The Green Book of the White Downs

Saturday, 8 July 2023

Migrations and monuments: Part 11 - End of the First Age

Migrations and monuments: the story of the First Age in Eriador and Rhovanion

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📗 Part 11] “scattered in the lands” – Population of Eriador and Rhovanion by the end of the First Age

We have seen that during the various migrations of Elves and Men that populations did not reach Beleriand and instead stayed and settled within Eriador and Rhovanion. The destruction of Beleriand at the end of the First Age would also lead to further population in these lands. Across Tolkien’s works we see evidence of the populations who never made it to Beleriand:

“These Atani were the vanguard of far larger hosts of the same kinds moving westwards. When the First Age ended and Beleriand was destroyed, and most of the Atani who survived had passed over sea to Númenor, their laggard kindred were either in Eriador, some settled, some still wandering, or else had never passed the Misty Mountains and were scattered in the lands between the Iron Hills and the Sea of Rhûn eastward and the Great Forest, in the borders of which, northward and eastward, many were already settled.”

-- Christopher Tolkien, The History of Middle-earth, Book 12: The Peoples of Middle-earth (Part Two: Late Writings – X. Of Dwarves and Men: II The Atani and their Languages)

Migrations and monuments: Conclusion

Migrations and monuments: the story of the First Age in Eriador and Rhovanion

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📗 Conclusion

Migrations and monuments: Part 9

Migrations and monuments: the story of the First Age in Eriador and Rhovanion

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📗 Part 9] “Where dead men rest” – Barrow building of the First Age

“They heard of the Great Barrows, and the green mounds, and the stone-rings upon the hills and in the hollows among the hills.”

-- J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (Book One Chapter 7: In the House of Tom Bombadil)

Migrations and monuments: Part 10 - Strife

Migrations and monuments: the story of the First Age in Eriador and Rhovanion

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📗 Part 10] “strife among themselves” – returning to Eriador and Rhovanion

“Moreover they had strife among themselves, and Morgoth, now aware of the coming of hostile Men into Beleriand, sent his servants to afflict them.”

-- Christopher Tolkien, The History of Middle-earth, Book 12: The Peoples of Middle-earth (Part Two: Late Writings – X. Of Dwarves and Men: II The Atani and their Languages)

Migrations and monuments: Part 8 - Hobbits

Migrations and monuments: the story of the First Age in Eriador and Rhovanion

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📗 Part 8] “Their Wandering Days” – Pre-Shire Hobbits in Rhovanion

It is important to emphasis again that the Eldar (and Tolkien) see the Hobbits as part of the race of Men:

“It was a mark of all kinds of Men who were descendants of those who had abjured the Shadow of Morgoth and his servants and wandered westward to escape it – and certainly included both the races of small stature, Drûgs and Hobbits.”

-- Christopher Tolkien, The History of Middle-earth, Book 12: The Peoples of Middle-earth (Part Two: Late Writings – X. Of Dwarves and Men: II The Atani and their Languages)

Migrations and monuments: Part 7 - Drúedain

Migrations and monuments: the story of the First Age in Eriador and Rhovanion

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📗 Part 7] In their image: the faithful Drúedain and their watch-stones

Alongside the House of Haleth on the migration is another group of Men, different in looks and nature, but considered close allies. The story of these beings, the Drúedain (Púkel-men), help understand migration routes and we’ll also discover our first monument(s) left by Men within Eriador.

“The Drûgs that are met in the tales of the First Age – cohabiting with the Folk of Haleth, who were a woodland people – were content to live in tents or shelters lightly built round the trunks of large trees, for they were a hardy race. In their former homes, according to their own tales, they had used caves in the mountains, but mainly as store-houses only occupied as dwellings and sleeping-places in severe weather. They had similar refuges in Beleriand to which all but the most hardy retreated in times of storm and bitter weather; but these places were guarded and not even their closest friends among the Folk of Haleth were welcomed there.”

-- Christopher Tolkien, The History of Middle-earth, Book 12: The Peoples of Middle-earth (Part Two: Late Writings – X. Of Dwarves and Men: II The Atani and their Languages)

Migrations and monuments: Part 6 - Men

Migrations and monuments: the story of the First Age in Eriador and Rhovanion

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📗 Part 6] “A Darkness lies behind us”: the westward migrations of Men

“At the first rising of the Sun the Younger Children of Ilúvatar awoke in the land of Hildórien in the eastward regions of Middle-earth; but the first Sun arose in the West, and the opening eyes of Men were turned towards it, and their feet as they wandered over the Earth for the most part strayed that way. The Atani they were named by the Eldar, the Second People; but they called them also Hildor, the Followers, and many other names: Apanónar, the After-born, Engwar, the Sickly, and Fírimar, the Mortals; and they named them the Usurpers, the Strangers, and the Inscrutable, the Self-cursed, the Heavy-handed, the Night-fearers, the Children of the Sun.”

-- J.R.R. Tolkien, The Silmarillion (Quenta Silmarillion, Chapter 12: Of Men)