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
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
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,
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 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 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 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 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
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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
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