Q: Is Dorwinion A Part of Rhûn?
ANSWER: Short answer: no, Dorwinion is not “a part of Rhûn”.
I received the following question in March 2023: “I’ve seen a few things counting Dorwinion as part of Rhûn – is there any textual evidence to this? Everything I’ve seen says the eastern border of Rhovanion is the River Running and the map has Dorwinion west of it. Surely it’s a realm within Rhovanion then?”
This is a variation of a type of question I’ve received and answered in the past. It reflects a couple of common misunderstandings among Tolkien readers.
Rhûn is a direction, not a region. Rhûn is simply the Sindarin (Elvish) word for “east” and it doesn’t name any country or region.
In other words, from the Shire, Rivendell is “in Rhûn”; but from Rivendell, everything “in Rhûn” starts at the valley’s eastern border (deeper into the Misty Mountains). The people of Rivendell would not think of themselves as being “in Rhûn” but they would understand they were “in the Rhûn of Eriador”.
Wiki and Fan Sites Still Misrepresent Rhûn
Communal information sites like Wikipedia, Tolkien Gateway, the LoTR wiki on Fandom, and others speak of “large lands to the east of Rhûn”, “The western part of Rhûn”, and “Rhûn referred to all lands lying east of Rhovanion” (to cite a few examples).
All of these statements are complete nonsense. It’s equivalent to saying “the large lands to the east of East”, “the western part of East”, and “East referred to all lands lying east of Rhovanion”.
Numerous forum discussions and other fan sites also perpetuate these misapplications of the word.
How J.R.R. Tolkien Used “Rhûn”
The word Rhûn only occurs 6 times in the text of The Lord of the Rings, not including the map where it’s drawn in large letters on the eastern side of the main map (instead of the word “EAST”). There is only 1 specific geographical feature where Rhûn is used nominally.
In “The Council of Elrond” Aragorn says: “I have crossed many mountains and many rivers, and trodden many plains, even into the far countries of Rhûn and Harad where the stars are strange.” He is only using the words “Rhûn” and “Harad” as directions (in the sense of “the far countries of [the] East and [the] South where the stars are strange.”
In “Minas Tirith” Denethor says: “And in my turn I bore [the horn Boromir carried], and so did each eldest son of our house, far back into the vanished years before the failing of the kings, since Vorondil father of Mardil hunted the wild kine of Araw in the far fields of Rhûn.” Again, he’s only using the word to indicate a direction, as in “the far fields of [the] East”.
In “The Field of Cormallen”, the narrative says: “But the Men of Rhûn and of Harad, Easterling and Southron, saw the ruin of their war and the great majesty and glory of the Captains of the West.” The countries from which the Easterlings and Southrons came are not named. The narrative is only using these words to indicate the directions in which their homelands lay: “But the Men of [the] East and of [the] South, Easterling and Southron, …”
In Appendix A, the narrative says: “The realm then extended north to Celebrant and the southern eaves of Mirkwood; west to the Greyflood; east to the inland Sea of Rhûn; south to the River Harnen, and thence along the coast to the peninsula and haven of Umbar.” Here “the inland Sea of Rhûn” is clearly nominal. But it’s equivalent to saying “the inland Sea of [the] East”, in the same sense that “the East Sea” or “the Eastern Sea” refers to what is formally known today as “the East China Sea” (a very specific body of water off the coast of China and other countries).
There is a region on the Moon (Luna) named Mare Orientale, which is Latin for “Eastern Sea”. So “Sea of Rhûn” is an acceptable place-name, even though Rhûn itself is merely a word for a direction. The implication of “Sea of Rhûn” is that, to the map-makers whose cartography was preserved in The Red Book (of Westmarch) there was a single, specific body of water that was formally designated as the eastern sea, but they knew it was an inland sea, not an ocean on the eastern side of the continent of Endor.
And that is why Appendix A also says: “And wherever King Elessar went with war King Éomer went with him; and beyond the Sea of Rhûn and on the far fields of the South the thunder of the cavalry of the Mark was heard, and the White Horse upon Green flew in many winds until Éomer grew old.” Here “Sea of Rhûn” is a place, but the word “South” is used instead of “Harad” because they are literally interchangeable. Tolkien wanted the distinction to be clear.
There is no border for a region called Rhûn, just as there is no border for a region called Harad. The map of Middle-earth included in The Lord of the Rings represents the views and interests of Arnor’ and Gondor’s cartographers. So they placed Rhûn and Harad at the edges of the regions where traditional Númenorean influence waned or ended.
In the First Age, Eriador Was in Rhûn
In The Silmarillion, Dwarves and Men came from Rhûn – entering Beleriand by crossing or passing around the Blue Mountains (Ered Luin). These mountains marked the westward boundary of Endor in the Second and Third Ages. Thargelion is also called Talath Rhûnen (translated as “the East Vale”).
In many passages in The Silmarillion, “the east” refers to lands east of Hithlum (which lay far to the west of Lindon). The word Rhûn is never even used, even though a few passages speak of lands or geographical features far to the east of the body of water later known as “the inland Sea of Rhûn” – including the Orocarni (the easternmost mountains of Endor), Cuiviénen (the land where the Elves awoke), and Hildórien (the land where Men awoke).
Tolkien Rarely Used the Word Rhûn
You’ll only find 6 uses of Rhûn in the texts of Unfinished Tales of Númenor and Middle-earth, and of those 5 uses are for “the Sea of Rhûn”. The 6th use is a passage where Christopher quotes Aragorn in The Lord of the Rings (see above, “The Council of Elrond”).
The word doesn’t occur at all in The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien. All 4 uses in The Silmarillion are for Talath Rhûnen. And the 12 uses in The Peoples of Middle-earth are for the “Sea of Rhûn” (or Rhûnaer).
Rhovanion Was A Region
Tolkien translates the word Rhovanion as “Wilderland”, and it has specific boundaries: the Anduin in the west, the Grey Mountains in the north, Carnen/Celduin in the east (and an imaginary boundary extending southward), and the Ash Mountains in the south.
Some people dispute the inclusion of Greenwood the Great (or Mirkwood) in Rhovnanion.
Dorwinion would therefore be considered a part of Rhovanion, much as Mongolia would be considered a part of Asia.
However, Rhovanion would have been considered a western region by peoples living beyond the Carnen/Sea of Rhûn/Mordor boundary and it would have been considered an eastern region by peoples living west of the Anduin (or the Misty Mountains).
Likewise, Rhovanion would have been considered a northern (or north-eastern) land by the peoples of Gondor (and south). In fact, the Northmen came from Rhovanion. And because Rhovanion lay east of the Anduin, it would have been an eastern land to many Gondorians (especially those living in Calenardhon) – but the Northmen were never called Easterlings (only because of their kinship to the Edain of the First Age).
Conclusion
To answer the question I used as the title of this article, “Is Dorwinion a part of Rhûn”, no. There is no “land of Rhûn”, or “region called Rhûn”. Hence, Dorwinion is not part of anything called Rhûn.
On the other hand, Dorwinion lies to the east of many lands. Hence, Dorwinion would be seen as “in Rhûn” or “toward Rhûn” by many peoples – including the cartographers of Arnor, Gondor, Lindon, and Imladris.
So it would have been acceptable to say “Dorwinion is in Rhûn” in the same way it would be acceptable to say “Dorwinion is in [the] East”.
See also
Is Rhûn a Part of Middle-earth?
Is All of Harad in Middle-earth A Desert?
Did Pauline Baynes CHoose the Location of Dorwinion?
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Well said once again, Martin. My only counterargument would be a real-world example which may not hold up in context: Near East and Far East are often used as terms which, while literally dependent on where a speaker is standing, still are seen as specific regions. This is how I always understood Rhûn: while literally the word just means East, it could be understood as a region in the context of who is speaking.
That said, your answer is definitely technically more correct, and any counterargument relying on real-world examples rather than the text itself kinda falls flat. I get that. Well written, as always.
Middle East is a good counter-example. “Near east” and “Far east” may have started out contextually relevant to Europe. I think they’re now used globally, though. But the fact that a semi-directional phrase can be applied to a region doesn’t alter the original meaning of the directional word (“east” in these examples). I see them as more equivalent to Rhunaer or Talath Rhunen.
Tolkien refers in one or two places to Near Harad and Far Harad, meaning Near and Far South. Nowadays we might say Near/Far East, but not Near/Far South. Yet I don’t recall any mention of Near or Far Rhûn. I have to say I’ve never given “Rhûn” much thought and am quite happy to accept it as a general term for “the East”. Tolkien doesn’t seem to have paid it much attention either, except perhaps when Frodo looks east from Amon Hen and sees trackless forests and wide plains. From the point of view of Tolkien’s Gondorians, etc, “Rhûn” was a vast mysterious region from which at any time dangerous enemies might appear at any time. Perhaps, if Tolkien had had more time, he might have explored Rhûn a bit more, tracked down the Blue Wizards, but it was not to be.
As with Near East and Far East, Near Harad and Far Harad are regions relative to a specific place (Gondor). Harad is a direction or that part of the whole world that lies in the specific direction relative to the speaker/writer’s location.
There’s similar confusion among readers about Harad to their confusion about Rhûn, but in my opinion somewhat less confusion because of Near and Far Harad. That said, Tolkien writes about “the West” in the same sense (not “Dún”). But people don’t dwell on which countries are “in the West” or “in Dún”.
Rhovanion and Dorwinion would be considered part of the West from certain pespectives, even though Tolkien never said they were. And they would also be considered part of the East (or Rhûn) from other perspectives.
The usage is dependent upon the geographical location of the users. There’s no specific part of Middle-earth that is “the Harad”. Even Gondor is said to be in “in the south” (or South) in some parts of the story.
East, West, South, and North don’t have fixed boundaries you can draw on a map. They are simply directions relative to an observer, even in Elvish.
I always liked the very concept of Dorwinion, it is a very fascinating land that we only know scraps of 🙂 a land of “great gardens” and vineyards, mysterious and known only for the trading of it’s wines, which seem to be one of finest wines in all of Middle-earth strong enough to make a Wood Elf drowsy 🙂 and worth to be drunk on king’s feasts! Sham that we don’t know more, though the history of the use of the name for that land in itself is intriguing, also whether it is inhabited by elves, men (or both), and in general the whole topic of winemaking, viticulture is very fascinating in cotnext of Middle-earth hehe, (wine is referenced in relation to elves even in the Silmarillion through briefly:
“Guiltless we came forth, save maybe of folly, to listen to the words of fell Fëanor, and become as if besotted with wine, and as briefly. ”
🙂 and obviously in the Unfinished Tales it is said that Tuor and Voronwe were given “food and wine” by the guards of Gondolin Seven Gates…so one immediately starts to think, where do elves had their vineyards (elven vineyards in Gondolin on the vale of Tumladen? 🙂 now that would be something fun to think about) and whether their wine was more than that of mortals haha, though obvioulsy the Elves also had mead (Lothlorien “white mead” and all that) so they also must have some sort of beekeeping arts too 🙂 so much of detail is out there to guess hehe…that’s why the Nature of Middle-earth the note on elvish economics was one of the most interesting things 🙂 hehe (obviously it’s in regards to the specific version but still it’s amazing detail). Dorwinion and the local area, of the Esgaroth, Dale and so on was always a fascinating place, one even wonders whether there may be no Entwives up there somewhere hehe, all that talk of gardens one could think the the Entwives would have found other refuge maybe hehe, (as Treebeard said some said they saw them fleeing east 😉 “Some said they had never seen them; and some said that they had seen them walking away west, and some said east, and others south.”). It’s one of those eternal mysteries that adds depth to the world and mystery in itself is good, but at the same time one would like to know more and more :). Was Dorwinion ever in the sphere of Gondorian influence when they won those east-lands as part of their expansion into the east? Or it was an already existing separate realm part of the Vidugavia’s kingdom? We will never know but it’s an immensely interesting topic.
East, or Rhun is also widely unknown all we hear of the great plains and “forests unexplored” of the wide lands from which various tribes of nomadic or semi nomadic peoples come, almost brining in mind the Pontic steppes, and the wild Kine of Araw roaming those areas, the great inland Sea of Rhun which also many peoples were passing by on their migrations west, be it Elves or Edain, maybe even the earliest hobbits? And who knows maybe there are many folk living along it’s shores builidng ships and those are part of the trade routes on the waterways, part of the trade exchange of goods with ships sailing up the river Celduin to Long Lake etc. (it would be fun area to explore in a say, an open world RPG video game hehe :)).