# Peoples of Men



## norrinradd (May 15, 2020)

Which divisions or cultures (as Numenoreans, Northmen, Easterlings, ...) of Men were in the times just before Numenor fell?


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## Alcuin (May 16, 2020)

We’re told of a few and can infer a few more.

In the north, between Lindon and Rivendell, there were a people related to the Third House and First House of Men. Some of them might have been descendents of Men who lived in Beleriand and refused the journey into the West, some left Beleriand before the War of Wrath, and some never entered Beleriand. These spoke a similar language to the Númenóreans, and when the Númenóreans first returned to Middle-earth, the Elves of Lindon arranged a meeting between them and their kinsmen that had remained behind. They immediately recognized one another as akin and found that with some effort, they could still communicate. Some of the descendants of these Men of Middle-earth probably included the Men of Bree, who claimed to have been there before the Númenóreans returned under Elendil. 

Southward in Eriador between the Baranduin (Brandywine) and the White Mountains was a great forest. (Elrond said there was a time when a squirrel could go from Fangorn to the Old Forest from tree to tree.) This was peopled with folk akin to the Second House. The River Gwathló or Greyflood was so named because the trees of that forest overshadowed the river. The Númenóreans first made a port at the mouth of the Gwathló, Lond Daer, which they used in the Second Age War between the Elves and Sauron to land the majority of their expeditionary force behind Sauron’s lines and defeat him. Beginning with Tar-Aldarion, however, they hewed the trees of Middle-earth for their ships, denuding the forest. Tharbad replaced Lond Daer as the main port: it was as far inland as a ship could sail, and lasted to nearly the end of the Third Age. The people who lived in that forest, however, became hostile to the Númenóreans because of their relentless destruction of the forest, their home. Their descendants in the Third Age were probably included among the Dunlendings, who were also driven from the White Mountains by the Rohirrim. 

In _Peoples of Middle-earth_, there appears the story of “Tal-Elmar”, a young man of what we would call the White Mountains of Gondor. His father was a native of the place, his mother a captured Númenórean woman. These folk of the mountains may be the precursors of the “hardy folk [of Gondor] between the [White] mountains and the sea. They … were short and swarthy folk … whose sires came more from the forgotten men who housed in the shadow of the hills in the Dark Years ere the coming of the kings.” (_RotK_, “Minas Tirith”) These may be akin to or include the folk who became the Dead Men of Dunharrow. 

Of the original inhabitants near Umbar, Númenor’s greatest Middle-earth colony, or of the many colonies and cities they planted south of Umbar, which represented the majority of their territories in Middle-earth, we are told little or nothing. The Dúnedain who lived in the northwest of Middle-earth, what later became Gondor and Arnor, were the minority of their folk; but all the coastal regions were struck by a tsunami when Númenor was destroyed, and it would seem those who did not go to war against the Ainur with Ar-Pharazôn were often drowned in that deluge. We do know that Queen Berúthiel was from an inland city south of Umbar and a Black Númenórean, a descendent of the Kings’ Men of the Second Age. Her marriage to Falastur King of Gondor seems to have been an attempt to make a dynastic link between the House of Anárion and the Númenóreans living in the old colonies south of Umbar, but the attempt failed and resulted in centuries of warfare.


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## norrinradd (May 16, 2020)

With the subject unfolded; we know that 3 Nazguls were formerly the kings of Numenor (According to the Silmarillion). Also, Considering that Khamul was an Easterling; where could the remaining 5 Nazguls potentially come from? What can we say based on the cultures or divisions of Men before the Numenor fell and just before the 9 rings were given to Men? (E.g. : Northmen, Easterlings...)


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## Alcuin (May 17, 2020)

Not “kings” of Númenor but “great lords of Númenórean race.” (_Silmarillion_, “Akallabêth”) The others, including Khamûl, were great kinds kings, warriors, and sorcerers of the middle of the Second Age, and likely Men who already worshipped or had some attachment to Sauron, as did many Men outside the Númenórean and Elvish influence, a relic of the Dark Years of Middle-earth under Morgoth. 

If you’re interested, I wrote an essay some years ago speculating on the identity of the Witch-king based upon the information we have at hand. 

It would seem to me that Khamûl, the second most powerful of the Ringwraiths, must have been at the very least a great king and warrior of the Easterlings before he succumbed to his Ring of Power, and possibly a sorcerer as well. We simply are not given any other information about him.


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## Halasían (May 29, 2020)

Alcuin said:


> If you’re interested, I wrote an essay some years ago speculating on the identity of the Witch-king based upon the information we have at hand.


It had been a long time since I read your essay. Thanks for linking it!


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## Alcuin (May 31, 2020)

Thank you for the compliment, Halasían. I hope the essay is useful.


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