Q: Were There any Cultural Differences between Arnor and Gondor?
ANSWER: While this may seem like a simple, straight-forward question I am not sure what the asker is really trying to discover. “Culture” is defined in various ways as the collective activities and practices of a group of people that distinguish themselves from each other. As with so many things in human experience, culture can be evaluated on multiple levels (such as human culture versus a “band” or “tribal” culture).
Cultures also evolve over time. For example, while human culture exists around the world today, it is very different from what we might have called human culture 5,000 years ago, 10,000 years ago, or 100,000 years ago. Modern human culture includes the use of electronic devices, powered transportation, broadcast communications technology, and many other practices that had not been developed thousands of years ago. And the same could be said of the cultures of Middle-earth, for though people often treat the different kingdoms and peoples as if they are culturally similar J.R.R. Tolkien did invent some significant cultural differences between them.
The most widely noted cultural distinctions are those that Tolkien raised between Elves, Dwarves, and Men. But within human society he also devised some cultural divisions, such as the Rohirrim’s love of horses versus the Numenoreans’ love of ships. But those two cultures were separated by thousands of years and great distances.
At the end of the Second Age, when Elendil and his sons founded Arnor and Gondor, they may have solidified some common cultural ties between the northern and southern peoples who accepted them as kings. But Tolkien does not describe how these peoples lived, nor how the presence of exiled Numenoreans among them may have changed their customs, languages, or practices.
Arnor and Gondor probably shared several cultural practices, such as maintaining the Common Speech (Westron) together. It is reasonable to guess that Tolkien envisioned insignificant regional variations in Westron, but the only one he called out was the peculiar dialect of the Shire, which he could only contrast with the speech of Gondor at the end of the Third Age.
Both kingdoms would have established archives and special estates that preserved Numenorean knowledge and plants, but Tolkien does not mention a division of skills and lore between the two lands. Hence, we must look at circumstantial evidence for cultural differences — primarily in the form of causes or requirements — between the two lands.
Differing climates would mean that Arnor’s winters were longer and colder than Gondor’s. Arnor’s people probably dressed more warmly than Gondor’s people and Gondor’s people probably enjoyed a diet more like that of Mediterranean peoples.
Differing resources such as greater access to coastlands in Gondor probably meant that Gondor’s people depended on the sea more than Arnor’s people. But Arnor’s people had closer opportunities for trade with the Dwarves and the Noldor than did Gondor’s people.
Historical events also affected Gondor’s culture in ways that probably led to differences. For example, Tolkien describes how Gondor’s armors were expected to defend vast regions including the bridge at Tharbad (in connection with Arnor), the fortresses at Angrenost and Aglarond, the forts along the Anduin, fortresses in Mordor, and even cities on the coast including Pelargir and Umbar. Gondor almost certainly maintained much larger military forces after Elendil’s time, including a navy.
Gondor may have had more trade contact with Haradrim and Easterlings than Arnor. Gondor certainly had more contact with the Northmen, many of whom settled in Gondor. Hence, Gondor’s people must have practiced many skills and customs that would seem strange in the north. But then, Arnor became home to the Hobbits, and whereas Gondor’s own civil war was quickly resolved the divisions between Arthedain, Cardolan, and Rhudaur lasted for centuries. Military customs in the north thus differed from those in the south.
The post-Angmarian period also altered the culture of Eriador for at least a thousand years, introducing a period of increasing isolation between Arnor’s population centers. Gondor, on the other hand, withdrew its peoples from Calenardhon, Ithilien and Harondor, concentrating its population in the “core lands” of the realm for better defense and thus maintaining a stronger economy and military tradition.
And whereas Gondor maintained the institutions of government even after the failure of the Line of Anarion, Arnor seems to have puts its royal institutions into abeyance (see my essay “Of Thegns and Kings and Rangers and Things” for a full explanation of that theory). The loss of a strong central government in Eriador almost certainly altered the culture of the north, which became more parochial in nature.
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Have you read our other Tolkien and Middle-earth Questions and Answers articles?
Was there enough remaining for Aragorn to reestablish Arnor in some form? Or did he just proclaim the Shire free of men and appoint the new ‘postman’ for Bree?
W don’t know how many Dunedain lived at this point (probably were few in number, maybe scattered in variou hidden villages and ‘fastness in the wilds of Eriador’) but there were also local peoples like the Bree-landers or referenced ‘scattered hunter folk’ in the woods of Minhiriath. Gandalf says that there is enough room for whole realms in wide lands along Baranduin and Gwathlo rivers and in the North Downs or at the shores of Nenuial, Aragorn clearly intended for many more people to settle there and Rangers were supposed to clear the area:
“Nearly all lands have been disturbed these days, very disturbed. But cheer up, Barliman! You have been on the edge of very great troubles, and I am only glad to hear that you have not been deeper in. But better times are coming. Maybe, better than any you remember. The Rangers have returned. We came back with them. And there is a king again, Barliman. He will soon be turning his mind this way.
‘Then the Greenway will be opened again, and his messengers will come north, and there will be comings and goings, and the evil things will be driven out of the waste-lands. Indeed the waste in time will be waste no longer, and there will be people and fields where once there was wilderness.’
Mr. Butterbur shook his head. ‘If there’s a few decent respectable folk on the roads, that won’t do no harm,’ he said. ‘But we don’t want no more rabble and ruffians. And we don’t want no outsiders at Bree, nor near Bree at all. We want to be let alone. I don’t want a whole crowd o’ strangers camping here and settling there and tearing up the wild country.’
‘You will be let alone, Barliman,’ said Gandalf. ‘There is room enough for realms between Isen and Greyflood, or along the shore lands south of the Brandywine, without any one living within many days’ ride of Bree. And many folk used to dwell away north, a hundred miles or more from here, at the far end of the Greenway: on the North Downs or by Lake Evendim.’”
Certainly he intended to rebuild the ancient cities of Annuminas, Fornost Erain and Tharbad (I think it couldn’t be otherwise 🙂 ). The local peoples and new settlers along with new era of peace, safety and prosperity possibly influencing increase in birth rate, traffic of dwarves and remaining elves giving their own aid would bring benefit and help to rebuild the long lost realm.
I wonder though what were the exact course of the borders of Arnor? Did the shorelands between estuary of Baranduin and Gwathlo were settled? Outside of Tharbad Arnor seems to have little ports, though maybe in Fourth Age the ruined Lond Daer Enedh returned to prominence once more.