BLOG HOME TOLKIEN RACIST?

SITEMAP ABOUT … FORUMS SHOP MIDDLE-EARTH WEAPONS

ARCHIVE
SEARCH XENITE.ORG
Ranger For Hire: Have Horse, Will Travel
by Michael Martinez • August 26, 2011 • Comments Off
Search

Search all subdomains on Xenite.Org. Results Recently people on The White Council: Discussion and FAQs for fans of Tolkien and the Inklings have been wondering

appear on search.xenite.org.
PRIVACY POLICY
You may read our GDPR-compliant Privacy Policy
here. This Website does not collect personally
identifying information for the sake of processing
user data.
where, exactly, Aragorn and his Rangers might have lived. The lifestyle and community of the Rangers is virtually a
complete mystery, but these dedicated wanderers managed to watch over Eriador for more than a thousand years after
the Fall of Arnor in the Third Age year 1975. Well, technically, the Rangers didn’t appear before 1979, the year when
Aranarth, the elder son of Arvedui, last King of Arnor, decided not to re-establish his kingdom.
The Dunedain of Arnor had had a pretty rough time for at least a thousand years prior to the destruction of their kingdom.
The original Kingdom of Arnor was divided into three kingdoms in the year 861 by the sons of King Earendur, last of the
High Kings descended from Elendil. Earendur’s oldest son Amlaith retained control over the northwestern part of the
kingdom, then renamed to Arthedain, but he abandoned the ancient city of Annuminas and settled in the more eastern city
of Fornost Erain (the North Fortress of the Kings).

FOLLOW MICHAEL ON SOCIAL MEDIA Amlaith’s heirs feuded with their cousins in Rhudaur and Cardolan for the next several hundred years until the rise of the
Kingdom of Angmar in the northeast presented them with a common threat. The Dunedain of Rhudaur were thrown out of
power when the line of their kings failed, and under the rule of a hill lord Rhudaur allied itself with Angmar. But Rhudaur
TWITTER
was destroyed in the war of 1409. Its people either fled or were destroyed by the Dunedain and Eldar.
Michael's personal Twitter account is
@seo_theorist Cardolan’s kings died out, too, but the Dunedain of Cardolan seemed more willing to ally themselves with Arthedain. After
Follow the Middle-earth blog at the War of 1409 Cardolan effectively merged back into Arthedain and Arnor was formally re-established, but the kings did
@tolkien_qna not reclaim their former title of High King, they were just kings. So the Dunedain of Arnor were now diminished in both
Follow Xenite.Org at @xenite_org numbers and heritage. Worse, they were unable to match the power and glory of their sister realm in the south, Gondor
(which was by this time starting its long decline).
FACEBOOK

Follow Michael's Facebook page at

@writer.Michael.Martinez

RSS Feed

https://middle-earth.xenite.org/feed/

OTHER ARTICLES

Read articles Michael has written for other

Websites Elsewhere on the Web
TOP MIDDLE-EARTH ARTICLES
Why Did the Elves Leave Middle-
earth?
Why Does Gandalf Say "Fly, You
Fools!"?
Are There Female Orcs in Middle-
earth?
Why Did Saruman's Uruk-hai
Come Out of Pods?
Arnor held out against Angmar for another 566 years after the War of 1409. The kingdom suffered terribly in the Great
Plague of 1636, and Cardolan became virtually deserted, but the Dunedain and their subject peoples (Men of Bree,
Hobbits, and probably some other Men descended from ancient Edainic peoples who had never left Middle-earth) began
to recover their numbers in the following generations. Unfortunately, Angmar recovered as well and in the 1800s it
resumed attacks upon Arnor. King Araval won a war with Angmar in 1851 and he attempted to recolonize Cardolan, but
evil wights had been sent by the Witch-king of Angmar to inhabit northwestern Cardolan’s hills (called Tyrn Gorthad, later
the Barrow Downs) and the colonization failed.
Sometime after Araval’s son, King Araphant, succeeded his father in 1891, Angmar began attacking Arnor again. Now the
tide began to turn against the Dunedain and by 1940 Araphant and his counterpart in Gondor, King Ondoher, realized that
some evil power had been steadily working toward the decline and eventual destruction of their kingdoms. The Dunedain
of the north and south had not communicated with each other in more than 300 years, since the Great Plague. In that time
their world had changed radically. Both kingdoms were threatened by powerful enemies in the east. Gondor stood alone,
though Arnor remained in close friendship with Lindon and Imladris.

What Happened to Gimli after he

The two Dunadan kingdoms nonetheless promised to help each other as best they could, and to seal this alliance the two
Sailed Over Sea?
kings arranged a marriage between their children. Arvedui, son of Araphant, married Firiel, daughter of Ondoher. Their
Why Did Frodo Wait 17 Years to marriage would ensure that the Lines of Isildur and Anarion would survive, but it failed to achieve much else. Ondoher and
Leave the Shire? both his sons fell in battle with the Wainriders in 1944, and the throne of Gondor was suddenly left vacant. The devastating
loss of her father and brothers must have been hard for Firiel to bear, but Araphant was suddenly bereft of a powerful ally.
When Does Gandalf Die?
Arvedui appealed to the Council of Gondor on his wife’s behalf for the throne of Gondor. The Council, led by the Steward
Pelendur, rejected Arvedui’s claim. They held that the Line of Isildur had no right to rule in Gondor because Isildur himself
Are There Two Hobbit Books?
had commended rule of the realm to his nephew Meneldil, son of Anarion. The fact that Isildur had not left one of his sons
in Gondor when he returned to the north seems to affirm the council’s decision, but the decision ensured that Gondor’s
Did Sauron Die When the One priorities would also change.
Ring was Destroyed?

Did J.R.R. Tolkien Invent Orcs
SUBMIT A QUESTION
Have a question you would like to see featured
here? Use this form to contact Michael Martinez. If
you think you see an error in an article and the
comments are closed, you’re welcome to use the
form to point it out. Thank you.
A new king was selected in the south. Earnil, the victorious captain who had defeated the enemy in two major battles, was
a descendant of Anarion but he was several generations removed from Firiel and her brothers in kinship. He promised
Arnor that when he had secured Gondor’s borders he would send what help he could. But it would be thirty years before
that help was arranged, and in the event it came too late.
Arvedui succeeded his father as King of Arnor in 1964. The wars with Angmar continued and Arvedui’s military power
diminished year by year. Tolkien tells us nothing of the battles which occurred but it seems that losses in the field would
have been difficult to replace. It takes time and money to train and equip soldiers, and considerable resources must be
devoted to keeping them fed and equipped during time of war. As more and more men perished, fewer and fewer
prospective soldiers could be recruited. Worse yet, if young men died in battle, they were less likely to have married and
produced sons to help defend the next generation.

SIGN UP FOR NOTIFICATIONS
Once you sign up you should receive a confirmation
email you must reply to. Some ISPs, like Century Link,
have blocked emails from Xenite.Org in the past. Please
read this notice about emails sent from Xenite.Org if you
don't see the confirmation email. Be sure to check your
spam/junk folders and whitelist us. Thank you.
Your email:
The end came in the year 1974. Arnor detected a massive buildup by Angmar and sent urgent messages to Gondor for
help. Earnil was finally stirred to action and he commissioned an expeditionary force to sail north under his son Earnur. But
fleets and armies require time to raise and equip. Earnil called upon the Eotheod in the Vales of Anduin to join his
expedition, and the ships did not set sail until 1975. During the winter of 1974-5 the Witch-king of Angmar unleashed a
final assault against Arnor. Arvedui’s soldiers were defeated. The Dunedain were shattered.
The King fled north with a remnant of his guard and two of the palantiri of the north. They were driven to seek refuge in the
northern Ered Luin, where their food ran out and they ultimately were forced to seek help from the Lossoth. Arvedui
survived most of the winter but perished when a ship Cirdan had sent north for him foundered and sank. Arvedui’s sons,
Aranarth and a younger brother, fled with a remnant of their people across the river Lhun into the Elvish domain of Lindon.
With Cirdan’s help the Dunedain and all they could save of their realm held out beyond the river.

Enter email address...

Angmar’s forces swept across Arnor. The Shire was ravaged and its people fled or went into hiding. The winter must
indeed have been very harsh and doubtless many more people died from cold and/or starvation. In the spring when
Subscribe Unsubscribe
Gondor’s fleet arrived Earnur and Cirdan assembled an army that attacked Angmar. The Witch-king came out from

Receive email notices from Xenite.Org when new posts Fornost to meet the Elves and Men but he was defeated. He retreated toward Angmar but an Elven army came up from

are published. Please whitelist @Xenite.Org in your email Imladris and the two forces crushed all that remained of the Witch-king’s power. Angmar was ruined and never rose again.

filters. AN ALTERNATIVE is to subscribe to our RSS The Witch-king fled from the north.

feed. See above under "Follow Michael".

In the aftermath of the war people had to reassemble their lives, and Aranarth spent four years assessing his options.
Tharbad, the ancient river port, probably survived the war intact, although it may have been besieged. Bree may also have
been bypassed by the worst part of the onslought. But the Shire had suffered greatly and the Dunedain had been driven
DISCLAIMER
from the North Downs, where they had lived for thousands of years. Aranarth’s people were now too few for him to re-

As an Amazon Associate, Reflective Dynamics, establish his realm.

Inc. (owner of Xenite.Org) earns commissions from

A few people seem to have survived in Cardolan outside of Tharbad, but Tolkien mentions no towns. They were probably
qualifying purchases.
living in isolated farms and hamlets smaller than Bree eventually became. Perhaps no more than a few dozen people
would be found anywhere. The Dunedain could not return to Fornost. The city had been destroyed by the Witch-king and
inhabited by his creatures. It would require many years and men to cleanse the city, but Aranarth did not have the
manpower.

Aranarth settled in Imladris and in 1979 he took the title of Chieftain of the Dunedain of the North. At this time the clan-
chiefs in the Shire elected a Thain to take the place of the king and lead their defense against outside threats. The Bree-
land seems to have settled down to minding its own affairs as well, though there is no mention of any individual of authority
like the Shire’s Thain or the Chieftain of the Dunedain.

Where could Aranarth’s people have settled? Tharbad presents itself as a possibility, but the Dunedain though now few in
number may nonetheless have presented a great burden to the town’s economy. It is conceivable that the Dunedain at first
scattered across Eriador, some settling in Bree, some settling in Tharbad. Some may have remained close to Lindon and
others probably accompanied Aranarth to Imladris. Tolkien says only that they became a “secert and wandering folk”.

The problem presented by this description is that if the Dunedain were to remain secret they could not spend much time
wandering near the settled lands. Assuming the Dunedian became true nomads they would have to live in camps,
maintaining livestock (sheep, cattle, or horses, at least), and would require a large amount of land in which to wander.

Open lands lay to the east of the Weather Hills, but only evil creatures had dwelt in that region since the Hobbits departed
around 1300. The ancestral lands of the Dunedain, the Hills of Evendim north of the Shire and the North Downs, were
available but nomadic peoples don’t normally wander through hill-lands. If the Dunedain were only semi-nomadic, then
they could probably live comfortably in the hill-lands, but I think there are better possibilities elsewhere.

Tolkien says that at the end of the Third Age “no other Men [beside those of Bree] had settled dwellings so far west, or
within a hundred leagues [about 300 miles] of the Shire. But in the wild lands beyond Bree there were mysterious
wanderers. The Bree-folk called them Rangers, and knew nothing of their origin.” (Tolkien, “The Lord of the Rings”, p. 161).
These Rangers “roamed at will southwards, and eastwards even as far as the Misty Mountains; but they were now few and
rarely seen.”

The lands south of the Shire are described as great plains in an essay published in Unfinished Tales: “…The wide lands
divided by the Gwathlo into the regions called by the Numenoreans Minhirith (‘Between the Rivers’, Baranduin and
Gwathlo) and Enedwaith (‘Middle-folk’) were mainly plains, open and mountainless….In the time of the War of the Ring the
lands were still in places well-wooded, especially in Minhiriath and in the south-east of Enedwaith; but most of the plains
were grasslands. Since the Great Plague of the year 1636 of the Third Age Minhiriath had been almost entirely deserted,
though a few secretive hunter-folk lived in the woods….But in the earlier days, at the time of the first explorations of the
Numenoreans, the situation was quite different. Minhiriath and Enedwaith were occupied by vast and almost continuous
forests….” (Tolkien, “Unfinished Tales”, pp. 261-2)

The only significant forest in Minhirith is Eryn Vorn, which stood on the cape just south of the mouth of the Baranduin.
Some of the Gwathuirim fled into those woods when Sauron destroyed the great forest in the War of the Elves and Sauron
(S.A. 1695-1701). Tolkien never says these people accepted the rule of Arnor’s kings, but they seem too few in number to
have threatened Arnor. Only one of the High Kings, Valandur, died a violent death (in 652) and no details of the event are
provided. But though he could have fought the Gwathuirim of Eryn Vorn, it seems more plausible he was engaged in wars
with the evil men living in northeastern Eriador.

Woodlands may have survived elsewhere in Minhiriath, particularly along the shores of the Gwathlo itself or as the Old
Forest, but Eryn Vorn seems to be what Tolkien had in mind when speaking of these secretive hunter-folk. In Appendix A
to The Lord of the Rings Tolkien writes “In the days of Argeleb II the plague came into Eriador from the South-east, and
most of the people of Cardolan periished, especially in Minhiriath….It was at this time that an end came to the Dunedain of
Cardolan, and evil spirits out of Angmar and Rhudaur entered into the deserted mounds and dwelt there.”

The lack of settled dwellings (of Men) farther west than Bree implies that there were no towns in Eryn Vorn, but the
Gwathuirim are said to have been the original people from whom came the Folk of Haleth in the First Age. These Edain
settled in the forest of Brethil and mostly lived apart from one another in single-family homesteads. It is reasonable to infer
that the Gwathuirim lived in similar homesteads throughout Eryn Vorn. They were far removed from the evil creatures
which haunted northern Eriador and would not need to dwell together in stockades and towns like the Woodmen of
Mirkwood.

And there is no reason to assume that these Men were savage or in any way hostile toward the Hobbits, especially the
Stoors who had settled along the Baranduin after having migrated north from Dunland. In fact, if the Gwathuirim of Eryn
Vorn were in any way similar to their remote kin the Dunlendings, they may have been friendly to the Hobbits. Although
Tolkien doesn’t say the Stoors actually interacted with the Dunlendings, they did bring to the Shire many unusual words
and names which imply a strong Dunlendish influence.

Communication between the Shire and the Gwathuirim after the end of Arnor may be the chief reason for why the Rangers
kept a guard at Sarn Ford, the place on the Baranduin where the ancient highway crossed the river on its way from
Tharbad to Lindon. Of course, until Tharbad was deserted in 2912 it, too, may have had some intercourse with the Shire.
But the presence of Men in Minhiriath seems to explain why the Rangers were active in the lands south of Bree. They
were keeping an eye on things there.

But it is also possible that some of the Dunedain actually lived in Minhiriath, raising horses in the plains, and/or pasturing
sheep or other animals. These would have been few in number, and perhaps would not have been the largest group of
Dunedain, but they could have supported the Rangers stationed at Sarn Ford and helped keep an eye on the entire region.

When Frodo was stabbed by the Lord of the Nazgul on Weathertop, Aragorn left the Hobbits to watch themselves during
the night. He crossed the Road south and searched for athelas, the healing plant which had been brought from Numenor
in the Second Age. “It grows now sparsely and only near places where [the Numenoreans] dwelt or camped of old,”
Aragorn told the Hobbits when he returned. “…In the thickets away south of the Road I found it in the dark by the scent of
its leaves.” (Tolkien, “The Fellowship of the Ring”, pp. 210-11)

The Dunedain never lived at Weathertop. The hill had once been fortified — meaning a garrison of soldiers must have
been stationed in the tower with the palantir, but why would there be athelas growing in thickets to the south of the Road?
How far did Aragorn go, that it required several hours for him to seek the plant and return? It may be that during the
centuries when the Dunedain fought over possession of the palantir an armed camp had once existed south of the hill. Or
perhaps a town had once stood to the south. Or maybe some wandering Dunedain had stayed in the region for a while
after the fall of Arnor.

A return to northern Cardolan makes some sense for the Dunedain. They would have been close to the Road, which
afforded easy access to Bree, Imladris, and the Shire. Dwarves passing by would be available for occasional smith-work (if
they stopped on their journeys to engage in such tasks, and if the Dunedain ever called upon them). They would also be
relatively close to the “badlands” of Eriador where the evil creatures needed to be kept at bay. Not so close as to be in
peril, but close enough to keep an eye of things.

Tolkien tells us very little about the lands around Bree. Aragorn mentions the Forsaken Inn, a day’s journey (along the
Road) east of Bree, and at the Council of Elrond he tells how Barliman Buttebur “lives within a day’s march of foes that
would freeze his heart, of lay his little town in ruin, if he were not guarded ceaselessly”. Who are these foes? What lies
within a day’s march of Bree where such foes could dwell, except perhaps the Barrow-downs?

The lands south of Weathertop and the Road eastwards are described as being “more wooded country” than the lands
north of the Road, but there are mostly “bushes and stunted trees…in dense patches with wide barren spaces in between”
(Tolkien, “Fellowship”, pp. 211-2). These are the Lone-lands of The Hobbit, where no people lived. Although the Dunedain
had once dwelt in the region, they could not be living there at the time of the War of the Ring.

So the only other logical place where Dunedain might be found would be across the Mitheithel, the River Hoarwell. The
Last Bridge stood about 300 miles east of the Brandywine Bridge (formerlly known as the Bridge of Stonebows) just north
of the Buckland. 300 miles is about 100 leagues. The Hoarwell proceeded southwest toward its confuence with the
Loudwater, the Bruinen of Imladris. Together the two rivers became the Gwathlo and the lands between them were called
the Angle. In former days before the rise of Angmar many Stoors had dwelt there under the rule of the Kings of Rhudaur.

Northern Rhudaur was a land of hills and forests. The region north of the Angle, beginning at the Road, was called the
Trollshaws. Aragorn turned north into this area after he led the Hobbits across the Last Bridge, and they wandered for
many days in the valleys and woods until they came back to the Road near the Ford of Bruinen. It was in the Trollshaws
that Bilbo and the Dwarves encountered three stone-trolls who had come south from the Ettenmoors to trouble the district.
The Hobbit says the trolls had frightened away all the people who had lived in the district.

What people? Who were they? When Tolkien originally wrote The Hobbit he couldn’t have had the Dunedain in mind
because the history of Arnor and Gondor hadn’t yet been composed. On the other hand, there were supposed to be many
Elves living in Eriador, and yet we hear nothing of them near Bree and the Shire (except for the Wandering Companies
which pass through the Shire). It’s entirely possible the people of the district were Elves. But if there were Elves living north
of the Road in the Trollshaws (near the Ford of Bruinen — not throughout the region), then could there have been
Dunedain living close by?

Tolkien tells us that starting with Arahael, son of Aranarth, the sons of the Chieftains of the Dunedain were fostered in
Imladris. Elrond had been given the last heirlooms of Arnor by Aranarth (the Ring of Barahir, the Sceptre of Annuminas,
the Star of Elendil, and the shards of Narsil) for sake-keeping, and many of the Chieftains of the Dunedain seem to have
perished in the region. Aragorn I was slain by wolves in 2327, who apparently had not been seen in Eriador for long years
before then. They must have crossed the mountains from Wilderland.

Arassuil, Chieftain from 2719-84, led the Dunedain in a war against the Orcs of the Misty Mountains. The Orcs began
raiding Eriador, and some ventured as far west as the Shire. The sons of Elrond, Elladan and Elrohir, rode with the
Dunedain against the Orcs. Arador was slain by trolls in the Ettenmoors north of Imladris in 2930, and his son Arathorn II
was slain three years later while hunting Orcs with the sons of Elrond.

Although the Dunedain don’t have to have dwelt near Imladris, it seems significant that Aragorn was able to call upon them
to help scout the lands in the two months after the Council of Elrond. And later when Halbarad brought a company of 30
Rangers south to Rohan he told Aragorn that he had done so because messages reached Elrond saying the Dunedain
should ride to Aragorn in Rohan. Elladan and Elrohir rode with Halbarad’s company, so perhaps they conveyed the
message to him, and could have found him somewhere in Eriador.

But it seems more likely the Rangers Halbarad gathered were already close to Imladris. If, as Legolas suggested, the
summons came from Galadriel, only a few weeks had passed since Aragorn’s departure from Lorien: February 16 to
March 6 (when the Dunedain found him) is just under three weeks. That seems barely enough time for a messenger to
reach Imladris and for Halbarad to gather what men he could and ride south to Rohan.

In the original version of the tale of Aragorn and Arwen (published in The Peoples of Middle-earth), Tolkien wrote: “In the
latter days of the last age [> Ere the Elder Days were ended], before the War of the Ring, there was a man named Dirhael
[> Dirhoel], and his wife was Evorwen [> Ivorwen] daughter of Gilbarad, and they dwelt in a hidden fastness in the wilds of
Eriador; for they were of the ancient people of the Dunedian, that of old were kings of men, but were now fallen on
darkened days….”

What was this “hidden fastness in the wilds of Eriador”? The corresponding passage in the published tale is much shorter,
for as with all parts of the appendices Tolkien was forced to shorten the material for publication. In the tale Gilraen
eventually left Imladris (many years after Aragorn) and returned to her people in Eriador, but she lived alone, and Aragorn
visited her in the year 3007 (he was then 76 years old, and she was only 100).

A “fastness” is a secure place, a stronghold. In essence, Dirhael and his family lived in some sort of fortified dwelling. Was
it a town, or perhaps only a simple estate, like those of the Gwathuirim of Brethil and perhaps Eryn Vorn? Such estates
resembled Beorn’s home, being one or several building surrounded by a high hedge.

But a hedge is not much of a fortification. A stockade or fortified town seems much more likely, and the shores of the
Bruinen river could easily support such a town. If the Dunedain settled in the Angle sometime after Aranarth settled at
Imladris they would have been close to the Elves. Indeed, when the Company of the Ring set out from Imladris, they
crossed the Ford of Bruinen and turned south, leaving the Road behind them. The first leg of their journey passed through
lands Aragorn “knew…even in the dark”.

He had grown up in Imladris, so it’s reasonable to infer that he had wandered through the hills near Elrond’s house. But if
the Dunedain lived somewhere in the vicinity, Aragorn and the Rangers would have spent many years passing through the
area on their ways to and from the Dunedain’s secret homes.

Does a town or group of villages somewhere near Imladris contradict Tolkien’s description of the Dunedain as a “secret
wandering folk”? I don’t believe so. The Rangers certainly wandered all over Eriador. They visited the ruins of Fornost
Erain, according to Gandalf, guarded the Shire and Bree, and rode with the sons of Elrond against Orcs and Trolls in the
eastern lands.

Whether some of the Dunedain lived south of the Shire or not, they seem to have spent a great deal of time travelling
through the lands. Several Rangers had visited Weathertop only a day or two before Aragorn and the Hobbits reached
there (and after Gandalf’s fight with the Nazgul).

Aragorn himself spent a great deal of time travelling around. When Frodo asked Barliman about Aragorn the innkeeper
said the Ranger had been in and out of the Prancing Pony a great deal the past spring, but he could disappear for a month
or a year as well. When Aragorn explained to Frodo why he didn’t know where Gandalf was, he said he had gone away
from the Shire earlier in the year on an errand of his own. “I came west with [Gandalf] in the Spring,” Aragorn says in
“Strider”. “We last met on the first of May: at Sarn Ford down the Brandywine. He told me that his business with you had
gone well, and that you would be starting for Rivendell in the last week of September. As I knew he was by your side, I
went away on a journey of my own.”

Aragorn was gone for nearly five months. We don’t know where he went, who he saw, or what he did, but Gandalf reached
Hobbiton on April 12, so he and Aragorn must have passed through Bree around the 10th of April. Aragorn would have
passed through again in early May. He seems to have returned to Imladris, or perhaps to his people. Some fans have
speculated that perhaps Aragorn went to retrieve the shards of Narsil, which thousands of years before Elrond had foretold
would be reforged when the One Ring was found again.

In the final analysis we still don’t know where the Dunedain dwelt. The grassy plains of Minhiriath would have supported a
wandering people with animals. The Dunedain certainly had horses because Halbarad’s company rode them to Rohan
(and they brought Aragorn his own horse, Roheryn). They had clothing which they may or may not have gotten from their
own people. If the Dunedain raised sheep they would have been able to furnish themselves with wool. But they could also
have purchased cloth from the Shire or Bree (or Tharbad prior to 2912), or perhaps even from the Elves. And the
Dunedain also wore armor and had well-made weapons. Did they supply themselves or did the equipment come from
Elves or Dwarves?

Nonetheless, a “hidden fastness” would not likely be located in Minhiriath, and the close association with Imladris seems to
imply there were more Dunedain in eastern Eriador than in the western Eriador. Add to that the fact that there were no
mannish settlements outside of Bree any closer to the Shire than 300 miles, and one is hard put to suggest what men
could possibly be living at that range, unless they were indeed Dunedain dwelling in or beyond the Angle.

This article was originally published on December 17, 1999.

Follow The Middle-earth Blog

Manage your ONCE DAILY DIGEST subscriptions here

Click here to follow The Middle-earth Blog on Twitter:
Your email: @tolkien_qna.

Enter email address...

The Middle-earth Blog's RSS Feed (summaries only)

Subscribe Unsubscribe

A confirmation email will be sent to new subscribers AND

unsubscribers. Please look for it!

← Middle-earth Talk Radio Episode 10 Watertown, MA Children to Enjoy “The Hobbit” November
18-20 →

Copyright © 2011-2020 Middle-earth & J.R.R. Tolkien Blog. All Rights Reserved.