Posted: May 10, 2000 at 12:20:00: by Michael Martinez
: This is only a technicality, but there is no indication that
: Khamul was actually an Easterling - at least not in a racial or
: cultural sense (such as the Wain-riders). He is called the
: 'Black Easterling', but the adjective 'black' could simply
: describe his evil nature and 'easterling' could refer to his
: origin somewhere in the East. It is even possible that
: he was a Numenorean, since the ships of Numenor sailed even to
: the Gates of Morning in the uttermost East, and during such
: voyages, they may have established colonies along the eastern
: coasts of Middle-earth."Easterling" does not denote race in Tolkien. He groups men into basically three categories: Edainic peoples, Easterlings, and Haradrim. The Edainic peoples were divided into many tribes and nations: the three houses of the Edain in Beleriand, the Numenoreans, the Faithful Dunedain of Arnor and Gondor, the Black Numenoreans, the Northmen, the Beornings, the Woodmen, the Men of Dale, the Rohirrim, etc. Some of these sub-groupings are just "familial" names for further sub-groupings (as "Edain" is for the Three Houses and their descendants, and "Northmen" is for the many tribes who came out of the Vales of Anduin). So Khamul most certainly was an Easterling, in the sense that he came from one of the non-Edainic peoples of the east. Tolkien would not have called him any sort of Easterling otherwise. We only have a vague idea of the tribal relationships of the Easterlings, not even as clear as that of the "northmen" who preceded the late Third Age nations (Rohirrim, Beornings, Woodmen, men of Dale and Esgaroth). The Wainriders were more than one tribe. The Balchoth were more than one tribe, but they were somehow related to the Wainriders.
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