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Topic: Eriador in the Third Age -- Where People Lived    Reply to: msg
Posted: December 15, 1999 at 02:05:05: by Michael Martinez
It gets confusing for me every time I start to discuss what happened to Eriador's populations, so I'm going to start experimenting with some table formats to see if I can bring some clarity to the picture. Comments and questions welcomed. The table will proceed from west to east, north to south.

Mixed People are assumed to be Dunadan/Beorian and/or Dunadan/Gwathuirim.


Location People From To
--------------------------------------------------------------
North Lowlands Borians 1? 1636? (See note 1)
Emyn Uial Dunedain 1 863?
Annuminas Dunedain 1 863? (See note 2)
Mixed People 1 863? (See note 2)
North Downs Dunedain 1 1974
Mixed People 1 1974
Fornost Erain Dunedain 1 1974
Mixed People 1 1974
Angmar Angmarians 1? 1974
Orcs 1300? 1974
Trolls 1300? 1974
East Lowlands Easterlings? 1? 1300? (See note 3)
Harfoots 1050 1300
Fallohides 1150 1300
Nandor? 1? 1300? (See note 4)
High Elves? 1? 1300? (See note 4)
Ettenmoors Trolls 1? 3021
Giants? 1300? 3021? (See note 5)
North Rhudaur Dunedain 1 1409
Hill-folk 1 1409
Angmarians 1409 1409
Trollshaws Hill-folk 1 1409
Angmarians 1409 1409
Imladris High Elves 1 3021
Shire Dunedain 1 863? (See note 6)
Beorians 1? 863?
Mixed People 1? 863?
Harfoots 1601 3021
Fallohides 1601 3021
Stoors 1630 3021
Midlands Beorians 1 1974
Mixed People 1 1974
Harfoots 1300 1636? (See note 7)
Fallohides 1300 1636? (See note 7)
Buckland Stoors 2340 3021
Tyrn Gorthad Beorians 1 1636
Dunedain 1 1636
Mixed People 1 1636
Bree-land Gwathuirim 1 3021
Harfoots 1300 3021
Fallohides 1300 3021
The Angle Dunedain 1 1409
Stoors 1150 1356
Angmarians 1409 1409
South Downs Dunedain 1 1409
Minhiriath Dunedain 1 1636
Gwathuirim 1 1636? (See note 8)
Mixed People 1 1636? (See note 8)
Tharbad Dunedain 1 2912
Gwathuirim 1 2912 (See note 9)
Mixed People 1 2912 (See note 9)
--------------------------------------------------------------

Terms:

North Lowlands -- The lands north of Emyn Uial and the North Downs
East Lowlands -- The lands between the Weather Hills and Mitheithel
North Rhudaur -- The lands north of the Trollshaws to the Ettenmoors
Midlands -- The lands north of Bree, south of Fornost, from
Baranduin to the Weather Hills
Minhiriath -- The lands between Baranduin and Gwathlo, as far
east as the Greenway

Notes:

1) The Borians were Easterlings, Swarthy Men, who settled in northern
Eriador in the First Age. The Folk of Bor passed north around the
Ered Luin and settled in Lothlann, north of Himring, as subjects of
Maedhros. Although this clan or tribe was wiped out during the
Nirnaeth Arnoediad, a note in THE WAR OF THE JEWELS indicates that
other clans related to the Folk of Bor remained in Eriador, and they
were the ancestors of the northernmost Men to live in Eriador in the
Second Age.

That these Borians would have survived into the Third Age is purely
speculative, but if they did, it seems probable they either became
the Lossoth (who were said to be a remnant of the Forodwaith of the
First Age) or else they died out some time before the final war with
Angmar. If they died out, the latest probable date for their demise
seems to be 1636, when the Great Plague swept across Eriador, although
Tolkien says the plague lessened in intensity as it passed north.

2) "The Heirs of Elendil" in THE PEOPLES OF MIDDLE-EARTH suggests,
in the entry for Earendur, that Annuminas was deserted when his
sons divided Arnor among themselves.

3) The "Easterlings" is intended to represent descendants of those
Easterlings who fled Beleriand at the fall of Thangorodrim. Their
descendants could have included the Men of Angmar, the Hill folk
who deposed the Dunedain in Rhudaur, and any Men who might have
settled in these lowlands. There is no textual evidence that
Men actually lived in the East Lowlands. However, Valandur (602-
652), the eighth King of Arnor, died a violent death in 652. His
death seems to imply some sort of war was fought. The most logical
foe would be a tribe or nation of Easterlings living east or
north of Arnor (though the presence of Elves in the East Lowlands
would seem to imply the region was not unfriendly to Arnor -- see
note 4).

4) Tolkien indicates that Elves continued to live throughout Eriador
in at least the early part of the Third Age. Although many would
have been part of Wandering Companies, the society of the Wandering
Companies is not documented (were they permanently nomadic?), and
it is not clear that all would have been. If they required lands
of their own, the East Lowlands appear not to have been part of
Elendil's realm, and a great number of Elves could have dwelt
there beside Arnor at least until the end of the Second Age. In
the Third Age, these should have comprised the majority of the Elves
of Eriador who acknowledged Elrond's leadership. The most likely
time for their departure from this region would be when Angmar
arose and threatened the Dunedain and Imladris.

5) The presence of Giants is purely speculative, based on some
etymological evidence and the suggestion in THE HOBBIT that Giants
were not native to the Misty Mountains. When they arrived and
from whence they might have come are not known. But if the Giants
tended toward evil, then they may have arrived when the Lord of
the Nazgul colonized the north and established the realm of Angmar.

6) Some of Elendil's people settled between Baranduin and Lhun. But
when the lands became deserted is not clear. I have inferred that
the abandonment of Annuminas implies these lands were deserted by
then.

7) Tolkien does not say that Hobbits actually settled in the Midlands,
but he does say that they migrated westward and many settled at
Bree. Since not all settled at Bree, the others must have lived
somewhere else. By 1300 the Hobbits appear to have begun learning
how to build, and they would not have all been living in tunnels.
When the non-Bree settlements vanished is not given, either. There
are three logical times when these settlements could have vanished:
1600, when the Shire was colonized; 1636, during the Great Plague;
1974, when Angmar destroyed Arnor. The Great Plague seems the
least likely, but if the communities had already been depleted by
emigration, their populations could have died out more easily in the
plague.

8) Some men continued to live in Minhiriath after the Great Plague, but
Tolkien says they were very few. We know the Dunedain of Cardolan
all perished in the plague, so the survivors must have been Gwathuirim
or Mixed People. Since Tolkien says no other settlements of Men
survived close to the Shire (outside of Bree) by the end of the Third
Age, the Minhiriathians must have lived in isolated homesteads, much
as the Folk of Haleth who settled south of Brethil in the First Age
did. This strongly implies they were Gwathuirim.

Tolkien says in the Gwathlo essay (published in UNFINISHED TALES in
the appendix to "Of the History of Galadriel and Celeborn" that there
were a few secretive hunter folk still living in Minhiriath's woods
at the end of the Third Age (probably close to the river and/or the
sea, since most of Minhiriath was open plains). The story of the
Great Plague given in Appendix A to THE LORD OF THE RINGS implies
that Minhiriath suffered more than other parts of Cardolan, so some
people may have survived in the South Downs, or maybe the implication
just refers to Tharbad.

9) Tharbad was a Numenorean port, but it seems probable there were some
Gwathuirim who settled there, and that they mingled with the Dunedain.



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