A high-fantasy campaign for Tolkien’s

Middle-Earth

If you liked the campaign and wish to join a play-by-email campaign using Rolemaster 2

rules, please give me an e-mail at (dalewarrior2001@yahoo.com). Cheers, António

Simões.

Harad is a town in present-day Saudi Arabia.

Index

Gazetteer of the lands……………………………………………............................2

The Second Age (SA)……………………………………………………..…….…5

Númenórean technology…………………………………………………….….…12

The Weapons of Possession……………………………………………………….16

The Third Age (TA)…………………………………………………………….…23

Tolkien dated the War of the Ring at 6,000 BC; that would make the destruction of

Númenor, which he also named as Atalantë, at 9,000 BC, like Plato on the destruction of

Atlantis, whose authority Tolkien probably followed. The Lord of the Rings was written

by Hobbits and by what they heard the big people say. Here I try to decipher the missing

pieces and put together my own campaign with background from other role-playing

games.

I’ve divided the history of The Lord of the Rings in 500-year periods like Tolkien does so

often; it took 500 years in the S.A. for Sauron to stir again; the first Easterling attacks

against Gondor came in T.A 500; the Watchful Peace lasted for about 500 years.

Basically this mirrors the history of Europe also divided in periods of 500 years:

2000-1500 BC Minoan thalassocracy – Imperial Period

1500-1000 BC Mycenaean sack of Thera (1450 BC) – Dark Ages

1000-500 BC – Age of Heroes (Middle Ages)

500-0 BC - Age of the Greek and Roman city-republics or of the Middle-class

0-500 AD - Imperial Roman Age – Emergence of the class of the People; decline of the

Middle-class that was preponderant until the middle of the period, circa 284 AD, when

revolutionaries (Bagaudae) appeared in an organized fashion and defied regular armies,

and from then onwards liberal rights, such as of association and free press, were as a

consequence ended with emperors Diocletian and Constantine.

500-1000 AD - Dark Ages – Decline of the class of the People who held in this period a

communal organization from sex to goods; emergence of the class of the Clergy.

1000-1500 AD – Age of Heroes (Middle Ages) – Decline of the class of the Clergy that

controlled political affairs until the middle of the period, when pope Boniface VIII. was

slain by the chief minister of the French king, Nogaret, and the papacy entered the period

called The Babylonian Captivity in France; emergence of the class of the Nobility.

1500-2000 AD – Age of the Bourgeoisie – Decline of the class of the Nobility who

controlled affairs until circa the middle of the period; emergence of the class of the

Bourgeoisie that controlled political affairs from circa 1789, the date of the beginning of

the French revolution.

Gazetteer of Middle-Earth in the early to middle Third Age

- Harad -

Geographically, I joined the Utter South of ICE’s map to Harad because the Mûmakil

armies, described in the Return of the King as coming out of the Far South, are stated as

an integral part of the Haradrim hosts; indeed the Oliphaunt is called ‘the Mûmak of

Harad’. (The Return of the King, Of Herbs and Stewed Rabbit)

Near Harad is formed of the countries, from west to east, of Oroboro, Haruzan, Pezarsan,

Lurmsakûn, Chelkar, Arysis, and Siakan (Sampsa Rydman’s Lindefirion maps). Near

Harad was the first country to be reached by the Easterlings that came via the Gap of

Khand. They fought with the black men of Dark Harad conquering them; later with the

Númenórean colonization these two peoples intermingled thoroughly, giving rise to the

Haradrim race. The Haradrim of Near Harad devoted themselves to agriculture near the

Harnen River. There are also a few cities where manufactured goods are produced. The

Near Harad urbanized regions use Gondorian, Northmen, Nûriad and Khandish slaves in

their armies. Their religious practices enforce polygamy; a man is allowed to marry as

many women as he has money to sustain; the regional rulers, called emirs, keep private

brothels for themselves called harems; these are guarded by slaves that were castrated

since childhood, called eunuchs. Further inland there are nomadic tribes that devote

themselves to herding camels and goats across the Desert Oases. These Haradrim carry

heavy robes and turbans to shield them from the heat. The Near, Far and Greater Harad

regions have a small, agile horse, whose tail it swings up and down as his emotions vary,

that is famous for its swiftness, and that they export a few to the countries of the Ormal

Bay. Near Harad was formed of the confederations of tribes of the Allaiyee, Jeluteie,

Quarsague, and Eluçaieen. These tribes were as said before a mixture between Black and

White Men. They were ruled by an elite of Far Haradrim origin in the Early Second Age.

Then there is the country of Umbar. Umbar is the most fertile country of the Harad. Its

lands were settled to the widest extent seen in Middle-Earth by the Númenóreans that

came to comprise the ruling class, directing the agriculture of the lands from the cities.

The size of its workshops, factories, arsenals and ship-yards was unequalled in Middle-

Earth. Further south along the coast lies the country of Bellakar. In the centre of Harad

lies Far Harad, also called the Raj. Far Harad’s deserts were in the First age largely

uninhabited save the fertile coastland. Its settlement was possible because the Easterlings

coming past the Chy Gap learnt to tame the camel and so its Nomadic tribes came to

roam the Oases of the Dune Sea and the Mirror of Fire. The Nomadic Haradrim tribes

heavily clad in turbans and robes herded the Camel packs throughout the year to the

places with water. In the summer they staid in the fertile lands of the Raj, while in the

winter they toured the oases across the vast deserts of the Dune Sea and the Mirror of

Fire. They also composed the majority of the caravans that took trade goods from Umbar

and Near Harad to the fertile coastline of the Raj and thence to the South, eastwards to

Greater Harad or westwards along the coast all the way to Mirëdor.

Far Harad is the country which has seen less intermixing between the White and Black

races. It is also the country where adherence to the religion of the One True God Eru, as

taught by the Early Númenóreans, was strongest, until it was corrupted into the worship

of Melkor in the Late Third Age. Its holy city of Tresti was the centre for religious

pilgrimages coming from all the Harad. Going west down along the coast lies Tulwang.

Tulwang was a Númenórean colony in the SA, being in the Third Age a highly disputed

and warring nest of pirates, armed with strong ships learnt from the Númenórean

colonization. South-east of Far Harad lies Greater Harad, also called in Haradaic Sîrayn.

It is a highly urbanized and rich environment, for Haradrim standards; its armies are

comprised mostly of slaves brought up since their childhood in the military crafts. North-

east of Greater Harad lies Harshandatt. At the eastern part of Haradwaith lies Chy, called

in Haradaic Al-Quebir. The emigration of Easterlings that came through the Chy Gap was

small in numbers and fought fierce wars with the indigenous Negro inhabitants. It staid

only long enough to learn to domesticate the camel and leaving for the far expanses of

Far Harad. The Negro farmers and nomads of Al-Quebir retained their independence but

later exchanged their Animist religion for that of the Eruhiní, the Children of Eru, in the

Early TA, learnt from the Far Haradrim. The Negroes also adopted from the Haradrim the

skill to tame the camel, but they retained as their clothes the barest to cover their

necessities. North of Chy lies Clyan, called in Haradaic Al-Marin.

Further south lie the Yellow Mountains, in Quenya Ered Laranor, that divide Greater

Harad from Utter Harad. On the western coast of Utter Harad lies Ciryatandor, also called

in Adûnaic Anbalukkhôr. This was the home of a fierce and cruel Haradrim people called

the Al-Moraque. They were a confederation of nomadic tribes that passed the summer in

Ciryatandor and the winters eastward in Zajantak just above the Yellow Mountains. They

mingled extensively with the Númenórean colonists and were drilled extensively in

Númenórean military practices, giving birth to the strongest infantry forces of the Harad,

the phalangites of Anbalukkhôr, although they lacked the ships to transport themselves to

other regions of Haradwaith. South of Ciryatandor is situated Hyarn, or Khâradûne in

Adûnaic. It is comprised mostly of vast grasslands. Its Haradrim people call themselves

Adena; they have a brownish dark skin and plain dark hair. They dedicated themselves to

agriculture but the Númenóreans took most of the lands for pastoral use, forcing the

Adena to change trade and become herders. The few cities that exist dedicate themselves

to the construction of large carracks used in the export of the cows in fresh, live condition

to the other countries of the Harad. At the tip of Utter Harad lies Mirëdor, called in

Adûnaic Zimrathâni. It was heavily settled by the Númenóreans around the Bay of Drel

and Pelegebu.

East of Mirëdor is located Mag and Tumag. These countries are inhabited by Negroes

from Mòrenorë that adhere to Animist religions and make up wandering tribes. They

retain the lies that the Black Númenóreans inflicted upon them in the Late SA that there

is an all-powerful evil Deity that presides over their destinies; they are cannibalistic

therefore offering human sacrifices to Melkor. The Mûmakil roam these expenses wild,

the Negroes not knowing the skill to tame them. Slavers from Tantûrak, Greater Harad

and even Sakal an-Khâr raid the coasts for the Black Gold. East of Tumag and in the

north of the Bay of Koros lies Ûsakan. It was in the SA the prison-state of Númenor; to

this tropical land were deported Númenor’s criminals, minor and major. After the

Akallabêth, the prisons were rent free, and the Númenóreans mingled with the Black

Men, relatives of Mag and Tumag, creating a mulatto population. Drawing on their

Atalantean skills these mulattos make a living as fishermen; they have a hard time

retaining their independence from Tantûrak; only their jungle hideouts and a handful of

pirate nests keep them in that state indeed. In the center of Utter Harad, in the north-

eastern part of the Bay of Koros lies Tantûrak. It was the main Númenórean trading point

with Utter Harad and Dark Harad, therefore having a high percentage of Númenóreans

coming each year to live among the already mixed mulatto population until in the days of

Ar-Pharazôn, four great port-cities were built in the inhospitable continent of Dark Harad

for its exploitation. Tantûrak’s capital Sarûl builds catamarans, galleasses and Galleons

but no multi-levelled cannon bearing ships-of-the-line. East of Tantûrak lies the country

of Mûmakan. The people of Mûmakan are a mix between White and Black Men, of a

dark brown color with long dark hair to the lower neck, medium beards, and brown eyes.

They are a large people mainly with an agricultural occupation, and have an urban

civilization not too inferior to that of Greater Harad, with vast armies of heavy cavalry

and oliphaunts, as their cities devote a high percentage of the treasury to the military

sector. The island of Mûlambur is a jungle hive populated by dark Elves, forming a

kingdom known as the Court of Ardor.

To the south of the Utter South lies a continent called Mòrenorë or Dark Harad. It is

composed to the north of savannas and deserts where tribal organizations predominate,

while to the south jungles predominate filled with pigmies, Orcs, apes and snakes. In the

southern part of Dark Harad ‘Orcs sprang up them like apes in the dark forests of the

South’. In central Mòrenorë lies Dor-en-Luini, known in Westron as Syrte, after its

capital Lond Iorbeth, the empire of the Thousand kingdoms. It dominates nominally the

many tribes and petty kingdoms of northern Dark Harad. Its ruling class is composed of a

mixture of Black Númenóreans and demons of Morgoth. Of late the priestly class of

Sakal an-Khâr, the Ordainers, has gained large influence in the empire. The people is

largely composed of black men and half-orcs. Long accustomed to the oppression of the

demons, the populace has as its customs to pay chaos mages to change the skin colour

and body shape to resemble the many colours and shapes of its demon-rulers. These

people are known as changelings. A sizeable half-demon population abounds. The

merchants, mostly, use little and kind telepathic flurry animals the size of a hand, known

as Spiglics, that they carry on the top of their heads, to subdue their natures. The same

system prevails in Sakal an-Khâr.

As of late the Dark Haradrim have been able to cast off the yoke of demon-worship. The

hated pyramids have been destroyed and the centralized empires that supported the rule

of the demons have been shattered by rebellions and tribal invasions and a large help

from the Elendili of Gondor and Cardolan, whose Mariner’s Guild was paramount in

establishing a network of secret contacts. Still, deep in the jungles there are some that still

do human sacrifices to the names of the demons.

History from the archives of Gondor and Arnor

The Harad was first settled by black people from the southern part of Harad, called

Mòrenorë or Dark Harad, in the Early First Age. But northern and central Harad were rift

asunder in the War of the Wrath in the Late First Age from Dark Harad, and the black

people’s colonization became separated from the motherland and lost impulse, mixing

with white men coming from the East. The white men, Easterlings, coming from the East

past the Ered Harmal through the Khand and Chy Gaps mixed with the black men giving

rise to the unique race of the Haradrim. Haradwaith was always of concern to the South-

kingdom, more so than Rhûn, because it was pocketed with Black Númenórean colonies,

enemies equal in power and capacity to the Dúnedain.

SA 0-500: Age of Heroes: Decline of the Wise-Seers-Clergy, emergence of the

Nobility. The Edain settle Númenor and live in peace.

‘1 Foundation of the Grey Havens, and of Lindon.

32 The Edain reach Númenor.

c. 40 Many Dwarves leaving their old cities in Ered Luin go to Moria and swell its

numbers.’ (The Return of the King)

The Noldor and the Valar came among the Númenóreans and taught them magic in

reward for their help in the fight against Morgoth. `Among the wrights of the Edain were

weaponsmiths, and they had with the teaching of the Noldor acquired great skill in the

forging of swords, of axe-blades, and of spearheads and knives.' (Unfinished Tales) `To

the Fathers of Men of the three faithful houses rich reward was also given. Eoenwee

came among them and taught them; and they were given wisdom and power and life

more enduring than any others of mortal races have possessed. (The Silmarillion, The

Akâllabeth)

‘And after the victory of the Lords of the West those of the evil Men that were not

destroyed fled back into the east, where many of their race were still wandering in the

unharvested land, wild and lawless, refusing alike the summons of the Valar and of

Morgoth. And the evil Men came among them, and cast over them a shadow of fear, and

they took them for kings. Then the Valar forsook for a time the Men of Middle-earth who

had refused their summons and had taken the friends of Morgoth to be their masters; and

men dwelt in darkness and were troubled by many evil things that Morgoth had devised

in the days of his dominion: demons, and dragons, and misshapen beasts, and the unclean

Orcs that are mockeries of the Children of Ilúvatar. And the lot of Men was unhappy.’

(The Silmarillion)

Elsewhere in Middle-earth there was peace for many years; yet the lands were for the

most part savage and desolate, save only where the people of Beleriand came. Many

Elves dwelt there indeed, as they had dwelt through the countless years, wandering free

in the wide lands far from the Sea; but they were Avari, to whom the deeds of Beleriand

were but a rumour and Valinor only a distant name. And in the south and in the further

east Men multiplied; and most of them turned to evil, for Sauron was at work. (Of the

Third Age and the Rings of Power)

Four major demons of Morgoth, later called gods by the middle Men, escaped the

cataclysmiscal battle of War of Wrath that ended the First Age. Together with 5 legions

of great Orcs of Angband and Drakes they installed themselves in the Northern Waste.

They attacked the Dwarves of Durin in the Misty and Grey Mountains, and later the

Northmen tribes that the Dwarves settled north of the Grey Mountains to help them in the

war.

Out of the dungeons of the North, came 4 demons of Morgoth that settled in the Northern

Waste, with the secret of the creation of warpstone, the stone whose radiations create

horrible mutations in the body and make necessary dependence on demon-magic for the

hope of survival. These four demon gods were known as Nurgle, demon of pestilence and

disease; Khorne, demon of hatred and despise; Slaanesh, demon of lust and vice; and

Tzeentch, demon of insanity and despair.

The great Orcs of Angband knew how to build machines in the likeness of dragons that

transported Orcs inside. Though having lost the secret of instilling artificial intelligence

in these machines, they were more than a match for the Dwarves and Northmen. ‘Then

on a time Melko assembled all his most cunning smiths and sorcerers, and of

iron and flame they wrought a host of monsters such as have only at that time been seen

and shall not again be till the Great End. Some were all of iron so cunningly linked that

they might flow like slow rivers of metal or coil themselves around and above all

obstacles before them, and these were filled in their innermost depths with the grimmest

of the Orcs with scimitars and spears; others of bronze and copper were given hearts and

spirits of blazing fire, and they blasted all that stood before them with the terror of their

snorting or trampled whatso escaped the ardour of their breath; yet others were creatures

of pure flame that writhed like ropes of molten metal, and they brought to ruin whatever

fabric they came nigh, and iron and stone melted before them and became as water, and

upon them rode the Balrogs in hundreds’. (Book of Lost Tales II, The fall of Gondolin)

For the creation of such artificial intelligence the invention of electrical circuits was

necessary. And these came also to be known to the Dúnedain, being what was used to

power the flame throwers that were available at Isengard and that Saruman used against

the Ents. ‘Suddenly up came fires and foul fumes: the vents and shafts all over the plain

began to spout and belch. Several of the Ents got scorched and blistered. One of them,

Beechbone I think he was called, a very tall handsome Ent, got caught in a spray of some

liquid fire and burned like a torch: a horrible sight.’ (The Two Towers) For it is doubtful

that in the mile-wide span of Isengard simple levers and pulleys would suffice to power

the flame-throwers. The reason the Númenóreans had this is that they either learned it

from the Valar or Elves or they might have learnt it from Sauron while he was

commanding them in Númenor and persecuting the Faithful. It is said in the Silmarillion

that Sauron and the Númenóreans devised many new machines in this period. The

Númenóreans also brought from Númenor the crystal ball that Isildur used to create the

Oath-breaker undead; the Seats of Seeing and Hearing similar to the ones that Melkor

forced Húrin to seat on; and gun-powder.

But among the Enemy some of these inventions never were forgotten. The Orcs of Barad-

dûr and Minas Morgul had gun-powder or ‘earth-thunder’ as the Drúedain called it; they

used it to blast the walls of the Hornburg and the Pellennor. (The Return of the King)

Four major demons of Morgoth, later called gods by the middle Men, escaped the

cataclysmiscal battle of the War of the Wrath that ended the First Age. Together with 5

legions of great Orcs of Angband and numerous Drakes they installed themselves in the

Northern Waste. They attacked the Dwarves of Durin in the Misty and Grey Mountains,

and later the Northmen tribes that the Dwarves settled north of the Grey Mountains to

help them in the war.

‘Men became the chief providers of food, as herdsmen, shepherds, and landtillers, which

the Dwarves exchanged for work as builders, roadmakers, miners, and the makers of

things of craft, from useful tools to weapons and arms and many other things of great cost

and skill.’ The Longbeards ‘regarded the Iron Hills, the Ered Mithrin [the Grey

Mountains], and the east dales of the Misty Mountains as their own land.

But they were under attack from the Orks of Morgoth.’ ‘In the battles that followed the

Dwarves were outnumbered, and though they were the most redoubtable warriors of all

the Speaking Peoples they were glad to make alliance with Men’ ‘of the ‘House of

Hador’. ‘They were brave and loyal folk, truehearted haters of Morgoth and his servants,

and at first had regarded the Dwarves askance, fearing that they were under the Shadow

(as they said).’ ‘For they had met some far to the East who were of evil mind.` `Alas it

seems probable that (as Men did later) the Dwarves of the far eastern mansions (and

some of the nearer ones?) came under the Shadow of Morgoth and turned to evil.` `But

they were glad of the alliance, for they were more vulnerable to the attacks of the Orks:

they dwelt largely in isolated homesteads and villages, and if they drew together into

small townships they were poorly defended, at best by dikes and wooden fences’ and so

were vulnerable to raids that were assembled in secret. ‘Also they were lightly armed,

chiefly with bows, for they had little metal and the few smiths among them had little

skill. These things the Dwarves amended in return for one great service that Men could

offer. They were tamers of beasts and had learned the mastery of horses, and many were

skilled and fearless riders. These would often ride far afield as scouts and keep watch on

movements of their enemies; and if the Orks dared to assemble in the open for some great

raid, they would gather great force of horsed archers to surround them and destroy them.’

(Peoples of Middle-Earth)

To the South and East went other demon-gods, or fallen Maiar, and in Harad, the Last

Desert and Sakal an-Khâr they succeeded in creating centralized empires, where great

flat-topped pyramids were built to gather human sacrifices, from which flying ships, like

Earendur’s one, came to collect the victims. The demon-god of Harad was known as

Curatin, demon of serpents; that of the Last Desert as Niorufal; and that of Sakal an-Khâr

as Keolog.

SA 500-1000: Age of the Middle-class: decline of the Nobility, emergence of the

Middle-Class. Great Age of Explorations.

c. 500

Sauron begins to stir again in Middle-earth.

600

The first ships of the Númenoreans appear off the coasts.

The Númenóreans came first as explorers and helped the Dark Men under Sauron’s yoke

in the Second Age (SA). This was in the age of the Middling Sort, TA 500-1000. TA

‘600 The first ships of the Númenóreans appear off the coasts.’ ‘And the Dúnedain came

at times to the shores of the Great Lands, and they took pity on the forsaken world of

Middle-earth; and the Lords of Númenor set foot again upon the western shores in the

Dark Years of Men, and none yet dared to withstand them. For most of the Men of that

age that sat under the Shadow were now grown weak and fearful.’ (Silmarillion)

SA 1000-1500: Imperial Age: Decline of the Middle-class, emergence of the People.

Colonization of Endor by the Númenóreans. ‘c. 1000

Sauron, alarmed by the growing power of the Númenoreans, chooses Mordor as a land to

make into a stronghold. He begins the building of Barad-dûr.

1200

Sauron endeavours to seduce the Eldar. Gil-galad refuses to treat with him; but the smiths

of Eregion are won over. The Númenoreans begin to make permanent havens.’

SA 1000-1500 was an imperial age in Númenor. ‘Now he [Sauron] learned that the kings

of Númenor had increased in power and splendour, and he hated them the more; and he

feared them, lest they should invade his lands and wrest from him the dominion of the

East.’ Between SA 1200-1800 onwards there came the Númenórean settlement of the

western coast-lands of the Harad, nearest to Sauron’s realm of Mordor, namely to Umbar,

Bellakar, or Al-Harish in Haradaic, Tulwang, and Ciryatandor. No kingdoms or states

were however established; only protectorates, as the Númenóreans at this time were

intent only on helping the Men of Middle-Earth shake off the yoke of Sauron; and the

lackeys of Sauron harassed and attacked these havens whenever opportunity arose.

SA 1500-2000: Dark Ages or Age of the Wise: Decline of the People, emergence of

the Wise-Seers. The Númenóreans establish independent states in Endor.

‘c. 1500

The Elven-smiths instructed by Sauron reach the height of their skill. They begin the

forging of the Rings of Power.

c. 1800

From about this time onward the Númenoreans begin to establish dominions on the

coasts. Sauron extends his power eastwards. The shadow falls on Númenor.’

From SA 1500-2000 Númenórean colonization was sporadic as it was under a Dark

Ages. There were internal problems in Númenor as its people was tired of wars and toils,

and a ruralization took place until circa SA 1670. Then the Wise and Seers of Númenor

gained preponderance and established a limited centralization of resources to save North-

western Middle-Earth from the grip of Sauron in the War of the Elves and Sauron, SA

1695-1701. In this war the alliance between the Dwarves of Durin and the Northmen was

broken, as Sauron brought many tribes of Easterlings from the East to strengthen the Orcs

of Angband. The Dwarves and Northmen were defeated and Gundabad taken. The

Northmen were driven from the Northern Waste into Rhovanion.

`The Three were not made by Sauron ... But they were not made as weapons of war or

conquest: that is not their power.' (The Council of Elrond) ’And of all the Elven-rings

Sauron most desired to possess them, for those who had them in their keeping could ward

off the decays of time and postpone the weariness of the world.' (Silmarillion)

The Númenóreans intervened in the War of the Elves and Sauron in Middle-Earth when it

was widespread knowledge that the war was over the Rings of Power that had been

crafted in Eregion by Annatar and the Mírdain, the smiths that ruled the technocracy or

republic of Eregion that had abolished the monarchy of Galadriel and Celeborn. At this

stage the Númenóreans were under the protection of the Valar and there was widespread

interaction with the Elves of Eressëa. Thus, they were given special magics by the Valar

against the power of the One Ring. Sauron could twist and undo the very hills upon

which men stood, but the Númenóreans had magic items that dispelled the very magic of

the One Ring though temporarily. ‘I know little of Iarwain save the name,' said Galdor;

`but Glorfindel, I think, is right. Power to defy our Enemy is not in him, unless such

power is in the earth itself. And yet we see that Sauron can torture and destroy the very

hills.’ (The Fellowship of the Ring, The Council of Elrond)

‘The Second Age had reached only the middle of its course (c. SA 1695) when he

[Sauron] invaded Eriador and destroyed Eregion, a small realm’ ‘that had formed an

alliance with the Longbeards of Moria. This marked the end of the Alliance of the

Longbeards with Men of the North. For though Moria remained impregnable for many

centuries, the Orks reinforced and commanded by servants of Sauron invaded the

Mountains again. Gundabad was retaken, the Ered Mithrim infested and the

communication between Moria and the Iron Hills for a time cut off. The Men of the

Alliance were involved in war not only with Orks but with alien Men of evil sort. For

Sauron had acquired dominion over many savage tribes in the East (of old corrupted by

Morgoth), and he now urged them to seek land and booty in the West. When the storm

passed, the Men of the Old Alliance were diminished and scattered, and those that

lingered on in their old regions were impoverished, and lived mostly in caves [in the

Misty and Grey Mountains] or in the borders of the Forest.’ (Peoples of Middle-Earth)

Next to be colonized into permanent Númenórean kingdoms or coastal city-states was Far

Harad, Greater Harad, its Eastern coast-line, and Mirëdor. Near Harad, Khand, Eastern

Harad, and the countries further inland, were held by the servants of Sauron.

‘Moreover after [Tar-] Minastir the Kings became greedy of wealth and power. At first

the Númenóreans had come to Middle-earth as teachers and friends of lesser Men

afflicted by Sauron; but now their havens became fortresses, holding wide coastlands in

subjection. [Tar-]Atanamir [SA 2251] and his successors levied heavy tribute, and the

ships of the Númenóreans returned laden with spoil.’ ‘But for a long time he [Sauron] did

not dare to challenge the Lords of the Sea, and he withdrew from the coasts.’

(Silmarillion)

In the SA, Sauron created a theocracy where he was worshipped as god and had the

powers of a dictator. `Thus the Black Years began [in SA 1600 and especially after SA

2251 when the Ringwraiths appeared], which the Elves call the Days of Flight. ...

Elsewhere Sauron reigned, and those who would be free took refuge in the fastnesses of

wood and mountain, and ever fear pursued them. In the east and south well nigh all Men

were under his dominion, and they grew strong in those days and built many towns and

walls of stone, and they were numerous and fierce in war and armed with iron. To them

Sauron was both king and god; and they feared him exceedingly, for he surrounded his

abode with fire. Yet there came at length a stay in the onslaught of Sauron upon the

westlands.' (The Silmarillion, Of the TA and the Rings of Power)

SA 2000-2500: Age of Heroes: Decline of the Wise-Seers-Clergy, emergence of the

Nobility. Division between the Faithful and the King’s Men; the Númenórean

kingdom attempts to absorb its independent colonies; wars between the independent

potentates and Atalantë.

‘2251

Tar-Atanamir takes the sceptre. Rebellion and division of the Númenoreans begins.

About this time the Nazgûl or Ringwraiths, slaves of the Nine Rings, first appear.

2280

Umbar is made into a great fortress of Númenor.

2350

Pelargir is built. It becomes the chief haven of the Faithful Númenoreans.’

‘It was to Tar-Atanamir that the Messengers came; and he was the thirteenth King, and in

his day the Realm of Númenor had endured for more than two thousand years, and was

come to the zenith of its bliss, if not yet of its power.’ (Silmarillion)

Later, when the Nazgûl appeared in SA 2251, there were widespread wars between them

and the Númenóreans for the prize of Middle-Earth, which should give the latter

widespread knowledge of their foes, the greatest of the servants of Sauron. ‘‘And when

the Úlairi arose [in SA 2251] that were the Ring-wraiths, his servants, and the strength of

his terror and mastery over Men had grown exceedingly great, he began to assail the

strong places of the Númenóreans upon the shores of the sea.’ (The Silmarillion) ‘; but

Umbar he could not yet take.’ (History of Middle-Earth 12) ‘Thus the Black Years began,

which the Elves call the Days of Flight. In that time many of the Elves of Middle-earth

fled to Lindon and thence over the seas never to return; and many were destroyed by

Sauron and his servants. But in Lindon Gil-galad still maintained his power, and Sauron

dared as yet not to pass the Mountains of Ered Luin nor to assail the Havens; and Gil-

galad was aided by the Númenóreans. Elsewhere Sauron reigned, and those who would

be free took refuge in the fastness of wood and mountain, and ever fear pursued them. In

the east and south well nigh all Men were under his dominion, and they grew strong in

those days and built many towns and walls of stone, and they were numerous and fierce

in war and armed with iron. To them Sauron was both king and god; and they feared him

exceedingly, for he surrounded his abode with fire.’ (The Silmarillion, Of the Rings of

Power and the Third Age) In SA ‘2251 Tar-Atanamir takes the sceptre. [The] Rebellion

[against the Valar] and [the] division of the Númenóreans begins. About this time, the

Nazgûl or Ringwraiths, slaves of the nine rings, first appear.’ (The Return of the King,

Appendices) Of the Ring-wraiths, 3 were Númenórean lords, and three others were of

mixed Númenórean race. So, the people of the island of Elenna came to know of the

defections from amongst their race, and that the prize of immortality, heretofore denied to

them, was available to them if they would turn to the Enemy.

The Númenóreans were at first afraid of the terror that the Nazgûl brought; though they

had many war standards and artifacts that dispelled evil magic, an offering from the first

days by the Valar, no magic could dispel the Úlairi for they were undead. Indeed later on

the Valar sent by hand of the Elves of Tol Eressëa charms and talismans versus the fear

of undeath, but this fear that was brought upon them and made them look askance at the

new reality was one of the causes that the Shadow first fell on Númenor. ‘The

Ringwraiths are deadly enemies, but they are only shadows yet of the power and terror

they would possess if the Ruling Ring was on their master's hand again.' (The Fellowship

of the Ring, A Journey in the Dark)

‘These things took place in the days of Tar-Ciryatan the shipbuilder, and of Tar-Atanamir

his son [reigned 2251-?]; and they were proud men eager for wealth, and they laid the

men of Middle-earth under tribute, taking now rather than giving.’ ‘Thus it came to pass

in that time that the Númenóreans first made great settlements upon the west shores of

the ancient lands; for their own land seemed to them shrunken and they had no rest or

content therein, and they desired now wealth and dominion in Middle-earth, since the

West was denied. Great harbours and strong towers they made and there many of them

took up their abode; but they appeared now rather as lords and masters and gatherers of

tribute than as helpers and teachers. And the great ships of the Númenóreans were borne

east on the winds and returned ever laden, and the power and majesty of their kings were

increased; and they drank and they feasted and they clad themselves in silver and gold. In

all this the Elf-friends had small part. They alone came now ever to the north and the land

of Gil-galad, keeping their friendship with the Elves and lending them aid against Sauron;

and their haven was Pelargir above the mouths of Anduin the Great [from SA 2350

onward]. But the King´s Men sailed far away to the south; and the lordships and

strongholds that they made have left many rumours in the legends of Men.’ (Silmarillion)

From circa TA 2251, the Númenóreans that wanted to gain immortality for their children

only though, traveled east to Lindon, and married Elves. Thus the kingdom of Gil-galad

was greatly enhanced by a Half-elven population, and it expanded into Eriador and

Rhovanion engaged in the wars against Sauron’s dominion in the Dark Years.

‘2280 Umbar is made into a great fortress of Númenor.’ (Appendices) In their struggle

with Sauron for control of Middle-Earth the Númenóreans chose to build a great fortress

in north-western Harad; it was made the principal settlement for the people of the island

of the star, and in time more cities grew around that land, Pellardur, Marös, Ardûmir,

Caldûr, Erädas, Isigir, and Dûsalan.

‘2350 Pelargir is built. It becomes the chief haven of the Faithful Númenóreans.’

(Appendices) Long before it became a kingdom of the Atalanteans, the region of Gondor,

or stone-land, was first settled by the Faithful who undertook it as their mission to fight

against the Dark Lord right across east of his dominion of Mordor and so try to extirpate

this ancient servant of Morgoth. For a time these settlements of the Faithful received the

support of Umbar.

SA 2500-3000: Age of the Middle-class: decline of the Nobility, emergence of the

Middle-Class. The colonies of Númenor are made into a dependency of the home

country, except for the colonies of the Elf-friends, the Faithful.

2899

Ar-Adûnakhôr takes the sceptre.

SA 3000-3500: Imperial Age: Decline of the Middle-class, emergence of the People.

The Faithful revolt and are persecuted but finally win control of the Númenórean

states in Exile. Downfall of Númenor and War of the Last Alliance between the Free

Peoples and Sauron.

3262 Sauron is taken prisoner to Númenor.

NÚMENÓREAN TECHNOLOGY

In Númenor, Sauron fomented class-struggle between the rich and poor as a means to

increase his power, and social inequalities grew apace. ‘And men took weapons in those

days and slew one another for little cause; for they were become quick to anger, and

Sauron, or those whom he had bound to himself, went about the land setting man against

man, so that the people murmured against the King and the lords, or against any that had

aught that they had not; and the men of power took cruel revenge.

Nonetheless for long it seemed to the Númenóreans that they yet prospered, and if they

were not increased in happiness, yet they grew more strong, and their rich men ever

richer. For with the aid and counsel of Sauron they multiplied their possessions, and they

devised engines, and they built ever greater ships. And they sailed now with the power

and armoury to Middle-earth, and they came no longer as bringers of gifts, nor even as

rulers, but as fierce men of war. And they hunted the men of Middle-earth and took their

goods and enslaved them, and many they slew cruelly upon their altars. For they built in

their fortresses temples and great tombs in those days; and men feared them, and the

memory of the kindly kings of the ancient days faded from the world and was darkened

by many a tale of dread. Thus Ar-Parazôn, King of the Land of the star, grew to be the

mightiest tyrant that had yet been in the world since the reign of Morgoth, though in truth

Sauron ruled all from behind the throne.’ (Silmarillion, Akallabêth)

'And behold what hath happened since, step by step, At first he revealed only secrets of

craft, and taught the making of many things powerful and wonderful; and they seemed

good. Our ships go now without the wind, and many are made of metal that sheareth

hidden rocks, and they sink not in calm or storm; but they are no longer fair to look upon.

Our towers grow ever stronger and climb ever higher, but beauty they leave behind upon

earth. We who have no foes are embattled with impregnable fortresses - and mostly on

the West. Our arms are multiplied as if for an agelong war, and men are ceasing to give

love or care to the making of other things for use or delight. But our shields are

impenetrable, our swords cannot be withstood, our darts are like thunder and pass over

leagues unerring. Where are our enemies?

We have begun to slay one another. For Númenor now seems narrow, that was so large.

Men covet, therefore, the lands that other families have long possessed. They fret as men

in chains.

'Wherefore Sauron hath preached deliverance; he has bidden our king to stretch forth

his hand to Empire. Yesterday it was over the East. To-morrow - it will be over the

West.

'We had no temples. But now the Mountain is despoiled. Its trees are felled, and it

stands naked; and upon its summit there is a Temple. It is of marble, and of gold, and of

glass and steel, and is wonderful, but terrible. No man prayeth there. It waiteth. For long

Sauron did not name his master by the name that from old is accursed here. He spoke at

first of the Strong One, of the Eldest Power, of the Master. But now he speaketh openly

of Alkar,(26) of Morgoth. He hath prophesied his return. The Temple is to be his house.

Numenor is to be the seat of the world's dominion.

Meanwhile Sauron dwelleth there. He surveys our land from the Mountain, and is risen

above the king, even proud Tarkalion, of the line chosen by the Lords, the seed of

Earendel.

'Yet Morgoth cometh not. But his shadow hath come; it lieth upon the hearts and

minds of men. It is between them and the Sun, and all that is beneath it.'

From Elendil's words at the end of The Lost Road there emerges a sinister picture:

the withdrawal of the besotted and aging king from the public view, the unexplained

disappearance of people unpopular with the 'government', informers, prisons, torture,

secrecy, fear of the night; propaganda in the form of the 'rewriting of history' (as

exemplified by Herendil's words concerning what was now said about Earendel, p.

60); the multiplication of weapons of war, the purpose of which is concealed but

guessed at; and behind all the dreadful figure of Sauron, the real power, surveying

the whole land from the Mountain of Numenor. The teaching of Sauron has led to

the invention of ships of metal that traverse the seas without sails, but which are hideous

in the eyes of those who have not abandoned or forgotten Tol-eressea; to the building of

grim fortresses and unlovely towers; and to missiles that pass with a noise like thunder

to strike their targets many miles away. Moreover, Numenor is seen by the young

as over-populous, boring, 'over-known': 'every tree and grass-blade is counted', in

Herendil's words; and this cause of discontent is used, it seems, by Sauron to further

the policy of 'imperial' expansion and ambition that he presses on the king.’ (History of

Middle-Earth 5, The Númenórean chapters, Chapter IV)

To guide the missiles over many miles computers were needed, besides the airplanes to

carry them; this too the Númenóreans achieved under Sauron. The unbreakable walls of

the tower of Orthanc; its remote-control flamethrowers that were used against the Ents;

the walls of Minas Tirth to contain the folk of the White Mountains; the explosives used

by the Orcs of Isengard and Minas Morgul to blast the walls of the Hornburg and

Pellennor, respectively; the stone at Erech upon which the Dunlending tribesmen swore

their oath and were turned to undead on its breaking; the hidden way past the Drúedain

forest of the wain-way (train-rails); the seats of Seeing and Hearing, all harckened back

to the period of Sauronic domination in Númenor.

In this time many new machines were devised. One of them was the creation of a fuel-

powered machine that set in motion a train with wheels set on iron rails to reduce the

pressure. The Númenórean settlers built these wain roads for their trains on many parts of

Middle-Earth. So spoke the Drúedain concerning the Dúnedain in their prime, ‘Many

paths were made when Stonehouse-folk were stronger. They carved hills as hunters carve

beast-flesh. Wild Men think they ate stone for food. They went through Drúadan to

Rimmon with great wains. They go no longer. Road is forgotten, but not by Wild Men.’

'Way is wide for four horses in Stonewain Valley yonder,' he waved his hand

southwards’. (The Two Towers, The Muster of Rohan)

The Númenóreans also learnt the technology to build unbreakable walls in their

fortresses, as at Orthanc and Minas Tirith. And ‘soon yet more companies of the enemy

were swiftly setting up, each behind the cover of a trench, great engines for the casting of

missiles. There were none upon the City walls large enough to reach so far or to stay the

work.

At first men laughed and did not greatly fear such devices. For the main wall of the City

was of great height and marvellous thickness, built ere the power and craft of Númenor

waned in exile; and its outward face was like to the Tower of Orthanc, hard and dark and

smooth, unconquerable by steel or fire, unbreakable except by some convulsion that

would rend the very earth on which it stood.’ (The Return of the King)

They also learnt how to devise explosives, such as the servants of Saruman used at the

Hornburg. ‘Even as they spoke there came a blare of trumpets. Then there was a crash

and and a flash of flame and smoke. The waters of the Deaping-stream came foaming and

hissing: they were chocked no longer, a gaping hole was blasted in the wall. A host of

dark shapes poured in.

'Devilry of Saruman! cried Aragorn. 'They have crept in the culvert again, while we

talked, and they have lit the fire of Orthanc beneath our feet. Elendil, Elendil!' he

shouted, as he leaped down into the breach’. (The Two Towers)

Aragorn, whose unbroken Dúnadan lineage had been mixed with the tribesmen of

Eriador after the dissolution of the kingdom of Arthedain, knew little about the

manufacture of the explosives; only that they came from Orthanc. 'But the Orcs have

brought a devilry from Orthanc,' said Aragorn. 'They have a blasting fire, and with it they

took the Wall. If they cannot come in the caves, they may seal up those that are inside.

But now we must turn all our thoughts to our own defence.'

‘There was a roar and a blast of fire. The archway of the gate above which he had stood a

moment before crumbled and crashed in smoke and dust. The barricade was scattered as

if by a thunderbolt. Aragorn ran to the king's tower.’ (The Two Towers)

The Black Númenóreans now decided on the wholesale exploitation of the continent of

Dark Harad, rich in natural resources, exotic timbers for construction, precious stones,

gold and copper; its people having up to then rejected the summons of both the Valar and

Morgoth, and, been left weak wandering the land, offered an easy target; the deserted and

semi-arid lands of the Harad could wait for another day; it was in this way that the

Noldor Elves of Lindon together with the Faithful of Pelargir were able to install a naval

blockade on the Harad, and to prevent its further colonization. From SA 3262, when

Sauron was taken prisoner to Númenor, to SA 3441, when he was defeated in the war of

the Last Alliance, the lands of the Harad that had been previously held by Mordor were

conquered and colonized by the Black Númenóreans. These were the Lords Herumor and

Fuinur, representatives of powerful Númenórean ministries of state, namely the Ministry

of Dry-Farming and the Ministry of Oil, that ruled Haradwaith from Umbar. They had

evaded the Noldorin naval blockade of Harad landing with an armament in eastern

Greater Harad and then made the trek to Umbar across the caravan trails of the deep

desert. They brought countless constructs the size and shape of Trolls, that walked and

ran, and on whose top a mechanic sat and operated the machine-robot, which could fight

with its steel arms and fire rounds of grenades. They also brought airplanes that could

defy the vastness of the deserts. Their armed personnel came armoured with a new

invention, a force-shield that covered the whole body like a rectangle and could deflect

and prevent damage from bullets and grenades and could only be pierced in a specially

slow way by knives or shortswords. So armed, their phalanges rapidly imposed their

power on the whole of Harad. They ended, in Harad’s inland parts, the dominion of

Sauron nominally, and raided from Umbar the Faithful lands of Pelargir and Lebennin.

The lands of the Faithful were aided by the Elves of Lindon, which the Black

Númenóreans yet feared to attack. ‘But because of the power of Gil-galad these

renegades, lords both mighty and evil, for the most part took up their abodes in the

southlands far away; yet two there were, Herumor and Fuinur, who rose to power among

the Haradrim, a great and cruel people that dwelt in the wide lands south of Mordor

beyond the mouths of Anduin.’ (Silmarillion, Of the Rings of Power and the Third Age)

While Sauron was away in Númenor for over 200 years and without the One Ring, his

power in Middle-Earth decreased; without the Ruling Ring in his hand the Ringwraiths

were left weaker, and their power of terror against the Eldar who had been in Valinor was

of small importance. When Sauron’s spirit returned to Middle-Earth, ‘There he found that

the power of Gil-galad had grown great in the years of his absence, and it was spread now

over wide regions of the north and west, and had passed beyond the Misty Mountains and

the Great River even to the borders of Greenwood the Great, and was drawing nigh to the

strong places where once he had dwelt.’ Each time that Sauron was slain, he lost the

memory of what had gone before. Moreover, many of Sauron’s former dominions in the

South and the East had been conquered by the Black Númenóreans, and when the sinking

of Númenor took place, the native peoples rebelled and they had the support of the Elves

and Dúnedain. So, Sauron could not easily re-establish his dominion over

Middle-Earth. ‘Sauron was indeed caught in the wreck of Númenor, so that the bodily

form in which he long had walked perished; but he fled back to Middle-earth, a spirit of

hatred borne upon the dark wind. He was unable ever again to assume a form that seemed

fair to men, but became black and hideous, and his power thereafter was through terror

alone.’ ‘He took up again the great Ring [when he returned from the wreck of Númenor]

and clothed himself in power; and the malice of the Eye of Sauron few even of the great

among Elves and Men could endure.’ (The Silmarillion) `That would be Minas Ithil that

Isildur the son of Elendil built ' said Frodo. `It was Isildur who cut off the finger of the

Enemy.'

`Yes, He has only four on the Black Hand [meaning that the other hand is of another

colour], but they are enough,' said Gollum shuddering. 'And He hated Isildur's city.' (The

Return of the King) Sauron chose for himself a shape of black and white color. One part

was white, the other was black. ‘The Ring misseth, maybe, the heat of Sauron's hand,

which was black and yet burned like fire, and so Gil-galad was destroyed;’ (The

Fellowship of the Ring, The Council of Elrond) ‘But Sauron struck too soon, before his

own power was rebuilt; whereas the power of Gil-galad had grown in his absence; and in

the Last Alliance that was made against him Sauron was overthrown and the One Ring

was taken from him. So ended the Second Age.’ (The Silmarillion)

THE WEAPONS OF POSSESSION

One passage that always puzzled me about Middle-Earth was the apparition of the Eye of

Sauron at the end of the first book, when Frodo puts the One Ring in Amon Hen, and

activates the spell of the Seat of Seeing; then he looks toward the Barad-dûr and draws

the attention of the Eye; but Gandalf sends a telepathic message to Frodo to take it off,

and attracts the Eye of Sauron defeating him. This is how I made sense of all these

passages about the Eyes.

There were many scrying devices in Middle-Earth. There were seats of Seeing and

Hearing as Morgoth had them and he forced Húrin to seat upon them. ‘Then Morgoth

cursed Húrin and Morwen and their offspring, and set a doom upon them of darkness and

sorrow; and taking Húrin from prison he set him in a chair of stone upon a high place of

Thangorodrim. There he was bound by the power of Morgoth, and Morgoth standing

beside him cursed him again; and he said: “Sit now there; and look out upon the lands

where evil and despair shall come upon those whom thou lovest. Thou hast dared to

mock me, and to question the power of Melkor, Master of the fates of Arda. Therefore

with my eyes thou shalt see, and with my ears thou shalt hear;” (Silmarillion, Of the Fifth

Battle, Nirnaeth Arnoediad)

The Númenóreans when they were corrupted by Sauron in the late S.A. learned of these

seats and when they escaped the wreckage of Atalantë, they built similar seats in Middle-

Earth, such as the Hill of Seeing and Hearing on the Middle River Anduin, Amon Hen

and Amon Lhaw. Aragorn says these seats were in operation until the kings ended in

Gondor. These magic items were called by the Dúnedain their Eyes. ‘The world seemed

to have shrunk and fallen silent. He was sitting upon the Seat of Seeing, on Amon Hen,

the Hill of the Eye of the Men of Númenor.’ (The Two Towers)

The strategy of Sauron was explained by Gandalf thus: `Therefore at last the Council was

again summoned and the lore of the Rings was much debated; but Mithrandir spoke to

the Council saying: "It is not needed that the [One] Ring should be found, for while it

abides on earth and is not unmade, still the power that it holds will live, and Sauron will

grow and have hope. The might of the Elves and the Elf-friends is less now than of old.

Soon he will be too strong for you, even without the Great Ring; for he rules the Nine,

and of the Seven he has recovered three. We must strike." To this Curunír now assented'.

(The Silmarillion, Of the Rings of Power and the Third Age)

So, his strategy was bent on recovering the Rings of Power, which must have been magic

items of extraordinary power. As there is no mention of there being three additional

Ringwraiths, created with the three of the Seven that were not destroyed, Sauron must

have used these for crafting evil magic items, that caused the decline of the good magic-

using peoples, ie the Elves and the Dúnedain.

The magic weapons of the Enemy, the weapons of possession worked thus, first they

localized geographically the caster of a spell, the greater the spell the greater the chance

of location. Therefore Gandalf was wary of casting any spell, for fear of being located.

As he said in the Redhorn pass, ‘If there are any watchers that can endure this storm, then

they can see us, fire or no.’

‘If there are any to see, then I at least am revealed to them’, he said. ‘I have written

Gandalf is here in signs that all can read from Rivendell to the mouths of Anduin.’ (The

Fellowship of the Ring, The Ring Goes South). Second, as the spell-caster was located, a

sorcerer of the Enemy would be allocated to him and given the task to plague him with

spells of fear and telepathy that would drive him into despair. These spells worked slowly

into the mind of their targets, and Sauron underestimated the strength to resist them of the

Elves and Dúnedain in the late SA. Of these sorceries, they are related in the Silmarillion,

where it is said that ‘Sauron was become now a sorceror of dreadful power, master of

shadows and of phantoms, foul in wisdom, cruel in strength, misshaping what he

touched, twisting what he ruled, lord of werewolves; his dominion was torment. He took

Minas Tirith by assault, for a dark cloud of fear fell upon those that defended it; and

Orodreth was driven out, and fled to Nargothrond.’ ‘While the Riders of Rohan were

returning from Isengard one Nazgûl flew over them: ‘At that moment a shadow fell over

them. The bright moonlight seemed to be suddenly cut off. Several of the Riders cried

out, and crouched, holding their arms above their heads, as if to ward off a blow from

above: a blind fear and a deadly cold fell on them.’(The Two Towers) The spells of fear

were thus of an awesome power.

Third, and this feature was only developed in circa TA 1940, a lesser physical

manifestation of the spell-caster, or avatar, was sent with the speed of a teleportation spell

to the location whence came the detected spell to confront and fight the spell-caster.

Frodo nearly became a prey of Sauron’s avatar when he activated the Seat of Seeing on

Amon Hen with the One Ring. ‘And suddenly he felt the Eye. There was an eye in the

Dark Tower that did not sleep. He knew that it had become aware of his gaze. A fierce

eager will was there. It leaped towards him; almost like a finger he felt it, searching for

him. Very soon it would nail him down, know just exactly where he was. Amon Lhaw it

touched. It glanced upon Tol Brandir [but] he threw himself from the seat, crouching,

covering his head with his grey hood.

He heard himself crying out: _Never, never!_Or was it: _Verily I come, I come to

you_? He could not tell. Then as a flash from some other point of power there came to his

mind another thought: _Take it off! Take it off! Fool, take it off! Take off the Ring!_

The two powers strove in him. For a moment, perfectly balanced between their

piercing points, he writhed, tormented. Suddenly he was aware of himself again. Frodo,

neither the Voice nor the Eye: free to choose, and with one remaining instant in which to

do so. He took the Ring off his finger. He was kneeling in clear sunlight before the high

seat. A black shadow seemed to pass like an arm above him; it missed Amon Hen and

groped out west, and faded [ie, Sauron’s avatar, or magical manifestation, flew with the

speed of a teleportation spell from the Barad-dûr to the Emyn Muil and then onwards to

confront Gandalf, who attracted it]. Then all the sky was clean and blue and birds sang in

every tree.’ (The Fellowship of the Ring) On this occasion Gandalf sent a telepathic

message to Frodo to take off the One Ring and so cancel the scrying spell he had

activated at Amon Hen, and attracted the avatar of Sauron himself, and successfully

defeated him. ‘The Ring now has passed beyond my help, or the help of any of the

Company that set out from Rivendell. Very nearly it was revealed to the Enemy, but it

escaped. I had some part in that: for I sat in a high place, and I strove with the Dark

Tower; and the Shadow passed. Then I was weary, very weary; and I walked long in dark

thought.' This, Gandalf related to Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli, ‘He often comes here

[Treebeard], especially when his mind is uneasy, and rumours of the world outside

trouble him. I saw him four days ago striding among the trees, and I think he saw me, for

he paused; but I did not speak, for I was heavy with thought, and weary after my struggle

with the Eye of Mordor; and he did not speak either, nor call my name.' (The Two

Towers)

In TA 1939 when Sauron captured a second Dwarven Ring he was able to increase the

range and power of these weapons of Possession. From circa TA 1940, Sauron developed

the spell ability to send wraiths and other undead as avatars. Of these he had created a lot

in the middle T.A, and his reputation was built as the Necromancer in Mirkwood. This

prompted Gandalf to investigate the tower of the Necromancer, the chief undead-creator

of north-western Middle-Earth, to see if he was linked to the weapons of possession.

‘This is not one of the Úlairi, as many have long supposed. It is Sauron himself who has

taken shape again and now grows apace; and he is gathering again all the Rings to his

hand’. (Silmarillion, Of the Rings of Power and the Third Age.) He joined the technology

stored in the Three Dwarven Rings with the Sorcery contained in the Nine Rings to create

some new Necromantic artifacts that possessed good magic-users with evil spirits and

haunted with phantoms all who used good magic, charms or artifacts. Basically he used

the Dwarven Rings with their technology of creating new items to create and power the

artifacts, identifying the users of good magic, and the Nine Rings to fill these people with

Necromantic spells of possession and phantoms. Thus weakening the magic-users and

semi-spell users of the Dúnedain he destroyed Arthedain and drove the last of the

Gondorian kings mad; Earnil II couldn’t hold any more and went with a small escort

alone to Minas Morgul to confront the Witch-king who of course betrayed and captured

him. Besides phantoms and delusions, the Watchers located geographically (Gandalf’s

citation) the caster and send Watchers of Minas Morgul or Barad-Dûr to inflict terror and

sorcery on them. So, in 1940-2060 Sauron created undead avatars that teleported

immediately to spell casters when they were localized. The sheer numbers of these

undead overpowered the spell-casters in Arthedain and Gondor.

Minas Morgul was said by Faramir to be filled with many of these sorcerors and wraiths,

lidless eyes he called them. As he warned Frodo, ‘Then the Nine Riders issued forth from

the gates of horror, and we could not withstand them [and they took Ithilien, and later

Osgiliath, which became deserted]. Do not approach their citadel. You will be espied. It

is a place of sleepless malice, full of lidless eyes. Do not go that way! ' 'But where else

will you direct me? ' said Frodo.’ (The Two Towers)

Gollum also spoke of Minas Morgul as filled with terrible things, maybe wraiths that

were seated on Seats of Seeing and Hearing, for his description is of more terrible things

than humans. 'But what has the Tower of the Moon to do with us? '

'Well, master, there it was and there it is: the tall tower and the white houses and the wall;

but not nice now, not beautiful. He conquered it long ago. It is a very terrible place now.’

… The tower isn't empty, is it? '

`O no, not empty! ' whispered Gollum. `It seems empty, but it isn't, O no! Very dreadful

things live there. Orcs, yes always Orcs; but worse things, worse things live there too.

The road climbs right under the shadow of the walls and passes the gate. Nothing moves

on the road that they don't know about. The things inside know: the Silent Watchers.'

(The Two Towers) Gollum says the main screening devices are handled by Sauron

himself. `No, no indeed,' said Gollum. `Hobbits must see, must try to understand. He

does not expect attack that way. His Eye is all round, but it attends more to some places

than to others. He can't see everything all at once, not yet.’ (The Two Towers)

Gollum spoke of Minas Morgul as the main seat of the Eyes of Mordor in the struggle

against the magic-users that still lasted of Minas Tirith. 'Sméagol has talked to Orcs, yes

of course, before he met master, and to many peoples: he has walked very far. And what

he says now many peoples are saying. It's here in the North that the big danger is for

Him, and for us. He will come out of the Black Gate one day, one day soon. That is the

only way big armies can come. But away down west He is not afraid, and there are the

Silent Watchers.' (The Two Towers) He says its Eyes range all over the land around the

city. `Not here, no. Not rest here. Fools! Eyes can see us. When they come to the bridge

they will see us. Come away! Climb, climb! Come! ' (The Two Towers)

Elrond recognized that the Weapons of Possession, as they were perfected in the late TA

would defeat the Noldor Elves easily, and that this, and Isildur’s error on keeping the One

Ring, was the main reason the majority of the Noldor had left Middle-Earth. The magic-

using of the Elves was made obsolete by the weapons of possession from circa TA 1940

onwards. `And I will choose you companions to go with you, as far as they will or

fortune allows. The number must be few, since your hope is in speed and secrecy. Had I a

host of Elves in armour of the Elder Days, it would avail little, save to arouse the power

of Mordor.’ (The Fellowship of the Ring)

Those that used magic, like Aragorn, were tormented day and night,

'Alas!' said Aragorn. 'Thus passes the heir of Denethor, Lord of the Tower of Guard! This

is a bitter end. Now the Company is all in ruin. It is I that have failed. Vain was Gandalf's

trust in me. What shall I do now? Boromir has laid it on me to go to Minas Tirith, and my

heart desires it; but where are the Ring and the Bearer? How shall I find them and save

the Quest from disaster?' (The Two Towers, The Departure of Boromir)

Gildor, a Noldor Elf lord, acknowledged to Frodo that in the late T.A. the magic-using

Elves only dwelt at peace when they were living under the protection of the Three Rings,

in this case in Rivendell. 'I am Gildor,' answered their leader, the Elf who had first hailed

him. 'Gildor Inglorion of the House of Finrod. We are Exiles, and most of our kindred

have long ago departed and we too are now only tarrying here a while, ere we return over

the Great Sea. But some of our kinsfolk dwell still in peace in Rivendell.' (The

Fellowship of the Ring)

To those who ceded to the Enemy’s telepathic messages and changed their alignment to

evil and worshipped him, Sauron gave spells that granted added determination and

morale. ‘After the fall of the Dark Tower and the passing of Sauron the Shadow was

lifted from the hearts of all who opposed him, but fear and despair fell upon his servants

and allies.’ (The Return of the King, The Tale of Years)

‘But the Nazgûl turned and fled, and vanished into Mordor's shadows, hearing a sudden

terrible call out of the Dark Tower; and even at that moment all the hosts of Mordor

trembled, doubt clutched their hearts, their laughter failed, their hands shook and their

limbs were loosed. The Power that drove them on and filled them with hate and fury was

wavering, its will was removed from them; and now looking in the eyes of their enemies

they saw a deadly light and were afraid.

Then all the Captains of the West cried aloud, for their hearts were filled with a new hope

in the midst of darkness.’ (The Return of the King, The Field of Cormallen)

‘And as the Captains gazed south to the Land of Mordor, it seemed to them that, black

against the pall of cloud, there rose a huge shape of shadow, impenetrable, lightning-

crowned, filling all the sky. Enormous it reared above the world, and stretched out

towards them a vast threatening hand, terrible but impotent: for even as it leaned over

them, a great wind took it, and it was all blown away, and passed; and then a hush fell.

The Captains bowed their heads; and when they looked up again, behold! their enemies

were flying and the power of Mordor was scattering like dust in the wind. As when death

smites the swollen brooding thing that inhabits their crawling hill and holds them all in

sway, ants will wander witless and purposeless and then feebly die, so the creatures of

Sauron, orc or troll or beast spell-enslaved, ran hither and thither mindless; and some

slew themselves, or cast themselves in pits, or fled wailing back to hide in holes and dark

lightless places far from hope. (The Return of the King, The Field of Cormallen)

But there were other scrying devices in Middle-Earth. When speaking of the palantíri,

Gandalf says that the society of Gondor was much more open than that of Arnor. ‘We

had not yet given thought to the fate of the palantíri of Gondor in its ruinous [civil] wars.

By Men they were almost forgotten. Even in Gondor they were a secret known only to a

few; in Arnor they were remembered only in a rhyme of lore among the Dúnedain.' (The

Two Towers)

Spells could be cast through the Palantíri without risking magical detection; Sauron left a

message imprinted in Pippin’s mind when the latter looked at the stone. He also cast

spells of command to question Pippin. 'It is not for you, Saruman!' he cried in a shrill and

toneless voice shrinking away from Gandalf. 'I will send for it at once. Do you

understand? Say just that!' Then he struggled to get up and escape but Gandalf held him

gently and firmly. … And I wanted to go away, but I couldn't. And then he came and

questioned me; and he looked at me, and, and that is all I remember.' … Then he came.

He did not speak so that I could hear words. He just looked, and I understood.

'"So you have come back? Why have you neglected to report for so long?"

'I did not answer. He said: "Who are you?" I still did not answer, but it hurt me horribly;

and he pressed me, so I said: "A hobbit." (The Two Towers, The Palantír)

Gandalf also cast a spell on Pippin to learn what he had talked to Sauron. 'All right!' he

said. 'Say no more! You have taken no harm. There is no lie in your eyes, as I feared. But

he did not speak long with you. (The Two Towers, The Palantír)

Aragorn was wearied by the magic combat with the Eye of Sauron through the palantír,

which gave him added levels and allowed him barely to defeat Sauron’s avatar form.

‘But Merry had eyes only for Aragorn, so startling was the change that he saw in him, as

if in one night many years had fallen on his head. Grim was his face, grey-hued and

weary. (The Return of the King, The Passing of the Grey Company)

Aragorn also engaged in magic combat with Sauron through the palantír. He even cast an

illusion on himself showing himself probably in Númenórean garb to scare Sauron into

believing that a sizeable Dúnedain people had kept itself living in secret in the west-lands

of Eriador and was ready to make war on him. ‘Nay, Gimli,' he said in a softer voice, and

the grimness left his face, and he looked like one who has laboured in sleepless pain for

many nights. 'Nay, my friends, I and the lawful master of the Stone, and I had both the

right and the strength to use it, or so I judged. The right cannot be doubted. The strength

was enough - barely.'

He drew a deep breath. 'It was a bitter struggle, and the weariness is slow to pass. I spoke

no word to him, and in the end I wrenched the Stone to my own will. That alone he will

find hard to endure. And he beheld me. Yes, Master Gimli, he saw me, but in other guise

than you see me here [ie, he cast an illusion spell on himself]. If that will aid him, then I

have done ill. But I do not think so. To know that I lived and walked the earth was a blow

to his heart, I deem; for he knew it not till now. The eyes in Orthanc did not see through

the armour of Théoden; but Sauron has not forgotten Isildur and the sword of Elendil.

Now in the very hour of his great designs the heir of Isildur and the Sword are revealed;

for l showed the blade re-forged to him. He is not so mighty yet that he is above fear;

nay, doubt ever gnaws him.' (The Return of the King, The Passing of the Grey Company)

Aragorn told the council at Minas Tirith of his combat with the avatar of Sauron, his Eye,

that could teleport at ease, ‘For do I not guess rightly, Aragorn, that you have shown

yourself to him in the Stone of Orthanc?' 'I did so ere I rode from the Hornburg,'

answered Aragorn. 'I deemed that the time was ripe, and that the Stone had come to me

for just such a purpose. It was then ten days since the Ring-bearer went east from Rauros,

and the Eye of Sauron, I thought, should be drawn out from his own land. Too seldom

has he been challenged since he returned to his Tower.’ (The Return of the King)

But the Free Peoples lacked these spells of teleportation; without the technology of the

Seven Rings they were unable to develop teleportation spells. Elrond’s and Galadriel’s

scrying devices were very different. Elrond could look only into friendly lands; enemy

lands were black to him.

`Then I cannot help you much, not even with counsel,' said Elrond. `I can foresee very

little of your road; and how your task is to be achieved I do not know. The Shadow has

crept now to the feet of the Mountains, and draws nigh even to the borders of Greyflood;

and under the Shadow all is dark to me. You will meet many foes, some open, and some

disguised; and you may find friends upon your way when you least look for it. I will send

out messages, such as I can contrive, to those whom I know in the wide world; but so

perilous are the lands now become that some may well miscarry, or come no quicker than

you yourself. (The Fellowship of the Ring, The Ring Goes South)

`Many things I can command the Mirror to reveal,' she answered, `and to some I can

show what they desire to see. But the Mirror will also show things unbidden, and those

are often stranger and more profitable than things which we wish to behold. What you

will see, if you leave the Mirror free to work, I cannot tell. For it shows things that were,

and things that are, things that yet may be. But which it is that he sees, even the wisest

cannot always tell.’

In the black abyss there appeared a single Eye that slowly grew, until it filled nearly all

the Mirror. So terrible was it that Frodo stood rooted, unable to cry out or to withdraw his

gaze. The Eye was rimmed with fire, but was itself glazed, yellow as a cat's, watchful and

intent, and the black slit of its pupil opened on a pit, a window into nothing.

Then the Eye began to rove, searching this way and that; and Frodo knew with certainty

and horror that among the many things that it sought he himself was one. But he also

knew that it could not see him-not yet, not unless he willed it. The Ring that hung upon

its chain about his neck grew heavy, heavier than a great stone, and his head was dragged

downwards. The Mirror seemed to be growing hot and curls of steam were rising from

the water. He was slipping forward.

`Do not touch the water!' said the Lady Galadriel softly. The vision faded, and Frodo

found that he was looking at the cool stars twinkling in the silver basin. He stepped back

shaking all over and looked at the Lady.

`I know what it was that you last saw,' she said; `for that is also in my mind. Do not be

afraid! But do not think that only by singing amid the trees, nor even by the slender

arrows of elven-bows, is this land of Lothlórien maintained and defended against its

Enemy. I say to you, Frodo, that even as I speak to you, I perceive the Dark Lord and

know his mind, or all of his mind that concerns the Elves. And he gropes ever to see me

and my thought. But still the door is closed! '

This is Nenya, the Ring of Adamant, and I am its keeper.

`He suspects, but he does not know - not yet. Do you not see now wherefore your coming

is to us as the footstep of Doom? For if you fail, then we are laid bare to the Enemy. Yet

if you succeed, then our power is diminished, and Lothlórien will fade, and the tides of

Time will sweep it away. We must depart into the West, or dwindle to a rustic folk of dell

and cave, slowly to forget and to be forgotten.' (The Fellowship of the Ring)

TA 0-500: Dark Ages or Age of the Wise: Decline of the People, emergence of the

Wise-Seers.

‘The servants of Sauron were routed and dispersed, yet they were not wholly destroyed;

and though many Men turned now from evil and became subject to the heirs of Elendil,

yet many more remembered Sauron in their hearts and hated the kingdoms of the West.

The Dark Tower was levelled to the ground, yet its foundations remained, and it was not

forgotten. The Númenóreans indeed set a guard upon the land of Mordor, but none dared

dwell there because of the terror of the memory of Sauron, and because of the Mountain

of Fire that stood nigh to Barad-dûr; and the valley of Gorgoroth was filled with ash.’

(Silmarillion, Of the Third Age and the Rings of Power)

‘Other strong places they [the Dúnedain] built also upon either hand [with technology

brought from Númenor]: Minas Ithil, the Tower of the Rising Moon, eastward upon a

shoulder of the Mountains of Shadow as a threat to Mordor; and to the westward Minas

Anor, the Tower of the Setting Sun, at the feet of Mount Mindolluin, as a shield against

the wild men of the dales. In Minas Ithil was the house of Isildur, and in Minas Anor the

house of Anárion, but they shared the realm between them and their thrones were set side

by side in the Great Hall of Osgiliath. These were the chief dwellings of the

Númenóreans in Gondor, but other works marvellous and strong they built in the land in

the days of their power, at the Argonath, and at Aglarond, and at Erech; and in the circle

of Angrenost, which Men called Isengard, they made the Pinnacle of Orthanc of

unbreakable stone.’ (Silmarillion)

Despite all the rebellions that troubled the Enemy’s former empire in the East and South

of Middle-Earth, he counted on a new weapon that he had developed in secret contact

with the Nazgûl while in Númenor. His priesthood had carried forth and back messages

to the Úlairi with the intent to develop a magical item that would locate geographically

any users of magic and plague them with delusions and telepathic messages. Now Sauron

thought that this would crush any attempt of the Noldor Elves and the Men of

Westernesse to overthrow him, and so he rose in power attempting to destroy his enemies

one by one. But the Weapons of Possession and the telepathic knowledge of his servants

to cause torment were not so well developed as he thought and though they weakened

and laid heavy pain on their enemies, they could still resist them, if for a short time. It

was this way that the Elves and Dúnedain seeing their days counted, hastened to make an

alliance that would overthrow Sauron. In this they were successful, but already the evil

effects of the Weapons of Possession lingered on the Free Peoples and Isildur took the

One Ring to be his. Of this action, the Elves despaired and they ended the alliance and

departed to their homes.

The effect on the Elves of Isildur’s non-destruction of the One Ring was that there was

civil war in the former kingdom of Gil-galad, the successor of Gil-galad being accused of

having joined in a pact with Isildur; and the essence of Sauron stored in the One Ring

was said to be cause for his return one day, and for the mainstay of his servants. Many

Elves were of a party that sought to force the Dúnedain to destroy the One Ring. There

was war between some of the Elves of Western Lindon, from the former cities of

Gondolin and Nargothrond, and the Dúnedain, which caused Isildur to remain on the

defensive in the South-kingdom. He was no magic-user of power and could not put the

One Ring to great use, so, not being yet in the power of the ring, he gave it up to one of

his chief mages. With the battle-magic of the One Ring, the Dúnedain were successful in

defeating the Elves of Western Lindon. The defeated Elves had to sign a treaty giving up

all the lands to the Exiles east of the Grey Havens up to Mirkwood that had belonged to

Gil-galad’s kingdom. After this day many Elves departed to the Undying Lands. Only the

havens protected by the Three, the fortress-cities of the Grey Havens, Rivendell and

Caras Galadon were freed from the effects of the weapons of possession, and hither many

Elves would travel to heal themselves of the weariness caused by said weapons.

After the defeat of Sauron in the War of the Last Alliance and the flight of the Nazgûl

and a few minions of the Enemy to the East, servants of Sauron traveled to the marches

of the demons of Morgoth, in the Northern Wastes and elsewhere, as they were the only

ones with sufficient magical power to wield the magical items that would power the

weapons of possession. These demons accepted with joy these weapons but without the

Ring-lore to let much of their inner essence flow into magical items that were strong

enough to power these weapons and cover the North of Middle-Earth, Arnor and Lindon

included, they were forced to depend on one of the Seven Rings of power. This, the

servants of Sauron that remained obtained through deceit; they sent an embassy to the

corrupted tribe of the Dwarves, known as the Ironfists, and feigning friendship kidnapped

the king and took his ring by torture in their dungeons. `Alas it seems probable that (as

Men did later) the Dwarves of the far eastern mansions (and some of the nearer ones?)

came under the Shadow of Morgoth and turned to evil.` (History of Middle-Earth 12)

But the One Ring was wholly evil and took hold of Eargon, the mage to whom Isildur

had lent the ring. He gathered a following among the schools of magic to try to usurp the

power. Without enough followers, he tried an assassination attempt; but Isildur, armed

with the charms and protections of the Valar, was the greatest man; and for the second

time he defeated a wielder of the One Ring. Now Isildur determined to return to the

North-kingdom. He had already in mind later to crush the remaining demons of the

Northern Wastes as the most pressing menace to the North-kingdom, but for now all he

wished was some peace. But the Elves of Gil-galad’s former kingdom near the forest

Greenwood were now hostile to the Dúnedain, which they feared would become the next

dark power and gave them no help nor intelligence. The Dwarves of Dúrin’s line that

inhabited the Misty Mountains and had attempted, before, with Dúnedain help, a

reconquest of the Grey Mountains, failed to spot an army that was gathered under

demons’ and Boldogs’ leadership of Great Orcs of the Northern Wastes and snaga Orcs

of the Misty Mountains that traveled through their subterranean tunnels and underground

passages connecting their cities. It was thus with great surprise that Isildur was ambushed

near the Misty Mountains by Great Orcs of former Angband and defeated and the One

Ring lost. ‘But Isildur was overwhelmed by a host of Orcs that lay in wait in the Misty

Mountains; and they descended upon him at unawares in his camp between the

Greenwood and the Great River, nigh to Loeg Ningloron, the Gladden Fields, for he was

heedless and set no guard, deeming that all his foes were overthrown [that is, he had

made and overthrown more foes than Sauron, namely the Elves of Lindon]. There well

nigh all his people were slain, and among them were his three elder sons, Elendur,

Aratan, and Ciryon; but his wife and his youngest son, Valandil, he had left in Imladris

when he went to the war.’ (The Silmarillion, Of the Rings of Power and the Third Age)

This was the second great rent in the relations between Elves, Dwarves, and Men. From

that point onwards, Arnor was ever in the defensive against the Great Orcs and

Easterlings of the Northern Wastes. The contested land was the plateau of Angmar.

The servants of Barad-Dûr, that were now fled to the East, further gave weapons of

possession to the 3 remaining demons of Morgoth in Sakal an-Khâr, The Last Desert, and

Haradwaith. With Sauron vanished, however, these weapons of possession had a limited

range as there was no available artifact as the One Ring, or the Nine Rings which the

much weakened Nazgûl required, with sufficient power points to power the weapons of

possession. Until circa TA 2000 the south-kingdom remained free of their sphere of

power, and it was held to be a blessed land, unlike Arnor which was covered by the

Weapons of Possession; hither the Dúnedain of the south ever returned when weary of

fighting in the South and the East.

In the South-kingdom, after Sauron’s defeat the Imperial Age or Age of the People was

over; the Faithful had been saved from the Akallabêth and they had new technology. A

time of peace and status quo lasted from TA 0-500, the Age of the Wise. Gondor was

exhausted, healing from the wounds of the War of the Last Alliance and bent on the only

course it could pursue, isolationism. Eastern Gondor up to Osgiliath was in ruins; and for

the task of reconstruction the armies of the Faithful were disbanded; the class of the

people was now dominant relying on the power and rights it had achieved in the age past;

the age-long evolution of clans and groups into autonomous groups that were against the

open society and its free institutions now took to full flight with the formation of new

political entities; these were tribes. These groups were based on feeling, with elected

leaders, and the attempt to respond against assassination attempts. Pacifism against the

armies of Gondor and revolution against the established order and property rights were

the order of the day. Whole divisions disbanded and kept their weapons establishing a

new order. Many cities were abandoned. A new age of peace and happiness was declared

as the class of the people ruralized and wanted to live in common leveling all hierarchies.

But the maxims of free property and free love didn’t work for long. Too much sex causes

addiction like a drug, and that was the end to it all. Consequently, the realms of the Exiles

passed from a sophisticated cosmopolitanism to an underdeveloped backwater. Gondor

helped the Haradrim only with arms supplies and secret emissaries as the people could

not be prevailed upon by its lords to continue to make war on the former servants of

Sauron, as they were seen to be defeated; the other peoples could look to themselves and

their interests; but slowly the Wise Men, or Seers of Gondor, through complots and

intrigues sapped the strength of the people and changed their mind; there was even open

warfare between the people and the wise men’s henchmen, the latter wanting to bring the

former again to the cities from the countryside; many took to hiding with their animals

and tools and living off the forests’ products, merging with the Dunlendings. But peasant

rebellions kept springing up, gaining control of the countryside, except the few fortified

cities and castles of the Wise and their followers. From circa TA 250 the Wise were able

to institute a system where every piece of land, rather than being communal, in theory,

belonged to a lord who could not sell the land, this bowing to popular pressure. Due to

class-struggle, there was formalized a three-class system of workers, fighters, and

intellectuals, who lived apart to be able to confront popular pressures against property

rights and its defence. From this time on, the order of the people entered on a slow decay

relying on the accomplishments it had built in the age past; the time was now of the Wise

Men who with limited resources tried to steer Gondor to a good port. In these Dark Ages,

the Wise used religion as the only means left to maintain law and order and inspire a fear

of breaking the traditions. Churches appeared on a voluntary basis. This gave to those

weary of the world – the middling sort at this time - recourse against adversity. But

maybe this was just the effect of genetics and the race was exhausted and needed a rest.

Or, the unfolding of historical events of cause and effect.

Upon Sauron’s downfall, the Orcs everywhere reverted to a tribal organization and

internal conflicts. In the Northern Waste, the former Orcs of Angband retained a

cannibalistic organization, but to the Misty Mountains escaped many of the former slave

Snaga breeds and they abandoned cannibalism, of which they had been the prey. The

Northmen of Rhovanion and the Dwarves of Durin reclaimed the southern expanses of

the Northern Waste and the Grey Mountains displacing the Easterlings and Orcs to the

colder northern parts. ‘We are the servants of Saruman the Wise, the White Hand: the

Hand that gives us man's-flesh to eat. We came out of Isengard, and led you here, and we

shall lead you back by the way we choose. I am Uglúk. I have spoken.'

'You have spoken more than enough, Uglúk,' sneered the evil voice. 'I wonder how they

would like it in Lugbúrz. They might think that Uglúk's shoulders needed relieving of a

swollen head. They might ask where his strange ideas came from. Did they come from

Saruman, perhaps? Who does he think he is, setting up on his own with his filthy white

badges? They might agree with me, with Grishnákh their trusted messenger; and I

Grishnákh say this: Saruman is a fool, and a dirty treacherous fool. But the Great Eye is

on him.

'Swine is it? How do you folk like being called swine by the muck-rakers of a dirty little

wizard? It's orc-flesh they eat, I'll warrant.'

Many loud yells in orc-speech answered him, and the ringing clash of weapons being

drawn [but only from the northerners who had given up that custom, that being taken as

an insult]. Cautiously Pippin rolled over, hoping to see what would happen. His guards

had gone to join in the fray. In the twilight he saw a large black Orc, probably Uglúk,

standing facing Grishnákh, a short crook-legged creature, very broad and with long arms

that hung almost to the ground. Round them were many smaller goblins. Pippin supposed

that these were the ones from the North. They had drawn their knives and swords, but

hesitated to attack Uglúk.’

‘The Orcs were getting ready to march again, but some of the Northerners were still

unwilling, and the Isengarders slew two more before the rest were cowed.’ (The Two

Towers)

The Black Númenóreans of Harad, on their hand were in a similar Dark Ages, and the

wide majority, settled in the coastlands, were recovering from the great cataclysm that

destroyed Akallabêth, and which also in Middle-Earth, ruined many coastal cities and

harbors. The Black Númenóreans, ruling from Umbar, maintained on the whole their

dominion on the Harad though with guerrillas erupting everywhere against the worship of

Gorthaur, which was seen to be not invincible. Guerrilla movements were operative on

the inland and mountainous lands of Haradwaith, where the navies of the Black

Númenóreans and the Oliphaunts of Utter Harad (Mûmakan) could not reach. However,

only the people inhabiting the great expanses of Desert of Far Harad gained their

independence. Surrounded on North, East and South by burning Deserts, the irregular

infantry formations of the Far Haradrim used with deadly efficacy the Gondorian

flamethrowers against the Oliphaunts. The Black Númenóreans, with their navies,

dominated the coastline but the interior Oases especially those around the holy city of

Tresti, called in Haradrim Al-Harif, where the worship of the One True God Eru as

taught by the early Númenóreans continued, were not subdued. The Age ended with the

first attacks of the Easterlings on Gondor from the East. At the same time the Black

Númenóreans of Harad attacked Gondor’s southernmost provinces, Harondor, Lebennin,

Langstrand, Ithilien and Nûrn.

The realms of the Dúnedain in the North were fallen in even direr straits. The realm of

Arnor was more heavily depopulated by the war of the Last Alliance than Gondor to the

south. Due to its heavy population losses in the ambush upon the Gladden Fields the

Dúnedain had more trouble imposing their rule than in the south-kingdom. ‘Only three of

his [Isildur’s] people came ever back over the mountains after long wandering; and of

these one was Ohtar his esquire, to whose keeping he had given the shards of the sword

of Elendil.

Thus Narsil came in due time to the hand of Valandil, Isildur's heir, in Imladris; but the

blade was broken and its light was extinguished, and it was not forged anew. And Master

Elrond foretold that this would not be done until the Ruling Ring should be found again

and Sauron should return; but the hope of Elves and Men was that these things might

never come to pass.

Valandil took up his abode in Annúminas, but his folk were diminished, and of the

Númenóreans and of the Men of Eriador there remained now too few to people the land

or to maintain all the places that Elendil had built; in Dagorlad, and in Mordor, and upon

the Gladden Fields many had fallen. And it came to pass after the days of Eärendur, the

seventh king that followed Valandil, that the Men of Westernesse, the Dúnedain of the

North, became divided into petty realms and lordships, and their foes devoured them one

by one. (The Silmarillion) 'In the North after the war and the slaughter of the Gladden

Fields the Men of Westernesse were diminished’. (The Fellowship of the Ring, The

Council of Elrond)

The Great Orcs of Angband and the Easterlings of the Northern Wastes, who had escaped

from defeat at the Battle of Dagorlad in the War of the Last Alliance, now invaded

Angmar and Arnor. Though the Dragons had gone to sleep after Sauron’s fall, the great

Orcs knew how to construct huge constructs of the size of Dragons that carried in their

armoured bellies squads of Orcs like the in the wars of First Age Beleriand. The

Eriadorans and Dunlendings traumatized by the unceasing wars with Sauron and his

agents and their wish for a communal society, broke and fell into barbarity. Many

divisions of the army dissolved, kept their weapons, and with their families formed tribes.

Many of the Eriadorans and Dunlendings reverted to worshipping the northern Wastes’

demons in closed tribal areas barred to travelers that would impose any social change.

The mixed Dúnedain population was also affected and many horrified at Elven rumours

that the One Ring had not been destroyed and that Sauron would return. They turned

away from Elven ways and the crowds in the cities made government according to the

rule of law impossible with the many tumults and revolutions. With the breakdown of

civil society, famines and pestilences broke out. Mothers fed on their children in hunger,

and in general, human condition reached the final stages of degradation. In these

hecatombs of revolutions and turmoil the population fell to nearly 10% of the numbers in

the bourgeois and imperial periods.

With many regions of Arnor impassable and the cities in a state of dissolution, it was the

Dwarves of Dúrin that brought help over the Mountains as they had retained their alliance

with the Northmen tribes of the Northern Wastes that had emigrated also into Rhovanion.

Northmen mercenaries were settled high and wide over Eriador. As the state was nearly

bankrupt, and the army dissolved, recourse was had to the local strong men who were

given special privileges and rights above the law so that they would fight. Together with

the Northmen tribes, the newly-created nobility reclaimed many of the lands of Angmar

and the Northern Wastes to the dominion of Arnor.

Though the Northmen were a near-barbarian people, not knowing how to forge weapon

or armour of iron, and having a distaste for Dúnedain and Elven magic, they were

redoubtable warriors, and their tribal chiefs came to enjoy a high influence in the feudal

armies of Arnor. However they did not want to abolish the Eriadoran and Dunlending

tribes, being themselves tribesmen. They just wanted to do their job, pacifying the

rebellions to grant right of passage to tradesmen, and buying with these wages the goods

the Dúnedain and Dwarves had to offer. The majority of the tribesmen gone over to the

worship of the demon-gods now fell even further vying with each other for the imagined

and real favours of their deities in sacrificing the infirm, children or elderly. Others were

won over to serpent worship. In internal affairs, therefore, the most that could be done

now was to imprison the rebellious tribesmen and force them to work as slaves in the

fields, the most basic work to be done.

The vast subject peoples composed of the Eriadorans, the Hillmen of Rhudaur, and the

emigrated Dunlendings and Northmen, all fell away from friendship with the Elves and

their magical traditions. It was rumoured that Sauron would return despite the War of the

Last Alliance due to the failings of the Elves and the Dúnedain. Further, men became

envious of the immortality of the Elves and said that only the realm of Channeling, that

which appeals to God and the angels was right. Also, they were rebellious, wanting to go

back to a tribal society rather than to the organized society of the Dúnedain. Both races

drifted apart. ‘Never again was such a host assembled, nor was there any such league of

Elves and Men; for after Elendil's day the two kindreds became estranged.’ (Silmarillion,

Of the Rings of Power and the TA)

TA 500-1000: Age of Heroes: Decline of the Wise-Seers-Clergy, emergence of the

Nobility.

A point that characterizes the Northern kingdoms well is that after the breaking of Arnor

into three realms, in c. TA 860 the names of the kings ceased to be given in Quenya.

‘After Eaerendur the Kings no longer took names in High-elven form.’ (The Return of

the King, Appendices) This means that the Elven languages and magical knowledge were

forbidden, at least nominally. This was a sign of decadence as occurred in Númenor,

where it was the first sign of the rebellion against the Valar and a jealousy of their

immortality, and the change of the Númenóreans from explorers and helpers of the

peoples of Middle-Earth into conquerors. It was also the sign that a new ruling class had

taken over power.

To meet the widespread revolutions and the discontent of the subject races, the Dúnedain

were forced to fragmentize and decentralize, from TA 861 onwards, dividing the north-

realm into three successor states. The breach with Elven ways foreshadowed, as in

Númenor with the King’s Men, a drift to imperialism. Instead of being teachers, the large

majority of the Dúnedain now focused on dominion in Middle-earth. Energies were

fuelled to expansion into the plains and forests of the Northern Waste; the plateau of

Angmar; or the hills of Eregion. But, unlike in previous ages, there was resistance to

imperialism and there were squabbles within the elite between the newcomers and the old

guard. Many institutions were built to withstand organized war. The dominions of the

nobility and the clergy could not be taxed so as to provide for standing armies. Thus

many civil wars erupted in old Arnor. Often the kings were forced by the people in

rebellion to dismantle the empires they had acquired through conquest into regional

kingdoms that were united through the same dialect and customs, and which they gave as

inheritance to their sons. As the armies plundered the villages dependent on agrarian

produce, the people reverted to living on the produce of the forests totally independent of

the lords. Thus there was the need to decentralize and appease them. ‘And it came to pass

that after the days of Eaerendur [that was king in TA 777-861], the seventh king that

followed Valandil, that the Men of Westernesse, the Dúnedain of the North, became

divided into petty realms and lordships, and their foes devoured them one by one.’ (The

Fellowship of the Ring, The Council of Elrond)

The Dúnedain were accused of imperialism by the Eriadorans and Dunlendings since the

wars of the Second Age with Sauron that deforested Eriador. The Dúnedain used an

organized, capitalistic society; the Eriadorans and Dunlendings and Hillmen used a tribal,

communal way of life. The Dwarves of Dúrin’s line at Moria were only interested in

money due to the lure of the Ring of Power that they had accepted.

Also, in the successor kingdoms new social elites came to power that cut relations with

the Elves of Lindon and Rivendell. In Rhudaur a mixed Dúnedain-Hillmen-Dunlending

elite came to power; in Cardolan a mixed Dúnedain-Northmen-Dunlending elite was

formed; and in Arthedain a mixed Dúnedain-Eriadoran elite reached the avenues of

power. Only in Arthedain was there a fragile alliance with the Elves of Lindon and

Rivendell maintained, and this only in the hours of dire need. Organized religion with a

centre at half-abandoned Annúminas was introduced and headed by the Seers to prevent

social fragmentation. They named and educated the heirs to the throne and had a word on

the most important political decisions. 'Arvedui was indeed the last king, as his name

signifies. It is said that this name was given to him at his birth by Malbeth the Seer, who

said to his father: "Arvedui you shall call him, for he will be the last in Arthedain.

Though a choice will come to the Dúnedain, and if they take the one that seems less

hopeful, then your son will change his name and become king of a great realm. If not,

then much sorrow and many lives of men shall pass, until the Dúnedain arise and are

united again." (The Return of the King, Appendices)

In the wars in Eriador, recourse was made to the necromantic crystal globes used by

Sauron in Númenor and taught to the Númenóreans. The prophecy rang that out of this

evil Sauron re-emerged would be defeated in the late TA so the Númenóreans were more

than happy to make use of these magical items to secure the loyalty of the subject races.

The truth of this came later to be realized by ‘Malbeth the Seer, in the days of Arvedui,

last king at Fornost,' As Elrond said, ‘Bid Aragorn remember the words of the seer, and

the Paths of the Dead.'

‘The Dead awaken;

for the hour is come for the oathbreakers;

at the Stone of Erech they shall stand again

and hear there a horn in the hills ringing.’ (The Two Towers, The Passing of the Grey

Company)

So, the Eriadorans and Dunlending were forced into oaths upon these stones to swear

allegiance to the wars of the successor kingdoms; break of the oath meant turning them

into undead. ‘Long had the terror of the Dead lain upon that hill and upon the empty

fields about it. For upon the top stood a black stone, round as a great globe, the height of

a man, though its half was buried in the ground. Unearthly it looked, as though it had

fallen from the sky, as some believed; but those who remembered still the lore of

Westernesse told that it had been brought out of the ruin of Númenor and there set by

Isildur at his landing. None of the people of the valley dared to approach it, nor would

they dwell near; for they said that it was a trysting-place of the Shadow-men, and there

they would gather in times of fear, thronging round the Stone and whispering.’ (The Two

Towers, The Passing of the Grey Company)

'I hope that the forgotten people will not have forgotten how to fight,' said Gimli; 'for

otherwise I see not why we should trouble them.'

'That we shall know if ever we come to Erech,' said Aragorn. 'But the oath that they

broke was to fight against Sauron, and they must fight therefore, if they are to fulfill it.

For at Erech there stands yet a black stone that was brought, it was said, from Númenor

by Isildur; and it was set upon a hill, and upon it the King of the Mountains swore

allegiance to him in the beginning of the realm of Gondor. But when Sauron returned and

grew in might again, Isildur summoned the Men of the Mountains to fulfill their oath, and

they would not: for they had worshipped Sauron in the Dark Years.

'Then Isildur said to their king: "Thou shalt be the last king. And if the West prove

mightier than thy Black Master, this curse I lay upon thee and thy folk: to rest never until

your oath is fulfilled. For this war will last through years uncounted, and you shall be

summoned once again ere the end." And they fled before the wrath of Isildur, and did not

dare to go forth to war on Sauron's part; and they hid themselves in secret places in the

mountains and had no dealings with other men, but slowly dwindled in the barren hills.

And the terror of the Sleepless Dead lies about the Hill of Erech and all places where that

people lingered. But that way I must go, since there are none living to help me.' (The

Two Towers)

New swords of undead-slaying made of orichalch, the red metal of Atalantë, newly found

in the South Downs of Cardolan, were made in vast amounts in these wars. The Dúnedain

of Arnor drifted into civil wars in the middle TA, according to Tom Bombadil, or

Iarwain, ‘Suddenly Tom's talk left the woods and went leaping up the young stream, over

bubbling waterfalls, over pebbles and worn rocks, and among small flowers in close grass

and wet crannies, wandering at last up on to the Downs. They heard of the Great

Barrows, and the green mounds, and the stone-rings upon the hills and in the hollows

among the hills. Sheep were bleating in flocks. Green walls and white walls rose. There

were fortresses on the heights. Kings of little kingdoms fought together, and the young

Sun shone like fire on the red metal of their new and greedy swords. There was victory

and defeat; and towers fell, fortresses were burned, and flames went up into the sky. Gold

was piled on the biers of dead kings and queens; and mounds covered them, and the stone

doors were shut; and the grass grew over all. Sheep walked for a while biting the grass,

but soon the hills were empty again. A shadow came out of dark places far away, and the

bones were stirred in the mounds. Barrow-wights walked in the hollow places with a

clink of rings on cold fingers, and gold chains in the wind.' Stone rings grinned out of the

ground like broken teeth in the moonlight.’ (The Fellowship of the Ring)

The Dúnedain of Arnor fell away from the path of good when they split their North-

kingdom into 3 warring states. The sign for this is that the kings ceased from using Elven

names after the TA 860. Even the Númenóreans when they were corrupted in their initial

stages had not gone so far.

‘In those days the Shadow grew deeper upon Númenor; and the lives of the Kings of the

House of Elros waned because of their rebellion but they hardened their hearts the more

against the Valar. And the 20th king took the sceptre of his fathers and ascended the

throne in the name of Adûnakhor, Lord of the West, forsaking the Elven tongues and

forbidding their use in his hearing. Yet in the scroll of Kings, the name Herunúmen was

inscribed in the High-elven speech, because of ancient custom, which the kings feared to

break utterly, lest evil befall.’ (The Silmarillion)

The reference of Bombadil to ‘the red metal of their new and greedy swords’ meant that

the Dúnedain were using weapons like those the Hobbits found on the Barrow-Downs in

a very widespread manner.

Pippin in the Battle before the Black Gate ‘drew his sword and looked at it, and the

intertwining shapes of red and gold; and the flowing characters of Númenor glinted like

fire upon the blade.’

Frodo’s barrow-wight sword also shone red on Weathertop,

‘Suddenly he knew in his heart that they were silently commanding him to wait. Then at

once fear and hatred awoke in him. His hand left the bridle and gripped the hilt of his

sword, and with a red flash he drew it.’

In Weathertop the sword of Frodo taken from the Barrows flickered red and seemed to

inspire the Ringwraiths with fear as it was an undead slaying-weapon. ‘Desperate, he

drew his own sword, and it seemed to him that it flickered red, as if it was a firebrand.

Two of the figures halted [with fear of the sword].’ (The Fellowship of the Ring) With

their vast knowledge of fighting the ring-wraiths of Sauron in the SA, the men of

Westernesse crafted undead-slaying weapons to destroy the enemies of the North-

kingdom in the mid TA, namely the Nazgûl of Angmar and of the Northern Wastes,

Mûrazor, the First, and Hoarmûrath, the Sixth. ‘And behold! there lay his weapon, but the

blade was smoking like a dry branch that has been thrust in a fire; and as he watched it, it

writhed and withered and was consumed. So passed the sword of the Barrow-downs,

work of Westernesse. But glad would he have been to know its fate who wrought it

slowly long ago in the North-kingdom when the Dúnedain were young, and chief among

their foes was the dread realm of Angmar and its sorcerer king. No other blade, not

though mightier hands had wielded it, would have dealt that foe a wound so bitter,

cleaving the undead flesh, breaking the spell that knit his unseen sinews to his will.’ (The

Return of the King)

As Aragorn said, the Dúnedain of the successor kingdoms in the North were mighty

spell-casters. 'See!' cried Aragorn. 'Here we find tokens!' He picked out from the pile of

grim weapons two knives, leaf-bladed, damasked in gold and red; and searching further

he found also the sheaths, black, set with small red gems. 'No orc-tools these!' he said.

'They were borne by the hobbits. Doubtless the Orcs despoiled them, but feared to keep

the knives, knowing them for what they are: work of Westernesse, wound about with

spells for the bane of Mordor. Well, now, if they still live, our friends are weaponless. I

will take these things, hoping against hope, to give them back.' (The Two Towers)

It has already been said that these weapons were undead-slaying weapons. So, why were

the Dúnedain using these weapons. Because, having fallen from the path of goodness,

they were using necromantic crystal balls like Isildur used before on the Dunlendings of

the White Mountains, to gain the loyalties of the Eriadoran and Dunlending tribes in their

internal feuds. When the tribes broke their oaths of fealty they would have been turned

into undead armies. It was in this matter of things that the Witch-king rose and used anti-

Dúnedain feeling to crush them. When he was defeated with Gondor’s help which still

adhered to the path of righteousness, the Dúnedain were so unpopular that they had to

give up re-establishing their kingdom, and had to adopt the tribal ways becoming rangers,

and on the other hand abandoned imperialism, joining the Elves of Rivendell and

returning to the good old ways.

To the south in the early TA, at the brink of a moment Gondor saw itself faced with a

two-front war. Its hosts were defeated in Nûrn, Harondor, Lebennin and southern Ithilien

and the country was largely abandoned to the armies of the former minions of Sauron,

who settled it with the Jeluteie and Eluçaieen confederations of tribes of the northern

Haradrim. The times were hard as now the class of the people entered into erstwhile

decay falling into bad customs and genetic diseases, while the Wise became dominant,

but with very limited resources; at the beginning of this age, it was said that the military

worth of a knight, a new class that had emerged, compared to a peasant was 1 to 100. A

new breed of men had come to save the times, the Age of Heroes, TA 500-1000, and the

Faithful of Gondor regained the initiative by many a deed of bravery and skill. Also, in

this era there arose fortified cities that where capitalism was re-instaured, unlike the

countryside, which remained collectivized. As the age went by, however, the cities threw

off the government of the Wise and the Nobles as the age passed by, establishing

independent self-governed city-state republics or communes; the middle-class was back

on its feet. It was a long time before Gondor could turn to its southern frontier though.

Only in TA 667 when king Turambar died were the Easterling hordes defeated. The

Lords of Gondor, steered by the Wise for the first 250 years of this period, decided it was

in their own best interest to help the Haradrim more actively. They sent irregular mixed

Dúnedain-Dunlending ranger bands of the White Moutains’ dales through Mordor down

through Gorgoroth, which was occupied at the time by Gondor, to help the Men of Harad,

while their feudal hosts, a system implemented in the previous age, attacked Harondor.

For 300 years these ranger bands made a rendez-vous with the Far Haradrim on the

bleached deserts of the Dune Sea, but they could never wholly stop the flow of supplies

and men coming from Sîrayn and Mûmakan up the Burning Walk. From TA 671

onwards the Dúnedain embarked on the reconquest of Harondor but the former fey

followers of Sauron’s hosts commanded the sea supplies with their navies, which Gondor

largely lacked and harassed with raids Gondor’s coasts, while the Haradrim were

entrenched in their new-found land. Therefore it took the Lords of Gondor about half a

century to reconquer Harondor. It was a war of raid and counter-raid over a no-man’s-

land; the exiled nobles and the urban and rural municipalities of Ithilien and Belfalas took

the brunt of the fighting. First, countless raids depopulated the countryside of peasant

farmers. Then, when the land was devastated and only around the cities were crops and

vegetable-gardens maintained, surprise attacks on the cities were undertaken. After TA

721 the nobles of Gondor attempted the conquest of Near Harad using the same strategy.

The wars for Near Harad took place during the reigns of king Atanatar I, reigned TA 667-

748, and Siriondil, reigned TA 748-830, and though Gondor’s hosts won the main battles,

they were on the whole fruitless in Western Near Harad because the Black Númenóreans

could sail up and down the river Harnen unmolested and re-supply their strong-points;

and the countryside remained populated and hostile to the Exiles of Atalantë. During the

numerous cavalcades that the Dúnedain made into Eastern Harad they came into

confrontation with the Variags of Khand that were allied with the Haradrim; these

nomads would rarely stand up to the heavy cavalry of the nobles but would rather use

guerrilla tactics. But because the Faithful reconquered Nûrn, from which they made

incursions, they were able to seize Eastern Near Harad and install there vassal fiefs.

A change of policy was needed. The next king, Tarannon, reigned TA 830-913, asked the

Parliament of the Barons and the Cities extra taxes to build a navy comparable to Black

Númenórean standards. In addition he sponsored a coup d’état in Mirëdor of the Party of

the King’s Men against the followers of Sauron and married its queen, Berúthiel;

monetary support flowed from this rich realm to Gondor. With these new resources

Tarannon was able to conquer Western Near Harad, TA 891-901, and raid Umbar’s

northern regions. In the Sea of Umbar he could not win the dominion, for his navy

suffered some defeats and he could do no further. ‘To commemorate his victories as

Captain of the Hosts, Tarannon took the crown in the name of Falastur “Lord of the

Coasts”.’ But Berúthiel had other plans too; after some time she tried to build up at the

Gondorian Court a following comprised of King’s Men, through intimidation and

murder, that would supplant the Faithful. As a result Tarannon repudiated her; because

without proofs he could go no further; and she was sent back to Mirëdor; he died

childless. ‘So started the Ship-kings.’ (The Return of the King, Appendices)

There followed ‘Eärnil I [reigned TA 913-936], his nephew, who succeeded him,

repaired the ancient haven of Pelargir, and built a great navy. He laid siege by sea and

land to Umbar, and took it [in TA 933], and it became a great harbour and fortress of the

power of Gondor. But Eärnil did not long survive his triumph. He was lost with many

ships and men in a great storm off Umbar’, in TA 936, when pursuing the Black

Númenórean treasure fleet, that had laid hidden in secret at Dûsalan, in expectance of the

result of the war, and carried to Sakal an-Khâr the Númenórean treasury of Middle-Earth,

hoarded in Mithril bars. (The Return of the King, Appendices)

TA 1000-1500: Age of the Middle-class: decline of the Nobility, emergence of the

Middle-Class.

‘c. [TA] 1100 The Wise’ ie ‘the Istari and chief Eldar’ ‘discover that an evil power has

made a stronghold at Dol Guldur.’ Southern Mirkwood became a haunt of Orcs, Giant

Spiders, Zombies, Skeletons, and other undead. Therefore, the new dark power arising

there was called the Necromancer. They were dead corpses animated by their spirits,

which gave them memory, the capacity to move and fight and so on, but no souls, which

had departed.

‘Ciryandil his son [reigned 936-1015] continued the building of ships; but the Men of the

Harad, led by the [Black Númenórean] lords that had been driven from Umbar, came up

with great power against that stronghold, and Ciryandil fell in battle in Haradwaith [in

TA 1015]. For many years Umbar was invested, but could not be taken because of the

sea-power of Gondor.’ (Appendices) Since the Black Númenóreans of Umbar had ruled

the Harad from that province, with ruling classes or puppet rulers in the other kingdoms,

they could count on the help and obedience of the rest of the Harad to help it reconquer

the Umbar province. Furthermore, the armies of Greater and Utter Harad were joined by

forces of Sakal an-Khâr who shared in their hatred against all followers of the Elendili.

This was a great colony of Númenor founded back in the mid-SA, second only to Umbar

in importance, and firmly in the grasp of the Black Númenóreans, and where after the

defeat of Sauron in the War of the Last Alliance, the main part of the Ringwraiths, too

weak to assume shape, had found refuge; it was called New Númenor. They now saw that

if Haradwaith fell, they would follow and so lent aid in navies and armies to the Black

Númenóreans of the Harad. In the battle of Quairawan, a town east of Umbar, TA 1015,

the cavalry hosts of the Gondorian nobility tried to use their heavy lances against the

large elephants of Mûmakan meeting brute force with brute force. Though the Dúnedain

cavalry smashed the Black Númenórean forces to pieces, the Oliphaunts broke the back

of the Gondorian heavy cavalry formations. The times were changing though and the Age

of the Middling Sort, TA 1000-1500, had come in the realms of the Exiles as well as in

the Black Númenórean realms. Correspondingly, there was a change from cavalry to

infantry formations, with a much larger number of soldiers recruited, and the Faithful of

Gondor returned to the use of Legions, masses of spearmen and swordsmen, which had

served them so well in the War of the Last Alliance. The flexible maniples of the Legions

would let the Oliphaunts penetrate their lines and would then isolate and attack them, or

would blow trumpets and try to scare them into stampeding their own lines. The heavy

cavalry of the nobility would then be brought upon the enemy’s forces. The domains of

the nobles and their preponderance lasted for about the first 250 years; then the middle-

class took affairs wholly into their own hand and there was a change from an absolute to

a constitutional monarchy. Tolls on bridges and roads, and taxes on entering fiefs were

largely extinguished to subsidize commerce. With the traditional fiefs of the nobles gone,

where employment had been for life though encased in servitude for life, and the

communities were largely self-sufficient, the class of the people had to look after its own

care in a new inter-dependent world where business was business.

‘Ciryaher son of Ciryandil [reigned 1015-1149] bided his time, and at last when he had

gathered strength he came down from the north by sea and by land, and crossing the

River Harnen his armies utterly defeated the Men of the Harad, and their kings were

compelled to acknowledge the overlordship of Gondor ([in TA]1050). Ciryaher then took

the name of Hyarmendacil 'South-victor'. (Appendices) ‘Umbar became a great fortress

and haven of fleets.’ (Peoples of Middle-Earth, The Heirs of Elendil)With the great

military victory and Umbar firmly in the grip of the Men of Gondor, the greatest fortress-

city and base the Númenóreans had ever built on Endor, the rest of the Harad fell like a

castle of cards: Far Harad in TA 1053; Tulwang and Ciryatandor in TA 1056; Mirëdor in

TA 1059; Tantûrak and Utter Harad in TA 1064; Greater Harad in TA 1067. In TA 1067-

73 the northern Black Númenórean kingdoms of Mòrenorë were wrested from these

minions of Sauron. The Black Númenóreans that remained fled to Sakal an-Khâr or went

into hiding; it was long before that land could field another army; its navy alone retained

the Dúnedain from conquest of their land for it never lost dominion of the Bay of Ormal.

The Gondorians replaced the Black Númenóreans as the ruling class of the Harad

annexing these states; but the Haradrim states at first they did not annex but installed

protectorates in them; they put them as vassal states of Gondor. ‘The might of

Hyarmendacil no enemy dared to contest during the remainder of his long reign. He was

king for one hundred and thirty-four years, the longest reign but one of all the Line of

Anárion.’ ‘The realm then extended north to Celebrant and the southern eaves of

Mirkwood; west to the Greyflood; east to the inland Sea of Rhûn; south to the River

Harnen, and thence along the coast to the peninsula and haven of Umbar. The Men of the

Vales of Anduin acknowledged its authority; and the kings of the Harad did homage to

Gondor, and their sons lived as hostages in the court of its King. Mordor was desolate,

but was watched over by great fortresses that guarded the passes.’ (The Return of the

King, Appendices)

The Galleons of Gondor reached the coasts of Mirëdor, Tantûrak, Utter Harad, and Dark

Harad and were then bent on the next step, the reduction of Sakal an-Khâr. The struggle

for control of the Bay of Ormal lasted for about 25 years, TA 1068-1093, and neither side

could claim wholly victory, but the losses were pyrrhic to the Dúnedain; and all it

reached was the conquest of the Western Ormal Bay to that deed making an alliance with

the old, beleaguered, Númenórean colony of Anarikê, which was mainly of the King’s

Men party, bent on dominion of Middle-Earth, despising the Black Númenóreans that

were worshippers of Sauron and Melkor. Later on, the Lynerian League, a coalition of

city-state republics of mixed Númenórean provenance also entered the alliance. In 1084 a

beachhead was established in western Sakal an-Khâr, despite the fact that the way

through the jungle from the coast was filled with perils and ambushes. Progress was slow

and cost-full. In 1097 the Gondorians reached Tarik an-Aruwanai, the capital of the

Black Númenóreans, and mounted a joint terrestrial and amphibious attack into the

eastern coast-line. That city was stormed, sacked and burnt to the ground, as the

Dúnedain foresaw that they could not hold it due to the hostility of the mixed Black

Númenórean people that held the control of the countryside and kept bombarding it. The

lore of old Númenor, ranging from electrical circuits to computers and missiles that had

for long been in decay, was lost to the servants of Sauron. After the reconquest of eastern

Sakal an-Khâr, their loremasters had lost the skill to read the old languages even when

they still possessed some of the lore in secret temples lost in the jungles of Zurghôr.

But the tide had turned. By circa TA 1100 the Nazgûl had reappeared in secret, able to

take shape again. The Nazgûl Mûrazor the First, and Adûnaphel, the Seventh, reappeared

in the dread land of Sakal an-Khâr; Jí Indûr, the Fourth, appeared in Mûmakan; the Úlair

Akhôrahil, the Fifth, re-appeared in the desert expanses of eastern Ciryatandor; and

Ûvatha, the Ninth, in Khand, which had never been subdued wholly to the mastery of

Gondor. These rebellions in occupied Harad and Sakal an-Khâr demanded all of

Gondor’s resources. But spies told that in lands far away to the East, in the land of Rhûn,

the Easterlings under the leadership of Khamûl, the Second, Dwar of Waw, the Third,

and Ren of Chey Sart, the Eigth, were again on the move and Gondor, realizing the

danger of overextending its supply lines had to retrench having no manpower to control

the land and terrestrial supply routes of its enemies; the Ship-kings were ended. The

battle formations of the South-kingdom’s ships-of-the-line had to abandon the clear-blue

sea lanes of the Ormal Bay. In this period the Dúnedain could still outmatch the

Ringwraiths and other undead in skill and spell; the problem was that these newly

awakened servants of Sauron organized and disciplined the countless hordes of wild men

of Rhûn, in the East, Harad, in the South, and the Last Desert, in the Far East, into

fanatical and hierarchized armies.

In the North, Hoarmûrath of the Northern Waste, the Sixth, appeared there in secret in c.

TA 1100 and worked to re-establish the dominion of Sauron over the former Orcs of

Angband so that they would end internal squabbles and multiply like flies.

‘Atanatar II Alcarin 'the Glorious' [reigned 1149-1226]’ ‘son of Hyarmendacil lived in

great splendour, so that men said precious stones are pebbles in Gondor for children to

play with.’ (The Return of the King, Appendices.) ‘In his time, owing to the vigour of the

“Ship-kings, from Falastur onwards, Gondor reached the height of its power.’ Having

given up the attempt to conquer Sakal an-Khâr, the Dúnedain of Gondor retrenched, and

annexed all the lands of the Harad into an empire to stop the Ring-wraiths’ rebellions,

though allowing the Haradrim some form of autonomy. The savannas of the black men’s

tribes of northern Mòrenorë were also tributary to Gondor. 'In the South the realm of

Gondor long endured; and for a while its splendour grew, recalling somewhat of the

might of Númenor, ere it fell. High towers that people built, and strong places, and

havens of many ships; and the winged crown of the Kings of Men was held in awe by

folk of many tongues.’ (The Fellowship of the Ring, The Council of Elrond) ‘This

[empire] extended in direct rule as far north as Celebrant and the south-eaves of

Mirkwood, east to the Sea of Rhûnaer, and south to Umbar, and westward to the river

Gwathló or Greyflood. In addition many other regions were tributary: the Men of Anduin

Vale as far as its sources, and the folk of Harad in the South. But Atanatar in fact did

nothing to increase this power, and lived mostly in splendour and ease. The waning of

Gondor began before he died, and the watch on the borders was neglected.’ (Peoples of

Middle-Earth, The Heirs of Elendil) In this time the control of politics came to be in the

hands of the middle-class; the access to the public service was determined to be elective,

the parties being eligible by Parliament. The men of influence chose to keep the

monarchy, as in numbers the middling sort was reactionary, being fewer than the class of

the people. In theory the kings were independent, in practice mere puppets of the

parliament; the kings that determined against the interests of the middle-class appeared

mysteriously dead by poison.

But this was the period, among all others of Gondor’s history, that saw the greatest extent

of prosperity and progress, if not in bliss, as had occurred earlier in the Númenórean

periods. This was perhaps because in the two ages preceding, the mainstay of society,

namely agriculture, had been self-sufficient, and for a man to survive he had to know a

bit from everything. Now there was time to specialize, and apply a knowledge of the

whole corpus of science into specific areas as religious restrictions on magical and

scientific pursuits were lifted. The nobility had created a country, the middle-class was

now come to run it. So it was said that ‘Atanatar loved ease and did nothing to maintain

the power that he had inherited, and his two sons [Narmacil I and Calmacil] were of like

temper. The waning of Gondor had already begun before he died, and was doubtless

observed by its enemies. The watch upon Mordor was neglected.’ (Appendices) In

Atanatar’s reign many public works were undertaken to try to integrate the Haradrim and

the annexed Black Númenórean realms into an empire; a system of roads was constructed

that spanned the entirety of the Harad, going south from Ithilien and Harondor, and

separating just before the Dune Sea desert; one going by the coastline all the way to

Mirëdor; the other going east through the foot of the Ered Harmal Mountains all the way

to Mûmakan. Also, many aqueducts and irrigation channels were undertaken, such as at

Pelepelplû, or Sanfwhani in Haradaic, in Al-Quebir. ‘'Tis said that there were dealings of

old between Gondor and the kingdoms of the Harad in the Far South; though there was

never friendship. In those days our bounds were away south beyond the mouths of

Anduin, and Umbar, the nearest of their realms, acknowledged our sway.´’ ‘`These

cursed Southrons come now marching up the ancient roads to swell the hosts of the Dark

Tower. Yea, up the very roads that craft of Gondor made.´’ (The Return of the King, Of

Herbs and Stewed Rabbit) The elections to the public service became an all-important

theme, as the places of employment in the state gave wide-ranging power and monetary

rewards; the elections were held by secret scrutiny at the amphitheatres of the cities.

There were always two groups represented in government, the Hawks, interested in

extending the government to other realms through empire, and the Doves, interested in

extending domestic government and the services provided by the state bureaucracy to the

people. When the policy of the Doves threatened to extend popular control and so

communion of goods into the realm, there was dictated a return of the Hawks. But the

suspicion always remained that if popular participation in the elections disappeared, there

would be established dictatorships. Concurrently, there now started revolutions of the

class of the people with the sole aim of collectivization and elected leaders. In the South,

these revolutions joined the cause of the ancient Enemy for the sake of despair and old

ways, but in the North they remained loyal to Ilúvatar. A great popular revolution in the

northern provinces in TA 1224 threatened to overwhelm the whole realm as the troops

refused to quell the uprising and joined the revolutionaries; and the parliament dared not

to have recourse to the Haradrim. So, Northmen detachments of mercenaries enlisted in

the army were called in to put down the revolution.

In the reign of Narmacil I, reigned 1226-1294, the same problems persisted; the

rebellions of the Haradrim in Khand, Mûmakan and Ciryatandor fostered by the Ring-

wraiths in secret; popular unrest; and the continuing war at sea with the Khanîm for

control of the Bay of Ormal, whose navies were commanded also by a Ring-Wraith,

Adûnaphel. It was known that the Khanîm supplied with arms the rebellions in Harad

and, by land routes, in Khand and Gondor-occupied Western Rhûn. The southern Exiles

attempted to eliminate Khanîm influence in Khand by extending their commercial and

intelligence networks into Nûrad and Chey Sart, both of which were countries that

belonged to the land of Rhûn, the later country harbouring in secret the Ringwraith Ren

the Eight; the Dúnedain succeeded in installing in Nûrad and Chey Sart protectorates and

largely eliminate Khanîm weapons supplies through that route, though rebellions kept

cropping up. Sakal an-Khâr remained the main enemy of the Elendili for it controlled the

East, the centre from which all attacks against the Faithful were planned and directed. It

was a country where demons were worshipped and walked the land, and black magic

reigned supreme over the subject population of the Black Númenóreans. There, the Black

Númenóreans had learnt from Morgoth’s demons to prolong their life by allowing

horrible mutations in their bodies, and then maintaining an artificial life with recourse to

demon magic. Also, since circa the year 1000, the branch of black magic called

Necromancy had been strongly developed and the Khanîm had learnt to create undead

skeleton armies from horses and dead humans; though poor in warfare the skeletons

inspired a fear of undeath. ‘And thereupon the middle door of the Black Gate was thrown

open with a great clang, and out of it there came an embassy from the Dark Tower. At its

head there rode a tall and evil shape, mounted upon a black horse’. (The Return of the

King, The Black Gate Opens)

From ‘c. 1300 Evil things begin to multiply again. Orcs increase in the Misty Mountains

and attack the Dwarves. The Nazgûl reappear.’ (The Return of the King)

Morgoth had dealt in genetics creating races predisposed to evil. His servants were to

continue his work. Laboratory tests in Sakal an-Khâr in circa TA 1300 created a new

disease that used warpstone properties to make the human body acquire serpent-like

qualities to horrify its victims, and in this metamorphosis, the few bodies that could resist

the mutations acquired unexpectedly the prize of extended life. Most victims died.

Beforehand, the Khanîm had been able to extend normal life by the use of warpstone and

demon-magic only. The disease was tested on the people of Rhudaur to exterminate it, at

which time the unknown consequences were revealed. Thus were born the Vampire-lords

of Rhudaur. Some thirty years later the Elves of Rivendell developed an antidote for the

initial stages of the disease, which prevented the destruction of Cardolan and Arthedain.

Further, in the far North maybe in parts of the Northern Wastes there lived a folk of the

Easterlings descended from Ulfang´s people conquered and corrupted by the dragons. It

is said of the Wild Men in league with Angmar that conquered Rhudaur in 1409 that they

came out of the North,

‘In Rhudaur an evil folk, workers of sorcery, subjects of Angmar, slay the remnants of

the Dúnedain and build dark forts in the hills.’ ‘Cardolan is forsaken. The deserted

mounds of Cardolan become filled with deadly spirits; but in Rhudaur for long there

dwelt an evil people out of the North much given to sorcery. The Men of Bree and the

Periannath of the same region maintain their independence.’ (History of Middle-Earth 12)

From circa TA 1300, when dragons reappeared and started to attack the dwarves, the

Ringwraiths took an independent path. For the Dragons, like other beings of great power

and magic, were intent on destroying and absorbing the power levels put there by the

Elven smiths and Sauron; the Ringwraiths, on the contrary wanted to capture the rings for

their master’s purposes.

The rings of power had been Sauron’s great tool into creating a theocracy over all of

Middle-Earth. `But Sauron gathered into his hands all the remaining Rings of Power and

he dealt them out to the other peoples of Middle-earth, hoping thus to bring under his

sway all those that desired secret power beyond the measure of their kind. Seven rings he

gave to the Dwarves; but to Men he gave Nine, for Men proved in this matter as in others

the readiest to his will. And all those rings that he governed he perverted, the more easily

since he had a part in their making, and they were accursed, and they betrayed in the end

all those that used them. The Dwarves indeed proved tough and hard to tame; they ill

endured the domination of others, and the thoughts of their hearts are hard to fathom, nor

can they be turned to shadows. They used their rings only for the getting of wealth [not

for kingship, sorcery, or war]; but wrath and an overmastering greed of gold were kindled

in their hearts, of which evil enough after came to the profit of Sauron. It is said that the

foundation of each of the Seven Hoards of the Dwarven-kings of old was a golden ring;

but all those hoards long were plundered and the Dragons devoured them [in TA 1300-

1980], and of the Seven Rings some [four] were consumed in fire [by the Dragons] and

some Sauron recovered [three].' (The Silmarillion)

The attacks on the Dwarven hoards and mansions started in the early TA by Dragons and

their servants, and the Ringwraiths,

In the Third Age `The Dwarves hid themselves in deep places, guarding their hoards

[accumulated in the Second Age due to the Seven Great Rings]; but when evil began to

stir again [in c. 1300] and dragons reappeared, one by one their ancient treasures were

plundered, and they became a wandering people. Moria [alone?] for long remained secure

[until TA 1980], but its numbers dwindled until many of its vast mansions became dark

and empty.' (Appendices, Tale of Years, The Third Age)

Until TA 1980, when of the Seven great mansions of the Dwarves only Moria remained,

`Seven the Dwarf-kings possessed, but three he has recovered, and the others the dragons

have consumed.' (The Fellowship of the Rings, The Shadow of the Past)

`It has been said that dragon-fire could melt and consume the Rings of Power, but there is

not now any dragon left on earth in which the old fire is hot enough [to melt and consume

Rings of Power]; nor was there ever any dragon, not even Ancalagon the Black, who

could have harmed the One Ring, the Ruling Ring, for that was made by Sauron himself.'

(The Fellowship of the Rings, The Shadow of the Past)

There may well have been a war between the Dragons and the forces of the Necromancer

for the control of the Seven Rings; the Dragons seem to have been able to draw the power

of the Seven by consuming them, while the Ringwraiths wanted to recover them for

Sauron, for his own purposes of crafting evil magic items therewith; this conflict might

explain why there were no Dragons in Mordor in the late TA. The One Ring might have

constituted a watershed in the crafting of magical items; before the power invested in the

magical items could be recovered by the destroyer of the item; Sauron used new

techniques which would dissipate the power invested in the ring if it were destroyed. This

would render in his opinion the destruction of the One Ring useless.

Without the Ring of Power the dwarves, like the kingdom of Erebor lost the capacity to

craft magic items and magic weapons of high power. Before the loss of the Ring they had

been able to make highly magical items such as moon-letters and secret doors whose

locks opened only on a certain moon-light, and which were impervious to steel picks and

tools. The secrets were lost; though the dwarven folk endured migrating out of Erebor;

the loss of the Ring coupled with the loss of costly raw materials, such as Eog and

Mithril, available to them no longer after they left Erebor, ended their mastery of things

magical.

'Glóin began then to talk of the works of his people, telling Frodo about their great

labours in Dale and under the Mountain. 'We have done well,' he said. `But in metalwork

we cannot rival our fathers, many of whose secrets are lost. We make good armour and

keen swords, but we cannot again make mail or blade to match those that were made

before the dragon came. Only in mining and building have we surpassed the old days.

You should see the waterways of Dale, Frodo, and the fountains, and the pools! You

should see the stone-paved roads of many colours! And the halls and cavernous streets

under the earth with arches carved like trees; and the terraces and towers upon the

Mountain's sides! Then you would see that we have not been idle.' (The Fellowship of the

Rings, The Council of Elrond)

There was an additional complication to Gondor’s troubles in the East and South at

around this time, as the Ringwraith Khamûl, the Second, revealed openly his power and

strove to conquer western occupied Rhûn. This made the Southern Exiles cast their

attention away from the South and East. Moreover, they had need of men for their armies

and the Northmen were deemed more trustful than the Haradrim; so there was a change

of focus to the North. In ‘1240 [king] Narmacil, to rid himself of all cares, made’ his

nephew Minalcar ‘Regent of the realm.’ This was a formality, as the parliament replaced

Narmacil, who was intent on pursuing a policy in the South. As for Minalcar, ‘His chief

concern was with the Northmen. These had increased greatly in the peace brought by the

power of Gondor. The kings showed them favour, since they were the nearest in kin of

lesser Men to the Dúnedain (being for the most part descendants of those peoples from

whom the Edain of old had come); and they gave them wide lands beyond Anduin south

of Greenwood the Great, to be a defence against men of the East. For in the past the

attacks of the Easterlings had come mostly over the plain between the Inland Sea and the

Ash Mountains.

In the days of Narmacil I their attacks began again, though at first with little force; but it

was learned by the regent that the Northmen did not always remain true to Gondor, and

some would join forces with the Easterlings, either out of greed for spoil, or in the

furtherance of feuds among their princes. Minalcar therefore in 1248 led out a great force,

and between Rhovanion and the Inland Sea he defeated a large army of the Easterlings

and destroyed all their camps and settlements east of the Sea.’ He thus conquered Central

Rhûn, including Kykurian Kyn, up to the Talathrant River. ‘He then took the name of

Rómendacil [II, ‘East-victor’].’ ‘On his return Rómendacil fortified the west shore of

Anduin as far as the inflow of the Limlight, and forbade any stranger to pass down the

River beyond the Emyn Muil. He it was that built the pillars of the Argonath at the

entrance to Nen Hithoel.’ (Appendices) ‘Though these people [the Northmen] were

ultimately related in speech and blood to the Atani (and so the Númenóreans), and were

usually friendly, they now became restless. Rómendakil was forced to withdraw his

northern border east of Anduin to the Emyn Muil. He there built the Gates of Argonath’

‘beyond which no stranger was allowed to come south without leave.’

The regent Minalcar had to fortify the Anduin because of the peril of the rumoured

ringwraiths of Dol Guldur that had infiltrated and acquired dominion over the tribes and

kingdoms of the Northmen and drawn many into alliance with the Easterlings and

hostility against Gondor. Gondor lost its influence in the region west of Mirkwood.

Minalcar made several attempts to storm the fortresses of southern Mirkwood that

guarded Dol Guldur. In this type of irregular warfare, the feudal mounted knights or the

new professional infantry pikemen of the Dúnedain were useless and they had to rely

upon Dunlending scouts and mixed Dúnedain-Dunlending rangers and the uneasy

alliance with the Silvan Elves of Greenwood, which was often broken due to mutual

distrust. In the wars with the undead and the fell creatures that peopled southern

Mirkwood, many evil strongholds were razed to the ground but the chief instigators were

never found. In conjunction with the Dúnedain of the Northern successor kingdoms,

intelligence was gathered of the weapons of possession, made of jade circlets, that gave

magic-users fits of madness and rage. Many of these were found at the fortresses of the

servants of Sauron and they were said to be powered by the third Dwarven Ring of

Power. They had a range only at about southern Mirkwood but that was sufficient to stop

Dúnedain activity in the area. And the undead armies grew with every year passing.

Defeated in these guerrilla wars that lasted for circa 30 years, southern Mirkwood was

abandoned to the enemy too. ‘Then he looked eastward and saw all the land of Lórien

running down to the pale gleam of Anduin, the Great River. He lifted his eyes across the

river and all the light went out, and he was back again in the world he knew. Beyond the

river the land appeared flat and empty, formless and vague, until far away it rose again

like a wall, dark and drear. The sun that lay on Lothlórien had no power to enlighten the

shadow of that distant height. `There lies the fastness of Southern Mirkwood,' said

Haldir. `It is clad in a forest of dark fir, where the trees strive one against another and

their branches rot and wither. In the midst upon a stony height stands Dol Guldur, where

long the hidden Enemy had his dwelling.’ (The Fellowship of the Ring, Lothlórien)

Gondor was now submerged by waves of Northmen settlers; as in Arnor before in TA

860, it now faced the peril that the composition of its people would change, and a new

half-barbarian elite would form and take over power, eliminating the old ways of the

Elven languages and magical lore, and the magical wisdom of Westernesse. Because of

the menace of the Easterling attacks from the steppes and grasslands of Eastern Rhûn,

namely the tribal confederations from Kargagis Ahar and Lu Tyr Su, and because the

largest part of its troops were bogged down in the Harad, fighting the Ring-wraiths and

their Khanîm and Haradrim servants, Gondor had reached a time where it was dependent

upon the numbers of the Northmen and had to co-opt them into the leading ranks.

‘But Rómendakil being at this time much troubled by assaults of Easterlings sought to

attach the Northmen more closely to his allegiance.’ ‘But since he needed men, and

desired to strengthen the bond between Gondor and the Northmen, he took many of them

into his service and gave to some high rank in his armies. In return he sent his son

Valacar to dwell for a while with Vidugavia, who called himself King of Rhovanion, and

was indeed the most powerful of the Northern princes, though his own realm lay between

Greenwood and the River Celduin. There Valacar was wedded to Vidugavia´s daughter,

and so caused later the evil war of the Kin-strife.’ ‘After the birth of Vinitharya’, later

called Eldakar, ‘Rómendakil [II] gave his consent to the marriage. He could not forbid it

or refuse to recognize it without earning the enmity of Vidugavia. Indeed all the

Northmen would have been angered, and those in his service would have been no longer

to be trusted. He therefore waited in patience until 1260, and then he recalled Valakar,

saying that it was now time that he took part in the councils of the realm and the

command of its armies.’ (Peoples of Middle-Earth 12, The Heirs of Elendil)

The reign of Valacar, from 1366-1432, was a quasi-dictatorship to help maintain the new

balance of things, as the Northmen settlers came into power especially in the northern

provinces. But this dictatorship retained some paternalistic traces to care and provide for

the people and so it endured the strains of time. But the time of the Middling Sort was

coming to an end, and a new age, the Age of the People, was arriving. Trouble was

brewing . There was a backlash against the newcomers and their progression into power

as the Dúnedain especially those of the Southern provinces tried to hold the reins of

government. ‘The high men of Gondor had long looked askance at the Northmen among

them, who had borne themselves more proudly since the coming of Vidumavi.’

‘There was already rebellion in the southern provinces when King Valacar grew old.’

(Appendices) The rebellions, erupting between TA 1411-1432, were at first disunified,

some mixing discontent against the dictatorship of Valacar, others rising against the

growing power of the Northmen in the offices of the state. ‘Various claimants to the

crown appeared, descendants of Atannatar II. The most favoured especially by the fleet,

and ship-folk of the southern shores was the Captain of the Ships, Kastamir’ ‘great-

grandson’ ‘of Kalmakil’s second son Kalimethar.’ (Peoples of Middle-Earth 12, The

Heirs of Elendil)

‘In 1432 broke out the Kin-strife’ when Eldacar assumed the crown. What was left of the

nobility and the southern provinces of the Empire fought against the royal house and the

northern provinces, where much mingling of blood had already taken place between

Dúnedain and Northmen. ‘In the end [TA 1437] Eldakar was driven into exile and

Kastamir’, the leader of the southern provinces of the empire, ‘became king. A

circumstance that later was noticed was that the weapons of possession were already at

work also in the South-kingdom; they caused the needless cruelty of Castamir in sacking

and setting aflame Osgiliath that resisted his siege for so long. But Eldakar drove him out

again, and after that time the blood of the kingly house became more mixed, for Eldakar

had the assistance of the Northmen of the Upper Anduin, his mother’s kin, and they were

favoured by the kingly house afterwards, and many of them served in the armies of

Gondor and became great in the land.’ (Peoples of Middle-Earth 12, The Heirs of

Elendil)

Eldacar son of Valacar (at first called Vinitharya) reigned from 1432; deposed 1437.

Castamir the Usurper †1447. Eldacar restored, died 1490.

After the civil war in the South-kingdom, the Northmen settled in high number among

the people of Gondor and occupied places of high rank; they now held the position of an

occupying race for some time while they didn’t amalgamate with the Dúnedain. A

dictatorship was introduced, specially in the southern provinces, to control the disaffected

Dúnedain from the southern provinces, and the conquered Black Númenóreans and

Haradrim. The Northmen were a primitive race with little knowledge of magic;

accordingly there was a high feeling among the Northmen against the use of magic save

the realm of Channeling, which was reserved for their priests, which integrated with the

priesthood of Gondor, the Seers.

The Northmen saw with hostility the Dúnedain and their magic-using skills, of which

they were afraid. As a warrior society that they were, they had a deep distrust of magic

and had myths that only Elves could be turned into undead making them nearly enemies

and things to be abhorred about.

‘The Lady Éowyn greeted them and was glad of their coming; for no mightier men had

she seen than the Dúnedain and the fair sons of Elrond’.

‘When they were lost to view, she turned, stumbling as one that is blind, and went back to

her lodging. But none of her folk saw this parting, for they hid themselves in fear and

would not come forth until the day was up, and the reckless strangers were gone.

And some said: 'They are Elvish wights. Let them go where they belong, into the dark

places, and never return. The times are evil enough.' (The Two Towers, The Passing of

the Grey Company)

TA 1500-2000: Imperial Age: Decline of the Middle-class, emergence of the People.

Golden age of the people

There was now come the imperial age, TA 1500-2000. This was a golden age, because

the largest class of them all, the people, was in a state of prosperity. As the treasury was

increased, the state increased the protection and welfare of its citizens. The countries

south and east of Gondor’s sphere of influence lay in tatters and destroyed. The

government of the Stone-land had now complete control over these far-flung lands. The

imperial dictatorships had no trace of paternalism in them; slavery was re-introduced in

the middle of the period when the destruction brought upon by civil wars and

bankruptcies so demanded, and the people was forced to follow the profession of their

parents; social benefits and security were privatized. This outright oppression was

perhaps anchored in the fact that the society had come to resemble an empire, with people

from the four corners of the world coming to dwell in the peace and prosperity of

Gondor, isolated from their kin and old customs; but this made them the more reckless.

But as time went by, it became impossible to tell a slave from a freeman, as all looked

alike, in clothes and style. Cycles of popular unrest and revolutions and the bankruptcy of

the capitalist system followed cycles characterized by the increase of the state sector and

the bureaucracy, and the nationalization of private assets to buy the people out. When the

economy started to decline due to corruption and the less competitive terms of society,

there would be a renewed surge of sales of state assets and privatizations. Also, the class

of the people now rising to prosperity and craftiness, larger in numbers than the middle-

class and wanting to live in common with elected leaders, sabotaged the capitalist system.

Thus, the state was often bankrupt, while the middle-class was in decline from weariness

of the increasingly more complex nature of work and laws. This period was full of

imperialist wars of expansion and civil wars for the control of the state between the

supporters of strong government (socialists and communists) and those of a market

economy supported by state taxes (social democrats).

From the start of this age the class of the people rose in capacity. So increased the

clamour by the majority for popular government and the abolition of private property.

The mode of government would change from a democracy to a dictatorship when the

anarchists threatened to topple it with a revolution, and then from a dictatorship to a

democracy when the communists were able for a time to throw off its yoke. But the

tyrants or communists broke the back of the middle-class in the course of time. By

disseminating ideologies and customs contrary to liberal capitalism they put it on the

defensive. They expropriated and persecuted the rich and the well-off disorganizing their

social networks, preventing the propagation of a free market ideology. But as much as

working-class power increased, its use of coercion made it more primitive bringing closer

the day of its decline. By the middle of the age, the people had organized, behind the

rights of free association and reunion, revolutionary armies that could only be defeated by

regular armies. To fight against the remaining guerrillas, emphasis was put on mobility

and the armies became ever more light in equipment. From the middle of that period

onwards, there was introduced a new religion and all the books that had come before of

history and politics were burnt because said to be pagan. Thereby, censorship was

introduced.

When the Great Plague broke out in c. TA 1640, riots in western Middle-Earth occurred

against magic-users accused of provoking the Great Plague with their experiments and

magics. Of the realm of Channeling all professions dealing with the undead are

forbidden, for the Northmen remembered with fear the capacity of the Númenóreans to

use the stones of necromancy to turn into undead any oath breakers. These disturbances

were propagated by the agents of Sauron who thereby intended to weaken the Dúnedain.

After this great calamity which claimed 1/3 of the population of Gondor, many crafts of

knowledge were forgotten. Ships-of-the-line, and many magical schools fell into disuse.

The Great Plague caused a breakdown of institutions and order. The relations between the

North and South-kingdom were broken. ‘c. 1700 Mordor being now left unguarded evil

things enter in again and take up their abode there secretly. Communication between the

North and South kingdoms ceases for a long while.’ (History of Middle-Earth 12)

In The Peoples of Middle Earth it is said about the events of TA 1975-76 that ‘The

following year Elrond and Círdan with some belated help from Gondor, sent by sea,

defeated the forces of Angmar. The Witch-king was overthrown by Elrond, and his realm

brought to an end. The northern lands though made desolate were now made somewhat

more wholesome again. But it was found later that the Witch-king had fled away secretly

southwards, and had entered Minas Ithil (now called Minas Morgul) and become Lord of

the Ringwraiths.’ In this part of the book it is clearly said that the Witch-king became

lord of the Úlairi only in the middle of the TA.

Gandalf too, in the late T.A. mentioned the Witch-king as a king before his downfall into

evil as a wraith. ‘The_ Shire," I said; but my heart sank. For even the Wise might fear to

withstand the Nine, when they are gathered together under their fell chieftain. A great

king and sorcerer he was of old [which means that he was human then], and now he

wields a deadly fear [come from his having become a Ringwraith only later onwards].’

‘It was in the reign of Araphant in the North and of Ondoher son of Calimehtar that the

two kingdoms took counsel together after long silence and estrangement. For at last they

perceived that some single power and will was directing the assault from many quarters

upon the survivors of Númenor. It was at that time that Arvedui heir of Araphant wedded

Fíriel [‘born 1896’] daughter of Ondoher’ in TA ‘1940’. From that time onwards the

magic-using Dúnedain held out with dwindling strength, and they had to give up all

magic-using, and thus the Kings failed and a Dark Ages followed.

The Stewards had to adopt other policies to resist; as Faramir told to the Hobbits, `But the

stewards were wiser and more fortunate. Wiser, for they recruited the strength of our

people from the sturdy folk of the sea-coast, and from the hardy mountaineers of Ered

Nimrais. And they made a truce with the proud peoples of the North, who often had

assailed us, men of fierce valour, but our kin from afar off, unlike the wild Easterlings or

the cruel Haradrim. (The Return of the King)

Though still some magic-using Dúnedain of far lesser power held out, their only remedy

was instinctively to seek sanctuary in the Elven havens of Lórien and Rivendell,

protected by the Elven Rings, ‘And we of Gondor grow like other Men, like the men of

Rohan; for even they, who are the foes of the Dark Lord, shun the Elves and speak of the

Golden Wood with dread.

`Yet there are among us still some who have dealings with the Elves when they may, and

ever and anon one will go in secret to Lórien, seldom to return. Not I. For I deem it

perilous now for mortal man wilfully to seek out the Elder People. Yet I envy you that

have spoken with the White Lady.' (The Return of the King)

As Gandalf summarized the situation to Frodo, there only remained for Sauron to find the

One Ring and bare the Elven Rings to its power; Gondor, without magic, was no longer a

threat to him, 'So it is now: the Nine he has gathered to himself; the Seven also, or else

they are destroyed. The Three are hidden still. But that no longer troubles him. He only

needs the One; for he made that Ring himself, it is his, and he let a great part of his own

former power pass into it, so that he could rule all the others. If he recovers it, then he

will command them all again, wherever they be, even the Three, and all that has been

wrought with them will be laid bare, and he will be stronger than ever. (The Fellowship

of the Ring, The Shadow of the Past)

'He lacks the One Ring. The Three, fairest of all, the Elf-lords hid from him, and his hand

never touched them or sullied them. Seven the Dwarf-kings possessed, but three he has

recovered, and the others [four] the dragons have consumed. Nine he gave to Mortal

Men, proud and great, and so ensnared them. Long ago they fell under the dominion of

the One, and they became Ringwraiths, shadows under his great Shadow, his most

terrible servants. Long ago. It is many a year since the Nine walked abroad [because

without the Rings, that were given to Sauron, so that he could grow again and power the

weapons of possession]. Yet who knows? As the Shadow grows once more, they too may

walk again. But come we will not speak of such things even in the morning of the Shire.'

So, in TA 1300-1940 the Nazgûl held their rings, Sauron being so weak that he could do

no other thing to give them shape, and the Nazgûl were fought by the Dúnedain

knowingly as what was rest of Sauron´s legacy, Sauron himself thought to be dead.

And in this period many were the champions that stormed Dol Guldur and Carn Dûm and

slew some of the Nazgûl, but lured by the artificial intelligence of the Rings of Power

they kept them and sooner or later took them for their own and in turn became ring-

wraiths. Mûrazor, the First, was slain in the Northern Wastes by a Northman champion,

called Elokim, while trying to build a kingdom in the plateau of Angmar. The last to

become a Ringwraith was a half-orc of Black Númenórean origin, Gothmog, that killed a

Nazgûl in Nûrn and captured the Second of the Nine, and so sealed his fate.

In TA 1940-3018 Sauron took the Nine and three of the Seven so that he could grow and

cast a new universal Amok curse over Middle-Earth´s spell-casters that would either join

the Shadow or grow mad like Earnil the king of Gondor, who rode with only a small

escort to Minas Morgul alone. That is why in 1940 Gondor and Arthedain joined:

because they could now recognize a universal threat to themselves. Weakened it took the

full nine Úlairi to capture Eastern Gondor in TA 2002, whereas with his Ring, the Witch-

king had been able solely to defeat Arthedain, Cardolan and Rhudaur in TA 1356-1409.

The Witch-king was never able to cross the Lhûn but he seems to have taken Eastern

Mithlond several times sweeping the Elves and their allies to the western side of the river

Lune, or else Círdan’s host would not need to cross the river to attack him. Círdan had no

authority over Lindon besides the Grey Havens; his summonings were purely an appeal

to all who would join him. ‘Then Círdan summoned all who would come to him, from

Lindon or Arnor, and when all was ready the host crossed the Lune and marched north to

challenge the Witch-king of Angmar. He was now dwelling, it is said, in Fornost, which

he had filled with evil folk, usurping the house and rule of the kings. In his pride he did

not await the onset of his enemies in his stronghold, but went out to meet them, thinking

to sweep them, as others before, into the Lune.’ (Return of the King, Appendices)

TA 2000-2500: Dark Ages or Age of the Wise: Decline of the People, emergence of

the Wise-Seers.

From circa TA 2050 Sauron improved the range of the weapons of possession so as to

cover all of Middle-Earth, but he had to expose himself, for their emanations out of Dol

Guldur could be located by scrying devices. ‘2060 The power of Dol Guldur grows. The

Wise fear that it may be Sauron taking shape again.’ In this he was toiled by Gandalf,

who was able to discover the ways to Dol Guldur through the fastness of the forest

evading the undead armies that guarded it and infiltrated it with a host of Elf-lords from

Rivendell destroying Dol Guldur for a while. Sauron could barely escape to the East,

beyond the Last Desert, and new weapons of possession were installed in Minas Morgoth

but without the range to cover Eriador and the North. ‘2063 Gandalf goes to Dol Guldur.

Sauron retreats and hides in the East. The Watchful Peace begins. The Nazgûl remain

quiet in Minas Morgul.’ (The Return of the King, The Tale of Years)

‘So it is now: the Nine he has gathered to himself [because the Nazgûl didn’t take a

physical form for many centuries; they didn’t venture forth from Minas Morgul for a very

long time, namely from T.A. 2475 when the eleventh Ruling Steward of Gondor,

Boromir, defeated the Nazgûl and their Uruk-hai host in Ithilien but received a Morgul-

knife wound, up to T.A 3018 when the Nazgûl issued forth from Minas Morgul again in

the hunt for the Ring for their Master was now strong enough to give them a physical

shape even without them holding the Rings]; the Seven also, or else they are destroyed.

The Three are hidden still.

‘They (the Nazgûl) were by far the most powerful of his servants, and most suitable for

such a mission, since they were entirely enslaved to their Nine Rings, which he now

himself held’. (The Unfinished Tales)

Galadriel also confirmed this by telling Frodo while in Lothlórien: "You saw the Eye of

him that holds the Seven and the Nine."

But, Gandalf speaking in The Council of Elrond, after the Úlairi went abroad again in

3018 reached the conclusion that “Some” “would think the tidings of Glóin, and the

pursuit of Frodo, proof enough that the halfling´s trove is a thing of great worth to the

Enemy. Yet it is a ring. What then? The Nine the Nazgûl [now] keep [stored somewhere

in Minas Morgul as the One Ring was stored in the Barad-dûr when Sauron went to

Númenór] The Seven are taken or destroyed.” “The Three we know of. What then is this

one that he desires so much?” (The Fellowship of the Ring)

Saruman who researched most of the arts of the Enemy devised a Dispel Magic spell to

erase the Undead of lower levels. That is how Gandalf told that they had stormed Dol

Guldur in TA 2941. And Dol Guldur, as the haunt of the Necromancer, was surely

guarded by an army of Undead. As Gandalf said, '"Saruman the White," answered

Radagast. "And he told me to say that if you feel the need, he will help; but you must

seek his aid at once, or it will be too late." 'And that message brought me hope. For

Saruman the White is the greatest of my order. Radagast is, of course, a worthy Wizard, a

master of shapes and changes of hue; and he has much lore of herbs and beasts, and birds

are especially his friends. But Saruman has long studied the arts of the Enemy himself,

and thus we have often been able to forestall him. It was by the devices of Saruman that

we drove him from Dol Guldur. It might be that he had found some weapons that would

drive back the Nine.’

There were many types of undead, normal skeletons like the horse of the Mouth of

Sauron, wraiths created with Morgul-blades, and the undead of the Dead Marshes. ‘At its

head there rode a tall and evil shape, mounted upon a black horse, if horse it was; for it

was huge and hideous, and its face was a frightful mask, more like a skull than a living

head, and in the sockets of its eyes and in its nostrils there burned a flame.’ (The Return

of the King, The Black Gate Opens)

'I know not who they are; but I thought I saw there Men and Elves, and Orcs beside

them.'

`Yes, yes,' said Gollum. `All dead, all rotten. Elves and Men and Orcs. The Dead

Marshes. There was a great battle long ago, yes, so they told him when Sméagol was

young, when I was young before the Precious came. It was a great battle. Tall Men with

long swords, and terrible Elves, and Orcses shrieking. They fought on the plain for days

and months at the Black Gates. But the Marshes have grown since then, swallowed up the

graves; always creeping, creeping.' (The Two Towers)

‘They tried to pierce your heart with a Morgul-knife which remains in the wound. If they

had succeeded, you would have become like they are, only weaker and under their

command. You would have became a wraith under the dominion of the Dark Lord; and

he would have tormented you for trying to keep his Ring, if any greater torment were

possible than being robbed of it and seeing it on his hand" (The Fellowship of the Ring)

The Faithful learnt of Necromantic Sorcery in Númenor while they suffered under the

yoke of Sauron and it was with this magic that they defeated Sauron in the War of the

Ring as Gimli knew, by recurring to the Oathbreakers. ‘Strange and wonderful I thought

it that the designs of Mordor should be overthrown by such wraiths of fear and darkness.

With its own weapons was it worsted!’ (The Return of the King, The Last Debate, 181)

From circa TA 2000 canons and the use of magic-items fell into disuse, due to the

outright hatred which the populace held magic-users, due to the madness provoked by the

weapons of possession. Still by the War of the Ring there were still some wizards in old

Arnor, though most were disliked because of the old uses to which magic had been put to.

‘And certainly it was from Bree that the art of smoking the genuine weed spread in the

recent centuries among Dwarves and such other folk, Rangers, Wizards, or wanderers, as

still passed to and fro through that ancient road-meeting.’ ‘It was plain that many people

regarded them now as the companions of a traveling magician of unknown powers and

purpose.’ As said Barleyman, 'Ah! That was Gandalf, if you know who I mean. A wizard

they say he is, but he's a good friend of mine, whether or no.’ The study of magic had

become outlawed and only with self-study could the magicians improve as the old

universities had been closed. ‘But, of course, Gandalf had made a special study of

bewitchments with fire and lights (even the hobbit had never forgotten the magic

fireworks at Old Took's midsummer-eve parties, as you remember).’ (The Hobbit, Out of

the Frying-Pan into the Fire)

'On the death of Ondoher and his sons, Arvedui of the North-kingdom claimed the crown

of Gondor, as the direct descendant of Isildur, and as the husband of Fíriel, only surviving

child of Ondoher. The claim was rejected. In this Pelendur, the Steward of King Ondoher,

played the chief part.’

King Eärnur, rendered insane by the weapons of possession, ‘he rode with a small escort

of knights to the gate of Minas Morgul’ and was taken alive and killed in torment. After

Eärnur gave himself up in torment and despair to the Nazgûl, the mood in Gondor’s

people was against the continuation of the line of these kings because they were useless

and bereft of the use of magic due to the weapons of possession. The high men of Gondor

however were not still to be left at the mercy of the Nazgûl so they entered into an

alliance with higher powers that could still use magic under the weapons of possession

and so resist the Nazgûl. They summoned Saruman from the East, the head of the Istari,

and made him chief of the council of Gondor giving him up troops, Isengard and the

palantír. ‘c. 2000 Curunír (Saruman), returning out of the East, takes up his abode in the

Tower of Orthanc in the Ring of Isengard. This had been an ancient stronghold of

Gondor, guarding their north-west frontier, but the northern parts of the realm were now

largely empty and King Eaernil [II] was glad to have the aid of Curunír against the

Ringwraiths, and gave Isengard to him for his own.’ (History of Middle-Earth 12)

`With that thought, I forsook the chase, and passed swiftly to Gondor. In former days the

members of my order had been well received there, but Saruman most of all. Often he

had been for long the guest of the Lords of the City [the Stewards which he helped

establish against the claims of the kings]. (The Fellowship of the Ring)

'In Gondor also one king only followed Eärnil. It may be that if the crown and the sceptre

had been united, then the kingship would have been maintained and much evil averted.’

‘Each new Steward indeed took office with the oath 'to hold rod and rule in the name of

the king, until he shall return.' But these soon became words of ritual little heeded, for the

Stewards exercised all the power of the kings. Yet many in Gondor still believed that a

king would indeed return in some time to come; and some remembered the ancient line of

the North, which it was rumoured still lived on in the shadows. But against such thoughts

the Ruling Stewards hardened their hearts.’ (Appendices)

The family of the Stewards now made an alliance with the Seers of Gondor. The Seers of

Gondor were to become supreme in Gondor in this age, the Age of the Wise TA 2000-

2500. There were many who looked to the line of Elendil in Arthedain for government

but the stewards and seers of Gondor broke these coalitions; they used schemes and

assassinations to crush them in feeling, saying of the line of Arthedain that they were

nothing but half-breeds of Dúnedain and Eriadorans. They even introduced organized

religion into the worship of Eru, which before had been personal, and a pantheon that

consisted of the Valar and the dark powers. But though with the will to carry on the fight

they were hopeless without the use of magic. Thus, the men of Gondor spoke of Sauron

in capital letters denoting in him a higher power that though they feared they respected.

‘Now of late we have learned that the Enemy has been among them, and they are gone

over to Him, or back to Him-they were ever ready to His will-as have so many also in the

East. I doubt not that the days of Gondor are numbered, and the walls of Minas Tirith are

doomed, so great is His strength and malice.' `But still we will not sit idle and let Him do

all as He would,' said Mablung. (The Two Towers, Of Herbs and Stewed Rabbit)

Thereafter the control of the channels of information was a monopoly of the clergy.

'Ware! Ware!' cried Damrod to his companion. 'May the Valar turn him aside! Mûmak!

Mûmak!' (The Return of the King)

It is probable though that in the dire circumstances that Gondor found itself, adherence to

the worship of Eru from the Dunlendings of the valleys of the White Mountains, former

servants of Sauron back in the Dark Years of the SA and never fully converted except by

the might of Minas Tirith not to raid the lands of the lower Anduin valley, could not be

gained except with the new religion. The Dunlendings, long a subject race in Gondor,

were brought from the valleys to the cities of the lower Anduin valley; they were locked

at night in barracks and in the day worked the fields, built buildings or worked in the

factories. But there were often rebellions, and they often escaped to the valleys of the

White Mountains. The Northmen, dominant in Gondor since the Kin-strife, saw the

integration of the Dunlendings also as a means to disunite the unrestful Dúnedain. After

the kings ended, so did the imperial age, and a dark ages begun where the ancient

languages of lore and the use of magic was abandoned; such was the fate of the scrying

devices, of the magical realm of mentalism, at the Middle Anduin, installed there to put a

watch on the servants of darkness coming from the East and from Dol Guldur to the

north. Also there was an abandonment of Elven friendship and their magical lores as

happened before in Númenor when Elven names were dropped from the list of kings.

‘His successors [of Mardil Voronwë, the first of the Ruling Stewards] ceased to use

High-elven names.’ (Appendices)

The dark ages that followed the end of the kings in the North and South-kingdom in the

period TA 1974-2050, meant an end in magic and an abandonment of most high

technology. As Gandalf said, `With that thought, I forsook the chase, and passed swiftly

to Gondor. In former days the members of my order had been well received there, but

Saruman most of all. Often he had been for long the guest of the Lords of the City. Less

welcome did the Lord Denethor show me then than of old, and grudgingly he permitted

me to search among his hoarded scrolls and books.

' "If indeed you look only, as you say, for records of ancient days, and the beginnings

of the City, read on! " he said. "For to me what was is less dark than what is to come, and

that is my care. But unless you have more skill even than Saruman, who has studied here

long, you will find naught that is not well known to me, who am master of the lore of this

City."

`So said Denethor. And yet there lie in his hoards many records that few now can

read, even of the lore-masters, for their scripts and tongues have become dark to later

men. And Boromir, there lies in Minas Tirith still, unread, I guess, by any save Saruman

and myself since the kings failed, a scroll that Isildur made himself.’ (The Fellowship of

the Ring, The council of Elrond)

The magic to make the ‘unbreakable stone’ of the walls of Minas Tirith had been

forgotten. When the gate was destroyed by the army of Minas Morgul, the Dúnedain

recognized that they did not have the skill or magic to rebuild it. 'The Gate is destroyed,'

said Imrahil, 'and where now is the skill to rebuild it and set it up anew?'

'In Erebor in the Kingdom of Dáin there is such skill,' said Aragorn; 'and if all our hopes

do not perish, then in time I will send Gimli Glóin's son to ask for wrights of the

Mountain.’ (The Return of the King, The Last Debate) Later on, ‘its gates were wrought

of mithril and steel’. (The Return of the King, The Steward and the King)

The scrying devices at Amon Hen lay abandoned and derelict, as Aragorn recognized,

`Behold Tol Brandir! ' said Aragorn, pointing south to the tall peak. 'Upon the left stands

Amon Lhaw, and upon the right is Amon Hen the Hills of Hearing and of Sight. In the

days of the great kings there were high seats upon them, and watch was kept there.’ ‘He

came to a path, the dwindling ruins of a road of long ago. In steep places stairs of stone

had been hewn, but now they were cracked and worn, and split by the roots of trees.’

(The Fellowship of the Ring, The Breaking of the Fellowship)

This was the reason why Gondor could no longer keep the Nazgûl at bay, as Galdor of

Lindon said, 'And yet its vigilance [of Gondor] can no longer keep back the Nine,' said

Galdor’. (The Fellowship of the Ring, The Council of Elrond)

But things had not been always like this; in the SA to mid TA, magic was used far-

ranging and by many spell-casters. As Gandalf said before the magical gate of Moria of

the many spells that had been available just for opening magical doors, “I once knew

every spell in all the tongues of Elves or Men or Orcs that was ever used for such a

purpose. I can still remember ten score of them without searching in my mind.’ (The

Fellowship of the Ring)

The last magic-using Dúnedain steadily declined in numbers due to the weapons of

possession even with the refuge of Rivendell at their disposal. Still they were recognized

by other folks to be the most powerful men around. ‘But in the wild lands beyond Bree

there were mysterious wanderers. The Bree-folk called them Rangers, and knew nothing

of their origin. They were taller and darker than the Men of Bree and were believed to

have strange powers of sight and hearing, and to understand the languages of beasts and

birds.’ (The Fellowship of the Ring, At the Sign of The Prancing Pony)

'In a high chamber of the Burg,' said Legolas. 'He has neither rested nor slept, I think. He

went thither some hours ago, saying that he must take thought, and only his kinsman,

Halbarad, went with him; but some dark doubt or care sits on him.'

'They are a strange company, these newcomers,' said Gimli. 'Stout men and lordly they

are, and the Riders of Rohan look almost as boys beside them; for they are grim men of

face, worn like weathered rocks for the most part, even as Aragorn himself; and they are

silent.'

'But even as Aragorn they are courteous, if they break their silence.' said Legolas. 'And

have you marked the brethren Elladan and Elrohir? Less sombre is their gear than the

others', and they are fair and gallant as Elven-lords; and that is not to be wondered at in

the sons of Elrond of Rivendell.'

A little apart the Rangers sat, silent, in an ordered company, armed with spear and bow

and sword. They were clad in cloaks of dark grey, and their hoods were cast now over

helm and head. Their horses were strong and of proud bearing, but rough-haired; and one

stood there without a rider, Aragorn's own horse that they had brought from the North;

Roheryn was his name. There was no gleam of stone or gold, nor any fair thing in all

their gear and harness: nor did their riders bear any badge or token, save only that each

cloak was pinned upon the left shoulder by a brooch of silver shaped like a rayed star.

(The Return of the King, The Passing of the Grey Company)

‘The Lady Éowyn greeted them and was glad of their coming; for no mightier men had

she seen than the Dúnedain and the fair sons of Elrond; but on Aragorn most of all her

eyes rested.’ (The Return of the King, The Passing of the Grey Company)

A policy of giving merit to men of worth irrespective of their race was begun, so as to

endure the hardships of the age now that the magic-using of the Dúnedain was gone.

Such was the effect of the Enemy’s machines of Possession, powered with the technology

of the Seven Rings and embedded with the necromantic spells of undeath of the Nine

Rings that rendered all users of good magic insane.

‘And the last king of the line of Anárion had no heir. `But the stewards were wiser and

more fortunate. Wiser, for they recruited the strength of our people from the sturdy folk

of the sea-coast, and from the hardy mountaineers of Ered Nimrais. And they made a

truce with the proud peoples of the North, who often had assailed us, men of fierce

valour, but our kin from afar off, unlike the wild Easterlings or the cruel Haradrim.’ (The

Return of the King, The Window on the West)

In the South, Sakal an-Khâr which was then occupied in the conquest of all the Bay of

Ormal and could not spare a troop to help the Nazgûl of Mûmakan and Ciryatandor in the

conquest of the Harad. But along with the Black Númenórean colony of Tantûrak they

now developed a plan; beforehand they had raided the coasts of Mòrenorë for slaves; they

now proposed the northern lords of Dark Harad to transport them to Utter Harad to join in

the conquest of Haradwaith, and to give them for settlement all of Western Harad up to

and including Far Harad. This took place in TA 2470. The northern black men of

Mòrenorë accepted the offer and they now met their doom; for they were successful in

overwhelming Mirëdor and Hyarn along with their relatives of Mag and Tumag; under

the leadership of the Nazgûl Jí Indûr they stormed by sheer numbers the Númenórean

fortresses of unbreakable stone scaling their walls with ladders and siege towers

constructed by the Tantûraki; they then joined forces with the hosts of the Nazgûl

Akhôrahil of Ciryatandor for the conquest of Far Harad, where worship of Eru was still

strong. At this time the Mòrenoreans came into permanent contact with the terror of the

Nazgûl and they would prefer to slay themselves than to undo their bidding. When the

conquest of Far Harad was accomplished in TA 2495, these folks now came wholly

under the dominion of the Shadow; and the Nazgûl brought creatures of Sauron from the

Yellow Mountains to live among them, and bred Trolls with Humans creating the race of

the Half-Trolls. These ‘troll-men’ are mentioned in the War of the Ring as coming ‘out of

Far Harad black men like half-trolls with white eyes and red tongues.’ (The Return of the

King, The Battle of the Pelennor Fields)

TA 2475 Attack on Gondor renewed. Osgiliath finally ruined, and its stone-bridge

broken. ‘Boromir [I] son of Denethor [I] defeated them and regained Ithilien; but

Osgiliath was finally ruined, and its great stone-bridge was broken. No people dwelt there

afterwards. Boromir [I, 2410-2489] was a great captain, and even the Witch-king feared

him [How could this be if he had not issued forth from Minas Morgul and fight with him?

and then retreated defeated to Minas Morgul and was besieged and his physical shape and

of the others slain?]. He was noble and fair of face, a man strong in body and in will, but

he received a Morgul-wound in that war which shortened his years, and he became

shrunken with pain and died twelve years after his father.’ (The Return of the King,

Appendices)

TA 2500-3000: Age of Heroes: Decline of the Wise-Seers-Clergy; emergence of the

Nobility.

In circa TA 2500 Magic-use was outlawed in Gondor due to popular pressures, except for

the realm that applies to the angels and God, that of Channeling. In old Arnor and

Wilderland it was detested by the common folk. ‘All the company drew away from

Pippin and Sam, who found themselves left alone in a comer, and eyed darkly and

doubtfully from a distance. It was plain that many people regarded them now as the

companions of a travelling magician of unknown powers and purpose.’

'All right, Mr. Underhill! But if you're going to do any more tumbling, or conjuring, or

whatever it was, you'd best warn folk beforehand - and warn me. We're a bit suspicious

round here of anything out of the way -uncanny, if you understand me; and we don't take

to it all of a sudden.' (The Fellowship of the Ring)

TA 2463 And Curunír’ ‘was chosen to be their chief [of the White Council], for he had

most studied the devices of Sauron of old.’ (Silmarillion)

TA 2941 The might of the Elves and the Elf-friends is less now than of old. Soon he will

be too strong for you, even without the Great Ring; for he rules the Nine, and of the

Seven he has recovered three. We must strike.” To this Curunír now assented’.

‘Therefore, for the last time he aided the Council, and they assailed Dol Guldur, and

drove Sauron from his hold, and Mirkwood for a brief while was made wholesome again.

(Silmarillion) Saruman had researched a spell that dispelled the undead hordes of the

Necromancer. Thus were the undead hordes of the Necromancer defeated and his power

in that realm ended. ‘But Saruman has long studied the arts of the Enemy himself, and

thus we have often been able to forestall him. It was by the devices of Saruman that we

drove him from Dol Guldur. It might be that he had found some weapons that would

drive back the Nine.’ (The Fellowship of the Ring, The Council of Elrond)

Saruman had also researched into the spells that Sauron used to control and master his

hordes of fell creatures and instill them with hatred. Thus he put together his army of orcs

and half-orcs, and Gandalf was ready to forgive his crimes at Isengard if he would lend

them his support in the War of the Ring. `Then I gave him a last choice and a fair one: to

renounce both Mordor and his private schemes, and make amends by helping us in our

need. He knows our need, none better. Great service he could have rendered. But he has

chosen to withhold it, and keep the power of Orthanc.' (The Two Towers)

TA 3000-3018; FA 0-500: Age of the Middle-class: decline of the Nobility,

emergence of the Middle-Class.

The people had laid in decline in the previous time, TA 2500-3000 but now it recovered.

It wanted peace but lay helpless against the creatures of Sauron. 'They come from

Mordor,' said Strider in a low voice. 'From Mordor, Barliman, if that means anything to

you.'

'Save us!' cried Mr. Butterbur turning pale; the name evidently was known to him. 'That

is the worst news that has come to Bree in my time.' 'It is,' said Frodo. 'Are you still

willing to help me?' 'I am,' said Mr. Butterbur. 'More than ever. Though I don't know

what the likes of me can do against, against---' he faltered.

'Against the Shadow in the East,' said Strider quietly. 'Not much, Barliman, but every

little helps. (The Fellowship of the Ring)

Three of the four demon-gods of the Northern Waste, Khorne, Tzeentch, and Slanesh

gather the hordes of the Easterlings and Hobgoblins of Angband and attack the fortress-

city of Rivendell intending to lay siege to it. But when the One Ring was destroyed their

siege turned into a route and they were defeated at the Fords of the Bruinen by the former

Elf-lords of Aman. The fourth demon-god of the Northern Waste, Nurgle, attacked with

his hordes and drakes the kingdom of Thranduil. His hordes defeated, when the One Ring

was destroyed, he escaped north to the Northern Wastes.

The End