Few mysteries of Middle-earth have intrigued me more than the Woodmen of Mirkwood. We see
a couple of "villages" on the Map of Wilderland in THE HOBBIT, and we hear that the
Woodmen helped in the hunt for Gollum after he escaped from the Elves of Northern Mirkwood,
but there really is very little else that Tolkien writes about them.
Who were these guys? Why were they living in Mirkwood? What did they do all day? The
Woodmen, according to Tolkien, were related to the Beornings and other Northmen. There is
mention of "woodmen" in THE HOBBIT. These men live on the west side of Anduin, north of the Gladden River. They are gradually spreading north through the 30th Century and some live
close enough to the Hithaeglir (Misty Mountains) that they are threatened by the Orcs and
Wargs, and the eagles occasionally hunt their sheep.
These woodmen of THE HOBBIT were undoubtedly some or all of the men who later accepted
Beorn as their chieftain. That is not to say that they were all Beornings, but they appear to be the link between Beorn and the Woodmen of Mirkwood. Probably some of the Mirkwood Woodmen
crossed the river after the War of the Dwarves and Orcs (TA 2793-99), when the Hithaeglir
would have been thought safe by many people. They could have, by 2941, spread pretty far
north, assuming each generation sent out new colonists.
In Mirkwood the Woodmen may have lived much as the Haladin of Brethil had lived. I infer this
because Radagast the Brown lived at Rhosgobel, a fenced garth just within the western border of Mirkwood at about the same region as the Gladden Fields (close to Dol Guldur on Amon Lanc,
of all places). "Rhosgobel" is translated as "Brown Hay", and "hay" is used to mean a great hedge, like the hedge the Hobbits of the Buckland raised as a barrier against the Old Forest and called the High Hay.
Although Rhosgobel is not described in detail, Beorn's house is, and it too was surrounded by a high hedge. When compared with the homes of the Haladin living to the south of Brethil in
"Narn i Chin Hurin", Beorn's home sounds very similar. So the Woodmen of Mirkwood probably lived in stockaded villages and isolated homesteads that were defended by these hedges from
wild beasts.
Orcs and giant spiders probably would not have been deterred by the hedges, so the Woodmen
undoubtedly had to patrol their land. This means they would have lived much like the Haladin
lived in Brethil. Probably some of them got tired of living that way, and that is why they may
have crossed the river (but this is all speculation, since Tolkien never explained where the
woodmen of THE HOBBIT came from, other than to say they had come "from the south").
The Woodmen of Mirkwood were friendly with the Elves. We know this from passages in THE
LORD OF THE RINGS and "The Disaster Of The Gladden Fields" in UNFINISHED TALES.
They may therefore have engaged in some trade with the Elves early in their history. But they
were probably quite isolated from Thranduil's people late in the Third Age.
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Parma Endorion
The life of a woodman thus would have been a hard one. They would have had a strong sense of
family and kin, but may have been distrustful of strangers (as Beorn and the Haladin were). They probably hunted with bows (the eagles told Gandalf they feared the great yew bows of the
woodmen). And they may have raised hunting dogs (Beorn had some dogs) as well as horses,
cattle, and sheep (all of which Beorn had). It's unlikely the woodmen had animals as
"enchanting"" as Beorn's, able to serve food to guests. And probably the woodmen fished a little and raised a few crops.
The woodmen must also have gotten together on occasion, to celebrate births and weddings, or
perhaps just seasonal feasts. House-raising may also have been common among them. It would
have been important for a family to get its home built and fortified as quickly as possible. Such activities would have required iron tools, so the woodmen must also have welcomed traders from
distant lands, or organized their own trading expeditions.
They may also have formed regular hunting or raiding parties which would have gone in search
of evil creatures. It would have been better for them to do this than to wait at home for raids from the Orcs. In many ways, the Woodmen of Mirkwood and the Vales of Anduin must have lived a
very dangerous and adventurous lifestyle, frontiersmen in Wilderland.
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Essays On Middle-earth