Dunlendings

With that in mind, let's take a look at the human allies and see why they might have decided to go against the men of the West.

And we'll start with Saruman's allies, the Dunlendings.

These are the guys in the movie who cut their hands and make a blood oath with Saruman very briefly, and then we never really see them again.

So let's start with who these Dunlendings are.

If you remember in our episode on the Northmen, I briefly mentioned that the three tribes of men that would become the Edain of the First Age took different paths to get to Beleriand, with the future houses of Beor and Hador taking a northerly route.

but taking a southern route, were the people that would eventually become the House of Haleth.

We read this in Volume 12 of The History of Middle-Earth, The Peoples of Middle-Earth.

Many of the forest dwellers on the shorelands south of the Ered Luin, especially in Minhiriaf, were, as later historians, recognized the kin of the House of Haleth.

[laughs] Critters.

Don't forget the Dunlendings are still pretty cross-

Exactly

... with them.

So there would probably be depredations upon herds and livestock and, uh, all sorts of things from Dunlendings.

It's going to be easier to defend a settlement.

That makes a lot of sense.

And yeah, they're gonna be living in homesteads and villages and, you know, b- defensible territory.

The little-

... maybe if there's Dunlendings who've come up.

And, uh, so the Rohan people are a little bit different in that they speak a different language, um, but they're still descended from North- Northmen.

They just kept a more archaic language, really.

And outside of this week's readings, we see it in places like Mithlond, the gray havens, using mith, gray, that's the same element as in mithril and mithrandir.

Londair, the great haven at the mouth of the Gwathló, where the Númenóreans landed to cut down Eriador's forests and harass the Dunlendings.

Now, that gives us a small, slightly grim symmetry for the week.

The same word is in the name of the Elvish harbor where Feanor commits the kinslaying, Alqualondë, and in the name of the Gondorian harbor where Aragorn arrives to save Minas Tirith, the haven of the swans and the south haven.

The king, the king, we will take their king.

And the names that they use for the Rohirrim, Forgoyle, Strawheads, right? These are blonde people as opposed to the Dunlendings, and that they're the robbers of the north.

Then he explains why.

Not in 500 years have they forgotten that the lords of Gondor gave the mark to Aeorl the Young.

Saruman, of course, has fanned that old grievance back into flame.

Now, we talked about that history on Third Age Thursday just last week.

Cirion handing over Calanardhon, the Dunlendings pushed back over the Eisen by Brego and Aldor, and the hatred flaring every time that Rohan was in trouble.

But we covered it a lot more extensively when we spoke about the Dunlendings on Third Age Thursdays, back in weeks 106 and 107.

I've seen some estimates a bit more than that, but 12,000 to 15,000 in total seems like a reasonable central estimation.

And that total is made up of Orcs, Uruk-hai, some on wolf or walk-back, half-orcs and Dunlendings.

Some will have died in the two battles of the Fords of Isen and at the hands of Boromir et al, but still there seem to have been over 10,000 at the Battle of Helm's Deep.

Saruman focused the main strength of his army there.