketable" film.

    Don't get me wrong - I think RotK may be my favourite out of the three, but... this was just my rant for the day.

    farmer giles of ham

    in Other Works

    Posted

    I FULLY recommend Farmer Giles of Ham and Smith of Wooton Major. Iliked Giles better by far - it IS hilarious,and yes, Smith is mysterious, but that's what I liked about it. It's about Faery, but not necessarily about ME.

    I also liked Leaf by Niggle, but it's wholly different again.

    I liked his translations of Sir Orfeo, but especially Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. They make me want to learn Old English to read Beowulf in original form.

    Tolkien Jokes/Riddles

    in The Green Dragon

    Posted

    Here's another:

    Birthed before a starry night

    Marred the dark and by it slain

    Sought for low and high

    And ended up the same

    Till growth doth come again

    --------

    ...and another:

    They were the first; now I am the last

    Sundered were we - far in the past

    Learned in smithcraft, stone and ore

    Bold and proud, and strong what's more

    Seven stars on banner raised

    Red crown on the throne those days

    From Master of earth-roots Fathers learned

    But to more hearty roots I returned

    What becomes of me of late?

    No tale tells my ending fate

    --------

    **EDIT: Sorry 'bout that triple post. I'll add another one here:

    Such claims delivered steeped in lore

    To halls of dark and light bethroned

    Of seed begun ere Valinor

    And blood that flows within the stone.

    That blade and clearest threat he bore

    A mere caretaker - I - in his eyes.

    It rent the pride of ages before

    And bent hot passion to demise.

    Then cometh fell deeds done - afore

    The conquerer could usurp the shore.

    Dare ye to see with longest sight?

    Espie through these my hands alight!

    Tolkien Jokes/Riddles

    in The Green Dragon

    Posted

    Well, I JUST found this thread. I know there are ol,d but here are my guesses; I just pasted the riddle into a "Reply" page and guessed before I looked at the answer:

    A song set in stone

    It sat in glory all alone

    Staunch in its fight against the dark

    Until foul betrayal extinguished it's great spark

    Melian?

    Luthien?

    Lore master and singer of old

    he betrayed his kin

    Wanderer hither and thither afar

    nothing could his vision of beauty mar' date='

    for the songs lived on in his mind you see

    and he never forgot his love of Elven beauty.[/quote']

    Morgoth? (the only two lines that don't really match are, "nothing could..." and "for the songs..."

    Wise they were or were said to be

    Yet governed by a hand turned to treachery.

    Waiting too long - too late to attack

    They were too slow to see the evil pact.

    The White Council?

    Those of the second brought it here' date='

    to places where western Men have been

    but where it can be found by most any kin,

    it is for known only for its air.

    Ye Utuvienyes! The sapling? (It's air = It's scent when healing?) or athelas?

    Over not land is his power to be

    and in dreams does he cause his people to see

    a counselor who always did favor two

    it was all he could do to carry the memories through.

    Ulmo? Lorien?(Irmo? - Vala of dreams)

    As red he was known

    but it was as guardian that the tells were sown

    And so the guardian did slay the hunters both man andbeast

    Yet the good did devour

    Til death brought it's own surcease

    Caranthir' date=' son of Feanor? No, Carcharoth?

    This thing all things devours:

    Birds, beasts, trees, flowers;

    Gnaws iron, bites steal;

    Grinds hard stones to meal;

    Slays king, ruins town,

    And beats high mountain down.

    Time (but I just recently read that passage in the Hobbit.)

    -----

    Well, I got some of 'em.

    Favorite Tolkien Work

    in The Green Dragon

    Posted

    Good poll topic!! --and tough!

    I'm undecided. I like "the struggle" of LotR and The SIlmarillion the best - very stirring, but I like 'em all for different reasons.

    I REALLY like the detail, visual descriptions, and character "fleshing out" of LotR and The Hobbit, but LotR and the Hobbit wouldn't be the same without the groundwork and layering of the Silmarillion (and probably the HoME series - which I've yet to read).

    -So the Silmarillion is "foundational" for me. It add SO much flavour to the others. I like it, too, because it was The Professor's lifelong "baby".

    -The Hobbit is "classic" for me (read by my mom to my borther and I a couple times as a kid).

    -LotR is "grand", "full", complete, and I like that about it. -a fitting ending.

    -I love the "extra footage" of Unfinished Tales, i.e. "The Dru'edain", "The Palantiri", "Aldarion and Erendis" (very tragic tale) They'd be the "Special Features" if Tolkien had made a DVD ;) ... little vignettes of ME.

    -I've also grown VERY fond of Farmer Giles of Ham (my nephew seemed to really like it too), and Tolkien's translation of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. It reminds me of Shakespeare.

    Nazgul

    in General TLA Discussion

    Posted

    Right - you're not going crazy. ;) Those were hi-rez 3D concept art which Adam did over a year ago (possibly more). Since TLA spans several thousand years from the First Age to the Third Age of Middle Earth, the Nine will most definitely be in-game, but since this is an RTS, they will NOT be as detailed as the 3D art you saw previously (or modern computers couldn't run it).

    I'm not sure why they've been taken off the concept art pages, but I know that Adam is planning having the Northmen/Rohirrim redone as well.

    There were of course nine nazgul in Tolkien's mythos. I see no reason why TLA would diverge from that. However I suppose with the editor you could get "creative" on your own.

    As far as walking/riding version, I can't answer that; sorry.

    **EDIT: Lmao - same post time as Adam.**

    Names

    in General TLA Discussion

    Posted

    Re: which language to be used for civs?

    Noegyth Nibin: Dwarvish. Same reasons as posted above.

    Dru'edain: It should be a similar language to the Haladin (though I'm not sure what they spoke). Since it's believed that the Haladin came from the Pre-PRE-dunlendings from the White Mountains, perhaps we could "backtrack" Dunlendish to find a language? (I see Adam has suggested Celtic/Pictish/Gaelic, or a similar language")

    At Helm's Deep just before the wall is blown up, Gamling refers to Dunlendish as an ancient language that used to be spoken throughout "many Western valleys of the Mark." In this we're fortunate - it appears not to have been a "@#$%le" tongue with many alterations from other languages (at least from Gamling's perspective in the Third Age). The problem is, how similar would Third Age Dunlendish be to the First Age language of the Halethians - thousands of years previous? I'm guessing it would have AT LEAST as much change as Sindarin to Quenya; more probably several TIMES the amount of change.

    The following site might be of great use in this regard: http://www.gamesystems.com/hints/language.html According to it, "Tolkien says that Stoors, among the Hobbits, had adopted a language related to Dunlendish before they came north to the Shire. "They had a style that we should perhaps feel vaguely to be 'Celtic'", according to the Master."

    This site, http://www.google.ca/search?q=cache:pKvzGS...&hl=en&ie=UTF-8 describes Dunlendish as similar to the native languages of both the Haradrim and Variags of Khand and is used throughout the Third Age and into the Fourth."

    **Also, I probably found this site ( http://people.wiesbaden.netsurf.de/~lalait...ddle-earth.html ) THE most useful in helping me understand the migratory patterns of early Men in ME. I posted his essay here on the forum as well: http://forums.wildfiregames.com/tla/index....t=ST&f=24&t=300 I've asked for reviews of this essay there.

    If we understand correctly the flow of people-groups in ME, we'll have much better guesses of the evolution of their languages too (but of course this is a given).

    ---------------------

    "... but there was virtually no more Noldor in the Third Age ... Galadriel was probably the last one known ...

    Remember though, that Galadriel is only one QUARTER Noldorin, and another quarter Vanyar. The other HALF is Telerin/Sindarin (Thingol was her great-uncle)! ;)

    "... Celebrian ... isn't she ? Ñoldorin mother and Sindarin father "

    Well, regarding Celeborn, the Silmarillion says he's "of Doriath" - i.e. Sindarin - but in UT his lineage is highly in question.

    "Well, Glorfindel was probably not a pure-bred Noldor, but he most likely had Vanyarin blood, which is even better"

    Hmm, what makes you say this? --because Turgon's wife was Vanyar?

    Essay by Lalaith Re: the Men of Middle-earth

    in The Silmarillion/Unfinished Tales

    Posted

    I found this essay a while ago while searching for information on the Dru'edain. It has been MOST helpful to me at the time, and yesterday I read it again and found it useful. I've emailed him to thank him for his effort.

    If we understand correctly the flow of people-groups in ME, we'll have much better guesses of the evolution of their languages too (but of course this is a given).

    Could some of you who have time please review Lalaith's essay (below) for accuracy of content and resources? I have found it to be nothing but gold as yet, but as I don't have access to ALL the books he does, I can't be sure.

    If it's accurate, I'll probably use this as a guide/summary on the subject as it ties things together so well - instead of "reinventing the wheel myself". If he has cut some corners and not been objective (which now I'm doubting), then I won't place such a high emphasis on using it for the concise summary I believe it to be.

    ----------------------------------------

    **Original site (It's easier to read, as it has all the quotes in RED): http://people.wiesbaden.netsurf.de/~lalait...ddle-earth.html

    ----------------------------------------

    The Indigenous Population of Eriador and Gondor

    and their Relationships to the Númenóreans and their Allies

    by Lalaith

    Introduction

    The recorded history of Middle-earth centers on the Elves and those Men who joined them. Little is known about the others, those inhabitants of Eriador, Rhovanion and Gondor who were not reckoned, however loosely, among the Elf-friends. In Gondor they became eventually known as the "Middle Men", the decisive distinction from the "Men of Darkness" being their political attitude towards Elves and Númenóreans. They as well as the Dwarves mostly ignored them, however, the Hobbits had no accounts transmitted, official Dúnedain and Rohirrim policy undifferentiatedly stamped them with labels reading "wild" and often "Enemy" despite their own remote ancestors, the Three Houses of the Edain, being related to them. Thus, the story of their fates was never compiled but spread in mere glimpses across numerous sources. It is, however, worth the task to extract their many-faceted history from the available material.

    Note on Nomenclature:

    The ethnographical terminology is often confusing. According to S, the Quenya expression Atani originally referred to all Men but the Sindarin equivalent Edain only to the Three Houses who first entered Beleriand. These tribes are then most frequently referred to as Bëorians, Hadorians (though their original leader was known as Marach), and Haladin, later also Halethians or Halethrim, but though the name-giving heroes lived in Beleriand these epithets are also indiscriminatingly applied to their ancestors before they reached the West. On the other hand, LP calls the earliest parent language of Adûnaic Atani, even though it was spoken by the Hadorians and Bëorians only and the language of the Halethrim was not even remotely related to it. And finally, PR refers to the first Bëorians as "the Lesser Folk" while they became distinct from the Hadorians; we may thus conclude on a corresponding "Greater Folk".

    For the convenience of the following discussions, I will standardise the nomenclature in the following way:

    Northern Atani: The common ancestors of Bëorians and Hadorians, as opposed to the Southern Atani, the Haladin (the distinction of Northern and Southern is made with regard to their migratory pattern).

    pre-Bëorrim, pre-Marachrim, pre-Haladin: the ancestors of the three Edainic peoples during the migratory phase, including their relatives who did not enter Beleriand (Marach preceded Hador in the leadership of his tribe).

    Bëorians, Hadorians, Halethians: The Beleriandic Edain and their descendants, including scattered groups who left Beleriand.

    Bórrim: The Swarthy Men of the people of Bór who settled in Eriador and Beleriand.

    Northmen: In the Númenórean nomenclature, the Men of Rhovanion among which the pre-Marachrim element was predominant.

    Middle Men: In the Númenórean nomenclature, the Men of Eriador among which the pre-Marachrim and pre-Bëorrim element was predominant, including Edain who did not relocate to Númenor. (Historically, the term was later used to classify all Men friendly to the West who were not Dúnedain, thus including the Northmen, particularly the Rohirrim.)

    pre-Númenóreans: In the Númenórean nomenclature, the Men of predominantly pre-Haladin origin, once spread between Eriador and Umbar.

    The First Age

    From the First Age, scarcely any data on the indigenous Mannish populations have survived. The Elves of Beleriand did not gaze beyond the Ered Luin, and the early Men possessed no written records. It can be deduced, however, that they immigrated into northwestern Middle-earth on at least two very distinct paths, one in the far North, the other in the South.

    The latter was taken earlier, and not by the Atani. "Historians in Gondor believed that the first Men to cross the Anduin were indeed the Drúedain. They came (it was believed) from lands south of Mordor, but before they reached the coasts of Haradwaith they turned north into Ithilien, and eventually finding a way across the Anduin (probably near Cair Andros) settled in the vales of the White Mountains and the wooded lands at their northern feet. 'They were a secretive people, suspicious of other kinds of Men by whom they had been harried and persecuted as long as they could remember, and they wandered west seeking a land where they could be hidden and have peace.'" (TD) Thus at first, the Drúedain or "'Pukel-Men' occupied the White Mountains (on both sides) in the First Age." (TD)

    Next arrived the Southern Atani, the pre-Haladin whom we have to imagine like the Bree-folk, "brown-haired, broad, and rather short, cheerful and independent", (FR) would also settle the valleys of the White Mountains but stayed on friendly terms with the Drú-folk. When the core of the pre-Haladin was pressed to wander on, "an emigrant branch of the Drúedain accompanied the Folk of Haleth at the end of the First Age ... but most had remained in the White Mountains, in spite of their persecution by later-arrived Men, who had relapsed into the service of the Dark." (TD) These Men of Shadow hunted the Drúedain and brought them almost to extinction: "from the East, they said, had come the tall Men who drove them from the White Mountains, and they were wicked at heart." (TD) The pursued Drúedain escaped only into the forests of Anórien and down the Cape of Andrast into Drúwaith Iaur where they may have survived even into the War of the Ring (TD).

    The migrants meanwhile carried on northwards, passing between the Hithaeglir and the Ered Nimrais through the Gap of Rohan. Evidently, many stayed behind during that trail, finding that "the Minhiriath and the western half of Enedwaith between the Greyflood and the Isen were still covered with dense forest" (DM) and there becoming herd-tenders presumably of sheep and goats: horses would have been of small use in the woods. So, many of those who later lived in the forests "of the shore-lands south of the Ered Luin, especially in Minhiriath, were as later historians recognized the kin of the Folk of Haleth". (DM) Also, groups of remaining Drúedain became "a fairly numerous but barbarous fisher-folk [which] dwelt between the mouths of the Gwathló and the Angren [isen]" (GC) or more precisely, "in the marshlands around the mouths of Greyflood and Isen," (FI) a population that was till the Second Age reduced to "a few tribes of 'Wild Men', fishers and fowlers, but akin in race and speech to the Drúedain of the woods of Anórien." (FI).

    The remainder of the Halethians and Drúedain proper finally turned northwards into Eriador. But there they met other wanderers: the Easterling Bórrim. "Of the people of Bór, it is said, came the most ancient of the Men that dwelt in the north of Eriador in the Second Age and ... after-days." (GA). These must have come from southern Rhovanion where they had met the Entwives, for "many men learned the crafts [of agriculture] of the Entwives and honoured them greatly", (TT) and the Bórrim were then known as skilled "tillers of the earth". (GA) Unfortunately, we do not know who the later descendants of these "most ancient" people of Eriador were: Could they be the Hillmen of Rhudaur?

    The pre-Haladin of the White Mountains apparently were later driven off from the most part of the range by the Men of the Shadow, and so "in the Dark Years others ... removed to the southern dales of the Misty Mountains; and thence some ... passed into the empty lands as far north as the Barrow-downs. From them came the Men of Bree." (LP) We do not know when this happened. Usually, the "Dark Years" refer to the Second Age only; but the Bree-folk remembered in their folklore that in very Bree-country they had already "survived the turmoils of the Elder Days" (FR).

    The Northern Atani had taken a completely different path. It was said of them that "they were ever at war ... with Men who had made him [Melkor] their God and believed that they could render him no more pleasing service than to destroy the 'renegades' with every kind of cruelty." (DM) Somewhere in northern Rhún, they had found that "in ancient days the Naugrim dwelt in many mountains of Middle-earth, and there they met mortal Men (they say) long ere the Eldar knew them." (NE) Thus it came to pass that their earliest language, Atani, showed distinct influences of Khuzdul.

    The legends of the Northern Atani otherwise begin at the shores of the Sea of Rhún where they separated into two folks of distinct language, phenotype, and culture. The Greater Folk of the pre-Marachrim "long dwelt ... by the shores of a sea too wide to see across; it had no tides, but was visited by great storms. ... They lived in the north-east, in the woods that there came near to the shores." The other part, the Lesser Folk of the pre-Bëorrim, had advanced somewhat further and "had reached the same sea before them, and dwelt at the feet of the high hills to the south-west. They were thus some two undered miles apart, going by water." (PR) Because of that distance, even when the pre-Marachrim "developed a craft of boat-building ... they did not often meet and exchange tidings. Their tongues had already diverged ... though they remained friends of acknowledged kinship." (PR) And not only that: if it is allowed to conclude from their generally darker, sometimes even swarthy appearance, the pre-Bëorrim had been "mingling in the past with Men of other kinds" (DM), and from that as well, the language they now spoke seemed to the pre-Marachrim to contain "many elements that were alien in character." (DM) This odd mixture of Northern Atani and Easterlings was maybe the origin of the Men of Dorwinion, see "The mysterious king Bladorthin".

    Because of the thin flow of information, the pre-Marachrim learned only afterwards that one day (parts of?) "the Lesser Folk had fled from the threat of the Servants of the Dark and gone on westward, while they had lain hidden in their woods." (PR) The pre-Marachrim then followed on their trail through the Hithaeglir/Misty Mountains in the North, close to the dreadful Ered Engrin and yet outside of Morgoth's Shadow. But many sub-tribes of both peoples stayed behind, and when the shrinking vanguard, led by Bëor and Marach respectively, ultimately reached Beleriand, "in Eriador and Rhovanion (especially in the northern parts) their kindred must already have occupied much of the land." (DM) Especially, the Northmen of Rhovanion "appear to have been most nearly akin to the third and greatest of the peoples of the Elf-friends, ruled by the House of Hador" (CE). Their history cannot be dealt with in this place. In Eriador the ancestors of the Middle Men began to concentrate into what later turned out to become the population centers of Arnor: "about Lake Evendim, in the North Downs and the Weather Hills, and in the lands between as far as the Brandywine, west of which they often wandered though they did not dwell there." (AE, DM) There were aside of Bórrim found "many, it would seem, in origin kin of the Folk of Bëor, though some were kin of the Folk of Hador" (DM, cf. also AE). The Númenóreans would later even believe that "some of their ancestors may indeed have been fugitives from the Atani", (DM) and they recalled that some Hadorians had in fear of the Evil Power turned from their encampment in Beleriand; "and they went back over the mountains into Eriador, and were forgotten." (S) It seemed thus that they had rejoined with "their laggard kindred [who] were either in Eriador, some settled, some still wandering, or else had never passed the Misty Mountains and were scattered" (DM) in eastern Rhovanion. That there were true Edain among them "may have been actually true of those Men in Middle-earth whom the returning Númenóreans first met ...; but other Men of the North ... can only have been akin as descending from peoples of which the Atani had been the vanguard." (DM)

    At the end of the First Age, the situation could thus be described like this: the predominant culture in Rhovanion and south of it were the Northmen of chiefly pre-Marachrim origin, except for maybe a surviving pre-Bëorrim enclave in Dorwinion and some Bórrim in southern Rhovanion. The Númenórean "term Middle Men was ... originally applied to Men of Eriador" (DM) who mainly inhabited the territory of later Arthedain. The pre-Haladin, now pre-Númenóreans, had spread from Umbar through the White Mountains to Isengard and Dunland, across Enedwaith and Minhiriath and as far North as Cardolan, their northernmost relatives apparently living along the line from Sarn Ford to the junction of Gwathló and Mitheithel. At the territories of the Middle Men, their expansion had stopped. The otherwise entirely mysterious Forodwaith, ancestors of the Lossoth, centered in the very foothills of the Ered Engrin. A thriving population of Swarthy Men was also found in Eriador, more or less mingling with the others. The Drúedain finally dwelt in small parts of White Mountains and along the coasts of Andrast and Minhiriath.

    Aside of the Drú-folk, these ethnic and geographical boundaries of course were not absolute: There was much traffic and mixture to and fro, and in the War of Wrath and after this melting-pot was profoundly stirred up.

    The Second Age

    In the Second Age, "the dark years for Men of Middle-earth" (KR) in which "Middle-earth went backward and light and wisdom faded" (AK), the indigenious Men of Eriador, Gondor, and Rhovanion entered recorded history in the shape of many numerous and wide-spread populations.

    The Middle Men had stayed in contact with Gil-galad’s kingdom of Lindon, and "they were friendly with the Elves, though they held them in awe and close friendships between them were rare. Also they feared the Sea and would not look upon it". (DM) But there also did exist such close friendships, for Elves led by Galadriel and Celeborn as well "for a while ... dwelt in the country about Lake Nenuial (Evendim, north of the Shire)", (GC) side by side with the Middle Men.

    The cultural influence of the Elves slowly stretched out even to the pre-Númenóreans in the White Mountains, and because of that "between Pelargir [which did not exist yet] and the Gulf of Lune ... the settlers in this region had refused to join in the rebellion against the Valar. " (DM) They were frequently terrorised and subjected by scattered fugitives from Angband who apparently took in larger numbers to the hills of Rhúdaur and the Mountains of Angmar, but still "Men in those parts remain[ed] more or less uncorrupted if ignorant [and] in a simple ‘Homeric’ state of patriarchal and tribal life" (L131). It was thus recorded that "the native people were fairly numerous and warlike, but they were forest-dwellers, scattered communities without central leadership." (GC) In other words, the situation resembled that which the Romans found in Gallia and Germania: an uncountable lot of tribal territories among which border skirmishes and raids were frequent but large-scale wars rare.

    In Gondor, the pre-Númenóreans dwelt far from the coasts. "The shores of the Bay of Belfalas were still mainly desolate [though the tale of Tar-Elmar shows that this was not entirely so (EL)] except for a haven and small settlement of Elves at the mouth of the confluence of Morthond and Rínglo." (DM) Inhabitants of this port, known by the name of Edhellond, reported that during its foundation "there was already a primitive harbour there of fisherfolk, but these in fear of the Eldar fled into the [White] mountains." (GC) This targic circumstance brought the pre-Númenórean adventure into the Bay of Belfalas to a preliminary end, and because of that "it was long before Númenórean settlers about the Mouths of Anduin ... made contact with Men who dwelt in the valleys on either side of the White Mountains", (DM) not before the Faithful had founded Pelargir in 2350 SA.

    When the first Númenórean ships arrived in 600 SA it was the Middle Men with whom they first came into contact. They landed in Lindon and their crews met with Gil-Galad, and "the news spread swiftly and Men in Eriador were filled with wonder." Before long, a meeting between the sailors and twelve messengers of Edainic descent came to pass on the Tower Hills of which a detailed account is given in AE. And for a limited time "they mingled in friendship". (AE)

    The Númenóreans soon began to cultivate their new-won friends, "and none yet dared to withstand them. For most of the Men of that age that sat under the Shadow were now grown weak and fearful. And coming among them the Númenóreans taught them many things" (TA), such as agriculture, stonecraft and smithying; but also their language. For when in the early 9th century SA the Númenóreans established themselves at the port of Vinyalondë (in the 3rd millenium Lond Daer Enedh), they noticed with contempt that "the tongues of the Men of Middle-earth" sounded to them who were used to the soft Elven and Edainic tongues like "fallen into brutishness, and they cried like harsh birds, or snarled like savage beasts." (HA) This was as emphatical as prejudiced, for since "many of the forest-dwellers of the shorelands south of the Ered Luin, especially in Minhiriath, were ... the kin of the Folk of Haleth" (DM) they spoke of course tongues of the Halethian language family which was in its origin Edainic. But this derogative judgment "may have been one of the reasons why the Númenóreans failed to recognize the Forest-folk of Minhiriath as ‘kinsmen’, and confused them with Men of the Shadow; for as has been noticed the native language of the Folk of Haleth war not related" (DM) to Atani. And this led to tragic consequences.

    As the Faithful would one day put it in the Akallabêth, "the Men of Middle-earth were comforted, and here and there upon the western shores the houseless woods drew back, and Men shook off the yoke of the offspring of Morgoth, and unlearned their terror of the dark. And they revered the memory of the tall Sea-kings, and when they had departed they called them gods, hoping for their return; for at that time the Númenóreans dwelt never long in Middle-earth, nor made there as yet any habitation of their own." (AK) But looking behind this fountain of euphemism, the "houseless woods drawing back from the coasts" can hardly conceal the irrecoverable damage that Númenórean exploitation would inflict when Tar-Aldarion began to dream of ruling a maritime super-power.

    "In Aldarion's day the Númenóreans did not yet desire more room, and his Venturers remained a small people." (FI). But "Aldarion had a great hunger for timber, desiring to make Númenor into a great naval power" (CE), and so in about 810 he founded Vinyalondë as "a timber-port and ship-building harbour". (CE) From then on, "the power of Númenor became more and more occupied with great navies, for which their own land could not supply sufficient timber without ruin, their felling of trees and transportation of wood to their shipyards in Númenor or on the coast of Middle-earth ... became reckless." (DM) Aldarion proved to be quite'short-sighted with regard to matters of environmental protection, not to mention minority policies; and this led to a perpetual decrease of reputation with the pre-Númenóreans. Patient they were: Long they suffered in silence and "did not become hostile until the tree-felling became devastating." (GC) But slowly, "hostility was growing and dark men out of the mountains were thrusting into Enedwaith" in support of their kinsmen. (AE) Aldarion met the first sign of resistance when in 820 SA he found Vinyalondë "overthrown by great seas and plundered by hostile men." (AE) Then he witnessed how "Men near the coasts were growing afraid of the Númenóreans, or were openly hostile; and Aldarion heard rumours of some lord in Middle-earth who hated the men of the ships." (AE)

    He thought this lord to be simply some powerful chieftain among the natives. But Gil-Galad of Lindon was on the right track, perceiving that "the Shadow crept along the coasts and men whom they had befriended became afraid or hostile" (FI), correctly concluding on a more transcedental power that was at work. The Elven-king understood as well that the hidden instigator had not himself kindled the resentments but that like any good demagog he made witty use of the animosities already available. Of course, the utmost hint that diplomatic courtesy allowed him was the sober remark to the king of Númenor that ""It is no tyranny of evil Men, as your son believes; but a servant of Morgoth is stirring, and evil things wake again. Each year it gains in strength, for Men are ripe to its purpose." (AE)

    Aldarion failed to grasp that. And so he and his successors continued to find to their own incomprehensibility and dismay "that iron was used against them by those to whom they had revealed it." (DN) To the pre-Númenóreans, it was still a desperate act of self-defense when they "attacked and ambushed the Númenóreans when they could, and the Númenóreans treated them as enemies, and became ruthless in their fellings, giving no thought to husbandry or replanting." (GC) When they had completely wrecked the banks and shorelines and "drove great tracks and roads into the forests northwards and southwards from the Gwathló", (GC) the pre-Númenóreans "became bitter enemies of the Númenóreans, because of their ruthless treatment and their devastation of the forests" (DM) The Númenóreans answered the challenge with cultivation at the sword's edge: Cleansing the area and destroying what lied ahead of them, they pushed far into Minhiriath and Enedwaith, establishing themselves inland as far as the river Glanduin, "the southern boundary of Eregion, beyond which pre-Númenóreans and generally unfriendly peoples lived, such as the ancestors of the Dunlendings" (GC), "who were a remnant of the peoples that had dwelt in the vales of the White Mountains in ages past" (LP). "The native folk that survived fled from Minhiriath into the dark woods of the great Cape of Eryn Vorn, south of the mouth of the Baranduin, which they dared not cross, even if they could, for fear of the Elvenfolk. From Enedwaith they took refuge in the eastern mountains where afterwards was Dunland (minding the Elves of Lindon but not those of Eregion?); they did not cross the Isen nor take refuge in the great promontory between Isen and Lefnui [being the Cape of Andrast] ... because of the 'Pukel-men'" (GC) who themselves - despite having living relatives in Númenor - began to fear the Men from the Sea: "When the occupation of the coastlands by the Númenóreans began in the Second Age they survived in the mountains of the promontory [of Andrast], which was never occupied by the Númenóreans." (TD)

    And there, Sauron found a handy potential to draft recruits. For the pre-Númenóreans' understandable "hatred remained unappeased in their descendants, causing them to join with any enemies of Númenor." (DM). In the early second millenium he imcreased pressure on the West and drew closer to the Númenórean sphere of influence by leaving his stronghold in Rhún and relocating to Mordor which became his prime residence throughout the Ages to come. When by the end of the 17th century SA he had forged the One Ring, completed Barad-dúr and launched the War of the Elves and Sauron, he had the ground well-prepared to recruit and support partisan forces. "The exiled natives welcomed Sauron and hoped for his victory over the Men of the Sea. Sauron knew of the importance to his enemies of the Great Haven and its ship-yards, and he used these haters of Númenor as spies and guides for his raiders. He had not enough force to spare for any assault upon the forts at the Haven or along the banks of the Gwathló, but his raiders made much havoc on the fringe of the forests, setting fire in the woods and burning many of the great wood-stores of the Númenóreans." (GC) The pre-Númenórean guerillas were enough to keep the Venturers occupied while Sauron's regular troops "attempted to gain the mastery over Eriador ... ravaged the lands, slaying or drawing off all the small groups of [Middle] Men and hunting the remaining Elves." (GC). It seems that indeed most of the Middle Men perished during the War, and the remaining population never recovered, for at the end of the Second Age, Arnor was founded in virtually "empty" lands. (LP)

    Till 1700 SA Sauron "had mastered all Eriador, save only besieged Imladris, and had reached the line of the River Lhûn." (GC) Then the Númenórean fleet sent by king Tar-Minastir arrived, catching Mordor's troops in the rear and utterly defeating them. Within a short time, "Eriador was cleared of the enemy, but lay largely in ruins" (GC) and in Enedwaith and Minhiriath "most of the old forests had been destroyed." (GC) But "for many years the Westlands had peace. and time in which to heal their wounds." (GC) The surviving pre-Númenóreans now apparently crossed the Glanduin back south to Dunland which now seemed safer than wrecked Eregion.

    In 2350 SA, Pelargir was founded as another great haven, and the inhabitants at last discovered the pre-Númenóreans of the Ered Nimrais when they "ventured north of their great haven at Pelargir and made contact with Men who dwelt in the valleys on either side of the White Mountains." (DM) These were, however, "relapsed into the service of the Dark" and worshipped Sauron, such as the "King of the Mountains" (RK) who ruled the pre-Haladin people of Dunharrow. Pelargir seems to have exceeded a positive influence upon them, though, and the pre-Númenóreans repented during Sauron's absence from Mordor when "the power of Gil-galad had grown great ..., and it was spread now over wide regions of the north and west, and had passed beyond the Misty Mountains and the Great River even to the borders of Greenwood the Great, and was drawing nigh to [Mordor]." (RP)

    In the Cataclysm of 3319 SA, all the indigenious peoples must have suffered terrible losses when the coastlines were inundated and earthquakes and storms must have demanded their tolls. "The Bay of Belfalas was much filled at the east and south, so that Pelargir which had been only a few miles from the sea was left far inland, and Anduin carved a new path by many mouths to the Bay. And the Isle of Tolfalas was almost destroyed, and was left at last like a barren and lonely mountain in the water not far from the issue of the River." (YS) Survivors were found only in and around the White and the Misty Mountains from where they slowly repopulated Enedwaith and Minhiriath, and in the interior of Eriador.

    When the Elendili established the Realms in Exile, the situation stabilised and "many Men turned ... from evil and became subject to the heirs of Elendil." (RP) But with regard to past events, the pre-Númenóreans still saw few reason to love the Dúnedain, particularly as they certainly had stayed unaware of the inner disputes of Westernesse and never learned to distinguish between King's Men and Faithful (not that the distinction would have meant much to them, anyway). Thus "yet many more remembered Sauron in their hearts and hated the kingdoms of the West." (RP) And so, in the War of the Last Alliance, they will likely have served as auxiliaries to Mordor. Others feared the Dark Lord so much that they refused to fight on either side, such as the current King of the Mountains who first swore allegiance to Isildur "but when Sauron returned and grew in might again, Isildur summoned the Men of the Mountains to fulfill their oath, and they would not: for they had worshipped Sauron in the Dark Years. ... They fled before the wrath of Isildur, and did not dare to go forth to war on Sauron's part; and they hid themselves in secret places in the mountains and had no dealings with other men, but slowly dwindled in the barren hills." (RK) Eventually, they faded and became the Dead Men of Dunharrow, ghastly shadows haunting the dark vales of Ered Nimrais. This was the end of the pre-Númenóreans of Gondor.

    The Third Age

    The Third Age saw the further extinction of many of the surviving indigenious cultures and languages. After the foundation of the Realms in Exile, those peoples who in the later part of the Second Age "had passed into the empty lands" of Eriador were successfully "númenorised": they "had become subjects of the North Kingdom of Arnor and had taken up the Westron tongue." (LP) But the losses of the War of the Last Alliance provoked that the North Kingdom would never gain save ground. Though Isildur's son "Valandil took up his abode in Annúminas, ... his folk were diminished, and of the Númenóreans and of the Men of Eriador [i. e. the Middle Men] there remained now too few to people the land or to maintain all the places that Elendil had built; in Dagorlad, and in Mordor, and upon the Gladden Fields many had fallen." (RP) This massive depopulation was held to be the main reason of Arnor's ultimate splintering "into petty realms and lordships" (RP) that were individually without chance to survive. In the early second millenium, the Hobbits entering Arnor still had the impression that "Men were still numerous there, both Númenóreans and other Men related to the Atani, beside remnants of Men of evil kinds, hostile to the Kings", (DM) but none ever recovered enough to conceal the dramatic underpopulation of the entire kingdom. The númenorisation of the indigenious peoples was the most effective in the Western parts of Arnor that later comprised Arthedain; but elsewhere, particularly in Rhúdaur were the Dúnedainic upper class had always been the thinnest, it utterly failed. By all likelihood, Isildur's curse against the Men of Dunharrow had left there a lasting impression of how the Kings used to deal with subjects who refused to follow them into disaster. And the quickly dealt out epithet "Men of evil kinds" did not ease the tension any more than Valandil's relocation closer to his people's problems did. So, when Angmar was founded by the Witch-king there "gathered many evil men" (KR), for it was by not a few considered a serious alternative to the Realm in Exile.

    When Rhúdaur was turned into a sovereign kingdom it became immediately exposed to severe pressure by "Hillmen of the North", mysterious people who now for the first time entered the chronicles of the West. They were no doubt descending from the appointed "remnants of Men of evil kinds" who may have been descended from Bórrim or other Swarthy Men from Beleriand. But beyond that, little is known about them. Some sources state that from the 14th century on, they "build dark forts in the hills" (HE) and that they were "much given to sorcery" (YT). Slowly, they pushed back the Dúnedain of Rhúdaur until the throne was "seized by an evil lord of the Hillmen, who was in secret league with Angmar" (KR). By this time, there were still loyal minorities living beyond the Weather Hills; but after the fatal year of 1409 TA, all of Rhúdaur "was occupied by evil Men subject to Angmar, and the Dúnedain that remained there were slain or fled west." (KR. Probably at this time, Trolls appeared in eastern Rhúdaur, advancing into the regions which later were known as the Trollshaws.) But the Hillmen as well were ultimately doomed, for "all were destroyed in the war that brought the North Kingdom to its end." (FR)

    This must have meant a tremendous ethnical cleansing on both sides, and Eriador fell in major parts into desolation from which it never recovered. Cardolan was deserted and withstood attempts to resettle it (HE). Rhúdaur was inhabited only by fell non-human creatures. An even further blow was the Great Plague of 1636 TA from which all the remaining settled areas suffered almost fatal blows. Then, "Minhiriath had been almost entirely deserted, though a few secretive hunter-folk lived in the woods [of Eryn Vorn, etc.]".

    When also Arthedain, last remnant of the disintegrating Northern Kingdom, collapsed, the history of the Middle Men in Eriador had come to an end. Till the Fourth Age, former Arnor never was repopulated. "In Bilbo’s time great areas of Eriador were empty of Men", (DM) and within a hundred leagues from the only survivors, the pre-Númenóreans of Bree, and even further from the Lossoth in the far North, no significant Mannish settlements were found any longer. (FR) The South never attempted to resettle the North Kingdom. Gondor had no interests to defend there, and the other peoples were both not numerous enough and too superstitious to immigrate in large numbers into the vast, desolate regions. The city of Tharbad (where once a large population of pre-Númenóreans may have dwelt in the suburbs) became the Ultima Thule to the Southern Kingdom beyond which was lying an almost mythical country, full of strange, otherworldly creatures, such as Elves, Dwarves, Orcs, and probably worse. Finally, after a long and dreadful winter, even Tharbad was inundated and fell into ruin, and its Bridge was no more. The river Greyflood now formed not only an effective psychological barrier but a physical as well, hard to cross only at the dangerous Ford at the site of the former bridge.

    The Southern Kingdom had taken a completely different stance against indigenious minorities than Arnor. While the Northern Kingdom kept striving for survival but successfully integrated most of its peoples, Gondor pursued an expansionistic policy, maintaining a restrictive attitude against non-Dúnedainic locals. Isildur's curse may have been only the most prominent of incidents, and it was probably traditioned for a long time among the indigenious population. On a private level of course intercourse between Dúnedain and the occupied minorities prevailed. Mixed marriages were frequent, and slowly "the blood of the Númenóreans became much mingled with that of other men, and their power and wisdom was diminished." (RP) But politically, the Dúnedain retained a somewhat mild apartheid, suspicious even against those of "mixed blood".

    In the 8th century TA, the victories of crown prince Tarannon "extended the sway of Gondor far along the shore-lands on either side of the Mouths of Anduin" (HE), and the few pre-Númenóreans living there were subdued, never to regain political independence. In Gondor and Umbar, they became almost extinct: In the late Third Age, their memory was preserved only in a few geographical names whose meaning was lost in time. Soon, the White Mountains followed where the Men of Dunharrow were no more, and Calenardhon as far as the Isen and the Argonath, and parts of Rhovanion as far East as Dorwinion. Only in the latter - and the most thinly covered - part, a successfully númenorised indigenious people prevailed the age of the Kings, see "The mysterious king Bladorthin".

    The most sturdy of the Gondorian minorities proved to be the small nation of the Gwathuirim or Dunlendings. For to the Enedwaith "few Númenóreans had ever come, and none had settled there" (FI) "owing to the hostility of the Gwathuirim (Dunlendings), except in the fortified town and haven about the great bridge over the Greyflood at Tharbad." (DM) There is some doubt about the status of the region: once, it is claimed that it "belonged to neither kingdom [though] both kingdoms shared an interest in this region. ... A considerable garrison of soldiers, mariners and engineers had been kept there until the seventeenth century of the Third Age. But from then onwards the region fell quickly into decay; and ... back into wild fenlands." (GC), and also that "in ancient days ... the western bounds of the South Kingdom was the Isen", (FI) but the latter source continues to tell that "in the days of the Kings it was part of the realm of Gondor, but it was of little concern to them, except for the patrolling and upkeep of the great Royal Road." (FI) These apparently contradictory informations may indicate that Enedwaith was a kind of Gondorian protectorate which the South Kingdom oversaw but did not settle, similar to some barbarian regions adjacent to the Roman Empire. It is clear, though, that from some unknown beginning till 1636 TA the Dunlendings were nominal subjects of Gondor but more by decree than by conviction. They lived remote enough from major population centres that they would not feel affected by the crown. In spirit they remained as independent as their relatives of Bree-country, and the old animosities - whose reasons no doubt were long forgotten - prevailed among them so that they "did ... hold to their old speech and manners: a secret folk, unfriendly to the Dúnedain" (LP. This "old speech" was the last survivor of the Halethian language family), and they "had little love for Gondor, but though hardy and bold enough were too few and too much in awe of the might of the Kings to trouble them." (FI) Gondor whose eyes were turned East and South inclined to ignore them. This was tragic insofar as the Dunlendings thus never became númenorised like the pre-Númenóreans of Arnor. But despite Gondorian claims that throughout the millenia their "hatred remained unappeased in their descendants, causing them to join with any enemies of Númenor", (DM) they never wilfully fell in with the Necromancer or any of his subjects. Indeed they rejected business with Orcs and expelled those whom they suspected to have dealings with them, such as a certain "outlaw driven from Dunland, where many said that he had Orc-blood. ... He was the squint-eyed Southerner at the Inn." (HR). The majority of the Dunlendings did not collaborate with Sauron's minions (except once) though that did not hinder them from taking advantage of the larger conflicts when available. But to non-Dúnedainic foreigners they showed as much hospitability and generosity as the Bree-folk, and the Stoors who "liked to live with or near to Big Folk of friendly kind" (DM) happily dwelt "at the borders of Dunland" (FT). Cultural exchange was frequent enough that the Stoor hobbits "appear to have adopted a language related to Dunlendish before they came north to the Shire." (LP)

    Profound changes came with the Great Plague of 1636 TA. When it had passed, "in Enedwaith the remnants of the Dunlendings [still] lived in the east, in the foothills of the Misty Mountains" (FI) and they had "suffered ... less than most, since they dwelt apart and had few dealings with other men." (LP) But even northern Dunland had been considerably emptied (RK), and the Stoors, finding their abode increasingly untendable, finally headed for the Shire. The Dunlendings now found North of them only a few Dwarves. (KR) But Gondor's hold on Enedwaith was loosened due to heavy losses among the troops and garrisons, and "when the days of the Kings ended (1975-2050) and the waning of Gondor began, they ceased in fact to be subjects of Gondor." (FI) From then on, they quite naturally took interest in settling the plains of Calenardhon, , being more fertile and prosperous than their hilly homesteads - especially since Eriador was inaccessible and West and South inhabited by that more than dubious "barbarous fisher-folk". (GC) The Dunlendings began to traverse the Fords of Isen that before "were ever guarded against any incursion from the 'Wild Lands'. But during the Watchful Peace (from 2063 to 2460) the [Númenórean] people of Calenardhon dwindled ... the garrisons of the forts were not renewed, and were left to the care of local hereditary chieftains whose subjects were of more and more mixed blood. For the Dunlendings drifted steadily and unchecked over the Isen." (FI)

    This did not by default mean trouble. But it proved tragic when of the notorious Gondorian ignorance of Dunlendish positions resulted in the problem that after the Battle of the Camp (1944 TA) Calenardhon was passed on by decree to the Eótheód or Rohirrim who had come south from their territories North of Greenwood. In the view of the Dunlendish herdsmen, these strange horse-breeders were natural competitors for the fertile pastures of Calenardhon and thus not welcome on what with some right they by now considered their own land. But the situation escalated beyond the point of no return when the Kings of the Rohirrim decided to rid themselves of local minorities in a manner that looked reminiscent of the Men of Shadow: "Under Brego and Aldor the Dunlendings were rooted out again and driven away beyond the Isen, and the Fords of Isen were guarded." Worse, King Aldor "even raided their lands in Enedwaith by way of reprisal." (FI)

    This ethnical cleansing was never forgotten by the "wild hillmen and herd-folk", as the Rohirrim scornfully used to refer to them (TT). Neutral historians record that it was then when "the Rohirrim earned the hatred of the Dunlendings, which was not appeased until the return of the King, then far off in the future. Whenever the Rohirrim were weak or in trouble the Dunlendings renewed their attacks" against "the 'wild Northmen' who had usurped the land" (FI). Centuries later a man from Rohan still found reason to recall: "Not in half a thousand years have they forgotten the grievance that the lords of Gondor gave the Mark to Eorl the Young and made alliance with him." (TT) But that meant of course to project the historical responsibilities away from their own and to the distant throne of Minas Tirith.

    Gondor though considered the unsolved Dunlendish question a matter of Rohan's interior politics. And this was unfortunate for had it put its weight in time into arranging a political solution, Saruman could not have exploited the conflict almost to the ruin of both Rohan and Gondor. But as it had been to the kings "the enmity of the 'wild' Dunlendings seemed of small account to the Stewards." (FI) And so Rohan dealt alone with the problem. " In the reign of King Deor (2699 to 2718) ... the line of the Gondorian chieftains of Angrenost [isengard] had failed, and the command of the fortress passed into the hands of a family of the people. These, as has been said, were already long before of mixed blood, and they were now more friendly disposed to the Dunlendings ...; with Minas Tirith far away they no longer had any concern. After the death of King Aldor ... the Dunlendings unmarked by Rohan but with the connivance of Isengard began to filter into northern Westfold again, making settlements in the mountain glens west and east of Isengard and even in the southern eaves of Fangorn. In the reign of Déor they became openly hostile, raiding the herds and studs of the Rohirrim in Westfold." (FI)

    Of course, in times of peace there was always as well much local traffic with the western-march of Rohan, and Northmen and Dunlendings frequently joined in marriage. Even the Landlord Freca, counsellor of Helm Hammerhand, "had, men said, much Dunlendish blood, and was dark-haired" (KR) in contrast to the often blond Men of the North. And "as was later known, the Dunlendings [were] admitted as friends" (FI) in Angrenost until they successfully "seized the Ring of Isengard, slaying the few survivors of its ancient guards who were not (as were most) willing to merge with the Dunlendish folk. Déor sent word at once to the Steward in Minas Tirith (at that time, in the year 2710, Egalmoth), but he was unable to send help, and the Dunlendings remained in occupation of Isengard". (FI) According to other sources, the reason for Egalmoth's denial was "renewed war with the Orcs." (HE)

    In 2758 TA the halfly Dunlendish Wulf, Freca's son, in the west-march held in high esteem, successfully negotiated an alliance with the Corsairs of Umbar who, stirred by Sauron, were raiding the coasts around the Bay of Belfalas and beyond. He thus turned away the peril of plunder from his own properties at the river Adorn and talked the Dunlendings from outside of Rohan into a fatal alliance with Men of Shadow. Now for once they "were joined by enemies of Gondor that had landed in the mouths of Lefnui and Isen" (KR) and while "Rohan was again invaded from the East ... the Dunlendings seeing their chance came over the Isen and down from Isengard. It was soon known that Wulf was their leader. ... Wulf took Edoras and sat in Meduseld and called himself king." (KR) Rohan called again to Gondor for help. And once again, this time due to the raids of as much as three Corsair fleets at its own coasts, she could not send any. The Dunlendings stayed in control of Edoras and Isengard until "reduced by the great famine after the Long Winter (2758-9) they were starved out and capitulated to Fréalaf." (FI) Only to this tragic circumstance it was thus due that "before the year [2759] was ended the Dunlendings were driven out, even from Isengard" (KR) which was now passed on into Saruman's governship so that nothing like that would ever repeat. And due to the revival of the old animosities by Wulf "for many years the Rohirrim had to keep a strong force of Riders in the north of Westfold." (FI)

    Of course, this guard was lessened with time and the border opened again. Then once more, many Dunlendings were eventually found in the west-march. And this time, their stay was tolerated while Edoras kept busy with Orc-bands that, themselves escaping from the grip of the Long Winter, tried to invade the White Mountains. But almost as soon as these had been eliminated, this time with Gondor's help, another pogrome against the Dunlendings was launched by Folcwine (2830-2903) and "he reconquered the west-march ... that Dunlendings had occupied." (KR) But the Rohirrim never realised that military decisions cannot change social realities: "beyond the Gap the land between Isen and Adorn was nominally part of the realm of Rohan; but though Folcwine had reclaimed it, driving out the Dunlendings that had occupied it, the people that remained were largely of mixed blood, and their loyalty to Edoras was weak." (FI)

    Thus Saruman found the ground well-prepared when he started to seek for recruits and for victims of his Man/Orc cross-breeding programme. The Dunlendings were readily ensnared by his cunning diplomacy and thus at last found themselves side by side with those they feared the most: the wizard's orcish troops. The awakening from the spell was terrible. To this dreadful experience and to King Elessar's successful diplomacy may be attributed that in the Fourth Age the neighbours this side and that of the river Isen, closely related by many generations of mutual marriage and procreation, were at least in parts reconciled. "In Éomer's day in the Mark men had peace who wished for it". (KR) The books politely keep silent about what happened to the others.

    List of Abbreviations:

    AA

    "The Annals of Aman", in: The War of the Jewels, 1994.

    AD

    "Aelfwine and Dírhaval" in: The War of the Jewels, 1994.

    AE

    "Aldarion and Erendis" in: Unfinished Tales, 1980.

    AF

    "Atrabeth Finrod ah Andreth", in: Morgoth’s Ring, 1993.

    AG

    "Of Tuor and his Arrival in Gondolin" in: Unfinished Tales, 1980.

    AI

    J.R.R. Tolkien - Artist and Illustrator, by W. Hammond and Chr. Scull, 1995.

    AK

    "The Akallabêth" in: The Silmarillion, 1977.

    AL

    "The Appendix on Languages", in: The Peoples of Middle earth, 1996.

    ATB

    The Adventures of Tom Bombadil, 1961

    CE

    "Cirion and Éorl" in: Unfinished Tales, 1980.

    CG

    The Complete Guide to Middle-earth, by R. Foster, 1978.

    Co

    The Tolkien Companion, by J. E. A. Tyler, 1976.

    DA

    "The Drowning of Anadune", in: Sauron Defeated, 1991.

    DM

    "Of Dwarves and Men", in: The Peoples of Middle earth, 1996.

    DN

    "A Description of Númenor" in: Unfinished Tales, 1980.

    EL

    "Tar-Elmar" in: The Peoples of Middle earth, 1996.

    FI

    "The Battles at the Fords of Isen" in: Unfinished Tales, 1980.

    FR

    The Fellowship of the Ring, 1965.

    GA

    "The Grey Annals" in: The War of the Jewels, 1994.

    GC

    "The History of Galadriel and Celeborn" in: Unfinished Tales, 1980.

    GF

    "The Disaster of the Gladden Fields" in: Unfinished Tales, 1980.

    GN

    "Guide to the Names in the Lord of the Rings", in: A Tolkien Compass, by J. Lobdell, 1974

    H

    The Hobbit or There and Back Again, 1937 (chapters in roman numerals)

    HA

    "The History of the Akallabêth", in: The Peoples of Middle earth, 1996.

    HE

    "The Heirs of Elendil", in: The Peoples of Middle earth, 1996

    HH

    "Narn i Hín Húrin" in: Unfinished Tales, 1980.

    HoMe

    The History of Middle-earth. Vol. I to XII.

    HR

    "The Hunt for the Ring" in: Unfinished Tales, 1980.

    KR

    "Annals of the Kings and Rulers", Appendix A in: The Return of the King, 1965.

    L#

    Letter No. #, in: The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien, 1981.

    LE

    "The Line of Elros" in: Unfinished Tales, 1980.

    LP

    "The Languages and Peoples of the Third Age", Appendix F in: The Return of the King, 1965.

    LQ

    "The Later Quenta Silmarillion" in: The War of the Jewels, 1994.

    LR

    The Lord of the Rings, 1965 ff.

    LW

    "Last Writings: The Five Wizards", in: The Peoples of Middle earth, 1996.

    MR

    Morgoth's Ring, The History of Middle-earth, Vol. X, 1993.

    MT

    "Myths Transformed", in: Morgoth’s Ring, 1993.

    NC

    "The Notion Club Papers", in: Sauron Defeated, 1991.

    NE

    "Of the Naugrim and the Edain", in: The War of the Jewels, 1994

    PM

    The Peoples of Middle-earth, The History of Middle-earth, Vol. XII, 1996.

    PR

    "The Problem of Ros", in: The Peoples of Middle earth, 1996.

    QE

    "The Quest for Erebor" in: Unfinished Tales, 1980.

    QS

    "The Later Quenta Silmarillion", in: The War of the Jewels, 1994

    RA

    Lowdham`s Report on Adunaic, in: Sauron Defeated, 1991.

    RK

    The Return of the King, 1965.

    RP

    "Of the Rings of Power and the Third Age" in: The Silmarillion, 1977.

    RS

    The Return of the Shadow, The History of Middle-earth, Vol. VI, 1988

    S

    The Silmarillion, 1977.

    TC

    "The Calendars ", Appendix D in: The Return of the King, 1965.

    TD

    "The Drúedain" in: Unfinished Tales, 1980.

    TE

    "The Etymologies", in: The Lost Road and other Writings, 1987.

    TG

    "Of Tuor and his Arrival in Gondolin", in: Unfinished Tales, 1980.

    TI

    "The Istari", in: Unfinished Tales, 1980.

    TM

    The Atlas of Middle-earth, by K.W. Fonstad, 1981/1991.

    TR

    The Treason of Isengard, The History of Middle-earth, Vol. VII, 1989

    TT

    The Two Towers, 1965.

    TY

    "The Tale of Years", Appendix B in: The Return of the King, 1965.

    UT

    Unfinished Tales, 1980.

    WH

    "The Wanderings of Húrin" in: The War of the Jewels, 1994.

    WJ

    The War of the Jewels, The History of Middle-earth, Vol. XI, 1994.

    WS

    "Writing and Spelling", Appendix E in: The Return of the King, 1965.

    YF

    "The Tale of Years [of the First Age]", in: The War of the Jewels, 1994

    YS

    "The Tale of Years of the Second Age", in: The Peoples of Middle earth, 1996

    YT

    "The Tale of Years of the Third Age", in: The Peoples of Middle earth, 1996

    FA

    First Age

    SA

    Second Age

    TA

    Third Age

    Hadhafang

    in History of Middle Earth Series

    Posted

    OK, now this is REALLY wierd. I was "Google-ing" tonight on a different topic and came across a website that sells the movie-related collectibles. This was, of course, one of the collectibles to-- ehm, ... collect. It had the name, and lineage... and I was thinking the exact same thing: "How did they "think" up this idea?" and "Is this 'really' from his writings?"

    ;)

    (It's details like this that make me more forgiving of the heinous script changes.)

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