Eriador
Also calledThe Lone-lands, The North-west
Eriador is the wide land between the Blue Mountains and the Misty Mountains, bounded in the south by the Greyflood. Once the heart of the North-kingdom of Arnor, by the end of the Third Age it was a largely empty country whose few settled pockets, the Shire, Bree and Rivendell, were quietly guarded by the Rangers.
Description
The lands between the mountains
Eriador is the broad north-western region of Middle-earth that lies between the Blue Mountains in the west and the Misty Mountains in the east. Its southern edge is usually taken to be the Greyflood, the river formed where the Hoarwell and the Loudwater meet, and beyond that lay Enedwaith and the road south to Gondor. To the north it ran up to the cold bay of Forochel and the highlands that became the witch-realm of Angmar. In the Second Age most of Eriador was forested; by the Third Age the woods had largely gone, felled by the Númenóreans or lost in the long wars, and the country was a land of downs, moors, heaths and river-valleys.
Through its middle ran the two great arteries of the North: the Brandywine (Baranduin), flowing south-west out of Lake Evendim past the Shire to the sea, and the Great East Road, which linked the Grey Havens with Bree, Weathertop and Rivendell. South of the Road the Greenway ran down through empty country to Tharbad.
Who lived there
At the height of the North-kingdom Eriador was the land of the Dúnedain, with cities at Annúminas and Fornost and watch-towers on the Weather Hills and the Tower Hills. Elves dwelt in Lindon beyond the Lune and in the hidden valley of Rivendell. Hobbits crossed the Misty Mountains into Eriador early in the Third Age and settled first around Bree and the Angle between the rivers, and later in the Shire. In the wild hill-country of Rhudaur and the south lived Men of older stock, kin to the Dunlendings, and in the far north the Lossoth hunted along the ice.
By the time of the War of the Ring the great settlements were ruins. The travellers who used the Road called the country east of Bree the Lone-lands, and the only Men a wanderer was likely to meet were the grey-cloaked Rangers, the last remnant of the Dúnedain, who patrolled the borders of the Shire and Bree without thanks or recognition.
History
The Second Age
In the Second Age Eriador was a wooded land thinly peopled by Men of the same stock as the Edain. The Elves of Eregion under Celebrimbor flourished at its eastern edge beside the gates of Moria, and Númenórean mariners came up the Greyflood, building the port of Tharbad and cutting timber on a great scale. When Sauron invaded in S.A. 1695 he laid Eregion waste and overran most of Eriador, until a fleet from Númenor landed at the Lune and at Tharbad and destroyed his army in 1701. Elrond founded Rivendell in the retreat from Eregion, and it remained the chief Elvish stronghold east of Lindon ever after.
In S.A. 3320 Elendil landed in the north after the Downfall of Númenor and founded Arnor, the North-kingdom, with its capital at Annúminas beside Lake Evendim.
Arnor and its fall
For nearly nine centuries Arnor held Eriador. After the death of King Eärendur in T.A. 861 the realm split into Arthedain, Cardolan and Rhudaur, and the divided kingdoms were slowly worn down by the Witch-king of Angmar. Cardolan was ruined by war and by the Great Plague of 1636, Rhudaur fell under Angmar's control, and in 1974 Fornost itself was taken. The army of Gondor and Lindon destroyed Angmar at the Battle of Fornost in 1975, but the North-kingdom was not restored. Its heirs became the Chieftains of the Dúnedain and their people the Rangers.
The long peace
For a thousand years afterwards Eriador was quiet. The hobbits of the Shire, granted their land by King Argeleb II in 1601, prospered under the unseen protection of the Rangers; Bree kept its inn and its crossroads; the Elves of Lindon slowly took ship into the West. The Fell Winter of 2911 brought wolves across the frozen Brandywine, and the floods of the following year finally emptied Tharbad, but for the most part the land simply grew emptier.
The War of the Ring passed through Eriador at its beginning and its end. The Nazgûl rode the Greenway and the East Road in the autumn of 3018 hunting for the Ring; the Fellowship set out from Rivendell; and a year later the returning hobbits found Saruman's ruffians in the Shire. With the crowning of Aragorn as King Elessar, Arnor was reunited with Gondor, Annúminas was rebuilt, and Eriador was once more part of a kingdom of Men.
Geography
Eriador is roughly bounded by the Blue Mountains (west), the Misty Mountains (east), the Ice-bay of Forochel (north) and the Greyflood (south). Its chief rivers are the Lune, the Brandywine, the Hoarwell and the Loudwater. Notable uplands include the North Downs around Fornost, the Weather Hills, the Hills of Evendim, the Tower Hills and the Barrow-downs. Its principal settled regions in the late Third Age were the Shire, Bree-land and Rivendell.
Places within16
- Town
Bree is the chief village of Bree-land, a small settled district of Men and Hobbits at the meeting of the Great East Road and the Greenway. The oldest surviving community of Men in Eriador, it was the place where Frodo met Strider at the Prancing Pony in the autumn of T.A. 3018.
- Realm
Rivendell, or Imladris, is the hidden valley of Elrond in the foothills of the Misty Mountains, founded during the war against Sauron in the Second Age. For nearly five thousand years it was the chief refuge and house of lore in the North, the home of the heirs of Isildur, and the place where the Fellowship of the Ring was formed.
- Realm
The Shire is the homeland of the Hobbits in western Eriador, a green, well-tilled country of farms and villages between the Far Downs and the Brandywine. Founded in T.A. 1601 by a grant from the king of Arthedain, it was largely forgotten by the wide world until Bilbo and Frodo Baggins carried its name into the great events of the Third Age.
- Realm
Angmar was the realm founded by the Witch-king at the northern end of the Misty Mountains around T.A. 1300 for the purpose of destroying the Dúnedain of the North. Over six and a half centuries it wore down and swallowed Rhudaur, Cardolan and finally Arthedain, before its army was annihilated at the Battle of Fornost in 1975.
- Realm
Arnor was the North-kingdom of the Dúnedain, founded by Elendil in Eriador after the Downfall of Númenor. Divided into three after T.A. 861 and destroyed by Angmar in 1974, it survived in the line of the Chieftains of the Dúnedain and their Rangers until Aragorn restored it as part of the Reunited Kingdom.
- Region
The Barrow-downs are a range of grassy hills east of the Old Forest crowned with ancient burial mounds. Once the sacred ground of the Edain and later of the Dúnedain of Cardolan, they were haunted after the Great Plague by wights sent from Angmar, one of which nearly took the hobbits in T.A. 3018.
- Forest
The Old Forest is a dark, ancient wood lying east of Buckland between the Brandywine and the Barrow-downs. A survivor of the primeval forests of Eriador, its trees are half awake and hostile to walkers, and it is the home of Old Man Willow and, at its eastern edge, of Tom Bombadil.
- Place
The Ford of Bruinen is the crossing of the Loudwater on the Great East Road, the last barrier before Rivendell. Here on October 20, T.A. 3018, the Nazgûl were swept away by the flood that Elrond raised as Frodo, on Glorfindel's horse, reached the far bank.
The Great East Road is the ancient highway of Eriador, running from the Grey Havens through the Shire and Bree to the Ford of Bruinen and Rivendell, and beyond over the High Pass into Wilderland. It was the road of the Elves going west, of dwarves going east, and of Frodo and his companions in the autumn of T.A. 3018.
- Region
The Tower Hills, Emyn Beraid, are a line of hills west of the Shire crowned by three ancient Elf-towers. The tallest, Elostirion, held the palantír that looked only toward the Undying Lands, and in the Fourth Age the hills became the western boundary of the Shire and the home of the Red Book.
- Region
The Trollshaws are the wooded highlands between the Hoarwell and the Loudwater, north of the Great East Road, where Bilbo and the dwarves met three trolls in T.A. 2941. Once part of Rhudaur, they were by the Third Age a wild country of crumbling hill-forts and troll-haunted woods.
- Region
Forochel is the frozen bay and cape at the far north-western edge of Eriador, home of the Lossoth or Snowmen. Here King Arvedui of Arthedain took refuge after the fall of Fornost in T.A. 1974, and here he drowned in the ice with the two palantíri of the North in the spring of 1975.
- Lake
Lake Evendim, called Nenuial by the Elves, is a great lake in the hills of north-western Eriador, the source of the Brandywine and the site of Annúminas, the first capital of Arnor. Galadriel and Celeborn dwelt beside it for a time in the Second Age before the founding of Eregion.
- Ruin
Tharbad was a fortified river-port and bridge-town on the Greyflood, at the southern edge of Eriador, built by the Númenóreans in the Second Age and maintained by Arnor and Gondor. It decayed through the Third Age and was abandoned after the floods of 2912, leaving only a dangerous ford where Boromir lost his horse.
- Region
The Ettenmoors are a bleak, troll-haunted highland in north-eastern Eriador, lying north of Rivendell between the Weather Hills and the Misty Mountains. They formed the southern march of Angmar and were the home of the trolls that troubled the Trollshaws and the Road.
- Mountain range
The Weather Hills are a line of hills running north from Weathertop toward the North Downs in central Eriador. Fortified by Arthedain as its frontier against Rhudaur and Angmar, they were bitterly contested in the wars of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries of the Third Age.
Associated figures
Born in
Chieftain of the Dúnedain of the North
Aragorn II
Dúnedain of the NorthAragorn II, son of Arathorn, was the last Chieftain of the Dúnedain of the North and the first King of the Reunited Kingdom of Gondor and Arnor. Fostered in Rivendell as Estel, he spent sixty years as a Ranger and a captain in foreign lands before the War of the Ring, in which he guided the Fellowship, walked the Paths of the Dead, won the Pelennor Fields and the Black Gate, and took the crown as King Elessar. He reigned for a hundred and twenty years with Arwen as his queen.
Arnor and Gondor- Dúnedain of the North
Gilraen the Fair, a woman of the Dúnedain of the North, was the wife of Arathorn II and the mother of Aragorn. Widowed after four years of marriage, she carried her son to Rivendell to be hidden and raised, and lived to see him a grown man but not a king.
Eriador
Ruled
Chieftain of the Dúnedain of the North
Aragorn II
Dúnedain of the NorthAragorn II, son of Arathorn, was the last Chieftain of the Dúnedain of the North and the first King of the Reunited Kingdom of Gondor and Arnor. Fostered in Rivendell as Estel, he spent sixty years as a Ranger and a captain in foreign lands before the War of the Ring, in which he guided the Fellowship, walked the Paths of the Dead, won the Pelennor Fields and the Black Gate, and took the crown as King Elessar. He reigned for a hundred and twenty years with Arwen as his queen.
Arnor and GondorLord of Eregion
Celebrimbor
NoldorCelebrimbor, grandson of Fëanor, renounced his father Curufin's deeds and became the greatest smith of the Second Age. As lord of the Elven-smiths of Eregion he was deceived by Sauron in the guise of Annatar and forged the Rings of Power, but he made the Three alone and hid them when he perceived the One. Sauron destroyed Eregion and slew him, and his body was borne as a banner before the enemy host.
EregionChieftain of the Dúnedain of the North
Arathorn II
Dúnedain of the NorthArathorn II was the fifteenth Chieftain of the Dúnedain of the North and the father of Aragorn. He ruled for only three years before an Orc-arrow killed him while he rode against the enemy with the sons of Elrond, leaving a two-year-old heir who was hidden in Rivendell.
Eriador
Died in
Lord of Eregion
Celebrimbor
NoldorCelebrimbor, grandson of Fëanor, renounced his father Curufin's deeds and became the greatest smith of the Second Age. As lord of the Elven-smiths of Eregion he was deceived by Sauron in the guise of Annatar and forged the Rings of Power, but he made the Three alone and hid them when he perceived the One. Sauron destroyed Eregion and slew him, and his body was borne as a banner before the enemy host.
EregionChieftain of the Dúnedain of the North
Arathorn II
Dúnedain of the NorthArathorn II was the fifteenth Chieftain of the Dúnedain of the North and the father of Aragorn. He ruled for only three years before an Orc-arrow killed him while he rode against the enemy with the sons of Elrond, leaving a two-year-old heir who was hidden in Rivendell.
Eriador- Dúnedain of the North
Gilraen the Fair, a woman of the Dúnedain of the North, was the wife of Arathorn II and the mother of Aragorn. Widowed after four years of marriage, she carried her son to Rivendell to be hidden and raised, and lived to see him a grown man but not a king.
Eriador
Dwelt in
Ranger of the North
Halbarad
Dúnedain of the NorthHalbarad was a Ranger of the North and a kinsman of Aragorn who led the thirty Dúnedain of the Grey Company south in the War of the Ring. He carried Arwen's standard through the Paths of the Dead and unfurled it on the Pelennor Fields, where he was killed.
Eriador
Peoples
Timeline
- S.A. 1695
Sauron invades Eriador
Sauron's armies overrun Eregion and most of Eriador; Elrond retreats north and founds Rivendell.
- S.A. 1701
Sauron driven out
A Númenórean fleet under Tar-Minastir's admiral lands in the north and Sauron's army is destroyed; Eriador is freed.
- S.A. 3320
Founding of Arnor
Elendil establishes the North-kingdom with its seat at Annúminas.
- T.A. 861
Division of Arnor
On the death of Eärendur the kingdom splits into Arthedain, Cardolan and Rhudaur.
- T.A. 1601
The Shire is settled
Marcho and Blanco lead hobbits across the Brandywine under a grant from King Argeleb II.
- T.A. 1636
The Great Plague
Plague spreads north out of Gondor and Rhovanion; Cardolan is depopulated and the Shire suffers heavy losses.
- T.A. 1974
Fall of the North-kingdom
Angmar captures Fornost and King Arvedui flees north to Forochel.
- T.A. 1975
Battle of Fornost
Eärnur of Gondor and Círdan of Lindon destroy the army of Angmar; the Witch-king escapes into the east.
- T.A. 2911
The Fell Winter
The Brandywine freezes and white wolves come into Eriador; Tharbad is deserted after the floods of the following spring.
- T.A. 3018
The Black Riders in Eriador
The Nazgûl search the Shire, Bree and the East Road for the Ring, and are swept away at the Ford of Bruinen.
- T.A. 3019
The Reunited Kingdom
Aragorn takes the crown of Gondor and Arnor; the North-kingdom is restored and Annúminas rebuilt.
Sources
- The Fellowship of the RingPrologue; Book I, chapters 9 to 12
- The Lord of the Rings: AppendicesAppendix A, I (iii) 'Eriador, Arnor, and the Heirs of Isildur'; Appendix B
- Unfinished Tales of Númenor and Middle-earth'The History of Galadriel and Celeborn', appendices on the rivers and the port of Tharbad