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Q: Were the Men of Lake-town Related to the Gondorians?
ANSWER: The Men of Lake-town were closely related to the Men of Dale and the Northmen of Rhovanion. As such, they were distantly related to some of Gondor’s peoples. Well, that’s as close to the “official” narrative as one can get. But there are other ways to piece the texts together.
I received this lengthy question in August 2021:
I have a question for you that I doubt hasn’t been asked before; could the men of Lake-town be related to the Gondorians?
Even though the refugees of Dale (after Smaug) settled amongst them they seem to have belonged to a different culture before that. In a passage I can’t quite remember it is mentioned that their ancient fleets fought in ancient wars. What makes me think they were an outpost of Gondorians (or at least the old much greater ruined town of Esgaroth was) is that they used ships, and the only men I recall ever using ships were the Númenoreans/Dúnedain.
This is purely speculation on my behalf but I personally believe old Esgaroth was an outpost of the great king Bladorthin, used to trade with both the dwarves and the elves (a purpose which it fulfilled long afterwards, as we see that trade between the elves of Mirkwood and Dorwinion necessarily passed by Lake-town). His kingdom, in turn, was the remnant of Gondor’s eastern province of Dorwinion, which is why they know the art of shipcraft. The ‘great wars’ their fleets fought were probably the northern wars between Gondor and the Easterlings (remember it is said the Easterlings invaded south of the sea of Rhûn, in my mind probably because the Carnen/Celduin and the inland sea were defended by said fleets, and the Easterlings simply had no ships of their own to counter them). After the Wainriders/Balcoth conquered most of the kingdom of Rhovanion, Dorwinion became separated from mainland Gondor thus explaining why it became an independent kingdom. The fleet thing also could explain why the Northmen of that region survived, as otherwise the Easterlings would’ve just crossed the river (as they did with Anduin much later).
It is also mentioned that the men of the north prospered under Erebor as they benefited from trade and dwarvish weapons. Here I am reminded of the spears of Bladorthin, which were never delivered or paid for. It could be (in my mind) that the downfall of Erebor meant the Northmen/pseudo Gondorians of Dorwinion stopped getting supplied with weapons and armor, hence explaining the destruction of old Esgaroth and the downfall of this once mighty kingdom (in my mind it may be that much like Lake-town, Dorwinion is only a mere remnant of Bladorthin’s realm… after all Dorwinion is rather small and Bladorthin was called the “great” king). I believe also around this time Cirion of Gondor hears news of the Easterlings slaying Northmen, it could be that the fall of Erebor left them defenseless. This could also be why the first Lake-town built on the ruins of Esgaroth was built further from the coast, to protect themselves. Finally it could also be that the Old Forest Road precisely led to Bladorthin’s realm, rather than an elsewhere speculated-about city of Woodmen. As to why Bladorthin’s great kingdom is seemingly forgotten from history? Maybe the separations between them and Gondor caused by the Easterlings meant they had no communication…and now only old scholars in Dowrinion may know of this forgotten chapter in history.
I know this is A LOT of speculation and most of it isn’t supported by text since Tolkien wrote virtually nothing about that part of the world, and never bothered to elaborate on Esgaroth’s history, but I just can’t shake the Lake-town-Dorwinion-Gondor connection off my head. Regardless, I would love to hear your thoughts on this theory, and whether you have some theories of your own regarding old Esgaroth.
Well, the good news I suppose is that I cannot definitively prove your speculations are wrong.
But neither can I provide much help in proving them (close to) right. Here’s what I can say for sure.
The Sources
The primary sources for information regarding the Northmen of Dale and Esgaroth (or Lake-town upon Esgaroth) are The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings.
A major secondary source of information is Unfinished Tales of Numenor and Middle-earth, which contains texts that J.R.R. Tolkien did not publish (and therefore did not edit for publication).
Another secondary source of limited information is The Peoples of Middle-earth.
I will not consider The Nature of Middle-earth as many of its writings contradict what Tolkien published during his lifetime, and should be treated as more experimental than the texts from the above sources that are more consistent with the published books. I do note, however, that Tolkien revised both The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, but those revisions don’t affect this question.
Of Gondor and Esgaroth
Most of the history of Lake-town’s people was provided in The Hobbit:
Not far from the mouth of the Forest River was the trange town he heard the elves speak of in the king’s cellars. It was not built on the shore, though there were a few huts and buildings there, but right out on the surface of the lake, protected from the swirl of the entering river by a promontory of rock which formed a calm bay. A great bridge made of wood ran out to where on huge piles made of forest trees was built a busy wooden town, not a town of elves but of Men, who still dared to dwell here under the shadow of the distant dragon-mountain. They still throve on the trade that came up the great river from the South and was carted past the falls to their town; but in the great days of old, when Dale in the North was rich and prosperous, they had been wealthy and powerful, and there had been fleets of boats on the waters, and some were filled with gold and some with warriors in armour, and there had been wars and deeds which were now only a legend. The rotting piles of a greater town could still be seen along the shores when the waters sank in a drought.
The Lord of the Rings refers to or reiterates events from The Hobbit but also includes this:
Most of the Men of the northern regions of the Westlands were descended from the Edain of the First Age, or from their close kin. Their languages were, therefore, related to the Adûnaic, and some still preserved a likeness to the Common Speech. Of this kind were the peoples of the upper vales of Anduin: the Beornings, and the Woodmen of Western Mirkwood; and further north and east the Men of the Long Lake and of Dale. From the lands between the Gladden and the Carrock came the folk that were known in Gondor as the Rohirrim, Masters of Horses. They still spoke their ancestral tongue, and gave new names in it to nearly all the places in their new country: and they called themselves the Eorlings, or the Men of the Riddermark. But the lords of that people used the Common Speech freely, and spoke it nobly after the manner of their allies in Gondor; for in Gondor whence it came the Westron kept still a more gracious and antique style.
There are a few brief mentions in both Unfinished Tales and The Peoples of Middle-earth of the Men of the Long Lake, or Northmen who fled north along the Celduin from the Wainriders/Easterings, but nothing significant.
Of Dorwinion and Bladorthin
Tolkien never clearly explained who or what Dorwinion and Bladorthin were. I have argued – based on considerable (but ambiguous) textual evidence – that Dorwinion was probably settled by Elves and may have been inhabited by Elves at the end of the Third Age. As for Bladorthin, we have nothing but his name and the mention of the thrice-forged spears that were never delivered. I’ve shown that Bladorthin’s name could be interpreted in various ways. And John Rateliff showed in The History of The Hobbit that Bladorthin was originally the name for the wandering wizard character who became Gandalf.
The Bladorthin of the published Hobbit need not have been a Northman king at all. He could have been an Easterling who traded with Dale and Erebor. He could also have been Girion’s father or grandfather.
If one wishes to write fan fiction or develop a gaming adventure, Bladorthin could fit into many different scenarios. He could be an Elf, a Man, or even a Dwarf.
Conclusion
To answer your question more directly, yes, the Men of Lake-town were most likely related to Gondorians – both through a common Edainic ancestry and through a more recent common ancestry in Vidugavia’s Kingdom of Rhovanion. Some of the Northmen of that time and region migrated to Gondor, and some of them migrated north. There are a few other vague passages that I’ve used over the years to connect these dots.
But I can’t give you a definite “yes” or “no” answer. Interesting as your speculations are, I think you’ll have to live with nothing more than that.
See also
Who Was King Bladorthin In The Hobbit?
Why Weren’t Bladorthin’s Thrice-forged Spears Delivered?
When Was the Kingdom of Dale Founded?
What Happened to the Elves Who Remained in the East?
Where Did the Northmen Settle in Gondor?
How Many Tribes of Northmen Were There?
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