The Peoples of Middle-earth (41 page)

c.1150. The Fallohides, a clan of the Periannath, crossed into Eriador and came down from the North along the River Hoarwell. About the same time the Stoors, another clan, came over the Redhorn Pass and moved south towards Dunland.(18)

c.1200. Under Atanatar the Glorious Gondor reaches the height of its power, and its sway extends from the Greyflood in the West to the Sea of Rhunaer in the East, and from the south-eaves of Mirkwood in the North to the land of the Haradrim in the South. The Haradrim acknowledge the overlordship of Gondor for many years.

c.1300. The western Periannath, now for the most part mingled together, move westward from the region of Amon Sul (Weathertop), and begin to make small settlements among the remnants of the peoples of the old North-kingdom. Their chief settlement was on and about the Hill of Bree.

c.1350. Evil things begin to multiply again. Orcs increase rapidly and delve in the Misty Mountains, and attack the Dwarves. The Ringwraiths stir once more. The chief of these, the wielders of the Nine Rings, becomes the Witch-king of the realm of Angmar in the North beyond Arnor, and makes war on the remnants of the Dunedain.

1356. Argeleb king at Fornost is slain in battle with the realms of Cardolan and Rhudaur, which resist his claim to overlordship.

c.1400. About this time, owing to dissensions and to the unfriendliness of the lands and clime of eastern Eriador, some of the Stoors return to Wilderland and dwell beside the R. Gladden that flows into Anduin. They become a riverside people, fishers and users of small boats. Others of the Stoors move north and west and join with the Harfoots and Fallohides.

1409. The Witch-king of Angmar taking advantage of the civil war among the Dunedain comes out of the North and overwhelms the petty realms of Cardolan and Rhudaur and destroys the remnants of the Numenoreans that dwelt there. 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.

In this year 1409 King Arveleg I of Fornost was slain in battle by the Witch-king, but the Heirs of Isildur still hold out at Fornost with aid from Lindon. Arveleg is succeeded by Araphor.

In this war the Palantir of Amon Sul was destroyed.

Help did not come from the South-kingdom for their peace also was troubled by dissensions. King Valakar took to wife the daughter of an alien king of the Northmen of Anduin, with whom Gondor had sought alliance and aid in their war with the Easterlings. No king or heir to the throne of Gondor had before done such a thing.

1432. War of the Kin-strife breaks out in Gondor. Valakar dies and the succession of his son, half of alien blood, is contested by other descendants of Atanatar the Glorious.

The war lasts till 1447. Kastamir who had driven out Valakar's son Eldakar was ejected by Eldakar and slain.

The sons of Kastamir flee from Gondor and set up a pirate fortress at Umbar, and remain at war with the king.

1601. (S.R.1)(19) A host of Periannath migrates from Bree westward, and crosses the R. Baranduin (Brandywine). The land beyond, between the Baranduin and Emyn Beraid, had been a demesne of the Kings of Arnor, where they had both chases and rich farms; but they were now untended and falling into wilderness. The king Argeleb II therefore allowed the Periannath to settle there, for they were good husbandmen.(20) They became his subjects in name but were virtually independent and ruled by their own chieftains. Their numbers were swelled by Stoors that came up from southern Eriador and entered the land from the south and dwelt mostly near to the Baranduin. This land the Periannath or Halflings called

'The Shire'. Shire-reckoning begins with the crossing of the Baranduin in this year.

1634. The Corsairs of Umbar slew King Minardil and ravaged Pelargir. They were led by Angomaite and Sangahyanda grandsons of Kastamir.(21)

1636. A great plague comes out of the East, and devastates Gondor. King Telemnar and all his children died. The White Tree of Isildur in Minas Anor withered and died.

The power of Gondor dwindles.

1640. King Tarondor removed the king's house to Minas Anor.

He planted there again a seedling of the White Tree.

Osgiliath becomes deserted owing to the fewness of the people, and begins to fall into ruin. The watch on Mordor is relaxed, and the fortresses at the passes become empty.

The plague spreads north and west, and wide regions of Eriador become desolate. But the virulence of the plague decreases as it passes west and the Periannath in the Shire suffer little loss.(22)

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.

1850. Assault of the Wainriders out of the East upon Gondor.

War lasts for many years.

1900. Kalimehtar of Gondor builds the White Tower in Minas Anor.

1940. Messengers pass between the two kingdoms, since both are in peril: the South from the Wainriders of the East, and the North from renewed attacks of Angmar.

Arvedui heir of Araphant of Arthedain weds Firiel, the daughter of King Ondohir of Gondor.

1944. Ondohir with both his sons, Faramir and Artamir, slain in battle against a great alliance of the Wainriders and the Men of Harad. Arvedui of the North claims the southern crown, both on his wife's behalf and on his own as representing 'the elder line of Isildur'. The claim is refused by Gondor and lapses with the death of Arvedui; but all his descendants, though too weak to press their claim, continue to maintain that they are also by rights kings of Gondor, being descended both from Isildur and Anarion (through Firiel).

1960. Pelendur the king's steward for a time ruled Gondor, but after a while Earnil, descendant of a previous king, receives the crown.(23)

1974. End of the North-kingdom. The Witch-king destroys Fornost, lays the land waste, and scatters the remnants of the Dunedain. Arvedui flies north taking the Palantiri (the two that remain). He attempts to escape by ship to Gondor from Forochel, but is lost at sea, and the Stones disappear. His sons take refuge with Cirdan.(24)

1975. Cirdan of Lune and Elrond, with belated help sent by sea from King Earnil, defeat Angmar. The Witch-king is overthrown and his realm destroyed. He flies south and comes at last to Mordor.

1976. Aranarth son of Arvedui takes refuge with Elrond at Imladris. He abandons the title of 'king', since he now has no people, but the chieftains of the Dunedain descended from him continue to bear names with the royal prefix Ar, Ara. The Periannath sent archers to the Battle of Fornost, but after the end of the kingdom they claim the Shire as their own. They elect a Thain to take the place of the king.(25) According to their tradition the first independent Shire-thain was one Bucca of the Marish, from whom later the Oldbuck family claimed descent. The beginning of his office dated from S.R.379.

1980-2000. The Witch-king gathers the other eight Ringwraiths to him and they issue from Mordor, and folk flee from Ithilien in terror. The Ulairi captured Minas Ithil and made it their stronghold, from which they were not again expelled while the Third Age lasted. The Palantir of Minas Ithil is captured. Minas Ithil is re-named Minas Morgul (Tower of Sorcery), and Minas Anor is called Minas Tirith (the Tower of Guard).

About this time also other evil things were roused. A terror of the Elder Days, a Balrog of Thangorodrim, appeared in Moria. Some say that the Dwarves delving too deep in their search for mithril or true-silver disturbed this evil creature from its sleep far under the world. The remnants of Durin's folk are slain by the Balrog or driven out of Moria. Many of them wandered into the far North, as far as the Grey Mountains or the Iron Hills.

c.2000. Curunir (Saruman), returning out of the East, takes up his abode in the Tower of Orthanc in the Ring of Isengard.(26) 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 Earnil was glad to have the aid of Curunir against the Ringwraiths, and gave Isengard to him for his own.

About this time it is thought that Deagol the Stoor found the Ring in Anduin near the Gladden Fields where Isildur was slain as he swam. Deagol was murdered by his friend Smeagol, who took the Ring.

c.2010? Smeagol, now called Gollum, is cast out by his own people, and hides in the Misty Mountains. He vanishes out of all knowledge taking the Ring with him.(27)

2043. Death of King Earnil. His son Earnur (the Last King of Gondor in that Age) comes to the throne. The Lord of the Ringwraiths challenged him to battle.

2050. Against the counsel of Mardil his Steward King Earnur accepts the renewed challenge of the Lord of Morgul to single combat. He rides to the gates of Minas Morgul, but he was betrayed and taken and never again seen by mortal men. Earnur left no children. No male descendants (of clear title or nearly pure blood) of Anarion could be discovered. Mardil the good Steward governed the realm, nominally 'until the King's return'. For a long time previously the stewardship had usually been held by a member of the same family (one of nearly pure Numenorean descent). It now became hereditary in that family like a kingship. But each Steward took office with the formula 'to hold the rule and rod until the King's return'; and they did not take official names of Quenya or High-elven form. Their names were mostly of Noldorin kind, that tongue being still used by those descended from the Elf-friends of Numenor.

After the disappearance of Earnur and the ending of the kings the White Tree seldom again bore fruit, and each year its blossom grew less as it slowly aged.

2060. The fear of the Ringwraiths, or Ulairi, spreads far and wide. The Elves deem that the Power in Dol Guldur is one of these; but in the hearts of Elrond and Gandalf the fear grows that the darkness in Mirkwood should prove to be the shadow of Sauron himself awakening.(28)

2063. Gandalf goes alone to Dol Guldur in secret, to discover the truth concerning the Sorcerer. But the Sorcerer is aware of him; and being not yet grown to great power, he fears the eyes of Gandalf, and the strength of the Wise, and he deserts Dol Guldur and hides in the East again for a while.

Here begins a time that is called the Watchful Peace.

For there was a long quiet, but no certainty. During that time the Ringwraiths never again appeared in visible shape beyond the walls of Minas Morgul; but the Wise were in doubt what should yet come to pass, and Gandalf made great journeys to discover the plans and devices of their enemies.

2300. Elrond, who had remained unwed through all his long years, now took to wife Celebrian, daughter of Galadriel and Celeborn of Lorien. His children were the twin brethren, Elladan and Elrohir, and Arwen Undomiel, the fairest of all the maidens of the Third Age, in whom the likeness of Luthien her foremother returned to Middle-earth. These children were three parts of Elven-race, but the doom spoken at their birth was that they should live even as the Elves so long as their father remained in Middle-earth; but if he departed they should have then the choice either to pass over the Sea with him, or to become mortal, if they remained behind.

2340. Isumbras I, head of the Took family in the Shire, becomes thirteenth Thain, the first of the Took line.(29) After his day the office became hereditary in the family of the Tooks of the Great Smials. About this time the Oldbucks occupied the Buckland, east of the River Brandywine and on the edge of the Old Forest.

2349. Birth of Elladan and Elrohir, sons of Elrond, in Imladris.(30)

2349. Birth of Arwen Undomiel.

2460. After a space of nearly four hundred years the Watchful Peace ends, and the powers of evil move again. The Sorcerer returns to Dol Guldur with increased strength, and gathers all evil things under his rule.

2463. The White Council is formed to unite and direct the forces of the West, in resistance to the shadow. Curunir (or Saruman the White) is chosen to be the head of the Council, since he has studied all the arts and ways of Sauron and his servants most deeply. Galadriel of Lorien wishes Gandalf to be made chief, but he refuses. Saruman begins his study of the Rings of Power and their uses and history.

2475. The attack upon Gondor is begun again with new vigour, in the days of Denethor I, son of Dior,(31) the tenth Steward. His son Boromir defeats the enemy before East Osgiliath, but Osgiliath is finally ruined in this war, and the ancient and marvellous stone-bridge is broken. The Men of Gondor still maintain their hold upon Ithilien, but little by little its people desert it and pass west over Anduin to the valleys of the White Mountains.

2480. onwards Orcs again multiply in secret and occupy many deep places (especially those anciently made by the Dwarves) in the Misty Mountains. They do this so stealthily that none are aware of it, until they have great forces hidden and are ready to bar all the passes from Eriador into Anduin's vales, according to the plan of their master in Dol Guldur. Orcs and Trolls occupy parts of the now empty Mines of Moria.