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นี้ What was the Origin of Tolkien’s Hill-men of
Rhudaur?
SEARCH XENITE.ORG by Michael Martinez • November 21, 2011 • Comments Off

Search Q: What was the Origin of Tolkien’s Hillmen of Rhudaur?

Search all subdomains on Xenite.Org. Results ANSWER: The Hill-men of Rhudaur have puzzled many readers of The Lord of the Rings. There are no stories about
appear on search.xenite.org. them. They are simply mentioned in passing in a brief narrative section in the appendix:

In the days of Argeleb son of Malvegil, since no descendants of Isildur remained in the other kingdoms, the kings of Arthedain
again claimed the lordship of all Arnor. The claim was resisted by Rhudaur. There the Dúnedain were few, and power had been
PRIVACY POLICY seized by an evil lord of the Hill-men, who was in secret league with Angmar. Argeleb therefore fortified the Weather Hills; but he
was slain in battle with Rhudaur and Angmar.
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@tolkien_qna
Follow Xenite.Org at @xenite_org Where did these men come from? They had apparently dwelt in the same region for many centuries, perhaps thousands of
years. In a note attached to the essay “Of Dwarves and men” (published in The Peoples of Middle-earth), J.R.R. Tolkien
FACEBOOK wrote:

Follow Michael's Facebook page at 59. When [the hobbits] entered Eriador (early in the second [millennium] of the Third Age) Men were still numerous there, both
@writer.Michael.Martinez Numenoreans and other Men related to the Atani, beside remnants of Men of evil kinds, hostile to the Kings. But the Common
Speech (of Numenorean origin) was in general use there, even after the decay of the North Kingdom. In Bilbo’s time great areas
RSS Feed of Eriador were empty of Men. The desolation had begun in the Great Plague (soon after the Hobbits’ occupation of the Shire),
and was hastened by the final fall and disappearance of the North Kingdom. In the Plague it would seem that the only Hobbit
https://middle-earth.xenite.org/feed/ communities to survive were those in the far North-west at Bree and in the Shire….

OTHER ARTICLES Emphasis is mine. These “remnants of Men of evil kinds, hostile to the Kings” would seem to have ancient roots, perhaps
extending back to the Easterlings who fled the ruin of Beleriand at the end of the War of Wrath. The hill-men who seized
Read articles Michael has written for other control of Rhudaur, however, themselves appear to have been overthrown by other men coming from Angmar. In the next
Websites Elsewhere on the Web paragraph, Tolkien writes:

A great host came out of Angmar in 1409, and crossing the river entered Cardolan and surrounded Weathertop. The Dúnedain

TOP MIDDLE-EARTH ARTICLES were defeated and Arveleg was slain. The Tower of Amon Sûl was burned and razed; but the _palantír_ was saved and carried
back in retreat to Fornost, Rhudaur was occupied by evil Men subject to Angmar, and the Dúnedain that remained there were
slain or fled west Cardolan was ravaged. Araphor son of Arveleg was not yet full-grown, but he was valiant, and with aid from
Why Did the Elves Leave Middle-
Círdan he repelled the enemy from Fornost and the North Downs. A remnant of the faithful among the Dúnedain of Cardolan
earth?
also held out in Tyrn Gorthad (the Barrowdowns), or took refuge in the Forest behind.
Why Does Gandalf Say "Fly, You
In an earlier version of this passage, published in The Peoples of Middle-earth, Tolkien wrote:
Fools!"?

Are There Female Orcs in Middle-

earth?

Why Did Saruman's Uruk-hai

Come Out of Pods?

What Happened to Gimli after he

Sailed Over Sea?

Why Did Frodo Wait 17 Years to

Leave the Shire?
18. Arveleg I. born 1309 lived 100 years + slain 1409 The Witch-king of Angmar taking advantage of war among [the
When Does Gandalf Die?
Numenoreans or Dunedain >] the Dunedain comes down out of the North. He overruns Cardolan and Rhudaur. [Cardolan is
ravaged and destroyed and becomes desolate. The Tower of Amon Sûl is razed and the palantir is broken. Evil spirits come and
Are There Two Hobbit Books? take up their abode in the mounds of the hills of Cardolan. In Rhudaur an evil folk, workers of sorcery, subjects of Angmar, slay
the remnants of the Dunedain and build dark forts in the hills. But the Dunedain of Fornost, in spite of the death of their king,
hold out, and repel the forces of Angmar with the help of Cirdan of Lindon. >] Cardolan is ravaged; the Tower of Amon Sûl is
Did J.R.R. Tolkien Invent Orcs razed and the palantir is removed to Fornost. In Rhudaur an evil folk … [as above] build dark forts in the hills, while the
remaining Dunedain of Cardolan hold out in the Barrow Downs and the Forest; the Dunedain of Arthedain repel the forces of

Did Sauron Die When the One Angmar from Fornost with the help of Cirdan of Lindon.

Ring was Destroyed?

Emphasis is mine. The only other probable direct reference to the non-Edainic men of this region comes in the first
paragraph of the essay about the House of Eorl, where Tolkien writes:

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…The forefathers of Eorl claimed descent from kings of Rhovanion, whose realm lay beyond Mirkwood before the invasions of
the Wainriders, and thus they accounted themselves kinsmen of the kings of Gondor descended from Eldacar. They loved best
the plains, and delighted in horses and in all feats of horsemanship, but there were many men in the middle vales of Anduin in
those days, and moreover the shadow of Dol Guldur was lengthening; when therefore they heard of the overthrow of the Witch-
king, they sought more room in the North, and drove away the remnants of the people of Angmar on the east side of the
Mountains….
Emphasis is mine. It could certainly be that these “remnants of the people of Angmar” were Orcs and/or Trolls, but I think
that unlikely, as Tolkien usually explicitly mentions such creatures. The description of Angmar’s founding stipulates that
Orcs, Men, and other evil creatures were governed by the Witch-king:

SIGN UP FOR NOTIFICATIONS ‘It was in the beginning of the reign of Malvegil of Arthedain that evil came to Arnor. For at that time the realm of Angmar arose
in the North beyond the Ettenmoors. Its lands lay on both sides of the Mountains, and there were gathered many evil men, and
Once you sign up you should receive a confirmation Orcs, and other fell creatures….
email you must reply to. Some ISPs, like Century Link,
The men of western Angmar were apparently destroyed in 1975 when Eärnur, Cirdan, and Glorfindel defeated the Witch-
have blocked emails from Xenite.Org in the past. Please
king and drove him from the north. The narrative dealing with the impact of the Great Plague on Eriador may imply that the
read this notice about emails sent from Xenite.Org if you
Men of Rhudaur died in 1636:
don't see the confirmation email. Be sure to check your
spam/junk folders and whitelist us. Thank you. 1636 The Great Plague devastates Gondor. Death of King Telemnar and his children. The White Tree dies in Minas Anor. The
plague spreads north and west, and many parts of Eriador become desolate. Beyond the Baranduin the Periannath survive, but
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