Northmen

"Can you see anything?" "Nothing. There's nothing." The descriptive majority of this article's text is unsourced, and should be supported with references.

The Northmen, also known as the Free Men of the North, were a race of Men from northern Middle-earth that lived around Rhovanion, and were friendly to Gondor.

History

Northmen in Lake-town

The Northmen who dwelt east of the Greenwood and other parts of Rhovanion were friendly to the Dúnedain and were, after the Dúnedain, some of the most noble Men in Arda. They were known as Middle Men by the Dúnedain, and were believed to have been descended from the same group of Men as the Edain, the Atanatári. The only difference was that they did not cross the Blue Mountains into Beleriand, and therefore did not journey to Númenor. The result of them not participating in the war against Morgoth was their considerably shorter lifespan; the lifespan of the Dúnedain being lengthened by the Valar after the War of Wrath.

In the Third Age they were important allies of Gondor and served as a buffer against the Easterlings and other foes. For a time many of them even became subjects of Gondor, as the realm extended beyond the River Anduin.

The main Northmen principalities lay east of Greenwood and in the centuries when Gondor's power was at its height the Northmen flourished under its protection. In the fourteenth century of the Third Age, King Rómendacil II of Gondor sent his son Valacar as an ambassador to Vidugavia, the so-called "King of Rhovanion". Valacar loved Rhovanion and the daughter of the King, Vidumavi. He married her and she bore him a son whom she called Vinitharya in her mother tongue. In Gondor, Vinitharya became known as King Eldacar and caused a civil war, the Kin-strife, because of his mixed Dúnedain/Northmen blood.

In the 19th century of the Third Age a group of Northmen, who called themselves the Éothéod, moved to the Vales of Anduin between the Gladden Fields and Mirkwood, fleeing from the Wainriders, who had enslaved much of the people of Rhovanion. After the Witch-realm of Angmar was defeated by Gondor and the remains of Arnor, the Éothéod moved north in TA 1977 to the land near the sources of the Anduin. They were skilled horse breeders and horsemen. In TA 2510 they responded to a plea of help from Gondor against the Balchoth, rescuing the trapped Gondorian army at the Battle of the Field of Celebrant. After they helped Gondor win this important victory, they were rewarded the province of Calenardhon and became known as the Rohirrim.

The Men of Dale and Lake-town were also counted under the Northmen, as were the Woodmen of Mirkwood and Rohirrim of Rohan. Most of Rhovanion had been depopulated after the Great Plague and the Wars of the Wainriders. Their range was extremely wide; the Men of the North ranged from the western eaves of Mirkwood to the southern slopes of the Grey Mountains and from the Long Lake to Dorwinion on the Sea of Rhûn.

In The Hobbit, these Men carved out a potentially precarious living in the eaves of Mirkwood, living as hunters, loggers, trappers, and fishermen on the Anduin and its tributaries. They also lived in constant fear of attack from Dol Guldur.

Languages

In the Third Age, the Northmen spoke the Common Speech, however, they also had native languages. For example, the Rohirrim spoke Rohanese, for which J.R.R. Tolkien appears to have been inspired by Old English, seeing names like "Éowyn" and "Thengel". Whereas the Bardings and Woodmen spoke a similar language to the Men of Rohan in terms of gross language group, as seen in Old Norse names (akin to Old English and Norse being in the same language group), i.e. the name "Brand" translating to "torch". The language was not similar to Khuzdûl; rather the Dwarf names appearing in The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings are Dwarf names given in the Northern language of the Dale-men and Lake-men, not the native Dwarf language. They never shared languages with the Elves or with their Western, Southern, and Eastern counterparts; other than Westron.

This page uses content from Wikipedia. The original article was at Northmen (Middle-earth). The list of authors can be seen in the page history. As with The One Wiki to Rule Them All, the text of Wikipedia is available under the Commons Attribution-Share Alike license.

Translations

Foreign Language	Translated name
Afrikaans	Noordelike mense
Albanian	Njerëzit e veriut
Amharic	ሰሜን ሰዎች
Arabic	أهل الشمال
Armenian	Հյուսիսային մարդիկ
Azerbaijani	Şimali insanlar
Basque	Iparraldeko jendea
Belarusian Cyrillic	Людзі Поўначы
Bengali	উত্তরাঞ্চলের মানুষ
Bulgarian Cyrillic	Северни хора
Cambodian	ប្រជាជនខាងជើង។
Catalan	Homes del Nord
Chinese	北方人
Croatian	Sjeverni ljudi
Czech	Severní lidé
Danish	Nordlige mennesker
Dutch	Noordelijke mensen
Esperanto	Homoj de la Nordo
Estonian	Põhjainimesed
Faroese	Norðmenn
Finnish	Pohjalaiset
French	Hommes du Nord
Frisian	Noardlike minsken (Western)
Galician	Homes do Norte
Georgian	ჩრდილოელი ხალხი
German	Nordmenschen
Greek	Άνθρωποι του βορρά
Gujarati	ઉત્તરીય લોકો
Hebrew	אנשי הצפון
Hindi	उत्तर के लोग
Hmong	Cov neeg qaum teb
Hungarian	Északi emberek
Icelandic	Norðmenn
Indonesian	Orang utara
Irish Gaelic	Daoine ó thuaidh
Italian	Uomini del Nord
Japanese	北部の人々
Kannada	ಉತ್ತರ ಜನರು
Kazakh	Солтүстік халықтар (Cyrillic) Soltüstik xalıqtar (Latin)
Konkani	उत्तरेकडले दादले
Korean	북부 사람들
Kyrgyz Cyrillic	Эли Түндүк
Laotian	ປະຊາຊົນພາກ ເໜືອ
Latvian	Ziemeļnieku cilvēki
Lithuanian	Šiaurinis žmonių
Luxembourgish	Nërdlechen Leit
Macedonian Cyrillic	Луѓе од Северот
Malagasy	Olona avaratra
Malaysian	Orang utara
Marathi	उत्तर लोक
Mongolian Cyrillic	Хойд хүмүүс
Nepalese	उत्तरी मानिसहरु
Norwegian	Nordlige mennesker
Pashto	شمالي خلک
Persian	مردم شمالی
Polish	Północny ludzie
Portuguese	Homens do Norte
Punjabi	ਉੱਤਰੀ ਲੋਕ
Romanian	Oamenii de la Miazănoapte
Russian	Северяне
Scottish Gaelic	Muinntir a tuath
Serbian	Људи од Севера (Cyrillic) Ljudi od Severa (Latin)
Sicilian	Omini dû Nord
Sindhi	اتر جا ماڻھو
Sinhalese	උතුරු ජනතාව
Slovak	Severné ľudia
Slovenian	Severni ljudje
Spanish	Hombres del Norte
Swahili	Watu wa Kaskazini
Swedish	Norra människor
Tajik Cyrillic	Мардуми шимолӣ
Tamil	வடக்கு மக்கள்
Telugu	ఉత్తర ప్రజలు
Thai	คนเหนือ
Turkish	Kuzey insanlar
Ukrainian Cyrillic	Північні люди
Urdu	شمالی لوگ
Uzbek	Чимолий одамлар (Cyrillic) Shimoliy odamlar (Latin)
Vietnamese	Người miền bắc
Welsh	Gogledd pobl
Yiddish	צאָפנדיק מענטשן