"The Empty Lands Where No Men Are..."
The People of Eriador,
2000 - 3017 Third Age
This article discusses the desolate picture of settlement in Eriador at the time of the War of the Ring. In the early Third Age Eriador had been chiefly inhabited by the Elves of Lindon, the Dwarves of Khadzad-dum and the People of Arnor. Arnor was stricken by internal strife 861+, war with Angmar 1300+, and the Great Plague of 1636, in which "...many parts of Eriador become desolate." (LOTR Tale of Years 1636). In 1974 Arnor was conquered by Angmar and its remaining city (Fornost Erain) ruined. Dispite the utter defeat of Angmar in 1975, the Northern Kingdom could not be revived. In 1981 the Dwarf city of Khadzad-dum was lost to a balrog. Peaceful settlers did enter Eriador in the Third Age: Hobbits from 1050 settled across Arnor, and Dwarves resettled in the Blue Mountains from 2799; but the trend was one of population decline.
In the millenia before the War of the Ring,the surviving people of Eriador faced natural disasters (for example the Long Winter of 2758 and the Fell Winter of 2911) and the threat from evil creatures (trolls, orcs and wolves). Some settlements perished (e.g Tharbad), others survived (e.g Breeland) and even prospered (eg The Shire, whose inhabitants settled Buckland). By the time of the War of the Ring, however "…large parts of Eriador were now deserted." (LOTR Appendix F, p.1161). In the South, the wide land of Minhiriath "..had been almost entirely deserted...since the Great Plague.." ( Unf Part 2, IV, Appendix D, p.262), while in the east, Elvish Eregion had not been populated since the Second Age and Rhudaur was described as uninhabited: "No one lives in this land. Men once dwelt here, ages ago, but none remain now." (Aragorn, LOTR B1, CXII, p.218; see also TH C2 p.40).
Examples of the type of Mannish / Hobbit communities or settlements that continued in Eriador between 2000 TA and 3017 TA, include hunter/nomad groups such as the Lossoth, a Mannish folk who lived along the Icebay of Forochel in the far north (LOTR Appendix A, I, iii, p.1078); also, at the time of the WOTR "...a few secretive hunter-folk lived in the woods" of Minhiriath (Unf P.262). Tharbad: Formerly a major port, this town declined after the Great Plague 1636, but survived until been ruined by flooding in 2911 (LOTR Tale of Years) when its inhabiants deserted it; the 'Forgotten Inn': a public house a day east of Bree, on the East-West Road (LOTR B1, CXI, p.204); Breeland: This consisted of the villages of Staddle, Coombe, Archet and Bree. "Lying around Bree-hill and the villages was a small country of fields and tamed woodlands, only a few miles broad." (LOTR B1, CIX, p.165). They were necessarily a self-sufficent community, though they traded with the Shire for pipeweed and serviced travellers on the road; The Shire: a large and well-settled land, exceptional in Eriador, though indicating that it was possible for settlements to survive and thrive. It was largely agricultural and had a few contacts with other peoples and communities. Such settlements varied in size but had a common existence: farming, gathering, or hunting, facing occassional danger from fell beasts, guarded by the Rangers, visited now and again by Dwarven smiths and other strangers, little touched by outside forces in the world.
It is clear from the above that ordered settlements were rare: Breeland is described as "..a small inhabited region, like an island in the empty lands round about." (LOTR B1, CIX, p.165). Most settlements were of non-Mannish races: the Elves of Lindon and Rivendell, the Dwarves of the Blue Mountains, wild or evil creatures (of the Ettenmoors, Barrow-Downs, Old Forest, etc), and the Hobbits of the Shire. The Shire-folk, the Breelanders and the Rangers of the North are the only clearly referenced folk still inhabiting the region of old Arnor (LOTR, B1, CIX, p.165). Was this all there was left ?
I prefer to see the existence of other small settlements of Men (and Hobbits), isolated by distance, self-sufficent, and self-governed since the passing of the Northern Realm (1975). This view makes greater sense of various comments in the Lord of the Rings and the Tale of Years (for example, the efforts of the Rangers to repulse the Orc invasions of Eriador 2740+), and yet still preserves the picture of Eriador given by Professor Tolkien, because in comparison to lands to the east of the Misty Mountains and in the context of a region larger than Europe's Iberia Pennisula, the land would still be one that was very sparsely inhabited.
The evidence for there been various other unnamed settlements come from two general comments. The first concerns Hobbits:
"The Shire-hobbits referred to those of Bree, and any other that lived beyond the borders, as Outsiders, and they took very little interest in them, considering them dull and uncouth. There were probably many more Outsiders scattered about in the West of the World in those days than the people of the Shire imagined."
(LOTR B1,CIX, p.166)
The West of the World refers to the region between the Sea of Rhun and the Western Sea, and so this passage does not preclude the idea that communities of Hobbits existed in Eriador, other than The Shire and Breeland, especially as Hobbits had first settled elsewhere in Eriador before The Shire was established in 1601 T.A.
The next piece of evidence concerns Men and Hobbits in general. The Rangers of the North were descended from the Dunedain of Arnor, who, after the fall of the kingdom, had become protecters of the ordinary inhabitants of their former realm. I presume they lived in small camps, perhaps near their former chief cities at Evendim and the North Downs, or else lived in Elven homes. They were a small folk (LOTR B2, CII, p.264): for example, the thirty who came from the North to Aragorn's aid in the War of the Ring were "..all of our kindred that could be gathered in haste." (Halbarad, LOTR B5, CII, p.806). Who did they protect ? Aragorn at the Council of Elrond spoke of their role and who they served:
"Peace and freedom, do you say ? The North would have known them little but for us.What roads would any dare to travel, what safety would there be in quiet lands, or in the homes of simple men at night, if the Dunedain were asleep..?"
(LOTR B2, CII, p.265)
These folk, the 'simple men', are the remaining people of Eriador (Halfing and Men), living at peace in small villages or farms. But like their guardians the Dunedain, they are few and scattered. Eriador between the River Lune and the Misty Mountains was less inhabited than most parts of Rohan, Gondor, Harad or Rhun and wasdesolate in parts. However more settlements survived than are directly mentioned in the Lord of the Rings. Their name and exact location are unknown to me, but in all, I think it is possible to imagine their existence.
(* Article header quoted from Aragorn's Lament for Boromir *)