Q: Why Did the Rohirrim Drive the Dunlendings Out of Their Lands?
ANSWER: The official answer seems to be that the Dunlendings did not acknowledge the authority of Gondor at the time Cirion was Steward. The loyal inhabitants of Calenardhon had either been slain or driven away by the Balchoth. Cirion needed to protect Gondor’s northern borders against attack from both the east and the north/west, so when he wanted to reward Eorl for assisting Gondor in the war against the Balchoth he decided to solve two problems at once: Eorl’s people had grown so numerous they needed more land and Gondor needed to defend Calenardhon.
In an early draft of The Lord of the Rings, Eorl originally fought for Gondor against Sauron at the end of the Second Age and Calenardhon was given to him as a reward because the men of that land had refused to fight for Gondor.
Although Tolkien substantially revised the story of Gondor and the Northmen as he wrote The Lord of the Rings, he retained the idea of a rebellious people from the Ered Nimrais (which separated southern Gondor from Calenardhon) who refused to honor their oath to Isildur. These became the Dead Men of Dunharrow, and Tolkien ultimately decided that they should be relatives of the Dunlendings who served Saruman.
As he expanded the history of the Dunlendings and Rohirrim through the years Tolkien made the ancestors of the Dunlendings (and perhaps the Dead Men of Dunharrow) both relatives of the Numenoreans (because the Second House of the Edain had come from the same people) and enemies who lived throughout Eriador, Enedwaith, and the lands near the Ered Nimrais (including Calenardhon and at least some of the coastlands south of the mountains).
This growing history led to a large family tree. As best I can determine, the ancestors of these Men crossed the Anduin early in the First Age of the Sun near Cair Andros. From there some spread south along the river toward the coastlands; others spread north into Calenardhon. Of this northern branch some form an alliance with groups of the Druedain (who had crossed the river before them).
Of the Calenardhon clans some moved north into Enedwaith and eventually some crossed the Gwathlo river into Minhiriath and Eriador. Among these northernmost groups were the men who became the Second House of the Edain; this group (with their Druedain allies) crossed the Ered Luin into Beleriand and eventually settled in Brethil on the northwest border of Doriath.
Their relatives who continued to live near the Gwathlo were eventually named Gwathuirim by the Numenoreans, but that name does not appear to have been applied to the tribes in Calenardhon and farther south. For convenience’ sake I refer to all these peoples as Gwathuirim. If we use the convention of referring to the earliest group as Proto-Gwathuirim their history can be summarized thus:
Events During the First Age of the Sun
- Proto-Gwathuirim cross the Anduin at Cair Andros sometime before First Age year of the Sun 300.
- Some Proto-Gwathuirim migrate south toward the coast (we’ll call these Coastal Gwathuirim).
- Some Proto-Gwathuirim settle in the Ered Nimrais (we’ll call these Nimrais Gwathuirim).
- Some Proto-Gwathuirim link up with a few groups of Druedain (we’ll call these Proto-Haladin).
- Some Proto-Gwathuirim settle in southern Enedwaith (including Dunland).
- The Proto-Haladin migrate north, as do other Proto-Gwathuirim.
- Some Proto-Gwathuirim settle in northern Enedwaith (we’ll call them the South Gwathuirim).
- The Proto-Haladin and other Proto-Gwathuirin cross the Gwathlo into Eriador.
- Some Proto-Gwathuirim settle in the woodlands near the northern shore of the Gwathlo (we’ll call them the North Gwathuirim).
- Some Proto-Gwathuirim migrate farther north (we’ll call them the Proto-Breefolk).
- The Proto-Haladin eventually migrate across the Ered Luin into Beleriand around FA 310/1 (most of them eventually follow Haleth to Brethil).
Events During the Second Age of the Sun
- The North Gwathuirim and South Gwathuirim come into conflict with the Numenoreans.
- During the War of the Elves and Sauron the North & South Gwathuirim fight for Sauron.
- After the War of the Elves and Sauron at least some of the North Gwathuirim flee to Eryn Vorn.
- After the war some of the South Gwathuirim survive in the hills of Dunland and maybe Calenardhon.
- Numenoreans settle among remnants of the Gwathuirim in Eriador.
- Numenoreans settle among the Coastal Gwathuirim south of the Ered Nimrais.
- Isildur and Anarion integrate some of the Coastal Gwathuirim into Gondor.
- Isildur and Anarion integrate some of the Calenardhon Gwathuirim into Gondor.
- Some of the Nimrais Gwathuirim swear oaths of allegiance to Isildur.
- Isildur curses the oath-breakers.
Events During the Third Age of the Sun
- The Bree-folk live peacefully in Arnor.
- Gondor conquers all the Coastal Gwathuirim.
- Gondor controls Enedwaith but the Gwathuirim do not acknowledge the kings.
- The loyal people of Calenardhon dwindle or move away.
- The wild Gwathuirim of Enedwaith gradually colonize eastern Calenardhon.
- After the Great Plague of 1636 Gondor removes or abandons its garrisons at Tharbad, Orthanc, Aglarond, along the Anduin in Calenardhon, and in Mordor.
- Despite a brief revival of Gondorian power under the Stewards, Calenardhon’s loyal population eventually dwindles.
- Eorl settles in Calenardhon and begins a war of conquest against the Gwathuirim, driving them across the Adorn into Dunland.
- The Dunlendings gradually mingle with western Rohirrim families.
- The Dunlendings support Wulf, son of Freca, in a war against Rohan.
- The Rohirrim defeat the Dunlendings, even driving them out of Orthanc.
- Saruman settles at Orthanc.
- Saruman begins recruiting from among the Dunlendings.
- Saruman attacks Rohan with Dunlending and Orcish armies.
- The Rohirrim defeat Saruman and the Dunlendings accept Theoden (later Eomer) as king.
All of these events are noted either in The Lord of the Rings or various texts published in The Silmarillion, Unfinished Tales and The Peoples of Middle-earth. It would take a great deal of time (which I don’t have) to document every reference.
What I think we can infer from this rough chronology is that Tolkien envisioned the Gwathuirim and their relatives being so hostile to the Numenoreans that Gondor was never able to fully trust/integrate all of them. I believe the Coastal Gwathuirim were the ancestors of the dark-skinned “fisher-folk” who marched to Minas Tirith’s aid in The Return of the King, although it’s conceivable Tolkien had some other ancestors in mind for them.
In “Of the Rings of Power and the Third Age” Tolkien notes that Anarion built Minas Anor to defend Gondor against the “wild men of the dales” — whom I believe were supposed to be associated with/related to the Gwathuirim (but this is not clearly stated). Since Isildur concluded some sort of treaty with one of their tribes (who eventually became the Dead Men of Dunharrow) it seems reasonable to infer that most if not all the men of Ered Nimrais were either part of the Gwathuirim or the Druedain.
By Cirion’s day the majority of Calenardhon’s people had either been killed or driven off; most of the survivors seem to live in the eastern lands and appear to me to be hostile to Gondor. If Eorl saw the hostile Dunlendings as enemies of Gondor he would have felt compelled to drive them away, especially since they would not have welcomed his own people’s colonization of the land. Hence, the idea that they viewed the Northmen as “robbers” probably survived in Tolkien’s thought as justification for the hostility between the Rohirrim and the Dunlendings, even though he had changed the details of the Northmen’s history.
See also:
# # #
Have you read our other Tolkien and Middle-earth Questions and Answers articles?
“It would take a great deal of time (which I don’t have) to document every reference.”
An admirable attempt can be read here:
http://lalaith.vpsurf.de/Tolkien/Fr_Ind.html
If people of Calenardhon were almost extinct by the time when Eorl came from the North, most likely these lands were practically uninhabited, so western Dunledings came to take the empty space for themselves but Eotheod under Eorl’s leadership started already their own colonization thus coming to conflict (Dunledings as more hostile may in fact start the whole strife, but the defeat made them bitter because they believed in their claim to the newly created Rohan, at least that’s how I see this). The Rohirrim were settling mostly in the valleys of White Mountains (Men of the mountains already died out) so Westfold was natural place of expansion for Dunledings. Interest of two peoples were contradictory.