Q: Where Did the Second Age Númenoreans Live in Eriador?
ANSWER: The short answer is “almost everywhere”. The following question was submitted in February 2020:
When Elendil and his sons escaped from the ruin of Westernesse, there had to be a sizeable pre-exisitng population in what would become Gondor and Arnor. Where do you think the bulk of Númenorean settlement in Eriador was located when the realms in exile were established. For example, were there any communities in the north equivalent to the cities of Pelargir and Umbar?
The only named haven was Lond Daer (originally named Vinyalondë by Aldarion. The haven was not permanently inhabited prior to the Second Age year 1200, which is when the Númenoreans began establishing permanent colonies in Middle-earth. By the year 1701, according to the “Lond Daer” chapter in Unfinished Tales of Númenor and Middle-earth, the Númenoreans had built a line of forts along the shores of the Gwathló river, perhaps as far inland as Tharbad.
Tolkien never wrote much about Tharbad. In my opinion it probably began as an Elvish settlement in the Second Age, but it could always have been a Mannish settlement – or perhaps just a place where people crossed the river. We only know that Arnor and Gondor built great forts at Tharbad to protect the highway that ran from Osgiliath to Fornost Erain, and the river.
The geography and ethnic diversity of Eriador changed throughout the Second Age.
From the beginning of the Second Age to the time of the War of Elves and Sauron (S.A. 1695-1701), Gil-galad’s realm extended from the sea eastward to the Baranduin river. The realm included Harlindon, Forlindon, the Ered Luin, and all the lands that became the Shire in the Third Age. Prior to the war, Gil-galad asked the Númenoreans for help and they fortified the Baranduin – so there must have been forts along the river’s western shore.
According to Note 3 attached to “Aldarion and Erendis” in Unfinished Tales, co-lateral descendants of the forefathers of the Edain of Beleriand (and therefore of the Númenoreans) dwelt throughout Eriador, east of the Baranduin. Some of these men asked to meet with the Númenoreans when they first returned to Middle-earth in Second Age year 600. The note cites an extensive passage from a philological essay and then goes on to say:
Elsewhere in this essay it is explained that these Men dwelt about Lake Evendim, in the North Downs and the Weather Hills, and in the lands between as far as the Brandywine, west of which they often wandered though they did not dwell there. They were friendly with the Elves, though they held them in awe; and they feared the Sea and would not look upon it. It appears that they were in origin Men of the same stock as the Peoples of Bëor and Hador who had not crossed the Blue Mountains into Beleriand during the First Age.
These are lands that were inhabited by Elendil’s people after the founding of Arnor. “Of the Rings of Power and the Third Age” in The Silmarillion has this to say:
Elendil was cast up by the waves in the land of Lindon, and he was befriended by Gil-galad. Thence he passed up the River Lhûn, and beyond Ered Luin he established his realm, and his people dwelt in many places in Eriador about the courses of the Lhûn and the Baranduin; but his chief city was at Annûminas beside the water of Lake Nenuial. At Fornost upon the North Downs also the Númenoreans dwelt, and in Cardolan, and in the hills of Rhudaur; and towers they raised upon Emyn Beraid and upon Amon Sûl; and there remain many barrows and ruined works in those places, but the towers of Emyn Beraid still look towards the sea.
Isildur and Anárion were borne away southwards, and at the last they brought their ships up the Great River Anduin, that flows out of Rhovanion into the western sea in the Bay of Belfalas; and they established a realm in those lands that were after called Gondor, whereas the Northern Kingdom was named Arnor. Long before in the days of their power the mariners of Númenor had established a haven and strong places about the mouths of Anduin, in despite of Sauron in the Black Land that lay nigh upon the east. In the later days to this haven came only the Faithful of Númenor, and many therefore of the folk of the coastlands in that region were in whole or in part akin to the Elf-friends and the people of Elendil, and they welcomed his sons. The chief city of this southern realm was Osgiliath, through the midst of which the Great River flowed; and the Númenoreans built there a great bridge, upon which there were towers and houses of stone wonderful to behold, and tall ships came up out of the sea to the quays of the city. Other strong places they built also upon either hand: Minas Ithil, the Tower of the Rising Moon, eastward upon a shoulder of the Mountains of Shadow as a threat to Mordor; and to the westward Minas Anor, the Tower of the Setting Sun, at the feet of Mount Mindolluin, as a shield against the wild men of the dales. In Minas Ithil was the house of Isildur, and in Minas Anor the house of An·rion, but they shared the realm between them and their thrones were set side by side in the Great Hall of Osgiliath. These were the chief dwellings of the Númenoreans in Gondor, but other works marvellous and strong they built in the land in the days of their power, at the Argonath, and at Aglarond, and at Erech; and in the circle of Angrenost, which Men called Isengard, they made the Pinnacle of Orthanc of unbreakable stone.
The Faithful Númenoreans began settling in Eriador and what later became Gondor sometime after the Second Age year 2251. Pelargir was founded in 2350 and it became the chief haven of the Faithful. Its name signifies that it was a royal haven, although Tolkien doesn’t say if that was its original name or a name bestowed after the founding of Gondor.
There is one other note of interest, which is found in the discussion of Westron in The Lord of the Rings:
After the Downfall of Númenor, Elendil led the survivors of the Elf-friends back to the North-western shores of Middle-earth. There many already dwelt who were in whole or part of Númenorean blood; but few of them remembered the Elvish speech. All told the Dúnedain were thus from the beginning far fewer in number than the lesser men among whom they dwelt and whom they ruled, being lords of long life and great power and wisdom. They used therefore the Common Speech in their dealing with other folk and in the government of their wide realms; but they enlarged the language and enriched it with many words drawn from the Elven-tongues.
The Faithful Númenoreans had a long tradition (apparently) of marrying with other Men, but Tolkien doesn’t say if these mixed marriages occurred in both Eriador and the southern lands or just the southern lands that became Gondor.
The ancestors of the Dunlendings came from a group of people whom Tolkien referred to as Gwathurim. These people were related to the Second House of the Edain (the Folk of Haleth), and to the Men of Bree, Eryn Vorn, and the Men of Dunharrow and Calenardhon. Therefore some of these groups lived adjacent to the Edainic peoples of Eriador, and they may have intermarried with the Númenoreans as well as the Edainic groups.
All of these peoples would have spread throughout the lands under Gil-galad’s protection, and so it may be that many of Elendil’s followers settled among them in family groups. Tolkien most likely imagined many towns – and perhaps some cities – spread across Eriador throughout both the Second Age and early Third Age. These communities would have been lost to time and the records used to create the Red Book of Westmarch, and so he never named them. It’s enough to know they must have been there. Aragorn hints that he may have visited the ruins of one such place to the south of Weathertop when he went in search of Athelas, to help ease Frodo’s wound after the attack by the Nazgûl.
So the bottom line is that we know the Númenoreans settled from the Lhûn in the west (after S.A. 1701) as far east as Rhudaur, near Imladris. They also settled at least as far north as the North Downs and all the way south to the Gwathló. At some point they did build a city at Tharbad, but it appears that Lond Daer was never rebuilt after Elendil arrived in Middle-earth. Presumably the destruction along the coasts made that impossible.
See Also …
Other Question and Answer Articles
Where Did the People of Arnor Come From?
How Many Pre-Númenorean Peoples Joined Arnor and Gondor?
What Is the History of Tharbad?
When Was Lond Daer Enedh Abandoned?
What Was the Capital of Cardolan?
Suite 101 Essay
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Given the name “Annúminas” implies a tower and not a city, and there are no other named settlements other than Fornost and Weathertop, I always understood Arnor to be considerably more agricultural than Gondor. The only “significant” population centres were military in origin, or (like Tharbad) crossing points. This would fit, I think, with the gradual decline of the North-kingdom as its people dwindled, since they would retreat from a dispersed area into a smaller, more protected region; eventually the surviving Dúnedain would relocate to the Angle, following that trend.
The “minas” element is common in city names, including Minas Anor and Minas Ithil. Annûminas was almost certainly a full city when it was founded.