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By Root 1650 0

the First Age. When the occupation of the coastlands by the Númenóreans began in the Second Age they survived in the mountains of the promontory [of Andrast], which was never occupied by the Númenóreans. Another remnant survived at the eastern end of the range [in Anórien]. At the end of the Third Age the latter, much reduced in numbers, were believed to be the only survivors; hence the other region was called ‘the Old Púkel-wilderness’ (Drúwaith Iaur). It remained a ‘wilderness’ and was not inhabited by Men of Gondor or of Rohan, and was seldom entered by any of them; but Men of the Anfalas believed that some of the old ‘Wild Men’ still lived there secretly. 13

But in Rohan the identity of the statues of Dunharrow called ‘Púkel-men’ with the ‘Wild Men’ of the Drúadan Forest was not recognized, neither was their ‘humanity’: hence the reference by Ghân-buri-Ghân to persecution of the ‘Wild Men’ by the Rohirrim in the past [‘leave Wild Men alone in the woods and do not hunt them like beasts any more’]. Since Ghân-buri-Ghân was attempting to use the Common Speech he called his people ‘Wild Men’ (not without irony); but this was not of course their own name for themselves. 14

NOTES

1 Not due to their special situation in Beleriand, and maybe rather a cause of their small numbers than its result. They increased in numbers far more slowly than the other Atani, hardly more than was sufficient to replace the wastage of war; yet many of their women (who were fewer than the men) remained unwed. [Author’s note.]

2 In The Silmarillion Bëor described the Haladin (afterwards called the People or Folk of Haleth) to Felagund as ‘a people from whom we are sundered in speech’ (p. 142). It is said also that ‘they remained a people apart’ (p. 146), and that they were of smaller stature than the men of the House of Bëor; ‘they used few words, and did not love great concourse of men; and many among them delighted in solitude, wandering free in the greenwoods while the wonder of the lands of the Eldar was new upon them’ (p. 148). Nothing is said in The Silmarillion about the Amazonian element in their society, other than that the Lady Haleth was a warrior and the leader of the people, nor of their adherence to their own language in Beleriand.

3 Though they spoke the same language (after their fashion). They retained however a number of words of their own. [Author’s note].

4 After the fashion in which in the Third Age the Men and Hobbits of Bree lived together; though there was no kinship between the Drûg-folk and the Hobbits. [Author’s note].

5 To the unfriendly who, not knowing them well, declared that Morgoth must have bred the Orcs from such a stock the Eldar answered: ‘Doubtless Morgoth, since he can make no living thing, bred Orcs from various kinds of Men, but the Drúedain must have escaped his Shadow; for their laughter and the laughter of Orcs are as different as is the light of Aman from the darkness of Angband.’ But some thought, nonetheless, that there had been a remote kinship. which accounted for their special enmity. Orcs and Drûgs each regarded the other as renegades. [Author’s note.] – In The Silmarillion the Orcs are said to have been bred by Melkor from captured Elves in the beginning of their days (p. 50; cf. pp. 93 – 4); but this was only one of several diverse speculations on the origin of the Orcs. It may be noted that in The Return of the King V 5 the laughter of Ghân-buri-Ghân is described: ‘At that old Ghân made a curious gurgling noise, and it seemed that he was laughing.’ He is described as having a scanty beard that ‘straggled on his lumpy chin like dry moss’, and dark eyes that showed nothing.

6 It is stated in isolated notes that their own name for themselves was Drughu (in which the gh represents a spirantal sound). This name adopted into Sindarin in Beleriand became Drû (plurals Drúin and Drúath); but when the Eldar discovered that the Drû-folk were steadfast enemies of Morgoth, and especially of the Orcs, the ‘title’ adan was added, and they were called Drúedain (singular Drúadan), to mark both their