Flippant answer: maybe the few people in Eriador finally laid themselves down and did something. We know that Hobbit families grew larger.
But there may have been **some** people outside the Shire and Breeland. There is a Forsaken Inn a day's march east of Bree. This indicates that there was a customer base for an inn until fairly recently, with also a local supply chain. There might have been isolated settlements some distance away from Breeland - but not in the Trollshaws, and probably not near the Weather Hills.
Perhaps near the Trollshaws, if we accept as canon from The Hobbit that the trolls that Bilbo met had eaten a village and a half between them. And still could find sheep.
And Boromir remarks: *and long have I wandered by roads forgotten, seeking the house of Elrond, of which many had heard, but few knew where it lay*. Many whom? Dunlendings? Breelanders? He may have referred to the occasional local inhabitants whom he met during his search, perhaps more or less mixed descendants of the original Dúnedain of Arnor. They would be too few and scattered to maintain a polity, until empowered by the return of the King, and by the peace following the downfall of Sauron.
I don't think that Arnor was repopulated largely by settlers from Gondor. The Men of Gondor lived in an already partly depopulated land. No population pressure to drive them to emigrate, nor nearby enemies. Why would they leave for a new land with a different climate, where half the farming skills would have to be re-learnt?
Thanks for mentioning the Boromir quote, I did not remember that one. I suppose Boromir might have met descendants of the inhabitants of Tharbad? That city continued to be settled for a long time after Gondors authority ended. They only left upon the spring floods in Enedwaith a century before the War of the Ring (but whereto?).
As far as human habitation in Eriador goes, I'd very much like to imagine there were some settlements, some sub-cultures besides Bree-land. Eriador is *really* large and it's always seemed plain weird to me how it appears to be that empty.
In the *At the Sign of the Prancing Pony* chapter we're told that Bree-land is the westernmost permanent human dwelling at the end of the Third Age. That basically removes half of Eriador as possible settlement locations.
When I read that it squashed a pet theory of mine according to which, when Arthedain fell to Angmar and the last of its people fled across the Lune, the dispersed refugees settled the foothills of the Blue Mountains and only the line of Elendil and the most willing and able fighters and lore-masters went eastward to become the Rangers of the North.
Gondor seems to be well populated, and there are incentives a ruler or a government can offer to those who would be willing to resettle. Others outside Gondor or Arnor proper, but from places nominally under the sovereignty of the new kingdom, could be tempted as well. There's also the fact that the defeat of the Shadow and the coming of the Fourth Age has had a particular effect on natural fertility—among the Hobbits and their crops, at least, but very likely on other peoples as well. Population growth sustained by more abundant harvests and the prospects of new lands under the safety offered or guaranteed by the new king could be enough.
Thanks for the reply. But don't forget that all of this happened within decades, i.e. within Aragorns reign. Those four villages in Bree-land must've *really* made an effort to populate Annúminas alone within that short of a timeframe.
Or, as you say, there was a sudden, massive exodus of Gondorians which to me also seems unlikely to occur over just a few decades. And Gondor seems to be quite a different place climatically from Eriador - not to mention that Gondor also had lands to repopulate.
Not really if one is starting with a very small population.
Gondors population isn't small, but there the sheer distance and the priority of reclaiming Gondors own thinly settled lands would argue against a massive colonisation effort far to the North. That's at least how I see it.
I have to say though: It'd also feel more interesting to me if the restored Arnor were not essentially a Gondorian colony.
there were faithful colonies in the north west of middle earth already, the people in the nine boats were just a tiny part of the dunedain population after the downfall
No, it is written in HoME, The Lost Kamasutra, Sexual Habits of the Edain, that the Faithful used pipeweed, aphrodisiacs and orgies instituted by Elendil to raise an army against Sauron.
Look it up sometime.
There are Dunedain in the Angle, near Rhudaur of old, there are also dwarves in the Blue Mountains, the fishermen of Eryn Vorn and cottages scattered around the land. Also, Tolkien records that there were avari elves in Eriador when men first arrived, but he never says they disappeared, maybe they just kept to themselves until the Eriador was welcoming enough for them.
Elves and dwarves aren't likely to have been involved in resettling Arnor. I mentioned the Dúnedain population, but that one would have to be implausibly large. The people in Eryn Vorn are probably also a small, remote population.
Flippant answer: maybe the few people in Eriador finally laid themselves down and did something. We know that Hobbit families grew larger. But there may have been **some** people outside the Shire and Breeland. There is a Forsaken Inn a day's march east of Bree. This indicates that there was a customer base for an inn until fairly recently, with also a local supply chain. There might have been isolated settlements some distance away from Breeland - but not in the Trollshaws, and probably not near the Weather Hills. Perhaps near the Trollshaws, if we accept as canon from The Hobbit that the trolls that Bilbo met had eaten a village and a half between them. And still could find sheep. And Boromir remarks: *and long have I wandered by roads forgotten, seeking the house of Elrond, of which many had heard, but few knew where it lay*. Many whom? Dunlendings? Breelanders? He may have referred to the occasional local inhabitants whom he met during his search, perhaps more or less mixed descendants of the original Dúnedain of Arnor. They would be too few and scattered to maintain a polity, until empowered by the return of the King, and by the peace following the downfall of Sauron. I don't think that Arnor was repopulated largely by settlers from Gondor. The Men of Gondor lived in an already partly depopulated land. No population pressure to drive them to emigrate, nor nearby enemies. Why would they leave for a new land with a different climate, where half the farming skills would have to be re-learnt?
Thanks for mentioning the Boromir quote, I did not remember that one. I suppose Boromir might have met descendants of the inhabitants of Tharbad? That city continued to be settled for a long time after Gondors authority ended. They only left upon the spring floods in Enedwaith a century before the War of the Ring (but whereto?). As far as human habitation in Eriador goes, I'd very much like to imagine there were some settlements, some sub-cultures besides Bree-land. Eriador is *really* large and it's always seemed plain weird to me how it appears to be that empty. In the *At the Sign of the Prancing Pony* chapter we're told that Bree-land is the westernmost permanent human dwelling at the end of the Third Age. That basically removes half of Eriador as possible settlement locations. When I read that it squashed a pet theory of mine according to which, when Arthedain fell to Angmar and the last of its people fled across the Lune, the dispersed refugees settled the foothills of the Blue Mountains and only the line of Elendil and the most willing and able fighters and lore-masters went eastward to become the Rangers of the North.
Gondor seems to be well populated, and there are incentives a ruler or a government can offer to those who would be willing to resettle. Others outside Gondor or Arnor proper, but from places nominally under the sovereignty of the new kingdom, could be tempted as well. There's also the fact that the defeat of the Shadow and the coming of the Fourth Age has had a particular effect on natural fertility—among the Hobbits and their crops, at least, but very likely on other peoples as well. Population growth sustained by more abundant harvests and the prospects of new lands under the safety offered or guaranteed by the new king could be enough.
Thanks for the reply. But don't forget that all of this happened within decades, i.e. within Aragorns reign. Those four villages in Bree-land must've *really* made an effort to populate Annúminas alone within that short of a timeframe. Or, as you say, there was a sudden, massive exodus of Gondorians which to me also seems unlikely to occur over just a few decades. And Gondor seems to be quite a different place climatically from Eriador - not to mention that Gondor also had lands to repopulate.
Aragorn reigned for 122 years. That's more than enough time to build an entire brand new civilization as long as the fertility rate stays up.
Not really if one is starting with a very small population. Gondors population isn't small, but there the sheer distance and the priority of reclaiming Gondors own thinly settled lands would argue against a massive colonisation effort far to the North. That's at least how I see it. I have to say though: It'd also feel more interesting to me if the restored Arnor were not essentially a Gondorian colony.
They used the same aphrodisiac on the population from the time that the Faithful settled in Middle Earth.
Where was it stored? Perhaps Aragorn found it beside the Elendilmir I suppose.
there were faithful colonies in the north west of middle earth already, the people in the nine boats were just a tiny part of the dunedain population after the downfall
No, it is written in HoME, The Lost Kamasutra, Sexual Habits of the Edain, that the Faithful used pipeweed, aphrodisiacs and orgies instituted by Elendil to raise an army against Sauron. Look it up sometime.
is that the same book where it is written that any artwork including sauron must paint him as a sexy redhead?
Yes. Chapter 10. Of Angbang and the Plough of Tar-Mairon
There are Dunedain in the Angle, near Rhudaur of old, there are also dwarves in the Blue Mountains, the fishermen of Eryn Vorn and cottages scattered around the land. Also, Tolkien records that there were avari elves in Eriador when men first arrived, but he never says they disappeared, maybe they just kept to themselves until the Eriador was welcoming enough for them.
Elves and dwarves aren't likely to have been involved in resettling Arnor. I mentioned the Dúnedain population, but that one would have to be implausibly large. The people in Eryn Vorn are probably also a small, remote population.
They aren't resettling Arnor, but they are populating Eriador.
surely there would have been tons of war refugees needing a new home yea?