Posted: January 10, 2000 at 17:41:27: by Michael Martinez
: >>>What happened to the Hill-folk of Rhudaur? Were they
: destroyed by Angmar, or when Angmar was destroyed? Because in
: the Hobbit, the three trolls are talking about eating village,
: and then Gandalf says that reports had come to Rivendell that
: three trolls had driven away the local inhabitants before going
: into the forest. Who lived there to be driven away? I was
: always under the impression that only the Rangers lived
: anywhere close to there, but I think the Rangers could handle
: three trolls. Were there still hill-folk living there? Unfortunately, we sometimes have to take what's stated in THE HOBBIT with a grain of salt. I'm not saying there wasn't really a village of people in the area. Rather, Tolkien just wasn't able to incorporate that reference into the history provided in THE LORD OF THE RINGS. Maybe it's sufficient to say that by the time Frodo and company passed through the terror of the trolls had not abated. As for the more ancient dwellers in the region, they do seem to have been defeated and destroyed in one of the early wars with Angmar. I have interpreted the history to mean that Angmar sent an army through Rhudaur because the hill-folk were too few or too weak to attack the Dunedain of Cardolan alone, and the crossing into Cardolan was easier than winning past the forts of the Weather hills. : Anyway, I think that there were still some people living in
: those areas, even in only some Rangers. The "empty lands" of
: Eriador outside the Shire and Breeland had at least some people
: there, because the bounders of the Shire had to turn people
: back from the borders; also, remember that Aragorn said that
: within a day's march of Bree were foes that would freeze
: Barliman's heart. So I think there were still some remnants of
: the hill-folk living closeby. The evil hill-folk who seized control of Rhudaur were definitely destroyed. But there is no reason to assume no one else tried to live in the lands south of the Great Road, except that Aragorn seems to imply the district has long been deserted. It's a sticky issue, and I've found myself arguing both sides of it.
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