Unfinished Tales - J. R. R. Tolkien [236]
7 In the annals of Númenor it is said that this remnant was permitted to sail over sea with the Atani, and in the peace of the new land throve and increased again, but took no more part in war, for they dreaded the sea. What happened to them later is only recorded in one of the few legends that survived the Downfall, the story of the first sailings of the Númenóreans back to Middle-earth, known as The Mariner’s Wife. In a copy of this written and preserved in Gondor there is a note by the scribe on a passage in which the Drúedain in the household of King Aldarion the Mariner are mentioned: it relates that the Drúedain, who were ever noted for their strange foresight, were disturbed to hear of his voyages, foreboding that evil would come of them, and begged him to go no more. But they did not succeed, since neither his father nor his wife could prevail on him to change his courses, and the Drúedain departed in distress. From that time onward the Drúedain of Númenor became restless, and despite their fear of the sea one by one, or in twos and threes, they would beg for passages in the great ships that sailed to the North-western shores of Middle-earth. If any asked ‘Why would you go, and whither?’ they answered: ‘The Great Isle no longer feels sure under our feet, and we wish to return to the lands whence we came.’ Thus their numbers dwindled again slowly through the long years, and none were left when Elendil escaped from the Downfall: the last had fled the land when Sauron was brought to it. [Author’s note.] – There is no trace, either in the materials relating to the story of Aldarion and Erendis or elsewhere, of the presence of Drúedain in Númenor apart from the foregoing, save for a detached note which says that ‘the Edain who at the end of the War of the Jewels sailed over sea to Númenor contained few remnants of the Folk of Haleth, and the very few Drúedain that accompanied them died out long before the Downfall’.
8 A few lived in the household of Húrin of the House of Hador, for he had dwelt among the Folk of Haleth in his youth and had kinship with their lord. [Author’s note.] – On the relationship of Húrin to the Folk of Haleth see The Silmarillion p. 158. – It was my father’s intention ultimately to transform Sador, the old serving-man in Húrin’s house in Dor-lómin, into a Drûg.
9 They had a law against the use of all poisons for the hurt of any living creatures, even those who had done them injury – save only Orcs, whose poisoned darts they countered with others more deadly. [Author’s note.] – Elfhelm told Meriadoc Brandybuck that the Wild Men used poisoned arrows (The Return of the King V 5), and the same was believed of them by the inhabitants of Enedwaith in the Second Age (p. 495). At a later point in this essay something is told of the dwellings of the Drúedain, which it is convenient to cite here. Living among the Folk of Haleth, who were a woodland people, ‘they were content to live in tents or shelters, lightly built round the trunks of large trees, for they were a hardy race. In their former homes, according to their own tales, they had used caves in the mountains, but mainly as store-houses, only occupied as dwellings and sleeping-places in severe weather. They had similar refuges in Beleriand to which all but the most hardy retreated in times of storm or bitter winter; but these places were guarded and not even their closest friends among the Folk of Haleth were welcomed there.’
10 Acquired according to their legends from the Dwarves. [Author’s note.]
11 Of this story my father remarked: ‘The tales, such as The Faithful Stone, that speak of their transferring part of their “powers” to their artefacts, remind one in miniature