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Marh-)
came to their rescue, but Faramir died in his arms, and it was only when he
searched his body that he found tokens that showed that he was the Prince. The
leader of the Éothéod then went to join
Minohtar at the head of the North Road in Ithilien, who at that very moment
was giving an order for a message to be taken to the Prince in Minas Tirith,
who was now the King. It was then that the leader of the Éothéod gave him the
news that the Prince had gone disguised to the battle, and had been slain.
The presence of the Éothéod and the part played by their leader may explain
the inclusion in this narrative, ostensibly to be an account of the beginnings
of the friendship of Gondor and the Rohirrim, of this elaborate story of the
battle between the army of Gondor and the Wainriders.
The concluding passage of the fully-written text gives the impression that the
host of the Wainriders were about to receive a check to their exaltation and
elation as they came down the highway into the deep cutting; but the notes at
the end show that they were not long held up by the rearguard defence of
Minohtar. "The Wainriders poured relentlessly into Ithilien," and "late on the
thirteenth day of Cermië they overwhelmed Minohtar," who li b i h i d h b i
Odh ' i
"i i d h i fh
fray, and all that remained of the rearguard fled southwards to find Adrahil."
The chief commander of the
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Wainriders then called a halt to the advance, and held a feast. Nothing more
can be made out; but the brief account in Appendix A to
The Lord of the Rings tells how Eärnil came up from the south and routed them:
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.
In the Tale of Years the victory of Eärnil is called the Battle of the Camp.
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.
His son was Eärnur, who died in Minas Morgul after accepting the challenge of
the Lord of the Nazgûl, and was the last of the Kings of the southern realm.
(ii)
The Ride of Eorl
While the Éothéod still dwelt in their former home they were well-known to
Gondor as a people of
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good trust, from whom they received news of all that passed in that region.
They were a remnant of the
Northmen, who were held to be akin in ages past to the Dúnedain, and in the
days of the great Kings had been their allies and contributed much of their
blood to the people of Gondor. It was thus of great concern to
Gondor when the Éothéod removed into the far North, in the days of Eärnil II,
last but the of the Kings of the southern realm. The new land of the Éothéod
lay north of Mirkwood, between the Misty Mountains
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westward and the Forest River eastward. Southward it extended to the
confluence of the two short rivers that they named Greylin and Langwell.
Greylin flowed down from Ered Mithrin, the Grey Mountains, but
Langwell came from the Misty Mountains, and this name it bore because it was
the source of Anduin, which from its junction with Greylin they called
Langflood.
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Messengers still passed between Gondor and the Éothéod after their departure;
but it was some four hundred and fifty of our miles between the confluence of
Greylin and Langwell (where was their only fortified burg)
and the inflow of Limlight into Anduin, in a direct line as a bird might fly,
and much more for those who journeyed on earth; and in like manner some eight
hundred miles to Minas Tirith.
The Chronicle of Cirion and Eorl reports no events before the Battle of the
Field of Celebrant; but from other sources they may be made out to have been
of this sort.
The wide lands south of Mirkwood, from the Brown Lands to the Sea of Rhûn,
which offered no obstacle to invaders from the East until they came to Anduin,
were a chief source of concern and unease to the rulers of Gondor. But during
the Watchful Peace the forts along the Anduin, especially on the west
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21
shore of the Undeeps, had been unmanned and neglected. After that time
Condor was assailed both by
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Orcs out of Mordor (which had long been unguarded) and by the Corsairs of
Umbar, and had neither men nor opportunity for manning the line of Anduin
north of the Emyn Muil.
Cirion became Steward of Gondor in the year 2489. The menace from the North
was ever in his mind, and he gave much thought to ways that might be devised
against the threat of invasion from that quarter, as the strength of Gondor
diminished. He put a few men into the old forts to keep watch on the Undeeps,
and sent scouts and spies into the lands between Mirkwood and Dagorlad. He was
thus soon aware that new and dangerous enemies coming out of the east were
steadily drifting in from beyond the Sea of Rhûn. They were slaying or driving
north up the River Running and into the Forest the remnant of the Northmen,
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