Q: Who Were the Men of Mirkwood?
ANSWER: Based on texts published by J.R.R. Tolkien and his son Christopher, there were three main groups of men living in Mirkwood in the late Third Age. The history of men and Mirkwood goes all the way back to the First Age, however, for it is apparent from the essay “Of Dwarves and Men” (published in The Peoples of Middle-earth) that the ancestors of the Beorians (the First House of the Edain) and the Marachians (the Third House of the Edain) had migrated northwest from the region of the Sea of Rhun into Greenwood the Great, and from there passed over Anduin and crossed into Eriador.
The migration was not tribal. That is, it seems that each generation successive waves of settlers passed west, leaving behind friends and kinsmen. This process lasted from about the year FA 50 (when, according to interpretations of “The Tale of Adanel” — published in Morgoth’s Ring), the ancestors of the Edain rebelled against Morgoth and fled west) until about FA 310, when Beor led the first band of Edain into Beleriand.
In the Second Age the descendants of villages from these earlier waves dwelt throughout Eriador east of the Baranduin river, along the Anduin river between the Misty Mountains and Greenwood, in the forest itself, and eastward as far as the Carnen and the Iron Hills. According to “Of Dwarves and Men” these villages/tribes formed an alliance with the Longbeard Dwarves that remained strong until the War of the Elves and Sauron. Then
…The Second Age had reached only the middle of its course (c. Second Age 1695) when he invaded Eriador and destroyed Eregion, a small realm established by the Eldar migrating from the ruin of Beleriand that had formed an alliance also 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 re-taken, the Ered Mithrin 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,(35) 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 or in the borders of the Forest.
The remnants of these eastern Edainic peoples were called the “Free Men of the North”. In an essay about the princes of the Silvan Elves which Christopher published in Unfinished Tales of Numenor and Middle-earth, J.R.R. Tolkien wrote:
…The Free Men of the North (so called by the Elves because they were not under the rule of Dúnedain, and had not for the most part been subjected by Sauron or his servants) were spreading southwards: mostly east of the Greenwood, though some were establishing themselves in the eaves of the forest and the grass¬lands of the Vales of Anduin.
This essay describes events at the beginning of the Third Age. The apparent implication is that the descendants of the Men of the Alliance waited nearly 2,000 years to start expanding again into the lands where their ancestors had once dwelt freely. These Free Men of the North were the ancestors of the Northmen of the Third Age.
The Woodmen of Mirkwood appear to have been descended from the Free Men of the North, so their ancestors must have migrated through Greenwood the Great before Sauron settled on Dol Guldur around Third Age year 1050. It was at this time that Easterlings began settling in or near southern Mirkwood, according to various essays. From that time forward there were “Woodmen” living in the western part of central Mirkwood, the Northmen of Rhovanion (Vidugavia’s kingdom) living in the East Bight and the adjacent lands, and other tribes living farther north on the eastern side of the forest.
Vidugavia’s people were eventually conquered by the Wainriders, and a remnant of the Northmen of Rhovanion formed the Éothéod. From that time forward there appear to have been only three groups of men living in Mirkwood: the Northmen in the far northeastern eaves of the forest, beyond Thranduil’s kingdom; the Woodmen of central Mirkwood; and the Easterlings loyal to Dol Guldur.
None of the published texts tell us where the ancestors of the Beornings came from, whether they were an offshoot of the Woodmen, of the survivors of Rhovanion, or some other group that had survived the wars of the Second Age. We only know that by the time of The Hobbit (Third Age year 2941) men were again gradually migrating northward along the western bank of Anduin in the foothills of the Misty Mountains and that Beorn himself had originally come from the mountains.
When Bard re-established Dale some of his people came from the west, apparently from the forest; whether these men were Woodmen from central Mirkwood or the descendants of Northmen who had always lived in the northern lands is not clear. The evil men loyal to Sauron appear to have survived until the end of the Third Age but whether they were driven away by Celeborn and Galadriel or destroyed is left untold. Celeborn took the southern forest as his new kingdom, East Lorien — it seems unlikely that he would have permitted any evil men to live close by. With the closing of the Third Age, it would seem that only men of Edainic descent remained in Mirkwood (now renamed Eryn Lasgalen).
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See also:
- How Did the Éothéod differ from the Rohirrim?
- How Many Lords of Éothéod were There?
- Why Did the Rohirrim Move South to Gondor?
- What Were the Beornings Like?
- Where Did the Rohirrim Come From?
- How Many Tribes of Northmen are There?
- What was Éothéod Like?
- “Horror in the Woods: How Men Live in Mirkwood”, which is part of Middle-earth Unplugged
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