Dunland: society



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What can we infer about Dunlending society and culture from Tolkien’s works? Not much; however, judicious comparisons with our own world can also aid the writer or world-builder attempting to create a model of Dunlending society. Anyway, here goes…

Before the Númenoreans: a people of earth and stone

Tolkien provides us with a fascinating glimpse of a neolithic-type human society in Middle-Earth in the unfinished tale of ‘Tal-Elmar’1, which is set in the early Second Age and tells of one tribe’s first contact with the Númenoreans. Here we read about the ‘swart sturdy folk’ who peopled the Hills of Agar. They are a violent people, who respect strength above all else. Their lives are short and harsh, and they have little respect for the old; Tal-Elmar’s kindness towards his aged father is seen as folly. The people of Agar are apparently farmers, for at noon the majority of the town’s inhabitants are at work in the fields. They have primitive boats which they use for travel on river and lake. They dress themselves in simple clothing; Tal-Elmar wears only a loin-cloth and a cloak of fur. We are told that some amongst the folk of Agar bear clubs as weapons, and knives are also mentioned. Metal-working is unknown to them, however, and metal weapons are considered the work of demons. The race of Men newly come out of the east, who are tall, fair-haired and grey-eyed, are believed by the swarthy hill-men of Agar to be such demons. The newcomers are slowly thrusting towards the sea, driving the previous dwellers of the lands before them, but the swarthy men are still numerous and at times drive back the newcomers. It seems likely that these newcomers were the ‘Middle Men’, ancestors of the Rohirrim, Beornings and Woodmen, who settled in Rhovanion and the Vales of Anduin. The swarthy men do not appear to have had a common language, for the people of Agar could not understand the folk of Udul, a village ‘far inland’, who were their near kin.

The dominion of Westernesse: resistance and withdrawal

At the time of the arrival of the first Númenoreans, the indigenous inhabitants of Minhiriath and Enedwaith were forest-dwellers, scattered communities without central leadership.2 The Akallabêth3 suggests that the Men of Númenor ‘instructed Men in the sowing of seed and the grinding of grain, in the hewing of wood and the shaping of stone’, but it seems obvious from ‘Tal-Elmar’ that the indigenous folk of Middle-Earth had all these skills already. Perhaps the Númenoreans brought improvements in the methods of farming, but most likely the main skill they brought with them was that of iron-working. We know that the later Númenoreans found ‘that iron was used against them by those to whom they had revealed it.’ It should be pointed out that at first the native people of Middle-Earth held the Númenoreans in awe; it was only when the tree-felling carried out by the newcomers became devastating that they turned hostile. The folk of Minhiriath fled to the cape of Eryn Vorn, the folk of Enedwaith to the eastern mountains ‘where afterwards was Dunland’. Deprived of their old homes, the displaced people of Enedwaith would have been forced to modify their methods of farming to cope with the change in terrain. Perhaps it was at this time they became herdsmen rather than mainly arable farmers. One thing we do know is that they turned to Sauron to help rid them of the Men of the Sea. During this period they carried out raids along the fringe of the forest, where they burned many of the Númenoreans’ wood stores.

The next reference to Enedwaith and its inhabitants in Tolkien’s text is during a much later period: the days of the Kings in Gondor. There seems to be some confusion about whether Enedwaith was officially part of the Kingdom of Gondor or not (there are two contradictory statements in ‘Unfinished Tales’2,4), but in any case the descendants of the Númenorean did not settle there. We know that the ancestors of the Dunlendings dwelt apart and had few dealings with other men. After the days of the Kings ended, the folk of Enedwaith ceased to be subjects of Gondor, and few paid any heed to them.

This dearth of information leaves us with no knowledge of the lifestyle or culture of the pre-Dunlending society. However, it would seem logical to make comparisons with the late Iron Age peoples of Europe. These peoples lived in tribal societies, consisting of many small groups each ruled by its own chieftain. Inter-tribal warfare was endemic, owing to competition over resources (land, metal, etc.). Communities lived in fortified settlements, which were often built on hilltops (although this, of course, depended on the terrain). In one respect at least, Middle-Earth culture differs from our own historic past, however. There is no indication that any of the peoples of western Middle-Earth kept slaves, and I do not believe that the Dunlendings would have differed from their neighbouring cultures in this matter (in contrast to the Celtic tribes of Europe).

We do not know how the leaders of the pre-Dunlendings derived their authority, but in neighbouring Calenardhon, a province of Gondor, chieftainship was hereditary. Perhaps this was also true in the region later known as Dunland. My own image of pre-Dunlending society, however, is based upon the clan system of early Gaelic Scotland. A clan (the term comes from a Gaelic word meaning simply ‘children) is a close-knit community bound together mainly by blood ties; members were fiercely loyal to their chieftains, who were chosen by council from the kinsmen of the previous chief.

The arrival of the Forgoil: the birth of a nation

In Third Age 2510, Cirion the Steward gave the province of Calenardhon to Eorl the Young and his people, a tribe of nomadic horsemen who had previously dwelt in the Vales of Anduin. The newcomers drove out the Dunlendings, earning their bitter hatred. It is my belief that it was this event that led to the birth of the Dunlending nation. Tolkien is very careful to use phrases such as ‘the ancestors of the Dunlendings’ and ‘the people that the Rohirrim later called the Dunlendings’ when speaking of earlier times, thus suggesting that there was not a ‘Dunland’ as such before the arrival of the Rohirrim. What better catalyst to unite a previously warring people than a foreign enemy who had stolen land the Dunlendings regarded as their own, grass-filled plains that would provide much better pasturage than the rough grazing of upland Dunland. [‘Dunland’ and ‘Dunlending’ are Rohirric terms, of course, and the Dunlendings would not have used this name for themselves. I have chosen to use ‘Gwlad-y-Rhosydd’ for the land; its people therefore become ‘Tylwyth y Rhosydd’.]

How was Dunland ruled? We have no way of knowing; in the absence of any information I have chosen to suggest that the Dunlendings chose their kings through tanistry. This was an ancient custom used in early Scotland, whereby a king’s successor was nominated from amongst the ranks of his kinsmen who shared a common great-grandfather. There is no evidence for this in Tolkien’s works; however, we do know that leadership cannot have been merely hereditary. The Dunlendings’ most successful leader was Wulf, who was of mixed Dunlending, Gondorian and Rohirric blood. [As an aside, it is interesting to note that the Dunlendings, despite their reputation for xenophobia, intermarried with both Gondorians and Rohirrim.]

Under Forgoil rule: a subject people

We know that after the War of the Ring the Dunlendings accepted Eomer Éadig, ruler of the Rohirrim, as their king. Whether this was voluntary or was forced upon them is not stated explicitly; I have chosen the latter interpretation as it would make for more fertile ground for a future rebellion.

It is likely that the Rohirrim chose to manage Dunland in a way similar to their own land of Rohan. Tolkien does not tell us how Rohan was administrated, but from the little we do know about Rohirric society, it sounds similar in many ways to that of the Angles/Saxons/Danes in Britain. In these cultures, the land was ruled by a King, chosen from the royal house (often merely the strongest and most powerful warleader - the office was not necessarily hereditary), with the aid of his Eorls (the 11th century term for the office). The Eorls were the ruling nobility, and acted as the King’s deputy within a region of land (known as the Scir or Shire), where they were responsible for day-to-day administration, justice and raising and leading the army (the fyrd).

Below the Eorls in the social hierarchy came the Thegns. These held lands either from the Eorls or directly from the King himself. The latter group, known as the King’s Thegns, owed military service to the King which they performed on a rota basis, acting as bodyguards and trained soldiers. They were also known as Household or Hearth Troops. In Lord of the Rings, Eomer is able to command ‘the men of his household’, who may have been a similar body (though lesser in status than the King’s Household, of course). Below the Thegns came the freeholders known as Ceorls. They paid rent to their overlord and also performed various duties for him, such as working his land, building and repairing fortifications and at his request accompanying him to war. At the bottom of the social hierarchy were the thralls (slaves), but as I have stated earlier I do not believe that any of the western Middle-Earth human cultures kept slaves.

My suggestion is that the Rohirrim placed several of their own nobles in Dunland as Eorls, reducing the native Dunlending nobility to the status of Thegns. The Rohirrim were an orderly people, and likely had a well-developed system of laws and customs, which might well have seemed over-harsh to many Dunlendings, in particular the inflexible tithes that the peasantry would now have to pay to their overlords. Some Dunlending nobles would have retained reduced land holdings under the new administration, conditional on their loyalty to Rohan. As time passed, the Dunlendings would have gradually adapted to the new ways, and the gulf between peasantry and nobility would begin to widen (in the ‘looser’ clan system, less emphasis was placed on rank than on ability as a warrior).

Warfare

Some information about Dunlending weapons and warfare can be found in the descriptions of the battles at the Fords of Isen4 and Helm’s Deep5. At the Fords of Isen there were trenches manned by pikemen, who may well have been Dunlendings; the pike is an appropriate weapon for footmen who must confront horsemen. The Dunlendings apparently had some horsemen; these rode alongside the Orcish wolfriders at the Battle of the Fords. We also read about a company of ‘men or orc-men, ferocious, mail-clad and armed with axes’. Tolkien may well have intended these to be Half-Orcs; however, in my stories I have chosen to use the long-handled Dane-axe or broadaxe as a ‘national’ weapon of many Dunlendings. The fact that these troops were mail-clad suggests that they were trained soldiers, for armour was scarce amongst the Dunlendings, the majority of whom were less skilled in warfare and less well-armed than the Rohirrim. Likewise, swords would have been rare, and I have chosen to make them a mark of nobility. The Dunlending hillmen made up for their lack of training with their ferocity.

This article is not finished yet - I hope to add paragraphs about religion and daily life, but haven't had time.

References

1 Tolkien C., 1990, The Peoples of Middle-Earth, The History of Middle-Earth Volume 12, chapter XVII
2 Tolkien J.R.R., ed. Tolkien C., 1980, Unfinished Tales, Part II, Chapter IV, Appendix D
3 Tolkien J.R.R., 1977, The Silmarillion
4 Tolkien J.R.R., ed. Tolkien C., 1980, Unfinished Tales, Part III, Chapter V
5 Tolkien J.R.R., 1955, Lord of the Rings, Book Three, Chapter 7 ‘Helms Deep’
6 Tolkien J.R.R., ed. Tolkien C., 1980, Unfinished Tales, Part ??, Chapter ??, A Description of Númenor