Henneth Annûn Story Archive

Hi all,

What do we know about the history and culture of the Dunlendings? Or indeed Wild Men generally? I feel fic coming on but I can't help but think that there must be more canon than I've found so far. I've checked my LOTR and Silm (just in case!) indices with little fruit. The Encyclopaedia of Arda's entries are pretty minimal.

Thanks!

 

Some references I know of include:
Peoples of ME (HoME XII)
The War of the Ring (HoME VIII) and
The Treason of Isengard (HoME VII)

BTW, Re: the Origins of the term 'Dunland'
“Dunland and Dunlending are the names that the Rohirrim gave to them, because they were swarthy and dark-haired; there is thus no connexion between the word dunn in these names and the Grey-elven word Dûn ‘west’.” From Appendix F

Thus Rohirric was the internal (and Old English the external) source for the name.

dun (adj.) - O.E. dunn "dingy brown, dark-colored," perhaps from Celt. (cf. O.Ir. donn "dark"), from PIE *donnos, *dusnos "dark." From the Online Etymology Dictionary: http://www.etymonline.com/d6etym.htm

Ithildin

 

Oh, thank you! Indices to my LOTR didn't direct me to appendix F but I should have thought of that. Eo'Arda had that etymology listed but didn't give its source. I will check out those HoME references.

Doom's Eyebrow

 

There's also some interesting stuff on the Dunlendings in Unfinished Tales. One such: "In the foothills of the western side of the Misty Mountains lived the remnants of the people that the Rohirrim later called the Dunlendings, a sullen folk, akin to the ancient inhabitants of the White Mountain valleys whom Isildur cursed. They had little love of Gondor, but though hardy and bold enough were too few and too much in awe of the might of the Kings to trouble them..." (p. 375)

 

Cool!

 

Am I the only one who thinks the Dunlending sound a little bit like the Welsh? Hill dwellers dispossed of their lands by both a highly developed 'imperial' culture and a hord of barbarian warriors? Or am I being to much influenced by the Rohirrim/Anglo-Saxon parallel?

 

No, I've always gotten a Welsh and/or Pictish vibe from them too, Morwen. The fact that they call the rohirrim "strawheads" just adds to that.

I gave the Dunlendings in my Rohan story blue, Pictish-style tattoos just for fun...

 

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