Q: What Happened to the People of Angmar?
ANSWER: In Appendix A to The Lord of the Rings J.R.R. Tolkien notes that the Kingdom of Angmar came to an end with the defeat of the Lord of the Nazgul in Third Age year 1974 after the combined armies of Gondor, Lindon, Rivendell, and the remnants of Arnor’s people overwhelmed Angmar’s forces. However, Angmar had included Men among its peoples, as well as Orcs and Trolls. Readers sometimes ask what happened to these various peoples.
One must first understand where Angmar lay and how large it was. Tolkien briefly described the kingdom and how it was founded in Appendix A:
‘It was in the beginning of the reign of Malvegil of Arthedain that evil came to Arnor. For at that time the realm of Angmar arose in the North beyond the Ettenmoors. Its lands lay on both sides of the Mountains, and there were gathered many evil men, and Orcs, and other fell creatures. [The lord of that land was known as the Witch-king, but it was not known until later that he was indeed the chief of the Ringwraiths, who came north with the purpose of destroying the Dúnedain in Arnor, seeing hope in their disunion, while Gondor was strong.]’
Although Tolkien did not address the question of what happened to Angmar’s people after the defeat of the Witch-king directly there are a few hints about what he imagined. For example, in the account of “The House of Eorl” he writes of the Éothéod that:
…They loved best the plains, and delighted in horses and in all feats of horsemanship, but there were many men in the middle vales of Anduin in those days, and moreover the shadow of Dol Guldur was lengthening; when therefore they heard of the overthrow of the Witch-king, they sought more room in the North, and drove away the remnants of the people of Angmar on the east side of the Mountains. …
According to Appendix B, “The Tale of Years”, in Third Age year 2740 “Orcs renew their invasions of Eriador” and in 2747 “Bandobras Took defeats an Orc-band in the Northfarthing.” Bandobras’ fight with the Orcs is named elsewhere as the Battle of Green Fields, and in The Hobbit it is said that he slew Golfimbul, king of the Orcs of Mount Gram in that battle. Mount Gram, you will notice when you look at a map of Eriador, was near the southern boundary of Angmar. And, of course, Trolls continued to disturb the peoples of eastern Eriador up until 2941, when Thorin and Company encountered three of them on their way to Rivendell. Arador, grand-father of Aragorn II, was slain by “hill-trolls in the Coldfells north of Rivendell” in 2930.
I think the most logical explanation is that, really, nothing happened to Angmar’s people. They continued to live as they had before the Lord of the Nazgul became their Witch-king. The Men of Angmar were probably few in number — otherwise they would have been able to overwhelm Arthedain and the other little kingdoms. In fact, I have often speculated that Arnor must have fought wars with the peoples of northeastern Eriador — for at least one High King (Valandur) died a violent death (in Third Age year 652).
Without the Witch-king to unite them the various tribes of Men, Orcs, and Trolls most likely fell to fighting among themselves — or at least they stopped cooperating with each other. And though we hear no further mention of men living in the former lands of Angmar after the Éothéod settled in the northern lands of Anduin, we know that at least some survivors of Angmar were “driven away”, so they apparently were not obliterated by the armies that defeated Angmar’s forces.
Beyond that you will have to guess at how many of these survivors there were and of what kinds they might be. If you are writing fan fiction or planning a role-playing campaign it would be reasonable to say there were still communities of evil folk living in northeastern Eriador right up until the end of the Third Age, and perhaps even into the Fourth Age.
# # #
Have you read our other Tolkien and Middle-earth Questions and Answers articles?
