Middle-earth seen by the barbarians: The complete collection including a previously unpublished essay (17 page)

The Dark Lord had initiated an offensive move against both Realms in Exile at once! His vassal state of ‘
Angmar renewed its attack upon Arthedain at the same time as the Wainriders reappeared in great force
’
(
KR
)
, and facing collapse, the Northern Kingdom was unable to support its imperilled sibling at the Anduin.

‘
In this great assault from north and south, Gondor came near to destruction
.’
(
KR
)
In the south, ‘
Umbar was again lost, and fell into the hands of the Men of the Harad
’
(
KR
)
who ‘
reoccupied and rebuilt
’
(
HE
)
the desolate stronghold. Next, ‘
the enemy poured into Ithilien
.’
(
KR
)
Fortunately, Gondor had the benefit of Ithilien’s particular morphology: ‘A
n attack proceeding from Near Harad - unless it had assistance from Umbar, which was not at that time available - could more easily be resisted and contained
[than an attack across the Brown Lands].
It could not cross the Anduin, and as it went north passed into a narrowing land between the river and the mountains
.’
(
CE
)
Cunningly using this advantage, ‘
Eärnil, Captain of the Southern Army, won a great victory in South Ithilien and destroyed the army of Harad that had crossed the River Poros
.’

1. The enemy’s vanguard was composed not only of the war-chariots
   

Further north, the situation was less favourable. Ironically and inevitably, the advance of enemies was much speeded by the old road network of Gondor-beyond-Anduin which, though it had never been completed, helped to speed the chariot and cavalry troops at least up to fifty miles east of the Morannon.
(
CE
)
And this was not the only unpleasant surprise.

‘
The enemy vanguard … was composed not only of the war-chariots of the Wainriders but also of a force of cavalry far greater than any that had been expected
.’
(
CE
)
These were probably the allies from Khand. The Northern Army was utterly defeated on the Dagorlad. King Ondoher ‘
and both his sons Faramir and Artamir fell in battle
’.
(
HE
)
The Wainriders came down upon Ithilien from the north, determined to join the Haradrim whom they expected to approach from the Poros. Together they intended to home in on the major cities at the Anduin. But General Eärnil, ‘
hastening north, … gathered to him all that he could of the retreating Northern Army and came up against the main camp of the Wainriders, while they were feasting and revelling. … Eärnil stormed the camp and set fire to the wains, and drove the enemy in a great rout out of Ithilien. A great part of those who fled before him perished in the Dead Marshes
.’
(
KR
)

Gondor was saved. But the war had been won at a terrible cost. The Northern Kingdom was no more, the House of Anárion almost extinct, gone was the grip on Mordor and Umbar would forever remain a Morgul-knife in the limbs of the Southern Kingdom.

^[1]
  A practise that the Romans wisely adopted, keeping and raising Germanic noblemen in their houses and killing them if their relatives did not keep quiet. One of them was Arminius, of Teutoburgian fame.

^[2]
  i. e. Northern Mannish, being ethnically related to the Atani/Edain of the First Age.

^[3]
  That should certainly read ‘west of the Sea’. This is a typo in
LR
that stayed undetected even in the 50
^th
anniversary revisions.

^[4]
  Is this a specific reference to the Variags?

The new millenium was overshadowed by a sinister turning point of history: the fall of Minas Ithil in 2002 TA. It was not attributed to the Wainriders who are no longer referred to in any Gondorian annals after 1944 TA, yet its conquerors were explicitly not troops of orcs but ‘
fell men whom the Enemy in his first strength had dominated, and who wandered homeless and masterless after his fall
.’
(
TT
)
This expresses the popular view of common men in late Gondor, for ‘the Enemy in his first strength’ must refer to the Last Alliance. That the Rhúnedain were by now neither homeless nor masterless was still escaping royal propaganda.

The description seems to suggest that Wainriders yet contributed to the fall of Minas Ithil. After all, it is hard to see why the Battle of Dagorlad, as decisive as it was for the fate of Gondor and Rhovanion, should have brought the downfall of their entire empire about, unless it be by internal revolt, of which there is no evidence. At least parts of their dominion were certainly still active when Gandalf investigated Dol Guldur in 2063 and Sauron retreated once more to his abode in Rhún, to return from there three hundred years later, with increased strength. The Wainrider empire may actually have survived Dagorlad for a long time.

Unlike Umbar, Minas Ithil did not become a base of the Men of Darkness immediately. Obviously, the Wainriders and other Rhóvain were much less qualified for organised settlement than the Corsairs. Instead, the Witch-king took it as his domain because his northern realm of Angmar was no more, and he filled it with orcs.

Neither waning Gondor nor the Northmen managed to regain control of eastern Rhovanion, and a kind of diadoch state born from the Wainrider empire developed there. As late as the 26
^th
century, when the royal line of Gondor had faded and Cirion was Steward, ‘
in the wide lands of Rhovanion, between Mirkwood and the River Running, a fierce people
…
dwelt, wholly under the shadow of Dol Guldur.
’
(
KR
)
Known as the Balchoth or ‘Horrible Horde’, they were independent from the Wainriders ‘
to whom they were no doubt akin
’
(
CE
)
but whose main realm may have been divided up like the empire of Gengis Khan. ‘
These Balchoth were constantly increased by others of like kind that came in from the east
’,
(
KR
)
and ‘
they were slaying or driving north up the River Running and into the Forest the remnant of the Northmen … that still dwelt east of Mirkwood
.’
(
CE
)
That seems to exclude Dorwinion whose Dúnedain inhabitants were still present, but as far as the Northmen were concerned, ‘
the Balchoth were destroying the last of their kin in the South
’.
(
CE
)
Protected by Dol Guldur, they ‘
often they made raids through the forest
[of Mirkwood],
until the vale of Anduin south of the Gladden was largely deserted
.’
(
KR
)

1. Third Millenium: The Diadochs
   

In 2509, ‘
hosts of men were mustering all along the southern eaves of Mirkwood. … What they lacked in gear of war they made up in numbers, so far as could be guessed
.’
(
CE
)
Their plan, or Sauron’s plan, was to expand into the shattered relic of Gondor and to usurp its northern provinces, especially the grasslands of Calenardhon which Sauron may have faked to promise them as their domain. ‘
Southern Mirkwood (below the great East Bight) … was now infested by the Balchoth
.’
(
CE
)
Quite remarkably, they had developed shipcraft, for till 2510 they had ‘
built many great boats and rafts on the east shores of Anduin,
[and now they]
swarmed over the River and swept away the defenders
.’
(
KR
)
Assisted by orcs from Dol Guldur and the Misty Mountains, the Balchoth ‘
overran the realm (now sparsely populated) north of the White Mountains, pouring into the wold and plain of Calenardon
[sic].’
(
HE
)

1. They swarmed over the River
   

The northern part of Gondor would have been lost to Cirion, were it not for the famous ride of the Éothéod. Avenging the previous destruction of their southern kinsfolk, they took the chance to aid the Dúnedain and destroy their foe. ‘
Eorl the Young came with his riders and swept away the enemy, and pursued the Balchoth to the death over the fields of Calenardhon
.’
(
KR
)
Cirion was so thankful that he granted the entire province to the Éothéod, realising that Gondor lacked the power to retain it, and more or less deliberately ignoring the interests of the Dunlendings who considered this transfer of power a grave insult (see chapter
I.4.3
). The descendants of the Éorlingas – the Rohirrim, as they were called later – established a sovereign lordship on Gondorian soil that would forever remain a loyal ally.

The Southern Kingdom was soon able to return the favour. In the beginning, the Éorlingas managed on their own to guard their borders, ‘
though during the reign of Eorl their eastern bounds along Emyn Muil and Anduin were still under attack
’ by the Balchoth.
(
FI
)
Other concerns attracted the attention of the Stewards, for the Corsairs of Umbar continued to raid the coasts. In 2746, even the 15
^th
Prince of Dol Amroth was slain during one such assault. But in fact, it was soon revealed that these skirmishes only detracted attention from Sauron’s true intentions. In the fatal year 2758, ‘
in the days of Beren, the nineteenth Steward
’,
(
KR
)
he had another time managed to organise a simultaneous assault against Gondor and its allies.