When marveling upon Middle Earth’s great cities and kingdoms, one can easily wonder
how all these grand cities and their material cultures come into being.
Tolkien was a philologist, not an economist, but when reading between the pages of his
works, a semblance of economic life is present in its various cultures.
Indeed, Tolkien devoted a considerable amount of thought to the withertos and whyfors of
everyday life in his world, a phenomenon just waiting to be explored.
In this latest video in our series on the economies and societies of middle earth, we
will explore the lives of the descendants of the Northmen, that of the merchants of
Dale and the horse lords of Rohan.
“When the invasions of the Wainriders began, the Northmen bore the brunt of the first assault.
King Narmacill II took a great army north into the plans south of Mirkwood, and gathered
all that he could of the scattered remnants of the Northmen, but he was defeated, and
himself fell in battle.
As for the Northmen, a few, it is said, fled over the Celduin and were merged with the
folk of Dale under Erebor, some took refuge in Gondor, where they were joined by many
fugitives who came through the Forest.
This was the beginning of the Eotheod” . During the third age, the descendents of the Northmen
would found two great kingdoms: Dale and Rohan.
Those that made the journey northeast to Dale did so because they were drawn towards the
great wealth of the Dwarf-Kings of Erebor.
“It was told under the year TA. 2590 that Thror founded the realm of Erebor and became
King under the Mountain” , and as Thorin Oakenshield told Bilbo “my grandfather was
King under the Mountain again and treated with great reverence by the mortal men, who
lived to the south, and were gradually spreading up the Running River as far as the valley
overshadowed by the Mountain.
They built the merry town of Dale there in those days.
” As we have seen in previous episodes, the
economic relationship between Dwarves and Men began from the offset with the trade of
food-stuff by Men for the goods and services of Dwarves and it would be no different in
the case of Dale.
“Kings used to send for our smiths, and reward even the least skilful most richly.
Fathers would beg us to take their sons as apprentices, and pay us handsomely, especially
in food-supplies, which we never bothered to grow or find for ourselves.
Altogether those were good days for us, and the poorest of us had money to spend and to
lend, and leisure to make beautiful things just for the fun of it, not to speak of the
most marvelous and magical toys, the like of which is not to be found in the world now-a-days.
So my grandfather's halls became full of armour and jewels and carvings and cups, and the
toy-market of Dale was the wonder of the North.
” By and large, the interconnected cities of Erebor and Dale prospered with the exchange
of goods and services, which was likely exported all over middle-earth, earning great renown.
Unfortunately the prosperity and wealth of these two nations brought forth the Dragon
Smaug who slew Man and Dwarf alike during his desolation.
“After that there were no dwarves left alive inside, and he took all their wealth for himself.
Probably, for that is the dragon's way, he has piled it all up in a great heap far inside,
and sleeps on it for a bed” . While the Dwarves made their sad journey out of Erebor,
the Men of Dale gradually built Esgaroth, better known as Lake-Town.
While Smaug slumbered upon the wealth of the mountain, Lake-Town was forced to make ends
meet by means of meager trade.
When Bilbo was in the Elven King’s halls cellar he came across a network of commerce
that existed between the Woodland Elves and the Men of Lake-Town.
“There stood barrels, and barrels, and barrels; for the Wood-elves, and especially their king,
were very fond of wine, though no vines grew in those parts.
The wine, and other goods, were brought from far away, from their kinsfolk in the South,
or from the vineyards of Men in distant lands.
Listening to the talk of the king's servants, he learned how the wine and other goods came
up the rivers, or over land, to the Long Lake.
From Lake-town the barrels were brought up the Forest River.
” Some of that wine was from Dorwinion, a far away land to the northwest of the Sea
of Rhûn which would have been traded to the Men of Lake-Town who in turn traded with the
Woodland Elves.
We are given further hints as to what the Men of Lake-Town exported when Biblo examines
some barrels in the Elven King Halls cellar: “among them were several others which had
been used for bringing other stuffs, butter, apples, and all sorts of things, to the king's
palace ” Moreover, we are also given clues as to what the Men of Lake-Town imported for
when we are introduced to the Master of Lake-Town.
“ The Master hesitated and looked from one to the other.
The Elvenking was very powerful in those parts and the Master wished for no enmity with him,
nor did he think much of old songs, giving his mind to trade and tolls, to cargoes and
gold, to which habit he owed his position ”. It seems the Woodland Elves traded gold
earned from their river tolls to get goods from the people of Laketown that they could
not obtain themselves.
While the men of the north founded Dale, TA 2590, some decades earlier in 2510, some of
their kin, the Éothéod were called to arms.
“A great host of Orcs, with Easterlings as allies, assail the northern borders of
Gondor, and occupy a great part of Calenardon.
Gondor sends for help.
Eorl the Young leads his people, the Éothéod or Rohirrim, out of the North from the sources
of Anduin, and rides to the help of Cirion, Steward of Gondor.
With his aid the great victory of the Field of Celebrant is won.
Elladan and Elrohir rode also in that battle.
From that time forth the brethren never cease from war with the Orcs because of Celebrían.
Eorl and his people are given the plains of Calenardon to dwell in, and that land is now
called Rochann (Rohan).
There the Rohirrim live as free men under their own kings, but in perpetual alliance
with Minas Tirith.
” Thus Rohan emerged as an independent kingdom with an allegiance to Gondor.
The Rohirrim were skilled horsemen, both master and breeders of the finest horses such as
the famed Mearas.
It is plausible they traded in horses as well, though as we learn during the meeting of the
fellowship when Gandalf speaks about his conversation with Gwaihir , they did not often give them
away.
“Gandalf asked ‘Are the Men of Rohan still to be trusted, do you think?’
Gwaihir replied ‘They pay a tribute of horses, and send many yearly to Mordor, or so it is
said; but they are not yet under the yoke.
But if Saruman has become evil, as you say, then their doom cannot be long delayed.’
‘Not this at least,’ said Boromir, ‘that they will buy their lives with horses.
They love their horses next to their kin.
And not without reason.
” If the Rohirrim did not often trade horses,
they most certainly traded riches, of which they seemed to have plenty.
For, before they became the Rohirrim, certain Éothéod earned great fame and fortune.
“Frumgar, they say, was the name of the chieftain who led his people to Éothéod.
Of his son, Fram, they tell that he slew Scatha, the great dragon of Ered Mithrin, and the
land had peace from the long-worms afterwards.
Thus Fram won great wealth, but was at feud with the Dwarves, who claimed the hoard of
Scatha.
Fram would not yield them a penny, and sent to them instead the teeth of Scatha made into
a necklace, saying: "Jewels such as these you will not match in your treasuries, for
they are hard to come by” . The great hoard of Scatha would make another appearance by
the end of the War of the Ring.
“Éowyn gave to Merry an ancient horn, small but cunningly wrought all of fair silver with
a baldric of green; and wrights had engraven upon it swift horsemen riding in a line that
wound about it from the tip to the mouth; and there were set runes of great virtue.
'This is an heirloom of our house,' said Éowyn.
'It was made by the Dwarves, and came from the hoard of Scatha the Worm” . So by all
accounts it seems this hoard was large enough to last centuries, which would have come in
handy for the Rohirrim who were in great need of goods to help them fend off the forces
of Sauron.
By and large, metallurgy was abundant in Rohan, as we see in Theoden’s offer to Aragorn,
Legolas and Gimli before setting off to Dunharrow “And to you my other guests I will offer
such things as may be found in my armoury.
Swords you do not need, but there are helms and coats of mail of cunning work, gifts to
my fathers out of Gondor.
Choose from these ere we go, and may they serve you well!
'” The smithies of Gondor it seems produced much for the Rohirrim and they would have
much need for it, for one of their greatest enemies were the Dunlendings whom sought the
Calenardhon for themselves.
“But for all their hatred the Dunlendings were still afraid of the Rohirrim if they
met face to face, and they were also less skilled in warfare and less well armed.
11 The shieldwall still held, They were without body-armour, having only among them a few
hauberks gained by theft or in loot.
The Rohirrim had the advantage in being supplied by the metal-workers of Gondor : The alliance
between Gondor and Rohan would last for centuries, and it certainly involved much economic activity
often as a result of war.
“In 2885 Turin fought a battle with the Haradrim in South Ithilien and defeated them
with aid from Rohan; but the sons of King Folcwine of Rohan, Folcred and Fastred, fell
in this battle.
Turin paid Folcwine a rich weregild of gold.
” The military alliance between the 2 kingdoms was of vital importance and Gondor made sure
to compensate the Rohirrim for their loyalty.
Because the military assistance to Gondor was so vital, the Rohirrim developed a professional
military that consisted almost exclusively of cavalry.
The “King’s Host”, as they were called, were divided into units called Éoreds, “a
full Éored, in a battle order was reckoned to contain not less than 120 men, including
the Captain, and was one hundredth part of the “Full Muster” of the Riders of the
Mark.
If the King were to ride out with his Éored, this was called a King’s Company.
The Marshal of the Mark was the highest military rank and the title of the King’s Lieutenants,
commanders of the royal forces of fully equipped and trained Riders.
” In a previous episode we mentioned that Tolkien
admitted to taking certain inspirations for his works from our world, such as Gondor.
In a letter Tolkien wrote to Milton Waldman in 1951 he explained, “Half-ruinous Byzantine
City of Minas Tirith.
Its history fades slowly to decayed Middle-Age, a kind of proud, venerable, but increasingly
important Byzantium”.
Then again in 1955 Tolkien wrote a letter to Jennifer Brookes-Smith identifying Gondor
as Italy and “Pelargir as Venice and Lossarnach as Assisi”.
When you take this into consideration you can see how the people of Rohan and Dale may
have also been inspired by certain pieces of our world.
For example Tolkien represents the Rohirrim with Anglo-Saxon culture and language, while
their ancestors were given Gothic attributes.
An example of this can be seen in the Golden Hall of Meduseld built by Brego son of Eorl
in T.A 2569.
In the past, Tolkien had worked extensively on translating the old English epic Beowulf,
and Meduseld shares a striking similarity to the mead-hall Heorot, better known as the
“golden hall” of King Hrothgar, which is present in the Beowulf poem.
As pointed out by Elizabeth Solopova, Tolkien had a particular fascination with the Battle
of the Catalaunian Fields, where the Western Romans and their Germanic allies fended off
the hordes of Atilla the Hun, and as such, the battle of Pelennor fields shares major
parallels with that historical battle.
In the Catalaunian fields, the Visigoth King Theodoric is thrown off his horse, as was
Theoden in Pelennor, and both are trampled by their horses while rallying their men and
later are carried from the battlefield with their forces weeping and singing for them.
Furthermore, after slaying the Witch King of Angmar during the battle of Pelennor fields,
“Éowyn also won renown, for she fought in that battle, riding in disguise; and was
known after in the Mark as the Lady of the Shield-arm” . It does seem like Tolkien
took inspiration for Éowyn from our world as indicated in the passage when she speaks
with Faramir “I stand in Minas Anor, the Tower of the Sun, she said; and behold the
Shadow has departed!
I will be a shieldmaiden no longer, nor vie with the great Riders, nor take joy only in
the songs of slaying” . The Rohirrim take a lot of inspiration from the Germanic Goths
who held stories of shieldmaidens in their sagas.
Looking deeper, many names of the early kings and princes of the Northmen are of Gothic
origin , and much like the Ostrogoths, the Rohirrim were a mounted culture.
The stark parallels between our world and middle earth are not exclusive to Rohan, and
they can also apply to the Kingdom of Dale.
In a letter to Naomi Mitchison on April 25th of 1954, Tolkien explained that the common
Speech of Middle-Earth during the third age was “Westron ” and that the language of
the Rohirrim was a modified version of old English while the language of Dale and Esgaroth
was a modified Scandinavian.
Furthermore, according to John D. Rateliff , Bard the Bowman has a strong similarity
to Wiglaf of Beowulf, whom both face a dragon and their weapons both perish after achieving
their goal.
The Rohirrim, Men of Dale and Esgaroth shared a common ancestry through the Northmen and
went on to become integral parts of the economies of the north and south.
They also held rich language and cultures that displayed the depth of Tolkien’s work
and what in our own world may have possibly inspired their creation.
We are going to talk about the economy of Middle Earth in the coming weeks, so make
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