Cardolan

Cardolan occupied the south of the old North-kingdom: the wide, largely empty country bounded by the Brandywine on the west, the Greyflood and the Hoarwell on the south and east, and the Great East Road on the north. Within these bounds lay the Barrow-downs, where the Dúnedain buried their lords, the old port of Tharbad at the crossing of the Greyflood, and the Greenway running north from Tharbad to Bree. The Old Forest lay in its north-western corner. Compared with Arthedain, Cardolan had fewer Númenóreans and more Men of the older kindreds of Eriador, and it never developed a capital or a strong central power.

Its kings, descended from a younger son of Eärendur, quarrelled with both of their neighbours over the possession of Weathertop and the Road, but when Angmar rose they took the side of Arthedain against Rhudaur, and paid heavily for it.

Cardolan was formed in 861 and for five centuries contested the border of Amon Sûl with Arthedain and Rhudaur. When Argeleb I of Arthedain claimed all Arnor in 1349, Cardolan accepted his lordship, and in the wars that followed its Dúnedain fought beside those of Arthedain. The invasion of 1409 destroyed the realm: the Witch-king's host crossed the Hoarwell, ravaged the land and killed the last prince of Cardolan on the Barrow-downs. Some of its people held out for a time among the downs and in the Old Forest, and Cardolan lingered as a name for another two centuries.

The Great Plague of 1636 killed nearly all who remained. The Witch-king then sent wights into the emptied barrows of Tyrn Gorthad, so that the land could never be resettled. After that Cardolan was simply the Lone-lands: the Greenway grew grass, Tharbad decayed, and the only memorial of the kingdom was the hoard of ancient weapons in the barrows, from which Tom Bombadil took the blades that he gave to the hobbits in 3018.

Southern Arnor between the Brandywine (west), the Greyflood and Hoarwell (south and east) and the Great East Road (north); includes the Barrow-downs, the Old Forest and Tharbad.