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 Visualizing Middle-earth (Book Excerpt)by Michael Martinez Buy from Amazon.com Page 2 of 6 Arthedain's kings claimed sovereignty over all of former Arnor from 1356
onward, and after the war of 1409 Arthedain became Arnor again. But its people
were diminished in number. Many had been lost to the various wars. Whole
families, villages must have been wiped out in the great invasion of 1409.Bree must have assumed a strategic role in the war of 1409. Cardolan, the southernmost kingdom in Eriador, was overrun. Most of the Dunedain of Cardolan had lived in the South Downs, a range of hills southeast of Bree. Angmar invaded and overran these hills, killing many of the people there and driving the survivors westward. Some of the Dunedain took refuge in Tyrn Gorthad, the hills to the southwest of Bree. At that time there were no barrow-wights in the hills, and the land was had long been home to Dunedain and Edain alike. But Angmar's army attacked Tyrn Gorthad as well, and the last prince of Cardolan died there. Arthedain gained help from Lindon. Cirdan sent an army of Elves east to help the Dunedain . That army may have joined forces with the army of Arthedain as it came past or from Bree. Such a rendezvous would help explain why the army of Angmar didn't push north into Arthedain. The Witch-king's soldiers were at the end of a long supply line, they had been practicing a scorched Earth policy, and the Elves were coming in fresh. Elrond, who had been besieged in Rivendell, brought an army out of Lorien and helped defeat the Witch-king's army. After the war of 1409 Cardolan became a part of the reunited Arnor, but its people were few and hardly any of the Dunedain remained there. Bree was probably the first large town north of Tharbad. There must have been traffic between Fornost Erain and Tharbad, where Arnor had once maintained a garrison alongside a Gondorian garrison, and probably Cardolan's kings had retained the garrison under their control. But Arnor only had 200 years in which to recover from the devastating war before the Great Plague came rolling north. Beyond Tharbad there dwelt in the hills of northern Dunland a large community of Stoors. Some of the Stoors had lived there since their ancestors crossed the Misty Mountains around TA 1150, but others had migrated south from Rhudaur in 1300 when Angmar first rose in the north. The Stoors of Dunland don't seem to have had much interaction with the Harfoots and Fallohides of Arthedain, but there was some communication as many Stoors migrated north when the Shire was founded by Marcho and Blanco in 1601. It is hard to imagine what Bree must have been like before the hobbits came west from Rhudaur. It was probably a quiet little border town, enjoying the benefits of being at the crossroads of two kingdoms. The Hobbits probably took one look at the hill and fell in love with it. Many of them settled on the eastern side of the hill, in the town of Staddle. For all we know, Staddle was founded at this time. Travelers passing through Bree would have included Dunedain, Dwarves, Elves, and various men of other kindreds. The east-west traffic probably consisted mostly of Elves and Dwarves, and the north-south traffic probably consisted mostly of Men and Hobbits. Hobbits (and Men) probably also lived north of the Bree-land. The lands along the northern road must have been fairly populous. All that began to change in 1601. First the Hobbits migrated west, settling in the lands beyond the Baranduin river. Marcho and Blanco set out from Bree, but not all the Bree Hobbits left for the new land. And since there were other Hobbit communities at the time most of the colonists may have come from outside Bree. Copyright© 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002 Michael Martinez, sffworld.com. All rights reserved. No part of this may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the author. |
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