How Many Tribes of Northmen are There?

Q: How Many Tribes of Northmen are There?

ANSWER: J.R.R. Tolkien only named a small number of Northman communities or tribes, but he referred to a few other groups. The named groups were:

• The Northmen of Rhovanion –> the Éothéod –> the Rohirrim
• The Beornings
• The Woodmen of (south-western) Mirkwood
• The Men of Esgaroth
• The Men of Dale

However, there are reference to other groups of Northmen. For example, in The Hobbit there are Men who are gradually moving back north along the eastern foothills of the Misty Mountains. These Men may be equivalent to the Beornings or they may be another group.

In The Hobbit Gandalf and Balin visited Bilbo at the end of the story and told him that “Bard had rebuilt the town in Dale and men had gathered to him from the Lake and from South and West.” The Men to the south of the Lake had already been mentioned earlier in the story as trading partners to the Men of Esgaroth, but the Men of “West” are not clearly identified.

In an essay published in Unfinished Tales of Numenor and Middle-earth J.R.R. Tolkien refers to the Free Men of the North who live in or near the northeastern eaves of Greenwood the Great near the beginning of the Third Age; these may be the ancestors of the Men from “West” who help rebuild Dale, or possibly the ancestors of Dale’s folk itself.

In western Rohan some of the Rohirrim had intermarried with familes from Dunland. These western men were still Northmen by blood but were also Dunlendings by blood.

There were also references to at least two, possibly three groups of Northmen who migrated to Gondor itself earlier in its history. Although they may not have been recognized as Northmen by the time of the War of the Ring their descendants probably still lived there.

There are references to three dynastic families among the Northmen: Vidugavia and his descendants who were Kings of Rhovanion, Lords of the Éothéod, and Kings of the Mark; the Line of Girion, King of Dale; and the Line of Beorn (represented by Beorn and his son Grimbeorn the Old). Had he given thought to their backstories, Tolkien might have imagined the Lines of Girion and Beorn being quite ancient, but we’ll probably never learn anything more about them.

Still, it seems plausible to assume that most if not all of the Northmen communities had families of special status. Even the people of Esgaroth seem to have held their wealthier, most succesful merchant families in high regard. Bard was only the Captain of the Guardsmen of Esgaroth — even as a descendant of Girion he doesn’t seem to have held any special position among Esgaroth’s elders.

Finally, it should also be noted that many of the Men of Eriador were descended from clans or tribes from whom the Marachians and Beorians of the First Age were descended — and the Northmen of Wilderland were descended from other relatives of those two peoples. Although it would appear that the Northmen of Eriador had long since died out by the War of the Ring, at least one small group of refugees from Rohan arrived in Bree in the year 3018, followed by a few others. These Northmen would have formed a new community that most likely accepted Aragorn as their king.

See also:

• How did the Éothéod differ from the Rohirrim?
• Did the Kingdom of Dale Conquer Other Cities?
• What Was Éothéod Like?
• Who Were the Men of Mirkwood?
• Were Bard and His Descendants Also Kings Over Lake-town?
• How Large was the Kingdom of Dale’s Army?
• How Was the Kingdom of Dale Governed?
• When Was the Kingdom of Dale Founded?

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