Arnor

Arnor was founded at the end of the Second Age (S.A. 3320) by Elendil, whose sons Isildur and Anárion founded Gondor at the same time. The history of the two kingdoms is intertwined; both kingdoms are known as the Realms of the Dúnedain in Exile.

Before the foundation of Arnor, there was already a sizable Númenórean population living there, a result of the slow emigration of Númenóreans which had started under Tar-Meneldur and especially Tar-Aldarion. Most of them lived in the harbour of Vinyalondë, later called Lond Daer. Before the arrival of the Dúnedain, Arnor was home to Middle Menof Edain stock, and the early colonists soon interbred with the indigenous population. Arnor was originally favoured over the more southern regions (Gondor) because the Elvesunder Gil-galad lived in nearby Lindon. But in later days, the Númenóreans who fell under Sauron's shadow settled primarily in Umbar. Thus, Elendil arrived in an area populated by people who, unlike his contemporaries in Númenor itself, were mainly still friends with the Elves, and who retained knowledge of the Elder Days.

Arnor's second king was Isildur, who was also the King of Gondor, where he had ruled jointly with his brother until the latter's death. Isildur was killed in T.A. 2 by orcs in theDisaster of the Gladden Fields, and his three eldest sons were killed with him. Only his youngest son, Valandil, survived: being only a child at the start of the war, Valandil had remained behind in Rivendell. In T.A. 10, after several years being tutored by Lord Elrond, Valandil became the third king of Arnor.

For several centuries, Arnor's rulers styled themselves High King, following the precedent of Elendil, who ruled Arnor directly while holding suzerainty over Gondor; the rulers of Gondor, by contrast, were merely styled King. Nevertheless, Valandil and his successors never made any serious attempt to assert their overlordship; after the death of Isildur, the two realms developed as equal and independent states.

Decline
With the victory of the War of the Last Alliance, Arnor's power was apparently at its zenith. The King of Arnor held the overlordship of all the land from the Bay of Forochel to the River Poros on the southern borders of Ithilien, and from the Blue Mountains to the Mountains of Shadow. But in reality Arnor's strength had been severely depleted by the war and the Disaster of the Gladden Fields, and the northern Dúnedain never really recovered from their losses. The first few centuries of the Third Age were relatively uneventful, but it seems that Arnor's population gradually began to dwindle even in this early period.

Successor states
After the death of its tenth king, Eärendur, in T.A. 861, dissension among his three sons led to the division of Arnor. The eldest son, Amlaith, claimed Kingship over all Arnor but was reduced to ruling only the region of Arthedain as his kingdom, while the other sons founded the kingdoms of Cardolan and Rhudaur. The former capital, Annúminas, became depopulated and fell into ruin. The capital of Arnor was relocated to the lesser city of Fornost Erain on the North Downs.

This division hastened the decline of the Northern Dúnedain. The three kingdoms had frequent border skirmishes over boundary disputes, but the relationship of Arthedain and Cardolan remained relatively peaceful. Rhudaur, by contrast, was unfriendly towards the two other successor states, and fought a bitter conflict with Cardolan and Arthedain over the tower of Amon Sûl and the possession of its palantír.

Around T.A. 1300 during the reign of the sixth king at Fornost, the Witch-king arose in the mountains north-east of Arnor, where he founded the evil realm of Angmar. There were gathered many evil men, orcs, and other fell creatures, with the intent of destroying the realm of Arnor while Gondor in the south was strong. It was later revealed he was the leader of the Nazgûl, who were dispersed after the first overthrow of Sauron in S.A. 3434 at the hands of the Last Alliance of Elves and Men, but survived nonetheless.

Fall
The last Kings of Rhudaur were not of Númenórean blood, but were descended of Men in the service of Angmar. Under their rule the land became a vassal of Angmar, and an enemy of Cardolan and Arthedain. Angmar annexed and terminated the kingdom in T.A. 1409. By this time no Dúnedain remained in the region, and power had been claimed by an evil chieftain of the hillmen. Constant battle with Angmar began to wear down the forces of Arthedain, while Cardolan as an independent entity came to an end shortly after the invasion by Angmar in 1409.

The Kings of Arthedain reclaimed the name of Arnor when the line of Elendil became extinct in Cardolan and Rhudaur and retook the prefix Ar(a) in token of this, but this kingdom was only a small rump of the large and powerful realm of Arnor before its division. For the next several centuries after the destruction of Amon Sûl, Arnor continued to hold back the assaults of Angmar with dwindling strength and resolve. At this time no help could be sent from Gondor as it was under attack by the Wainriders, even after a re-establishment of relations with the wedding of Arnor's King Arvedui to Gondor's King Ondoher's daughter. An attempt by Arvedui to reclaim the kingship of both Arnor and Gondor was revoked, and Arnor continued to stand alone against Angmar.

Arthedain was finally destroyed in T.A. 1974, when the Witch-king captured Fornost. The next year, in the Battle of Fornost, a coalition of Elves, forces of Gondor and the remainder of Arnor's armies routed the Witch-king's forces and destroyed Angmar. Eriador was vastly depopulated by the war, and very few people remained. The population of Arnor was mostly wiped out, but the Hobbits survived relatively unscathed in the Shire, men survived in Bree and other villages, and the Dúnedain of Arnor created new homes in the Angle south of Rivendell, where they became known as the Rangers of the North. They became an isolated, wandering people, who defended the borders of Bree and the Shire from the perils in the wild.

Reunited Kingdom[edit]
Aragorn as King Elessar refounded the Kingdom of Arnor as part of the Reunited Kingdom, and again made Annúminas his capital city.

Arthedain
Arthedain was bounded upon the north by Forochel and the west by the Lune; upon the east by the Weather Hills and the south by the Baranduin. Cardolan and Rhudaur lay to the south and east.

The kingdom's capital was at Fornost, and Bree was one of its important towns. Annúminas lay in the territory of Arthedain, but was mostly ruinous and abandoned.

Around T.A. 1300 the kingdom of Angmar appeared at Arthedain's north-eastern border. Its king, the Witch-king of Angmar, was the chief of the Ringwraiths, although this was not known to the Dúnedain at the time. Rhudaur, aided by Angmar, attacked in T.A. 1356. Argeleb I died in this conflict along the Weather Hills. When this new threat came, Cardolan placed itself under the suzerainty of Arthedain, which then began to call itself Arnor again. Cardolan repeatedly sent aid to Arthedain when needed but in T.A. 1409 Cardolan and Rhudaur were conquered by Angmar and Arthedain survived only with the help of Elvish reinforcements from Lórien and the Havens.

After 1409 Angmar's power was temporarily broken and the North Kingdom enjoyed relative peace, although its population continued to decline. Indeed, the decline was so severe that in 1601 Argeleb II (r. 1589–1670) granted a large portion of Arthedain's best farmland to Hobbit migrants, as these lands had become deserted. Arthedain was not badly affected by the Great Plague, but hostilies with Angmar resumed. King Araval (r. 1813–1891) defeated Angmar in 1851, but Arthedain spent its last decades in desperate conflict with Angmar. In T.A. 1940, Arthedain under Araval's son Araphant (r. 1891–1964) formed an alliance with Gondor, but in the end neither Kingdom was able to provide military assistance to the other. The Witch-king pressed the attack on Arthedain even more vigorously, while Gondor barely survived a massive invasion of the Wainriders (T.A. 1944), leaving it temporarily unable to send substantial armies abroad. Araphant and his successor Arvedui held out against Angmar as long as they could. In T.A. 1973 Arvedui again appealed to Gondor for help, and the King of Gondor, Eärnil II (r. 1945–2043), sent a fleet north under his son Eärnur. But it was sent too late: toward the end of T.A. 1974, the Witch-king captured Fornost and overran Arthedain, and the King's sons and most of the other Dúnedain fled across the Lune. Arvedui himself fled northwards and perished in a shipwreck early in T.A. 1975, taking with him the palantíri of Annúminas and Amon Sûl. Eärnur's fleet reached Lindon after Arvedui's death. The combined might of Gondor, Lindon and Rivendell, together with soldiers from the former North-kingdom, routed Angmar's army at the Battle of Fornost.

Though the military threat of Angmar had been destroyed, the North-kingdom was ended. The long wars and a series of natural disasters had taken their toll on the population of Eriador, and the Dúnedain especially were few in number and unable to maintain a kingdom. In T.A. 1976, Aranarth, Arvedui's oldest son, took the title of Chieftain of the Dúnedain. He and his descendants led the Rangers of the North; Aragorn II was the sixteenth Chieftain until he restored the Kingdom of Arnor in T.A. 3019. The Kingdom of Arthedain had included the Shire (founded in T.A. 1601); in T.A. 1979, the Hobbits there chose a Thain to represent the royal authority.

The name Arthedain appears to be dialect Sindarin for "Realm of the Edain".

Cardolan
The borders of Cardolan extended from the river Baranduin (Brandywine) on the west, the river Mitheithel (Hoarwell) on the east and the river Gwathló (Greyflood) on the east and south. Its northern border was parallel to the Great East Road.

After it became a kingdom, Cardolan also claimed the Weather Hills controlled by Arthedain, where the fortress of Amon Sûl (Weathertop) and its valuable palantír were located. For this reason the Weather Hills were claimed by all three kingdoms — Arthedain, Cardolan and Rhudaur. This territorial dispute continued until Rhudaur became a vassal ofAngmar after the line of the Dúnedain kings failed there.

In T.A. 1050, the branch of Hobbits known as the Harfoots crossed the Misty Mountains, and settled in the South Downs in the west of Cardolan. They were joined about a century later by the Fallohides.

When the kingdom of Angmar arose in northern Eriador, Cardolan became an ally of Arthedain against the combined might of Angmar and Rhudaur. In 1356 Argeleb I of Arthedain was slain in battle with Rhudaur, now allied with Angmar. For a while Cardolan resisted Angmar, but in 1409 a large Army from Angmar broke into Cardolan and devastated the country. Arthedain could provide little aid, as it was itself under attack, and the remnants of the Dunedain fled, taking refuge in the Barrow Downs. The last prince of Cardolan died in this conflict, and Cardolan was shattered. While Arthedain recovered something of its power, Cardolan did not, and the region of the Barrow-downs entered hobbit legend as a place of mystery and danger.

In 1636 the Great Plague claimed the life of the King of Gondor, and withered its White Tree. The plague spread north along the Great Road that joined the two kingdoms, and the population of Minhiriath was decimated. About this time the plague also wiped out the Dúnedain hiding in the Barrow-downs and evil spirits came to dwell there. When King Araval attempted to resettle Cardolan two centuries later, the settlers were killed and driven off by the wights. What few folk survived could offer little aid to Arthedain in 1974, when Angmar overwhelmed the last of the kingdoms of Arnor. Until the end of the Third Age, the Dúnedain of Cardolan were only a memory, their tombs and barrows haunted by the evil wights sent from Angmar; for the Rangers that wandered over the lands were descended from the people of Arthedain. Tharbad survived until it was destroyed by floods in 2912.

The name Cardolan appears to be dialect Sindarin for "Red Hill Country".

Cardolan nominally included Tom Bombadil's country, the Old Forest, and the area that later became Buckland.

Rhudaur
The name Rhudaur appears to be dialect Sindarin for "Eastern Forests", and indeed Rhudaur was the most easterly of the three regions in which Arnor was divided. In reality, however, its name means "Evil Wood", although Tolkien did not leave any explanation for its origin.[2]

Rhudaur stretched from the Weather Hills with Weathertop (Amon Sûl) to the river Bruinen (Loudwater). It shared a long border with Cardolan near the Great East Road, and with Arthedain along the line of the Weather Hills.

Rhudaur also included land south of the Road between the Bruinen and Mitheithel (Hoarwell) rivers. It was called the Angle, and it is here that the first Stoor Hobbits came intoEriador around T.A. 1150.

Rhudaur's Dúnedain population was always small, and was always only a small proportion of its people. From its beginning, Rhudaur was unfriendly towards the two other successor states, and waged a long war with Cardolan over the tower of Amon Sûl and the palantír associated with the tower.

Over time, the more numerous Hillmen came to dominate the population, and one of their leaders, allied with Angmar, seized power from the Dúnedain during the 14th century when the local line of Isildur failed. In T.A. 1356, forces of Rhudaur and Angmar slew the High King Argeleb I in battle; the Stoors who had dwelt in the Angle fled south intoDunland, or returned east over the mountains to the Vale of Anduin. In T.A. 1409, Rhudaur was occupied by "evil Men subject to Angmar",[3] and the last Dúnedain there were killed or fled the region. Afterward Rhudaur is no longer mentioned as a political entity.

The Great Plague of T.A. 1636 devastated Eriador, including Rhudaur. In T.A. 1975 Angmar and its control over the region were destroyed by a combined army of Gondor and Lindon. The Witch-king fled, and the Hillmen vanished from the histories of Middle-earth. As far south as the Great East Road, Rhudaur became a troll-country; travellers along the Road generally hurried along their way and avoided the Trollshaws.

There is evidence that after the fall of Angmar at the Battle of Fornost the Angle became home to the remainder of the Dúnedain, and the Rangers of the North established several villages there, where their people lived until the resurrection of the northern Kingdom under King Elessar at the end of the Third Age. But northern Rhudaur remained wild and dangerous for the rest of that Age: Arador was slain there by hill-trolls in T.A. 2930, and his son Arathorn II fell in battle with orcs in T.A. 2933. In T.A. 2941, trolls captured the company of Thorin at the start of The Hobbit.