The Edainic Peoples
Tolkien writes of the Edain that they "were three peoples of Men who, coming to the West of Middle-earth and the shores of the Great Sea, became allies of the Eldar against the Enemy."
In fact, most of the Edain never even saw the Sea, but that is beside the point. The Edain are in some places called the "Fathers of Men" and the "Elf-friends". There was a fourth kindred of the Edain, alluded to even in THE LORD OF THE RINGS, called the Druedain. But they were almost wholly alien to the other tribes and never intermarried with them.
The Edain had fled Hildorien centuries before they reached the Elven lands in Beleriand. They were among the first Men to rebel against Melkor and proved to be the most faithful of Elvish allies among Men.
In the eastern lands the Edain had been befriended by Avari and Nandor, of whom they borrowed some linguistic elements and learned to play crude instruments (harps and flutes, probably). It was the Elves who told the Edain of the "Light" which was in the West, and fleeing the Darkness of Melkor they set their feet upon the fateful path that brought them into the Wars of Beleriand.
The Edain had also dealt with the Dwarves in the lands east of Beleriand. Such intercourse as they had with the Dwarves appears to have been uneven and not always friendly.
The Edain of Beleriand
The Edain entered Beleriand in three groups.
First came the Bëorians, a loose-knit confederation of clans who lived a nomadic life. Their chieftain was Balan, later named Bëor because of his devoted service to Finrod Felagund. The Page 37
Bëorians were probably the most gentle and "Elf-like" Edain. They stopped in Ossiriand but the Laegrim (Green-Elves) asked Finrod to lead them away since they were hunters and lumberers.
He settled the Bëorians in the region later named Estolad (Encampment) in the March of Maedhros.
Next came the Haladin. These people were also a loose-knit group of clans and apparently had few or no real leaders. They brought with them the Druedain, who were a few clans of Men drawn from the earliest inhabitants of the Ered Nimrais. The Haladin spoke a different language from the other Edain but had dealings with them and were apparently allies of some sort even before they entered Beleriand in the wake of Bëor's people. Because the Laegrim were unfriendly the Haladin passed north out of Ossiriand into Thargelion.
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The Marachians entered Beleriand last. They were the most numerous tribe of the Edain and the best organized. Their hereditary chieftain was Marach. He heard (apparently from Elves?) that Bëor's people had settled across the Gelion in Estolad and he decided to settle there.
From Estolad the Bëorians and Marachians migrated north and west to Dorthonion and the Vale of Sirion. The Haladin, some fifty or sixty years later, were nearly wiped out by Orcs. One of their clan leaders, Haldad, gathered all he could find of his people in a stockade where they held out until Caranthir rescued them. Haleth, Haldad's daughter, led her people to Estolad but soon after took them to the forest of Brethil, which lay on the western side of Doriath. Her nephew founded the line of the Wardens of Brethil.
From the year 311 to 455 of the First Age some Edain always lived in Estolad despite the migrations. These were Bëorians and Marachians. But late in the Fourth Century some of the Bëorians followed one of their Chieftains south to escape the wars in the north, and some of the Marachians returned to Eriador. It's quite probable that their chieftains were all descended from Bëor and Marach, but not from the great leaders of the Fifth Century: Barahir and Hador.
The Bëorians were driven from Dorthonion soon after the Dagor Bragollach, the Battle of Sudden Flame, which occurred in 455. At that time much of northern and eastern Beleriand was overrun and the Edain of Estolad fled back to Eriador. The Bëorians of Dorthonion fled to Hithlum (where the Marachians lived) or to Brethil, and they were absorbed into those peoples (although the male lines did not die out).
The Marachians were conquered by Melkor after the Nirnaeth Arnoediad, Unnumbered Tears, the great battle of 473 in which the Noldor were defeated and two of their greatest kingdoms, Hithlum and the March of Maedhros, were destroyed. All of the Edain fought under the leadership of Dor-lomin in that battle, and only a few of the men survived it.
Within 30 years the Haladin were ruined in Brethil, though they survived. Melkor released Hurin, who wandered through Beleriand in misery. His confrontation with the Warden of Brethil resulted in the end of the Line of Haldad and the dissolution of the confederation of the Haladin.
Some of them followed Hurin away from Brethil and others tried to continue living as they had.
After the destruction of Doriath a few years later the Edain had no great Elven allies left.
Nargothrond had been destroyed within 25 years after the Nirnaeth and Gondolin had never Page 38
really been associated with the Edain (but it was destroyed soon after Doriath anyway).
Some of the Edain escaped from thralldom and settled in Arvernien, the last Elven realm to be established in Beleriand. This land was ruled by Ëarendil and Elwing, the Half elves in whose children the lines of the great lords of Beleriand survived. When the Fëanorians destroyed Arvernien the Edain seem to have been dispersed, or left in thralldom in places like Dor-lomin.
But when the Host of Valinor entered Beleriand the Edain still existed as distinct peoples and being freed from their slavery or gathered from their outlawry in the wilderness they joined the Army of the West and fought against Melkor. The War of Wrath lasted 45 years and the Edain must have sent two or three generations of men to war.
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The Edain of Numenor
Although the Haladin are never mentioned again after the episode with Hurin, they more than likely survived the Wars of Beleriand and sailed with the other Edain to Elenna. We can infer this because the few surviving Druedain were taken to Elenna.
Elenna was home to the Edain of Beleriand for the next 3000 years, and they created there a civilization which was unrivaled by any other group of Edain in the Second Age or the Third.
They were called the Dunedain (to distinguish them from the Edain still living in Middle-earth), or the Numenoreans.
The Kings of Numenor were descended from Ëarendil and Elwing through their son Elros, and they were apparently fair-haired (a trait they would have inherited from Ëarendil's parents, Tuor and Idril Celebrindal, and through other Marachian ancestors). But the Line of Elros gave rise to several noble houses in Numenor, of which the most revered were the Lords of Andunië, who lived in the west and were the leaders of the Elf-friends. Most of the Elf-friends appear to have come from the Bëorians.
As the Numenoreans began to rebel against the will of the Valar the Elf-friends remained faithful to their ancient heritage and they were thus named The Faithful. Many of them settled in northern Middle-earth where they could live close to the Eldar of Lindon and Edhellond (although that was primarily a Nandorin port) and not be troubled by the King's Men.
The King's Men, the larger faction of the Numenoreans, conquered vast territories in Middle-earth, establishing havens for their fleets and great fortresses which after the Downfall of Numenor became the hearts of new countries that were allied with Sauron.
The last Numenoreans to leave their land were the Faithful who had stayed with Amandil, last Lord of Andunië, and his son Elendil. They sailed away in nine ships and established the realms of Arnor and Gondor in Middle-earth.
The Edain of Eriador
Tolkien implies or states in a few places that not all of the Edain passed over the Ered Luin into Beleriand. This seems strange and inconsistent with what is written in THE SILMARILLION, Page 39
but it does not conflict with the tradition of the three Edainic groups who left Beleriand before the end of the First Age. It could be that the fleeing Edain merely rejoined the eastern clans and were absorbed back into them.
The Edain of Eriador are a "historical" people only from the year 600 of the Second Age until the
War of the Elves and Sauron. In 600 Vëantur the Numenorean sailed to Middle-earth and the Edain of Eriador asked Gil-galad to arrange a meeting between them and the Dunedain.
Presumably, the two groups established a friendship which would have lasted for a thousand years.
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The Edain of Eriador lived between the North Downs and the Baranduin river. They may also have lived in or near Nenuial (Lake Evendim) but that area was originally an Elvish domain.
During the War of the Elves and Sauron all of Eriador was overrun by Mordor's forces. Sauron killed or drove off the Men living in those lands and he devastated the countryside, destroying the forests and presumably the homes and fields of the Edain. What happened to them afterward?
Tolkien really does not say.
Some of the Men fled to Elrond, and perhaps some others took refuge beyond the river Lhun, where the Dunedain had reinforced Gil-galad's army. But when Tar-Minastir sent his great navy to Middle-earth to help Gil-galad, Eriador suffered more devastation and destruction. The region became a wasteland. Probably the surviving Edain were unable to live there any longer, and I
think at least some may have crossed the Hithaeglir and entered the Vales of Anduin. But these, too, suffered grievously in the war, and it may be the Edain had no choice but to reconstruct their homes as best they could.
The Edain of Rhovanion
These were the Northmen, who (according to Tolkien) were "for the most part descendants of those peoples from whom the Edain of old had come". Faramir told Frodo they were direct descendants of the Edain of Beleriand, although not from Hador himself.
The history of the Edain has now been made more clear with the publication of THE
PEOPLES
OF MIDDLE-EARTH. Tolkien wrote that the Edain migrated westward until they reached the great forest. Some passed south around the Greenwood until they reached Anduin, and passing north along the river settled in the Vales. Others passed north along the eastern fringes of the forest and then moved west between the Greenwood and Ered Mithrin.
The Edain left behind communities throughout Rhovanion and Eriador, and the fact that some of the Edain of Beleriand returned east during the War of the Jewels does not imply a significant number of the eastern Edainic peoples were closely related to the Edain of Numenor at all.
In the Second Age the Edain of Rhovanion formed an alliance with the Longbeards, the Dwarves of Durin's Folk, when Orcs began migrating east from the ruin of Beleriand. This alliance lasted until the War of the Orcs and Sauron, at which time Sauron sent one or more Page 40
armies into the
Edainic lands causing great slaughter. The Edain were nearly wiped out and many retreated to the mountain valleys and the deep woods, apparently mostly in the northern vales, where the Longbeards retained strongholds.
It would not be until Sauron was removed from Middle-earth that these Edainic peoples would be able to return to their old lands. They were the "Free Men of the North" who gradually migrated south along the eastern eaves of Greenwood at the end of the Second Age and in the early years of the Third Age. The Woodmen of southern Greenwood who attempted to aid Isildur when his company was attacked near the Gladden Fields were another remnant of the old Edainic peoples.
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The eastern Edain seem to have been the most numerous groups. They settled in northern Greenwood, the lands around Erebor, and southward along the Celduin, probably spreading east in this time as far as the Carnen. According to Appendix A in THE LORD OF THE
RINGS
these Northmen had many princes by the time they came into contact with Gondor. The greater communities appear to have settled south of the Celduin, and the Kingdom of Rhovanion was the greatest of these lands.
The Kingdom of Rhovanion was the land where Vidugavia ruled, and his daughter Vidumavi married Valacar, the son of Minalcar, who established close ties with the Northmen. Rhovanion lay between Mirkwood (formerly Greenwood the Great) and Celduin, south of the area where the river touched the forest.
Another group of Northmen settled in the plains south of Rhovanion. These were colonists recruited by Gondor to be a buffer region against the Easterlings, but they were not faithful to Gondor and sometimes helped raid the western lands.
In time the Northmen of Rhovanion and the plains were destroyed, but a remnant of them fled to the Vales of Anduin and these became the Ëothëod. Other Northmen survived in the lands between Celduin and Carnen and they were the Men of Dale, who apparently built a great kingdom between the two rivers which lasted until Smaug destroyed Erebor and the city of Dale.
The Ëothëod migrated to the far northern dales where they lived for about 500 years. In that time they quarreled with the Dwarves but prospered until they became too numerous for their lands.
They rode to Gondor's aid against the Balchoth and were rewarded with the region of Calenardhon that lay between Hithaeglir and Ered Nimrais, and in that land the Ëothëod became known as the Rohirrim.
There were also groups of Northmen who migrated to Gondor on several occasions, and these became absorbed into the peoples of the Southern Kingdom so that by the end of the Third Age there was no apparent trace of their ancestry left in Gondor's common folk.
Tolkien mentioned the following groups of Northmen who were still identifiable at the end of Page 41
the
Third Age:
The Rohirrim
The Beornings
The Woodmen of central western Mirkwood
The Men of Dale and Esgaroth
The Men living along Celduin, south of Esgaroth
The Woodmen of northeastern Mirkwood
The latter two groups of Northmen may all or in part have been absorbed into the Kingdom of Dale. The fact that Dale's borders extended to the Carnen within 60 years of the kingdom's restoration in 2944 implies there must have been Northmen living along that river, which makes sense because there was a Dwarven community in Emyn Engrin (the Iron Hills).
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The Gwathuirim
This essay was originally titled "The Men of Ered Nimrais". Many questions have been answered with the publication of THE PEOPLES OF MIDDLE-EARTH. We now know, for instance, that these tribes were related to the Haladin of Beleriand, and therefore should have been given a place among the Edain of Eriador. But I have refrained from revising that essay so extensively because the Gwathuirim present an interesting study in their own right. Because of the significant information provided in PEOPLES OF MIDDLE-EARTH, portions of this essay have been quite extensively revised.
Tolkien does not enumerate the various "tribes" of the Gwathuirim for us, but we can still distinguish among them by region. The easternmost group were the Haladin. The northernmost group were the Men of Bree. The Men of Minhiriath appear to have been a somewhat different group but closely related to the Men of Bree. The Gwathuirim of Enedwaith retreated eastward and became the Dunlendings, but some of their clans appear to have migrated into Calenardhon and south along the Isen and Adorn. The Men of Dunharrow were another branch, and at least one group settled in the lands south of Ered Nimrais.
The Gwathuirim of the middle lands were the tribes who fought with the Numenoreans in the Second Age, and they appear not to have been fully conquered or absorbed into the Dunadan realms until the days of Tarannon Falastur, who may have subdued all of the Gwathuirim south of Gwathlo. But these clans were never fully conquered and in the days of the Stewards they regained their freedom and troubled both Gondor and Rohan.
The Dunlendings
We meet the Dunlendings in THE TWO TOWERS when they attack Rohan under Saruman's command. There are two groups of them although most people seem to miss that distinction, The
"lowland" group are pretty much shepherds, but the "highland" group are referred to as the
"wild men of the hills". These are the Men with whom Gimli is reluctant to fight at the Battle of the
Hornburg. He was not afraid of them, but probably knew them as a people who had been Page 42
friendly to his family. He said they were too tall for him, and this was probably also true, but I suspect
Gimli would have held his own in a battle with them.
There were other "Dunlendings" living along the Isen and Adorn rivers. These were clans who had intermarried with some of the western Rohirrim. According to UNFINISHED TALES
some of the Dunlendings had inhabited Isengard for a time. What appears to have happened is that the
Rohirrim drove a tribe related to the Dunlendings from the northern vales of the Ered Nimrais.
These must have been men who never fully submitted to Gondor's rule, since Cirion was not concerned about giving their homeland away.
So then the mountain tribe was driven west and absorbed into the groups living in Dunland and beyond the Adorn. The Dunland tribes expanded east to Isengard in their efforts to drive out the
Rohirrim, but the Adorn tribe(s) mingled with the Rohirrim, and it was through this mixed group that Freca's son Wulf (who had Dunlending blood) was able to recruit an army among the Dunlendings and seize control of Rohan in 2758 (the year the Long Winter began).
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The Dunlendings never wielded any great power, but rather served as mercenaries in the wars against Rohan and Gondor. They must have been divided into clans and tribes that simply couldn't form a great kingdom. It is significant that some of Durin's folk settled in Dunland.
They would not have done so if there hadn't been sufficient trade to support them.
The Men of Bree
These were the northernmost group of Men to come from the Gwathuirim. They apparently were descended of a tribe who settled in Tyrn Gorthad (later known as the Barrow Downs), probably after the War of the Elves and Sauron. The Breelanders were absorbed into the Kingdom of
Arnor and they prospered for a long time under the rule of the Dunedain.
The Bree-land itself, at the end of the Third Age, consisted of four villages: Bree, Archet, Coombe, and Staddle. There were probably other villages which had existed south of that area in more ancient times, but they would have been destroyed or abandoned in the Seventeenth Century when the Great Plague wiped out most of the people of Cardolan.
The Bree-landers were unique among their kindred for having formed a close relationship with hobbits. Hobbits had at one time lived in Dunland but they apparently did not find the region to be as safe and hospitable as the Bree-land was. The hobbits of Bree lived there for more than 1700 years in the Third Age.
The Men of Dunharrow
One of the two traditions of the founding of Edhellond says that a group of Sindarin Elves settled along the Ringlo and the Men of that region, primitive fisherfolk, fled north to the Ered Page 43
Nimrais.
One of the traditions concerning the origins of the Druedain says they were driven from the Ered
Nimrais by tall men from the east.
It seems evident that Tolkien envisioned the Gwathuirim as having split into multiple groups early in their history, much as the Marachians were divided into many groups. Thus, some of the Gwathuirim settled in Ered Nimrais and passed south to the coast lands. Whether the fisher-folk chased off by the Elves were thus intended to be Gwathuirim is not a question we can easily answer. The connection between the Men of Dunharrow and the Gwathuirim is undeniable, and therefore they came of a more ancient migratory people, sharing kinship with the Second House of the Edain, the Haladin of Brethil.
The story of the Dead Men of Dunharrow is pretty well documented by Tolkien. They were a tribe who lived in the Ered Nimrais and who apparently accepted the rule of Isildur and Anarion, or swore an alliance with them. But when Sauron attacked Gondor and Isildur called upon the
Men of Dunharrow to fight against their former master, they refused. Isildur cursed them and they died out, becoming a horde of wraiths waiting for a time when they could fulfill their oath.
Their leader was known as "The King of the Mountains", and he may have ruled a very significant portion of the mountains. The demise of this tribe must therefore have broken up a Parma Endorion
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confederation of tribes, who would have threatened Gondor had Isildur's curse not so awed them they fled away into the valleys. Since the story says that the Men of Dunharrow had worshiped
Sauron in the Dark Years, it is probable that they had contributed to his armies in some of the wars the Dunedain and Elves fought against Sauron's allies and servants.
The Men of Gondor
Tolkien provides us with a catalog of some or all of the ethnic groups of Gondor in the scene where Peregrin watches reinforcements marching into Minas Tirith. The men who marched under Forlong, Lord of Lossarnach, were "shorter and somewhat swarthier than any men Pippin had yet seen in Gondor." Could these have been men descended from the clans of Gwathuirim?
The men of Ringlo Vale, the uplands of Morthond, and the Anfalas are not described. They could have been Dunedain, Northmen, mixed peoples, or descended of some other group. "A few grim hill-men" came from Lamedon, which lay between Ringlo Vale and the lands around Morthond. The men of Pinnath Gelin (the Green Hills) are said to be "gallant" and green-clad.
The groups most likely to be related to the Gwathuirim were probably those from Lossarnach, Ringlo Vale, and Lamedon. The Men of Lebennin (who did not send any reinforcements to Minas Tirith) probably were also of mixed heritage.
The lands beyond Belfalas had been conquered by Tarannon Falastur early in the Third Age. The southern clans of the Gwathuirim tribes thus would have long been absorbed into Gondor's culture by the end of the Third Age, and there probably were few if any groups left who were Page 44
wholly of that blood.
The Swarthy Men
Tolkien was not entirely clear about the relation of the various groups of Easterlings to one another. The "Swarthy Men" were essentially the tribes led by Bor and Ulfang, but there is mention of other tribes or clans who are related to them and who are brought west by Melkor during the Nirnaeth Arnoediad.
It would seem, then, that there were four groups:
The Folk of Bor, who were destroyed
The Folk of Ulfang
The clans who reinforced Ulfang's people
The clans who remained in Eriador
Ulfang's sons were killed in the battle but his people apparently survived and were sent to Hithlum along with the other Easterlings, who were presumably of close kin. Lorgan was their leader and he was probably not related to Ulfang, or may have only been distantly related.
These Easterlings stayed in Hithlum from about 473 to 543 (when the War of Wrath began).
Their fate is not mentioned but they were probably crushed by the Host of Valinor, and the Edain
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surely rose up in rebellion against them. That is not to say that some of Lorgan's people could not have escaped to the east, but they probably did not survive the War of Wrath.
The clans who remained in Eriador are described as being akin to the Folk of Bor and unconcerned with the Wars of Beleriand. They are supposedly the ancestors of the northernmost Men to live in Eriador. This would seem to mean they were the Forodwaith, from whom came the Lossoth, the Snowmen who aided Arvedui in the last year of his life.
The Folk of Bor
The Folk of Bor settled in Lothlann sometime after the Dagor Bragollach. They had passed north around the Ered Luin because they were intimidated by the Nandor and Sindar who lived in the lands between Ered Luin and the river Lhun (or, perhaps, the Emyn Uial, Hills of Evendim).
Bor's people were farmers and friendly with the Dwarves. It may be that the Dwarves were instrumental in establishing an alliance between Bor and Maedhros. Bor's tribe was probably also the first tribe of Easterlings to enter Beleriand.
Tolkien does not say how Bor's people perished, but since their homes were in the path of the Easterlings whom Melkor brought up behind Maedhros' army, they probably were caught completely off guard and unable to flee to any refuge. And since most if not all of their Men were at the Nirnaeth Arnoediad, there was no chance Bor's people could have resisted the Page 45
invasion from the east.
The Folk of Ulfang
Ulfang's tribe settled in Thargelion after the Dagor Bragollach. Caranthir's Noldor had been driven from that land and Maedhros probably thought the Easterlings would be able to hold it, especially with the Folk of Bor acting as a buffer in the north.
Like Bor's tribe, Ulfang's people were friendly with the Dwarves but not with the Elves. It appears, however, that they were already in Melkor's service when they entered Beleriand. They probably were hunters and woodmen rather than farmers.
Although Ulfang's people are not said to have been wiped out, his sons all perished in the battle and presumably his direct heirs died out. Thus Ulfang's tribe must have been absorbed into Lorgan's tribe, and they ceased to be a distinct people afterwards.
Lorgan's Tribe
These Easterlings would have been more powerful than Ulfang's people because they came late to the Nirnaeth Arnoediad, after the Noldor had fought with Ulfang's tribe. Probably Lorgan was responsible for the destruction of Bor's tribe since they stood in the way of his advance toward the battle.
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After the Nirnaeth Melkor gathered all the Easterlings together in Hithlum. We know only that they held that land as a subject kingdom under Melkor's rule. Lorgan himself lived until sometime after the year 500 and probably one of his grandsons was ruling Hithlum when the War of Wrath began.
There is no mention of Lorgan's people surviving the war, although some of the Easterlings are said to have fled back to their earlier lands when Melkor was defeated. But these were probably the newer tribes whom Melkor brought west to oppose the Host of Valinor. Lorgan's people must have been destroyed in the early years of the war, if for no other reason than that the Edain would have exacted revenge against their former masters.
The Forodwaith
We hear nothing of these peoples save a couple of vague references. They apparently lived in northern Eriador and the wastelands to the east (beyond the Grey Mountains). It would have been from these tribes that the Lord of the Nazgul recruited the Men of Angmar, and perhaps some of them lived in the northern Vales of Anduin (where the Ëothëod are said to have driven away remnants of Angmar's people).
Possibly the hill-clans referred to in the story of Rhudaur were related to these tribes in some way, as the Lossoth were.
Tolkien indicated that the most ancient men of northern Eriador were descended from Swarthy Men related to the Folk of Bor. These early clans may have been the ancestors of the Forodwaith, and perhaps were not really part of the Kingdom of Arnor even in Elendil's day.
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The
Forodwaith seem to have been a long-forgotten people by the end of the Third Age.
The Easterlings
The Easterlings of the Third Age are not related to the Easterlings of the First Age. These Third Age peoples appear to have been nomadic tribes who tried to spread into the western lands much as the earlier peoples (the Edain, the Men of Ered Nimrais, the Swarthy Men) had in the First
Age.
Since much of eastern Middle-earth had been dominated by Sauron during the Second Age, it is probable that his defeat and fall at the end of the Second Age resulted in a collapse of his dominion in more than just political terms. The eastern peoples may have fallen away from whatever cultural achievements he had given them, or that they had learned from the Numenoreans.
In the Third Age the Easterlings who fought against the Dunedain became increasingly sophisticated. The will of Sauron seems to be evident in their growing numbers and power.
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The First Easterlings Of The Third Age
These tribes came west late in the Fifth Century of the Third Age. They troubled Gondor (and presumably the Northmen) for about 60-70 years and then were defeated and driven away by Tarostar (Romendacil I).
Since Gondor at that time probably did not extend beyond Ithilien (although the fortresses in Mordor were still manned), these Easterlings may have lived near the Sea of Rhun and gradually spread west along the Ered Lithui. Therefore because Tarostar is said to have "driven them out", they may have invaded Ithilien on at least one occasion.
Although there is no mention of the Easterlings troubling Gondor for many centuries afterward, in THE PEOPLES OF MIDDLE-EARTH we are told that Easterlings began settling in southern
Greenwood around the time that Sauron arose and established himself on Dol Guldur (in the Eleventh Century). These Easterlings seem to have fought wars with the Northmen living in the Vales of Anduin, and the presence of these hostile tribes along with the rise of Dol Guldur set the hobbit migrations into motion.
In the Thirteenth Century, about 700 years after Turambar defeated the first Easterlings, new tribes (or the old tribes reinvigorated) started attacking Gondor's borderlands. Minalcar, then the
Regent under Narmacil I, defeated the Easterlings and destroyed all their towns and camps as far east as the Sea of Rhun (and in the lands just beyond the sea). It would seem from this account that the Easterlings were so devastated their lands became desolate. The power of Dol Guldur must have been diminished as well.
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The Wainriders
About 600 years after Minalcar destroyed the Easterlings who dwelt by the Sea of Rhun the Wainriders appeared on the scene. They may have come up from the southeastern lands beyond Mordor since they were related to the Variags of Khand. These tribes were more mobile than the previous groups of Easterlings and some of them fought in chariots.
The Wainriders conquered the Kingdom of Rhovanion and Gondor's eastern lands between Mirkwood and Mordor. For nearly 100 years from 1856 to 1944 the Wainriders controlled the lands between Celduin and Mirkwood and between Rhun and Anduin, a constant threat to Gondor and a buffer between Sauron's emissaries (who were restoring his control over Mordor) and the Dunedain.
The Wainriders were not destroyed by Gondor but they were so soundly defeated that they simply vanished from the histories of the Third Age. Probably they returned to the eastern lands and were punished by Sauron in some way, or simply were absorbed into other tribes which came from the same stock as they had.
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The Balchoth
The Balchoth were related to the Wainriders but appear not to have been direct descendants of the earlier group of Easterlings. They settled in southern Mirkwood and the former lands of Rhovanion, as well as in the lands between Mirkwood and Mordor. The Balchoth apparently found that the Northmen from beyond Celduin had started settling the southern lands again, but they drove them back across the river.
The Balchoth provided the strategic power that Sauron needed to secure his fortress of Dol Guldur while at the same time protecting his lines of communication with Mordor. Although defeated by Cirion and Eorl in 2510, the Balchoth were not destroyed and may have remained a cohesive people at least until the Long Winter, 2758-2759. Eorl had died fighting the Balchoth and there is no mention of their having been destroyed in any of the annals. Easterlings helped to attack Rohan when Wulf launched his rebellion against Helm in 2758.
Nonetheless, the Balchoth seem to have faded from history. It may be that as Dale grew strong in its alliance with Erebor the Balchoth were weakened and overcome by enemies from the north, and they would have had to withdraw either toward the east or to the forest around Dol Guldur.
Later Easterlings
During the War of the Ring Sauron was served by at least three groups of Easterlings. The Variags of Khand fought for him at the Battle of Pelennor fields, and they seem to have been defeated soundly.
A new group of Easterlings, bearded men who fought with great axes, took Cair Andros and then blocked the road between Minas Tirith and Rohan. These Easterlings were apparently unlike the
Wainriders and Balchoth, and were perhaps less mobile than the other peoples. Another group Page 48
of these bearded Easterlings may have fought in the Battle of the Pelennor Fields as well.
There were many thousands of Easterlings who fought for Sauron at the Morannon. They may not all have been of one tribe or nation. But probably they represented most of the eastern peoples serving him in that time.
Another tribe or group of Easterlings living beyond Carnen invaded the Kingdom of Dale.
They are not described but may have been a fairly ancient people, long in the service of Sauron.
They were driven back across the river by the Men of Dale and the Dwarves but they were not destroyed. In the Fourth Age Aragorn fought at least one more war with Easterlings.
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The Haradrim
We know less of these many nations and tribes than we do about the Swarthy Men. Many of the Haradrim had been conquered by the Numenoreans in the Second Age, but those who lived farthest from the Sea had served Sauron for thousands of years by the time of the War of the Ring.
There were tribes who lived in plains and fought on horseback; tribes who raised elephants and apparently lived in jungles or light rain forests, or on their peripheries; and tribes that lived in the lands adjacent to Mordor and along the Harnen, the river which marked the southern boundary of
Gondor.
The Corsairs lived in Umbar but there were other coastal havens south of that land. As many as three fleets of Haradrim at a time would attack Gondor, implying two or more sea-faring kingdoms lay beyond Umbar.
The Black Numenoreans lived in Umbar and other lands of the Harad. Most seem to have been absorbed into the peoples they ruled, but at least one enclave survived to the end of the Third Age because the Mouth of Sauron was said to be a Black Numenorean.
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