Middle-earth seen by the barbarians: The complete collection including a previously unpublished essay

by Codex Regius

  The news spread swiftly and Men in Eriador were filled with wonder.

  Aldarion proved to be quite incapable of environmental protection, and his policy against ethnic minority was as dubious. He was responsible that ‘the power of Númenor became more and more occupied with great navies, for which their own land could not supply sufficient timber without ruin, [and] their felling of trees and transportation of wood to their shipyards in Númenor or on the coast of Middle-earth … became reckless.’ (DM) Aldarion’s policy caused a loss of reputation among the eEnedwaith from which Westernesse would never recover. Not as if the Middle Men had not been patient: 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 [i. e. Dunland] were thrusting into Enedwaith’ in support of their troubled kinsmen. (AE) And setting up Vinyalondë right before their eyes was the final straw.[1]

  Aldarion met the first sign of resistance in 820 SA. Arriving on board, he found Vinyalondë ‘overthrown by great seas and plundered by hostile men.’ (AE) This is a remarkable notice because it indicates that the attackers had taken their chance after a natural event, a storm tide or maybe a tsunami, had already wrecked parts of the port. Investigating into the consequences, Aldarion now witnessed with his very own eyes 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 erroneously believed that this lord was simply a powerful chieftain among the Enedwaith, in other words, that the Númenórean cultivation programme was turning against them. But Gil-Galad of Lindon saw further and early-on perceived that ‘the Shadow crept along the coasts and men whom they had befriended became afraid or hostile’. (FI) He correctly concluded that a much more transcendental power was at work. And he understood as well that the hidden instigator had not actually kindled the resentment but, like any good demagogue does, was exploiting and promoting feelings that were already present among the populace.

  Aldarion’s campaigns at the river Agathurush (yellow)

  Of course, the most evident hint that diplomatic courtesy allowed him to give was his sober remark to the king of Númenor, ‘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 get the meaning. That is why he and his successors continued to find, to their dismay, ‘that iron was used against them by those to whom they had revealed it.’ (DN) From the Enedwaith perspective, these were increasingly desperate acts of self-defence. 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) Witnessing how the Men of Westernesse 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-Númenórean Enedwaith finally ‘became bitter enemies of the Númenóreans, because of their ruthless treatment and their devastation of the forests’. (DM)

  The Númenóreans answered this challenge by teaching civilised behaviour at the sword’s tip. Cleansing and destroying what lay ahead of them, they advanced deep inland, establishing themselves inland as far as the river Glanduin[2], ‘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). Still, technological superiority gave all advantages to the Númenóreans.

  ’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[3]; they did not cross the Isen nor take refuge in the great promontory between Isen and Lefnui [i. e. the Cape of Andrast] … because of the “Pukel-men”’, (GC) which is a local word for the Drúedain living there since the First Age.

  Even they, despite having living relatives in Númenor, began to fear the Men from the Sea, and reasonably so: ‘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)

  [1] The statement, made in GC, that Aldarion met Celeborn and Galadriel at Tharbad is often interpreted as if the Venturers had established another, second port there. This is not the case. Tharbad of the Númenórean age was simply a ford (S ‘Stepping Stones’ (WPP) - ‘The name Tharbad, a crossing (sc.. a ford over a river), was of course given before a town grew up.’ (WPP). It is explicitly pointed out that against the forces of Sauron advancing in 1695 SA, ‘it was only lightly held.’ (LD). The port and bridge of Tharbad were founded by the exiled kingdoms after the Downfall of Númenor.

  [2] ‘The name Glanduin was meant to be ‘border-river’, a name given as far back as the Second Age when it was the southern border of Eregion, beyond which were the unfriendly people of Dunland.’ The name was eventually forgotten, and ‘If the river had any name it was in the language of the Dunlendings.’ (LC)

  [3] In other words, they avoided the Elves of Lindon but did not mind having those of Eregion dwelling in the neighbourhood?

  The exiled natives welcomed Sauron and hoped for his victory

  The situation aggravated in the second millenium, ‘in the days of Tar-Ciryatan the Shipbuilder, and of Tar-Atanamir his son’, as ‘they laid the men of Middle-earth under tribute, taking now rather than giving.’ (AK) This played into Sauron’s hands because the Dark Lord found a handy potential from which to draft recruits. After all, the pre-Númenórean ‘hatred remained unappeased in their descendants, causing them to join with any enemies of Númenor.’ (DM) This way, he increased pressure on the West by drawing closer to the Númenórean sphere of influence: Sauron left his first stronghold and hiding place in Rhún (see III) where he had evaded the Valar and relocated to Mordor, that became his main residence.

  By the end of the 17th century SA he forged the One Ring, completed Barad-dúr and felt ready to launch the War of the Elves and Sauron, having well tilled the soil 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 [= the original Vinyalondë that, in Sindarin, was know more commonly called Lond Daer] 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)

  Enedwaith partisans kept 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 most of the Middle Men of Eriador perished during the War. Its population never recovered, and at the end of the Second Age, Arnor was founded in virtually ‘empty’ lands. (LP)

  The pre-Númenóreans and the Great Rings

  Until 1700 SA, Sauron ‘had mastered all Eriador, save only besieged Imladris, and had reached the line of the River Lhûn.’ (GC) It was then that the Númenórean fleet arrived, sent by king Tar-Minastir, 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) Not much better were conditions in Enedwaith and Minhiriath, where ‘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 apparently crossed the Glanduin and returned south into Dunland that now seemed safer than wrecked Eregion. The Númenóreans never returned to there but would now turn their attention south, to Umbar and the distant lands of Haradwaith.

  They hid themselves in secret places and slowly dwindled in the barren hills

  The early third millenium was the age of a colonisation programme, invoked by king Tar-Atanamir. ‘In that time the Númenóreans first made great settlements upon the west shores of the ancient lands; for their own land seemed to them shrunken, and they had no rest or content therein, and they desired now wealth and dominion in Middle-earth, since the West was denied. Great harbours and strong towers they made, and there many of them took up their abode; but they appeared now rather as lords and masters and gatherers of tribute than as helpers and teachers. And the great ships of the Númenóreans were borne east on the winds and returned ever laden, and the power and majesty of their kings were increased; and they drank and they feasted and they clad themselves in silver and gold.

  In all this the Elf-friends had small part.’ (AK) In 2350 SA, they founded their own great commercial and naval port, Pelargir. It quickly outshone Lond Daer whose importance, without its populated hinterland of Eriador, shrank to that of an intermediate station on the course to Lindon: Lond Daer Enedh, the Great Haven at Half the Distance. The inhabitants of Pelargir became at last aware of the pre-Númenóreans of the Ered Nimrais as 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 men had ‘relapsed into the service of the Dark’ and worshipped Sauron, as did the notorious ‘King of the Mountains’ (RK) who ruled over the pre-Haladin people of Dunharrow. Yet the military force of Númenór was too much even for Sauron to handle, ‘and he feared them, lest they should invade his lands and wrest from him the dominion of the East. But for a long time he did not dare to challenge the Lords of the Sea, and he withdrew from the coasts.’ (AK)

  The Faithful and the early Realms in Exile

  Then Ar-Pharazôn landed, and seemingly subdued the Dark Lord, and Pelargir won the pre-Númenóreans over: they repented while Sauron was in Númenór, supported by the fact that his absence had relieved the Elves from pressure, and ‘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) Further south, however, in Umbar and beyond, Ar-Pharazôn’s men ‘sailed now with power and armoury to Middle-earth, and they came no longer as bringers of gifts, nor even as rulers, but as fierce men of war. And they hunted the men of Middle-earth and took their goods and enslaved them, and many they slew cruelly upon their altars. For they built in their fortresses temples and great tombs in those days; and men feared them, and the memory of the kindly kings of the ancient days faded from the world and was darkened by many a tale of dread.’ (AK) This less concerns the desolate regions of Minhiriath and Enedwaith but mainly the Harad whose natives now had to serve as oarsmen on Ar-Pharazôn’s great fleet – until they were helplessly and unfairly drowned by the intervention of a well-meaning and good god.

  The cataclysm of 3319 SA must have inflicted terrible losses upon the indigenous peoples of western and north-western Middle-earth as the coastlines were inundated and earthquakes and storms demanded tremendous 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 near the White and the Misty Mountains, from where they slowly repopulated Enedwaith and Minhiriath, and in the interior of Eriador.

  Middle Men (green), Drúedain (reddish) and pre-Númenóreans (dark grey) in the early Third Age

  It is one of the most irritating consequences of the Drowning of Númenor that it should victimise so many innocent pre-Númenóreans though it was aimed at their oppressors.

  When the Elendili, the last surviving Faithful, established the Realms in Exile, conditions stabilised for the Middle Men and ‘many Men turned … from evil and became subject to the heirs of Elendil’, (RP) ‘and though their lore and craft was but an echo of that which had been ere Sauron came to Númenor, yet very great it seemed to the wild men of the world.’ (AK) The latter term unmistakably refers to the Middle Men and pre-Númenóreans of Eriador and Gondor.

  Among the latter, however, the notion stayed popular that they would have little reason to love the Dúnedain now, since they did not know or mind the disputes of the political parties of Westernesse. After all, any Númenórean was indiscriminatingly to blame both for their personal losses and for the apparent destruction of their god-king, Sauron, and it was certainly not overlooked that even the Faithful revered the famous landing of Ar-Pharazôn despite its dire consequences. The result was that ‘yet many more remembered Sauron in their hearts and hated the kingdoms of the West.’ (RP)

  Others feared the Dark Lord so much that they refused to fight on either side, among them the 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 fulfil their oath, and they would not: for they had worshipped Sauron in the Dark Years.’ Isildur knew no tolerance for the faintheartedness of others. His curse against the pre-Haladin of Dunharrow may have been the only one recorded that doomed an entire nation – not even Morgoth had achieved such a feat! The Men of Dunharrow ‘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 into the Dead Men of Dunharrow, haunting the vales of Ered Nimrais. This was the end of the pre-Númenóreans of Gondor.

  The Third Age was a time of fading for many indigenous cultures and languages. The Middle Men, who in the later part of the Second Age had again ‘passed into the empty lands’ of Eriador, were initially somewhat better off because they were successfully ‘númenórised’ by the exiled Dúnedain. Ultimately, they ‘had become subjects of the North Kingdom of Arnor and had taken up the Westron tongue.’ (LP) Arnor, after all, developed neither the resources nor the capacity to resort to anything but careful integration. 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 lack of power brought the expansionist phase to an early halt and, after a brief consolidation, possibly even prevented the central rule of the whole and provoked that unique deviation from the Númenórean succession law which caused Arnor’s disintegration ‘into petty realms and lordships’, (RP) though perpetual separation was certainly not intended, and two of its three parts, Arthedain and Cardolan, stayed allies till the bitter end. When the Hobbits immigrated in the early 2nd millenium TA, their subjective impression - in comparison to the Vale of Anduin - was 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) Still, none of the divided kingdoms would ever recover enough to compensate the crucial lack of resources across Eriador.[1]

  [1] The division of Arnor may have been inspired by the fate of Charlemagne’s realm but more closely resembles the Roman tetrarchy installed by Diocletian. Certainly, joint rule in a federation had been the purpose in Arnor as well, not violent opposition. But, as history shows, s
uch attempts are always an easy prey of power-mongers.

  THE THIRD AGE The Middle Men of Arnor and the Hillmen of Angmar and Rhúdaur

  The númenórisation of the indigenous peoples was most effective in the Western parts of Arnor (Arthedain). Elsewhere it failed, particularly in Rhúdaur were the Dúnedain upper class had always been thinly spread. Also, Isildur’s curse against the Men of Dunharrow may have left a lasting impression of how the Dúnedain would deal with subjects reluctant to follow them into evident disaster. And the epithet ‘Men of evil kinds’, quickly dealt out, did not help to relieve the tension any more than Valandil’s relocation closer to his subjects’ problems did. Thus, when Angmar was founded by the Witch-king, almost bordering at Rhúdaur, there ‘gathered many evil men’ (KR) for there were quite a few who considered that a serious alternative to the Northern Realm.

  Rhúdaur was immediately exposed to severe pressure by ‘Hillmen of the North’, mysterious people who entered the chronicles of the West now for the first time. In the 14th century they began to ‘build dark forts in the hills’. (HE) It is not known whether those ‘remnants of Men of evil kinds’ were descendants of Bórrim or other Swarthy Men from Beleriand or how significant was the proportion of Middle Men among them. A remarkable notion is that the Hillmen may have been capable of magic. Some (contested) sources claim that they were ‘much given to sorcery’ (YT).