Middle-earth seen by the barbarians: The complete collection including a previously unpublished essay (5 page)

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.

1. 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?

1. 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 17
^th
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
)

1. 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.

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