Middle-earth seen by the barbarians: The complete collection including a previously unpublished essay (8 page)

Calenardhon promised much more fertile and prosperous grounds than the hilly homesteads of Dunland. The Gwathuirim had hardly any other choice unless they wanted to follow the Stoors into an unsafe future in Eriador, and their West and South they found both defended by that more than dubious ‘
barbarous fisher-folk
’.
(
GC
)
Nor would their infiltration inevitably mean trouble. Only the notorious Gondorian ignorance of Dunlendish interests led to those tragic consequences after the Battle of the Camp in 1944 TA.

1. Dunlendish territory when the Rohirrim arrived (grey)
   

One result of this event was that Gondor passed the province of Calenardhon by decree to a northmannish tribe, the Eótheód (later called Rohirrim), who had ventured south from their original homesteads in the north of Rhovanion. The Dunlendish herdsmen could only consider these alien horse-breeders competitors for the pastures of Calenardhon: they were not welcome on what the Gwathuirim, with some justification, considered their own land by then. The struggle for the resources of Calenardhon/Rohan deteriorated beyond the point of no return when the Kings of the Rohirrim decided to simply eliminate the local minorities, in a manner reminiscent of methods the Men of Darkness might apply:

’
Under Brego and Aldor the Dunlendings were rooted out again and driven away beyond the Isen, and the Fords of Isen were guarded
.’ Worse, King Aldor ‘
even raided their lands in Enedwaith by way of reprisal.
’
(
FI
)
This ethnic cleansing has never been forgotten by the ‘
wild hillmen and herd-folk
’,
(
TT
)
as the Northern Atani, the Rohirrim, would essentially label the Southern Atani, the Gwathuirim - who returned the favour by referring to the former as ‘
wild Northmen
’.
(
FI
)

Historians who assumed a more neutral position recorded that it was at this time that ‘
the Rohirrim earned the hatred of the Dunlendings, which was not appeased until the return of the King, then far off in the future. Whenever the Rohirrim were weak or in trouble the Dunlendings renewed their attacks’ against ‘the ‘wild Northmen’ who had usurped the land
’.
(
FI
)
Centuries later, a man from Rohan still perceived a need to complain, ‘
Not in half a thousand years have they forgotten the grievance that the lords of Gondor gave the Mark to Eorl the Young and made alliance with him
.’
(
TT
)
Which should tell how the Rohirrim used to divert historical responsibility for this ethnic conflict from their own heads by blaming the distant throne of Minas Tirith.

If the South Kingdom would have thrown weight and power into establishing a political compromise in time, then Saruman the White could not have exploited this conflict almost to the ruin of both Rohan and Gondor. But Minas Tirith, alas, neglected the unanswered Dunlendish question, considering it a matter of Rohan’s internal politics: ‘
the enmity of the ‘wild’ Dunlendings seemed of small account to the Stewards
.’
(
FI
)
This left Rohan alone with the problem, and that vastly aggravated the issue:

‘
In the reign of
[Rohan’s]
King Deor (2699 to 2718) … the line of the Gondorian chieftains of Angrenost
[= Isengard]
had failed, and the command of the fortress passed into the hands of a family of the
[Rohirian]
people. These, as has been said, were already long before of mixed blood, and they were now more friendly disposed to the Dunlendings …; with Minas Tirith far away they no longer had any concern. After the death of King Aldor … the Dunlendings unmarked by Rohan but with the connivance of Isengard began to filter into northern Westfold again, making settlements in the mountain glens west and east of Isengard and even in the southern eaves of Fangorn. In the reign of Déor they became openly hostile, raiding the herds and studs of the Rohirrim in Westfold
.’
(
FI
)
‘
As was later known, the Dunlendings
[were]
admitted as friends
’
(
FI
)
in Angrenost until they ‘
seized the Ring of Isengard, slaying the few survivors of its ancient guards who were not (as were most) willing to merge with the Dunlendish folk. Déor sent word at once to the Steward in Minas Tirith (at that time, in the year 2710, Egalmoth), but he was unable to send help, and the Dunlendings remained in occupation of Isengard
’.
(
FI
)
Other sources show that the reason for Egalmoth’s refusal was ‘
renewed war with the Orcs
.’
(
HE
)

1. Not in half a thousand years have they forgotten the grievance
   

This statement should not be generalised, though. At the same time, there was much traffic with the west-march of Rohan, and Northmen and Dunlendings frequently joined in cross-border marriage. Even the landlord Freca, a member of Rohirian nobility and counsellor of king Helm Hammerhand, ‘
had, men said, much Dunlendish blood, and was dark-haired
.
^[3]
’
(
KR
)
For a king like Helm, this was reason enough to address him as ‘Dunlending’, though his name was Rohirian.

Freca is one of the more illustrious characters in the history of the Gwathuirim. Belonging to the aristocracy of Rohan, he ‘
claimed descent from King Fréawine
’ and was ‘
rich and powerful, having wide lands on either side of the Adorn. Near its source he made himself a stronghold and paid little heed to the king. Helm mistrusted him, but called him to his councils; and he came when it pleased him
.’ Yet he developed quite high ambitions. In 2754 TA, he actually made an attempt to overcome the segregation by marrying into the royal family of Rohan. He made a glorious false start, though: ‘
To one of these councils Freca rode with many men, and he asked the hand of Helm’s daughter for his son Wulf
’,
(
KR
)
but received insults instead and ‘
such a blow with
[Helm’s]
fist that he fell back stunned, and died soon after. Helm then proclaimed Freca’s son and near kin the king’s enemies; and they fled, for at once Helm sent many men riding to the west marches
.’
(
KR
)
^[4]

This looks like an overreaction to a marriage proposal, even considering that ‘
Freca fell in a rage and reviled the king
’ before.
(
KR
)
It was, however, Helm who had started reviling, and in a way, he brought the doom that followed upon his own head. For ‘
the slaying of their lord, Freca, by King Helm was still remembered
’
(
FI
)
for centuries and added to the Dunlendings’ resentment against the throne of Rohan.

It is not known where Wulf son of Freca fled to from Edoras. Maybe to the sea, because four years later he would return with the most unlikely of allies. Instigated by Mordor, the Corsairs of Umbar (see chapter
IV
) were raiding the coasts along the Bay of Belfalas and beyond. Somehow, Wulf achieved a unique diplomatic feat then: He forged an alliance with the Corsairs to launch a coup-d’état against king Helm. For the only time in the Third Age, the Dunlendings were drawn into a league with Men of Darkness.

This, and the concerted attack of Easterlings, brought Rohan to its knees. Wulf’s forces advanced through the Gap of Rohan, and they ‘
were joined by enemies of Gondor that had landed in the mouths of Lefnui and Isen
’.
(
KR
)
While ‘
Rohan was again invaded from the East … the Dunlendings seeing their chance came over the Isen and down from Isengard. It was soon known that Wulf was their leader.
’
(
KR
)
Rohan called again to Gondor for help. And again, the South Kingdom declined, this time due to the raids of as many as three Corsair fleets at its own coasts. Helm was forced to yield his throne, and in retaliation for the murder of his father, ‘
Wulf took Edoras and sat in Meduseld and called himself king.
’
(
KR
)

The Dunlendish rule of Edoras and Isengard was brief and ill-fated. ‘
Reduced by the great famine after the Long Winter (2758-9) they were starved out and capitulated to Fréalaf
’, Helm’s nephew.
(
FI
)
Helm himself, in his retreat at the Hornburg, took to a strange sport, a single-handed partisan war:

‘
He would go out by himself, clad in white, and stalk like a snow-troll into the camps of his enemies, and slay many men with his hands. It was believed that if he bore no weapon no weapon would bite on him. The Dunlendings said that if he could find no food he ate men. That tale lasted long in Dunland
.’
(
KR
)

1. Such a blow with Helm’s fist that he fell back stunned
   

This pastime was also Helm’s undoing. One morning he was found frozen stiff, ‘
standing still on the Dike, alone, for none of the Dunlendings dared come near. There stood Helm, dead as a stone, but his knees were unbent
.’
(
KR
)

‘
Soon after the winter broke. Then Fréaláf, son of Hild, Helm’s sister, came down out of Dunharrow, to which many had fled; and with a small company of desperate men he surprised Wulf in Meduseld and slew him, and regained Edoras. There were great floods after the snows, and the vale of Ent-wash became a vast fen. The Eastern invaders perished or withdrew; and there came help at last from Gondor, by the roads both east and west of the mountains. Before the year (2759) was ended the Dunlendings were driven out, even from Isengard; and then Fréaláf became king
.’
(
KR
)