07-08-2004, 02:23 AM | #21 | ||||||
Elven Loremaster
Join Date: Feb 2000
Posts: 892
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Romendacil was slain by Easterlings in a second wave of attacks in 541, and Turambar (his son) defeated the Easterlings, winning "much territory eastwards." It was probably Turambar who negotiated the first treaties with the Northmen and gave some of their princes land between Greenwood the Great (as it was then known) and Mordor (which was still under Gondor's control). If Vidugavia's ancestors were the Free Men of the North who gradually spread down the eastern side of Greenwood during the first centuries of the Third Age, then they probably settled in what became his kingdom before Minalcar's time. They may already have been there in the 6th century when Turambar was whomping the Easterlings. But since the narrative in Appendix A says of Vidugavia that "he called himself King of Rhovanion", it may be that Vidugavia had established his rule over other Northman princes, and that prior to his time there had been several competing tribes or clans in the same region with no clear leadership. Hence, Vidugavia could have established his dominance over the other Northmen in his area as early as 1225 or as late as 1248, if we assume he was about middle-aged when his daughter married Valacar. Quote:
Aragorn also said he had been to "Rhun and Harad where the stars are strange" (the stars probably just applying to Harad, the south), so Rhun could also have been used the way we use "the Orient" to speak of central and eastern Asia. Quote:
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Sauron was the real power behind the Wainriders, although Appendix A only says they were stirred up by his emissaries -- implying, I think, that they had become organized before he approached them (and it may be that he only approached them because he saw they HAD become so well organized). The Northmen were devastated by the Great Plague in 1635 (that is the correct year according to "Cirion and Eorl" in Unfinished Tales, so the plagued was transmitted to Gondor by the Northmen the next year). The Plague came during winter and affected both men and horses. It sounds very much like a respiratory illness or flu, rather than something like Bubonic Plague. Over half the Northmen died from the Great Plague, but apparently the Easterlings suffered heavily too, because it would be another 200 years before they were strong enough to attack the Northmen. One would think the Northmen could have recovered their numbers in 200 years, but then, what would their population have been like if the Great Plague had not affected them at all? The Wainriders were never fully defeated. That is, Gondor never recovered the lost lands. All Gondor was ever able to achieve was the destruction of their main power. But Gondor itself (and the Eotheod, who had emerged as a new, separate people by the end of the Wainrider Wars) was too weak to recover the eastern lands. Continued in next message...
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