User:Arnor-Gondor
The page, the category and the nation on Nation States is intended to describe or to imagine J.R.R. Tolkien's Reunited Kingdom of Arnor and Gondor in the first centuries of the Fourth Age.
In this User page I will try to explain my choices and my own interpretations of the universe of Middle-Earth. Feel free to post observations, musings and other things on both my talk and on this page.
Also due to the fact that the reference system is not supported, I will link necessary explanations to this page.
Copyright disclaimer
I will always reference non-original material I will use; no copyright infringement is intended.
Old English
J.R.R. Tolkien used Old English to render the Rohan language. I decided to stay consistent to this choice and to use some modernised or common forms of Old English as provided by Wikipedia.
Population in the Reunited Kingdom as of Fourth Age
Determining the hypothetical population of the Reunited Kingdom in the Fo.A. III is a fundamental concept. At the same time, we do not have any explicit estimate of neither actual technology nor nature of the soil and/or agriculture. The only deduction I have been able to make is that the Shire is a rather fertile land, in order to sustain a robust Hobbit population; but, for the Mannish component of Endor, I am not able to figure out a realistic sort out of my own.
To determine my figures I consulted this page: Populations of Middle Earth - The Isle of Numenor (through the 2nd Age)
Although the main theme is the population of Númenor through the II Age, in the final part of the article Stephen Wigmore suggests some datas also for the end of the III Age, i.e. three thousand years after the downfall of Númenor itself.
Although I disagree from his superb work in some minor points, Stephen Wigmore suggests that:
«at the time of LOTR at the end of the 3rd age the population of Gondor was around 2 million, and that of Rohan around 500 thousand. There would've been probably equivalently sized populations (or even more) of native men in Eriador and Gondor as well».
Once defined hypothetical figures of the T.A. 3019, we should try to imagine how things may have evolved in the following 250 years or so. We get from the LOTR that troubled times or decadent civilisations produce a lower fertility rate and shortened lifespans, also if we not include the mixing of the Mannish races and peoples, which does not end well for the "superior" people which receives "inferior" blood: see the case of dwindling of lifespans of the Ruling Stewards as an almost "pure" Dunadan house. It MUST be noted that I use "inferior" and superior" ONLY with regard to lifespans.
One point that everyone has always assumed when speaking of the Fourth Age, starting from J.R.R. Tolkien himself, is the good times which are set at least for the beginning of the Fourth Age. I therefore decided, as it can be noted in the main page of the work, that the first three centuries have insofar been a plentiful era (although not an entirely peaceful one).
Furthermore, I devised the progressive colonisation effort of Enedwaith, of Minhiriath, and the reconquest process of ancient Kingdom of Arnor and of lost provinces of Gondor. All of this accounts for a significant growth of the population numbers.
Therefore my own estimate is that Gondor is home of some 2,500,000 Dúnedain and of some 2 million of other Men (Middlemen, Northmen, Haradrim and other peoples). The 2,500,000 million is derived by both a 200 years-long joyful peace (or at least absence of war at Gondor's own borders) and by the enlargement of the Gondor to the former province of Harondor and of Umbar, which I assume it has been sacked, razed to the ground and replaced with a Dúnadan military colony (who said Carthago?).
In Enedwaith there is the Dunlending people, which has been subjugated, there are the plains to populate and colonise, there are the coast already inhabited by fishermen. Moreover, the river vales are natural places to develop settlements, hamlets, villages, towns, even cities and ports. In Minhiriath there are not the Dunlendings, but there are Tharbad and Lond Daer to be rebuilt, and at the very least colonies along the North-South road, not to mention Greyflood and Brandywine vales. In former Arthedain Annúminas and Fornost are the two main cities, but there also is plenty of land and possibly surviving Dúnadan communities.
I dare to say that in all those lands may live up to 100,000 Dúnedain and around 1,000,000 other Men.
Rhovanion is a more complex matter, and I personally dislike the very idea that the Reunited Kingdom controls all the land until the sea of Rhûn. I therefore decided to make the High King populate the Rhovanion with summoned Northern peoples (much like Rohirrims in Calenardhon) as autonomous but vassal or independent states and lands, while controlling "only" lands between Emyn Muil and the eastern end of the Ered Lithui.
Aragorn claim to the throne
I used the legal consideration provided in this web-page:
Answerer: was Aragorn the rightful King of Gondor?
Otherwise, Fourth Age-related political implications are of my own.
Political theology
For considerations stemming from Gandalf's prohpetic nature I drew from:
Gandalf, Mithrandir, Olorin: Prophetin the Political Theology of Middle-earth
Villages
The countryside organisation is inspired, but not identical, to the Byzantine system.