Q: How Many Pre-Numenorean Peoples Joined Arnor and Gondor?
ANSWER: So far as I am aware, J.R.R. Tolkien never wrote down a list of the Pre-Númenórean tribes or peoples living in western Middle-earth who accepted Elendil and his sons as kings. There have been attempts to decipher whom all these peoples might have been but one must make assumptions and there are no authoritative sources for some of the guess-work.
For example, some people use the story of “Tal-Elmar” as the basis for estimating 1, 2, 3, or possibly even 4 distinct tribes of Men were living in Middle-earth near the Mouths of Anduin in the Second Age. However, “Tal-Elmar” is an unfinished story and J.R.R. Tolkien never included or mentioned it in any book he published. J.R.R. Tolkien published four “Middle-earth” books during his lifetime: The Hobbit (in 3 editions), The Lord of the Rings (in 2 editions), The Adventures of Tom Bombadil, and The Road Goes Ever On.
These four books constitute what some (but not all) Tolkien analysts regard to be a core canon, although it is by no means a coherent body of works as there are inconsistencies and outright contradictions between these books.
Add to this chaotic “core canon” the interviews and letters Tolkien published from 1937 to 1972 in which he provided additional details about Middle-earth, either reflecting his private thought or his intended changes (he would have ultimately had to revise at least two of the published books again). This “expanded canon” introduces yet more inconsistencies and contradictions.
Everything else — every note, essay, and scrap of paper with something scrawled or drawn on it — that was NOT published within Tolkien’s lifetime completes what we could call the “full canon” — but it is not a coherent body of works in any sense of the word. The many layers of Tolkien’s Legendarium both predate and post-date the 1937-72 period. One must even include Christopher Tolkien’s posthumous collaboration, The Silmarillion, in this body of works (and The Children of Hurin as well).
Given this approximate classification of Tolkien’s Middle-earth literature (which includes much non-Middle-earth material, such as The Book of Lost Tales), “Tal-Elmar” may only be included in the “full” canon. It is not even alluded to in any of Tolkien’s letters (such as Letter No. 276, which JRRT wrote to Dick Plotz in September 1965, mentioning non-Silmarillion material).
There are clear references in various texts to two groups of people who lived in or very close to the lands that became Gondor at the end of the Second Age: the Druedain (who apparently dwelt in three or more areas of Middle-earth) and a group of tribes of men including the (Dead) Men of Dunharrow, whom Tolkien said were related to the Dunlendings and the Men of Bree. Some of the swarthy Gondorians who march to reinforce Minas Tirth from the coasts may be related to the Dunlendings and their ancient kin (including the Second House of the Edain, the Folk of Haleth). I and some other people have referred to all these peoples as Gwathuirim, although that name is only properly used of the Second Age clans or tribes that lived near the Gwathlo.
But were there other “types” of men who lived in the lands that later became Gondor? We simply cannot answer the question. Tolkien implied a near-continual movement of tribes and clans around Middle-earth, among all his peoples. At one time many Nandor dwelt in the lower vales of Anduin, but many of them left with Denethor in the First Age; and the rest were probably slain or driven out during the War of the Elves and Sauron. The Númenóreans also settled in the area, some marrying into local tribes/clans. The Exiles from Númenóre who arrived with Isildur and Anarion thus found a rather varied population in the region (including the mysterious Elves of Edhellond, who probably included descendants of Nandor and Avari as well as some Sindar regardless of which origin story you want to deem authoritative).
Beyond that we have too little information about the demographics of the various ancient peoples of Gondor. If you are designing a role-playing campaign or writing fan fiction and you want my opinion, I would guess that the “safest” route to take is to assume that all the pre-Númenóreans were probably either Druedain, Gwathuirim, or Elves. But frankly my guesses in these kinds of things have been pretty bad, historically. I once devised a perfectly plausible explanation for how men related to the Folk of Beor (the First House of the Edain) and Marach (the Third House of the Edain) could have migrated back into Rhovanion during the Second Age — only to learn eventually (in The Peoples of Middle-earth) that Tolkien had decided there were always men related to those two tribes living in Rhovanion. They had never left.
So it could always be that — had he given any thought to the matter — Tolkien envisioned some other group of men dwelling in the coastlands that became Gondor, much like the Folk of Bor had left relatives behind who became ancestors of the some of the men of Eriador; much like there were men from Angmar and Rhudaur who, apparently, were not related to the Edain of the First Age, either.
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