Q: What Would a Dunland Army Look Like?
ANSWER: I cannot say I am any more expert in what an army from Dunland would look like than the next person, but since someone asked my opinion it seems fair game to share a few thoughts. If you are writing fan fiction or planning a role-playing game you should use whatever models you feel comfortable with — don’t take my word for it.
First, I think you have to define the period of history you’re concerned with. “Dunland” is a name given to the region by the Rohirrim but according to various texts the same type of Men dwelt in that area for thousands of years. Tolkien mentioned that they were never really well organized. That is, they did not have any kings or kingdoms like the rulers of Arnor, Gondor, and Rohan.
I think that if Tolkien had been pressed on the subject he might have suggested that during the centuries when Arnor and Gondor maintained strong garrisons at Tharbad and Isengard that the Dunlendings (or their ancestors) would not have been much trouble. Hence, from about Second Age 3320 to Third Age 1636 there would probably never be more than small warbands of Dunlendings, or simple raiding parties.
Without any charismatic leaders to unite them and virtually no external foes bent on conquest the Dunlendings would not have needed any armies. In the immediate aftermath of the Great Plague of Third Age year 1636 the Dunlendings would have been few in number. But by 2510 (the year Eorl settled in Calenardhon) there were probably sufficient Dunlendings to field small but respectable “forces”.
To suggest that the Dunlendings would have raised an army may be inappropriate. On the one hand, we can suppose a few thousand men might come together for a great battle against the Rohirrim in the centuries when there was conflict between Rohan and DUnland, but there is no indication that Dunland could have supported a standing army — and certainly none that they needed one.
I imagine the culture of Dunland to be rather similar to that of Brethil in the First Age. There may have been a few small villages, each the center of a “sector” or “region” populated by many families that were fiercely independent but capable of joining together in times of great need. In order for a plague to have a devastating effect on the region’s population there would have to be villages if not some towns.
If we suggest there were a few villages strung along the Greenway between Calenardhon and Tharbad, it follows that each village would have needed some sort of leadership. Most likely the families of local chieftains would have led the people; these men might have been nothing more than the most successful farmers, hunters, etc.
The only named leader for Dunland is Wulf, son of Freca. Freca though a descendant of King Freawine (the fifth King of the Mark) was of mixed blood, and he owned lands on both sides of the Adorn river, which was the boundary of Rohan. It seems that the Dunlendings’ antipathy toward the Rohirrim, who drove some of their families from Calenardhon, is based in part in a sense of ownership of the land. Hence, there may have been wealthy landowners among the Dunlendings.
Freca and Wulf might have been as close to princes as the Dunlendings would have known. Their resources, drawn from both western Rohan and Dunland, would have been considerable. Hence, Freca was able to recruit help from across Dunland when he invaded Rohan in Third Age year 2758. We know from the narrative that Frealaf slew Freca in 2759 but for purposes of fan fiction and/or role-playing campaigns you can (if you wish) say that Freca left behind one or more heirs who continued to lead warbands of raiders against the Rohirrim. Such descendants would not have held any lands inside the Mark.
Thus, I imagine that Dunland would not be able to field major armies without outside influence. Saruman, of course, recruited the Dunlendings into his service but his “Dunlending armies” would not have been “armies of Dunland” — rather they simply would have been composed of Dunlendings. There are a few references to horses among the Dunlendings so you can envision them being able to field a few companies of mounted men.
As the Dunlendings seem to have had a mix of hunters and herdsmen among their population I would expect them to be able to assemble groups of archers and perhaps some groups of men wielding spears. Swordsmen might have been few, as would have been horsemen.
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