The World of Middle-earth

Where Did Everyone Live?

In September 1995, John Blackburn asked a simple question: "Where does everyone live (in Middle-earth)?" What follows is reply to his question. Some corrections have been made to the text, or inserted as notes.

John Blackburn wrote:
>Lots of castles, houses etc. are mentioned in LotR, but very
>few villages or towns. So where does everyone live?

There is actually a lot of information in LOTR about where people lived, but you really have to dig for it to find it. Still, one of the recurrent themes in LOTR is that the peoples of the west, having been battered at for centuries, are dwindling. Only after the fall of Sauron would they be able to replenish themselves.

The hobbits live in the Shire and Bree so that's alright.

>Some men live in Bree and some in Gondor. Some live in the
>kingdom of Theoden. I remember Theoden's castle, but not
>much about any towns or villages.

Theoden didn't actually have a castle. He had a hall, which was quite different architecturally. His settlement resembles some Scandinavian plans, particularly the Danish military communities.

There were about 1000 houses in Edoras and farms in the valley behind (Harrowdale?). NOTE: My estimate of 1,000 houses was based on the incorrect memory of a passage in "The King of the Golden Hall". More than a thousand men rode with Theoden from Edoras to reinforce the Hornburg.

There are two or three passages which say the Rohirrim lived in the (valleys of the) White Mountains (Ered Nimrais) and their foothills. They pastured their horses on the plains, but the peoples of the Eastfold were evacuated prior to the War of the Ring because of Orcish raids.

In the histories of the Kings of Rohan, it is mentioned that Wulf's father Freca, whom Helm Hammerfist slew with a single blow of his fist, controlled many lands on the north and south side of the River Adorn. This was the river which ran west from the White Mountains to the sea. North of the river lived the Dunlendings, who were related to many of the peoples of Gondor as well as the Men of Bree.

The people on the south side of the River were Rohirrim, but there was a lot of mixed blood in that area. Those lands were inhabited at the time of The Lord of the Rings.

The kinds of houses they would have used are described briefly in Unfinished Tales, and I believe Christopher Tolkien mentions somewhere that Beorn's house was modelled along the same characteristics. NOTE: The long-house in which Beorn dwelt was based on a common design used by Germanic, Celtic, and neighboring peoples throughout northern and central Europe for several thousand years.

In The Hobbit, when Gandalf, Bilbo, and the Dwarves are caught up in the trees by the Orcs and Wargs, Tolkien explains that Men had been migrating north along the Great River and they were encroaching on the lands normally controlled by the Orcs. The best I can estimate, these people lived south of the Beornings and north of Loeg Ningloron (The Gladden Fields). NOTE: I have since come to think these people may have been incorporated into the Beornings.

Besides the Dunlendings and the Men of Bree, there were three other Mannish peoples living in Eriador or its adjoining lands at the time of the War of the Ring. In Eryn Vorn, a small forest along the coast just south of the Ered Luin, lived remnants of the ancient Gwathuirim (ancestors of the Men of Bree and the Dunlendings).

Also, simple fisher-folk lived along the coast of Enedwaith, south of the Gwathlo river. These were relatives of the Druedain, the Woses of Druadan Forest in Anorien. Another group of Druedain lived farther south between the River Adorn and the Cape of Andrast in Druwaith Iaur.

Finally, the Dunedain of the North also lived in Eriador, located in the Angle, the lands just south of Rivendell between the Bruinen and Mitheithel rivers. The Rangers of the Dunedain watched over other regions of Eriador, including the Bree-land and the Shire. They also remained in close contact with the Elves of Rivendell and Lindon.

And don't forgoth the Lossoth, the "snowmen" who lived in the far north.

Also, the Dwarves still lived in the Ered Luin. There probably were several communities there, including remnants of the Broadbeams and Firebeards (the Dwarves of Belegost and Nogrod in the First Age) in the Ered Luin north of the Lhun and remnants of the Longbeards (Durin's Folk) in the Ered Luin south of the Lhun, close to the Shire. The Dwarves travelled through the Shire on a fairly regular basis.

In Gondor there are many towns on the map and several of these lay along the route Aragorn used after he emerged from the Paths of the Dead. Tolkien mentions many farms and orchards. Also, the Pellenor Fields encompassed many farms, and people lived south of Minas Tirith in the countryside.

There are several other areas where Gondor's peoples are said to have lived.

The people of Esgaroth lived mostly on the lake until the events of the Hobbit, but they also had some buldings on the north shore (this is where the survivors of the city gathered after Smaug was killed). I think the new Esgaroth was built on the east shore, but I'm not positive.

Dale, of course, was refounded by Bard after the death of Smaug, and Erebor was reinhabited by the Dwarves. Bard's descendents extended their kingdom to include all the lands between the Carnen and the Celduin. The Carnen is the riving running south out of the Iron Hills and the Celduin ran from Erebor down to the Inland Sea of Rhun.

In The Hobbit, Tolkien mentions that the Men of the Long Lake (i.e., the people of Esgaroth) traded with their kin southward along the river. The inhabitants of the land of Dorwinion, one of the lands the Men traded with, are not described but Pauline Baines placed the country on the northwest shore of Rhun, which would have been an area settled by both Northmen and Wainriders.

Beorn became a chieftan of many men between the Carrock and the Old Ford. The Old Forest Road ran east from the Old Ford through the forest.

There were also indications of villages of men on the Map of Wilderland, including villages in Mirkwood south of the Old Forest Road. These "Woomen of Mirkwood" apparently were quite an ancient branch of the Northmen, as they are mentioned in the "The Disaster of the Gladden Fields".

These peoples may have assisted the Northmen of Rhovanion in their rebellion against the Wain-riders, and some of the Woodmen may have joined the Eotheod (the descendants of the Northmen of Rhovanion), who eventually migrated to the far north. The Eotheod were the ancestors of the Rohirrim.

There is mention of other Northmen living in the Vales of Anduin during Boron's ride north to find the Eotheod, but they weren't very numerous. Easterlings apparently also lived in and near southern Mirkwood.

Aragorn and Gandalf had dealings with the Woodmen of Mirkwood. The Easterlings appear to have served Sauron.

At the start of the Fourth Age when Thranduil and Celeborn met in Mirkwood, they gave the middle portion of the forest to the Beornings and the Woodmen.

>Speaking of Gondor: of Minas Tirith and Minas Ithil, which
>was the good tower and which was the bad tower?

Minas Tirith was originally named Minas Anor and it was the abode of Anarion, the younger brother of Isildur, whose city was Minas Ithil. There thrones were side-by-side in the citadel of Osgiliath, the city that lay between the other two.

In TA 2000, the Nazgul led an army from Mordor against Minas Ithil. They captured the city in 2002 and the Gondorians renamed it Minas Morgul, the Tower of Black Magic. This city was situated in the Ephel Duath (the Mountains of Shadow) on the western border of Mordor. Minas Ithil controlled the only access point to Mordor from the west that we know of for sure.

>Does anyone know of any more human settlements?
>The elves live in Rivendell, Lothlorien and Mirkwood,
>but none of these places seems to have a sizeable town
>or even village. Although, I suppose there might not be
>many elves.

Caras Galadhon, the capitol of Lothlorien where the Fellowship met with Celeborn and Galadriel, was referred to as "the chief city of the Galadrim", from which we may infer there were other cities.

There were three named cities in Lindon: Harlond, Forlond, and Mithlond. Forlond was home to many of the remaining Noldor. Mithlond was the home of Cirdan and his people. Harlond was the home of Celeborn, Galadriel, and many Sindar early in the Second Age. It's not known when Forlond and Harlond were deserted, but Mithlond would have been the last to be deserted.

Thranduil lived in the underground city (or fortress) where Bilbo found Thorin and Company as prisoners, but there is also mention of an elven village along the river (this is noted after Bilbo gets the barrels into the water in The Hobbit). Many elves also wandered about the countryside, "camping out" so-to-speak in special places that other folk left alone. The "hall" at Woody End in the Shire was one such place. The elves had torches, firewood, and provisions there. The trees were arranged to provide an interesting "natural" structure. Go back and re-read that passage carefully.

When Celebron founded the Kingdom of East Lorien, he may have settled in the former fortress Sauron had there (Dol Guldur). That would have been unusual, but in The Silmarillion Luthien took back the fortress Minas Tirith from Sauron. Tolkien doesn't say of the prisoners whom Luthien released. They would have been met with suspicion and mistrust if they tried to return to their peoples. On the other hand, Minas Tirith would not have been a safe haven for them.

>Where do the Orcs live? Sauron's Orcs could live in
>Mordor, plenty of space >there. But what about Saruman's
>orcs?

The Orcs generally lived underground because they disliked the sunlight. They also inhabited many fortresses.

The Orcs of the Misty Mountains had a city under Mount Gundabad in the far north. Tolkien may have intended this to be the successor of Carn Dum, the capitol city of Angmar, which was destroyed in the 20th century TA.

Gandalf, Bilbo, and the Dwarves of Thorin and Company found an Orc city under the High Pass of the Misty Mountains. This city may later have been deserted, as in The Lord of the Rings we are told the Beornings were keeping the pass open in exchange for tolls.

Orcs obviously lived in Khazad-Dum, which was huge -- really a network of underground cities.

Sauron's fortress in Mirkwood (Dol Guldur) more than likely had a lot of Orcs.

>Some orcs live in the Misty Mountains. could these be
>Saruman's orcs?

Saruman's Orcs lived in Isengard. Undoubtedly he recruited them from among the Orcs of the Misty Mountains, but since he had Uruk-Hai serving him he must have recruited them late in the T.A. He settled in Isengard after the Long Winter of 2758-9. "The Tale of Years", Appendix B in The Lord of the Rings, says that Saruman took Isengard for his own and fortified in 2953. That is probably when his Orcs began settling there.

>Are there any Trolls in LotR?

Lots of trolls in the battles in Gondor and north of Mordor. Trolls are mentioned in Khazad-dum as well as Mordor.

>Can someone tell me about the history of Helm's Deep?
>I am pretty vague about who used to live there and why it
>was abandoned.

It was not abandonded. Some parts of it fell into disrepair, but there were Rohirrim living in the valley at the time of the War of the Ring. Helm's Deep was the fortress to which Helm retreated during the Long Winter. It was located near the western end of the White Mountains (Ered Nimrais) and was closest to the lands controlled by Freca (see above).

Well, I may have left out some details. I've tried to discuss only the peoples who were living at the time of the War of the Ring, so I left out descriptions of Cardolan, Rhudaur, Angmar, Framsburg, and Tharbad intentionally.

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