What Was the Capital of Cardolan?

Q: What Was the Capital of Cardolan?

ANSWER: Neither J.R.R. Tolkien nor his son Christopher has published any story or essay that identifies a “capital” for Cardolan. We do not know where the kings of Cardolan or any other nobles of that realm lived. Appendix A to The Lord of the Rings suggests that “the mound in which the Ring-bearer was imprisoned had been the grave of the last prince of Cardolan, who fell in the war of 1409.” Earlier in the text Tolkien writes of the War of 1409: “…A remnant of the faithful among the Dúnedain of Cardolan also held out in Tyrn Gorthad (the Barrowdowns),” and from this passage (apparently) some people infer that the Dunedain of Cardolan must have had a strong population here.

In fact, in the chapters “In the House of Tom Bombadil” and “Fog on the Barrow-downs” Tolkien mentions the remains of fortresses on the hills, but he does not say that the Kings of Cardolan definitely lived in Tyrn Gorthad. Other possible locations for a royal seat of Cardolan include Bree, the South Downs (where Aragorn found Athelas for Frodo’s wound), and Tharbad but any such identifications — without support from some other textual source — would be completely speculative.

The royal seat of Rhudaur is also unspecified, and even in Arthedain we only know of one city for sure, Fornost Erain, that was inhabited by the Dunedain during the years of the kings. Annuminas had been founded by Elendil and his descendants lived there for at least a few generations. Elendil’s people are also said to have dwelt along the shores of the Baranduin (in what later became the Shire of the Hobbits), in the Hills of Evendim and around Lake Nenuial, in the North Downs, Rhudaur, Cardolan, and at Tharbad. The references to Cardolan and Rhudaur are rather vague, however.

Presumably there were many towns and estates which were eventually abandoned, much like the towns and estates of Roman Britain were abandoned by their former inhabitants. Some of those towns were later occupied or re-established by Saxon invaders or others. In Middle-earth’s situation, all historical records appear to have been lost or destroyed in the various wars and Eriador was so depopulated by war and disaster that many of its former communities simply vanished.

Hence, it is impossible to determine — given the available material — whether J.R.R. Tolkien had any specific location in mind for the seat of the Kings of Cardolan.

See also:

• Who Lived in Tharbad?
• When Was Lond Daer Enedh Abandoned?
• Was Tharbad Ever an Independent City-state?
• Where is the Red Hill of Cardolan?
• Who Was the Last Prince of Cardolan?
• What Is the History of Tharbad?
• Who Ruled Cardolan, Land of Red Hills?

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