Haradrim

The lands of the south

South of the river Poros, beyond the borders of Gondor, lay Harad, a name that means simply the South. The Men of Gondor divided it into Near Harad, the lands nearest their own frontier and the great haven of Umbar, and Far Harad, the hot and distant countries beyond, from which came dark-skinned warriors and the great beasts that the hobbits called oliphaunts. To the Haradrim themselves these were many kingdoms and tribes, but the records of the West treat them as one enemy.

The Second Age

When the Númenóreans returned to Middle-earth they came first as teachers, but as their pride grew they came to the southern coasts as rulers, building fortresses and taking tribute. Umbar, fortified in S.A. 2280, was the chief of these strongholds. After the Downfall of Númenor, the King's Men who had settled the south survived, and the Silmarillion records that two of them, Herumor and Fuinur, became mighty among the Haradrim. Through these Black Númenóreans the Men of Harad fell under the sway of Sauron, who was worshipped in the south as a god, and they fought in his host against the Last Alliance.

Wars with Gondor

The Haradrim were among Gondor's oldest enemies. In T.A. 1015 King Ciryandil was slain fighting in Haradwaith, and his son Ciryaher spent decades preparing his revenge. In 1050 he crossed the Poros, defeated the Haradrim, took Umbar, and made the kings of Harad acknowledge Gondor's overlordship, taking the name Hyarmendacil, the South-victor. For four centuries after, Gondor held the south in check, but when the Kin-strife divided the kingdom the rebels fled to Umbar and made common cause with Harad, and the Corsairs of Umbar harried Gondor's coasts from then on.

In 1944 the Haradrim allied with the Wainriders and the Variags of Khand in a two-pronged attack on Gondor. The southern army under Eärnil defeated them in South Ithilien before turning north to destroy the Wainriders. In 2885, encouraged by Sauron's agents, the Haradrim crossed the Poros again and were beaten back by Gondor and Rohan together at the cost of both sons of King Folcwine. Throughout the late Third Age, as Sauron's power returned, the Haradrim were his readiest allies, and the Stewards of Gondor kept a permanent watch on the southern frontier.

The War of the Ring

In March of T.A. 3019 the Southrons marched north to join the assault on Minas Tirith. Faramir and his rangers ambushed one of their columns in Ithilien, where Frodo and Sam saw a Southron soldier fall dead beside them and a mûmak of Harad crash through the trees. On the Pelennor Fields the Haradrim were among the chief strength of Sauron's army: the chieftain who bore the black serpent on scarlet led his horsemen against Théoden, and the king cut him down before the Witch-king's coming. Their mûmakil, towering war-beasts with towers on their backs, broke the charge of the Rohirrim and made islands of slaughter on the field, and men of Far Harad, described as like half-trolls with white eyes and red tongues, fought until they were destroyed. When Aragorn came up the Anduin in the captured Corsair fleet, the Haradrim were caught between two armies and broken.

At the Black Gate the remaining Haradrim stood with the Easterlings against the Captains of the West, and when the Ring went into the fire some fled and some fought on to the death.

Fate

King Elessar made peace with the Haradrim, pardoning those who yielded and releasing the slaves of Mordor. The lands of Harad remained a separate country, and in the later years of the Fourth Age the king and King Éomer led campaigns there, but the long enmity between the south and Gondor was ended.

The Haradrim of Near Harad were dark-skinned, black-haired and brown- or black-eyed, and the men of Far Harad darker still. The Southrons seen in Ithilien wore scarlet, gold collars and braided hair, and were armed with spears, bows, scimitars and round shields. Some of them rode horses; their greatest weapon was the mûmak, a huge tusked beast bearing a war-tower. The men of Far Harad at the Pelennor are described as heavy, savage and troll-like.

The Haradrim lived under kings and chieftains, and their tribes went to war with banners, war-paint and gold ornaments. Their fighting strength lay in cavalry, archers and the mûmakil of Far Harad, and their coastal folk in the ships of Umbar. They worshipped Sauron or the powers he taught, though Sam Gamgee's thought that a dead Southron might have been driven to war by lies rather than malice reflects the narrative's own view that they were misled rather than wholly wicked. Little is known of their arts, their tongues or their homes.

The Haradrim descended from those Men who spread south from Hildórien in the earliest ages and never came into contact with the Eldar. In the Second Age they were subjected first by the Númenóreans and then, through the Black Númenóreans, by Sauron, and their history in the records of the West begins with their service to him.

Defeated at the Pelennor and the Morannon, the Haradrim made peace with King Elessar. They remained a separate people in the south through the Fourth Age.