[ Daily Tolkien ] The Folk of Angmar

"Dwelling on the northern fringe of the known lands of Middle-Earth, the Mannish tribes of Angmar have left the barest trace in the memory of the world. Most nations have a language, culture, territory, and history. For the folk of Angmar we know only their territory and some of their history; we do not have one word that we know belongs to their language. They are one of many peoples who have arisen and declined in the history of the West, and now the only reports of them survive among the descendants of their enemies. Lest all is lost forever, I, a scribe of the West, shall tease out what little is known of this people."

There are very few references to the folk of Angmar and we hear of them only in relation to conflict with the Dunedain, after they had had come under the malevolent rule of the Lord of the Nazgul. Our Hobbit adventurer's travelled through Rhudaur and saw the ruins of the castles from which they ruled that land, and Bilbo also passed through old East Angmar returning from Erebor, though we have no accounts of that land from him. Apart from Merry Brandybuck's nightmare about 'men of Carn Dum' (LOTR B1,VIII, p.140), we have the following facts: Around.1275 T.A the Witch-King gathered evil folk to him upon founding his rule in Angmar:

"It was 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 orcs, and other fell creatures."

In these and other quotes in this paper, I have underlined references to the men who served the Witch-king. Professor Tolkien does not explicitly say where they came from and that is what I propose to investigate.

As little is known about these 'men of Carn Dum' (the chief fortress of Angmar) as the Mannish troops of Minas Morgul (another personal army of the Witch-Kings, probably gathered from Haradwaith, Khand and Rhun). Where did they come from ? Was the land uninhabited until the Witch-King brought men out of East ? Morgoth used men from Eriador in his later wars in Beleriand; Sauron used men from the White Mountains in his war in Eriador (1693-1701 S.A) and brought men far distances from Harad and Rhun in the War of the Ring. The Witch-King may have considered a similar strategy. He could have marched men from Rhun north of Mirkwood and used the northern passes to cross the Misty Mountains. Only King Thranduil of North Mirkwood could have challenged them (Dale, Erebor and the Iron Hills not yet being founded) and he might have had no reason to. But Angmar waged war on Arnor not for a score of years but for centuries. The Witch-King required a settled people for this, which meant bringing families and livestock with an army. This is implausible because of the difficulty for families in such a long march over a short period of time (the original migrations of Men westward would have been done gradually, in stages).

So then were the Men of Carn Dum native folk of Forodwaith and North Eriador who were brought under the Witch-King's dominion ?

The Akallabeth refers to the flight east, after the fall of Beleriand, of Men loyal to Morgoth. These proceeded to dominate the tribes that dwelt there who had not become involved in the struggle between Morgoth and the Eldar.

"And after the victory of the Lords of the West those of the evil Men who were not destroyed fled back into the east, where many of their race were still wandering in the unharvested lands...And the evil Men came among them and cast over them a shadow of fear, and they took them for kings."

This would imply that Eriador became populated by Men hostile to the Eldar & Edain. This however needs to be reconciled with the presence around the North Downs later of folk related to the Edain, who were unhostile to the Numenoreans who came to Lindon in the Second Age. Perhaps the presence of the Eldar in Lindon influenced the settlement of those folk fleeing from Beleriand. Hence the choice of Northern Eriador or Forodwaith to dwell in. Note J.R.R Tolkien's comment on the Lossoth who dwelt along the shores of the Ice-bay of Forochel:

"These are a strange, unfriendly people, remnant of the Forodwaith, Men of far-off days, accustomed to the bitter colds of the realm of Morgoth."

These are clearly descendents of the Men who fled back east. And just as the Men of Bree, Dunland and Eryn Vorn came from the early tribes of Minhiriath, and the Men of Dale and Rohan descend from the Northmen of Rhovanion, the Men of Forodwaith may have branched off, some settling around Forochel and becoming the Lossoth, whilst others settled the lands near the Mountains of Angmar.

They also settled the Upper Vales of Anduin (see the reference to the events of 1977 below). However we do not know if this land was conquered by Angmar after 1275 or whether its folk already dwelt there.

Another land they came to inhabit was Rhudaur, the smallest of the three kingdoms into which Arnor had split in 861 T.A. It lay between the Weather Hills, the Ettenmoors and included the Angle formed by the rivers Briunen and Hoarwell. The inhabitants by the Fifteenth century included a mix of Dunedain, Hobbits and the native Hillmen. Around 1350 T.A the rulers of the kingdom entered a secret alliance with the new power of Angmar against the other Dunedain kingdoms. But the Witch-King proved a faithless ally and granted Rhudaur to his people in 1409:

We are told they killed or drove out the Dunedain population but not how they treated the non-Dunedain inhabitants, the Hillmen. Note Aragorn's comment on the inhabitants of Rhudaur:

"Men once dwelt here, ages ago...They became an evil people, as legends tell, for they fell under the shadow of Angmar."

This is a very broad remark but could suggest that five centuries of rule and settlement by the tribes of Angmar meant the assimilation of the native Hillmen and the disappearance of their distinct culture (which had not happened under the rule of the thinly settled Dunedain).

We can hardly even speculate about the history of this tribe between 1400 and 1975. Their society must have changed under the rule of the Witch-king, who united them, organised them for prolonged war, and concentrated them in larger settlements (such as Carn Dum). As he introduced undead into the lands he controlled, he may also have initiated the tribes into practise of the Black Arts. With more certainty we can say that the Men of Angmar escaped the worst of the Great Plague 1636 T.A as their lands lay in the less affected northern part of Eriador.

The spread of trolls and undead into Rhudaur and the worsening climate of East Eriador probably kept the folk of Angmar hungry for the better lands to the west. When the Witch-King's triumph came in the winter of 1974 the folk of Angmar were poised to take the lands of Arthedain with the coming of Spring. However, before they could seize their prize the forces of Gondor rallied the remaining folk of Arnor and their Elvish allies and inflicted a total defeat on Angmar.

"Then so utterly was Angmar defeated that not a man nor an orc of that realm remained west of the Mountains."

By implication, the homes of the Men of Angmar in Eridaor must have been destroyed. The survivors and their families probably fled east over the passes of Rhudaur and Angmar to their kin in the Upper Anduin. But they were driven from here in 1977 by the Eotheod, ancestors of the Rohirrim, who dwelt between the Carrock and the Gladden Fields, and who exploited the defeat of Angmar:

"...when therefore they heard of the overthrow of the Witch-King, they sought more room in the North, and drove away the remnant of the people of Angmar on the east side of the Mountains."

The remaining folk of Angmar must have been forced north into Forodwaith, their ancestral homeland. No report has reached us of their fate.

TH - The Hobbit (Unwin Paperbacks, 1985) - References are by Chapter and/or Page

Unf - Unfinished Tales (Unwin Paperbacks, 1985) - References are by Part, Section and/or Page

Sil & QS - The Silmarillion (Unwin Paperbacks, 1979) - References are by Page

Letters - The Letters of J.R.R Tolkien (HarperCollins, 1995) - References are by letter number

LOTR - The Lord of the Rings (HarperCollins, 1995) - References are by Book, Chapter and Page

Background information contained in LOTR's Appendix A and the Tale of Years is sometimes used without reference.

The Daily Tolkien articles by various authors	The Tolkien Virgin articles by Mark-Edmond
ARTICLES 01-10	ARTICLES 01-10
ARTICLES 11-20	ARTICLES 11-20
ARTICLES 21-30	21) Of the Fifth Battle: Nirnaeth Arnoediad
ARTICLES 31-40	22) Of Turin Turambar
ARTICLES 41-50	23) Of the Ruin of Doriath
ARTICLES 51-60	24) Of Tuor and the Fall of Gondolin
61) Gil-galad was an Elven-king...	25) Of the Voyage of Earendil and the War of Wrath
62) The Folk of Angmar

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