Henneth Annun Reseach Center

Timeline Event

Wars with the Wainriders: Overview

Event Type: Military/Strategic

Age: 3rd Age - The Kings

Years: 1851 ~ 1944

Description:

Table of Contents:

The Enemy
The Timeline
The Wars
The Aftermath

The Enemy
The Wainriders were a people, or a confederacy of many peoples, that came from the East; but they were stronger and better armed than any that had appeared before. They journeyed in great wains, and their chieftains fought in chariots. Stirred up, as was afterwards seen, by the emissaries of Sauron, they made a sudden assault upon Gondor ... in 1856.

The Return of the King, LoTR Appendix A, Annals of the Kings and Rulers: Gondor and the Heirs of Anárion

The Timeline
1851
The attacks of the Wainriders upon Gondor begin.
[See: Wainriders begin their attacks on Gondor]
[See: Northmen of Rhovanion Ally with Gondor against the Wainriders]

1856
Gondor loses its eastern territories, and Narmacil II falls in battle.
[See: Battle of the Plains]
[See: Narmacil II, King of Gondor, Dies in Battle]
[See: Marhari, a Lord of the Northmen, Dies in Battle]

[See: Northmen of Rhovanion are Enslaved by the Wainriders]
[See: Marhwini Gathers the Éothéod in the Vales of Anduin]

1899
King Calimehtar defeats the Wainriders on Dagorlad. ...
[See: Revolt of the Northmen of Rhovanion against the Wainriders]
[See: Battle against the Wainriders at Dagorlad]

[See: Wainriders, Haradrim, and Variags Ally against Gondor]
[See: Wainriders Launch Raids against the Éothéod]

1940
Gondor and Arnor renew communications and form an alliance. Arvedui weds Fíriel daughter of Ondoher of Gondor.
[See: Marriage of Arvedui and Fíriel]

1944
Ondoher falls in battle. Eärnil defeats the enemy in South Ithilien. He then wins the Battle of the Camp, and drives Wainriders into the Dead Marshes. Arvedui claims the crown of Gondor.
[See: Invasion of Gondor by Wainriders and Haradrim]
[See: Battle against the Haradrim at Poros]

[See: Battle against the Wainriders at the Morannon]
[See: Ondoher, King of Gondor, Dies in Battle]
[See: Ondoher's Heirs Die in Battle]

[See: Battle of the Camp]

[See: Arvedui's Claim to the Crown of Gondor is Rejected]

1945
Eärnil II receives the crown.

The Return of the King, LoTR Appendix B, The Tale of Years: The Third Age

The Wars
The third evil was the invasion of the Wainriders, which sapped the waning strength of Gondor in wars that lasted for almost a hundred years. The Wainriders ... made a sudden assault upon Gondor, and King Narmacil II was slain in battle with them beyond Anduin in 1856. The people of eastern and southern Rhovanion were enslaved; and the frontiers of Gondor were for that time withdrawn to the Anduin and the Emyn Muil. ...

Calimehtar, son of Narmacil II, helped by a revolt in Rhovanion, avenged his father with a great victory over the Easterlings upon Dagorlad in 1899, and for a while the peril was averted. It was in the reign [1891-1964] of Araphant in the North and of Ondoher [reigned 1936-1944] son of Calimehtar in the South that the two kingdoms again took counsel together after long silence and estrangement. For at last they perceived that some single power and will was directing the assault from many quarters upon the survivors of Númenor. It was at that time that Arvedui heir of Araphant wedded Fíriel daughter of Ondoher (1940). But neither kingdom was able to send help to the other; for Angmar renewed its attack upon Arthedain at the same time as the Wainriders reappeared in great force.

Many of the Wainriders now passed south of Mordor and made alliance with men of Khand and of Near Harad; and in this great assault from north and south, Gondor came near to destruction. In 1944 King Ondoher and both his sons, Artamir and Faramir, fell in battle north of the Morannon, and the enemy poured into Ithilien. But Eärnil, Captain of the Southern Army, won a great victory in South Ithilien and destroyed the army of Harad that had crossed the River Poros. Hastening north, he gathered to him all that he could of the retreating Northern Army and came up against the main camp of the Wainriders, while they were feasting and revelling, believing that Gondor was overthrown and that nothing remained but to take the spoil. Eärnil stormed the camp and set fire to the wains, and drove the enemy in a great rout out of Ithilien. A great part of those who fled before him perished in the Dead Marshes.

The Return of the King, LoTR Appendix A, Annals of the Kings and Rulers: Gondor and the Heirs of Anárion

The Aftermath
After the deaths of Ondoher and both his sons at the Morannon Arvedui, last king of the northern realm, laid claim to the crown of Gondor; but his claim was rejected, and in the year following the Battle of the Camp Eärnil became King.

Unfinished Tales, Part 3, Ch 2, Cirion and Eorl and the Friendship of Gondor and Rohan: The Northmen and the Wainriders

[Note: the dates are set to include the events Wainriders begin their attacks on Gondor through the Battle of the Camp.]

Contributors:
Elena Tiriel 7.18.04

Related Library Entries

Events Search

All fields are optional. Dates default to the start of an event if it is multi-day.
Leave year set to "0" to see all years.



Start:    

  End:  

Full Text Search


Places

No related places

Go to Places

Things

No related things

Go to Things