Is Khamul an Easterling?

[Elthir]

String.

 

[Squint-eyed Southerner]

Well, that's something, st least.

For me, it's "nothing".

Leaving aside a bit of lint, of course.

 

[norrinradd]

Note 1 also explains that "The Second Chief (the Black Easterling)" appears in a rejected version (a version which did not include the name Khamul) -- a rejected version of the passage that refers to "Khamul" as "the Shadow of the East". I would say (unless I'm forgetting another reference) that Tolkien's "Black Easterling" might have been rejected for "Shadow of the East", but it hardly seems a point worth wrangling over (not that anyone is), considering the suggestion of both descriptions.

If I had to bet, I'd say that Khamul is an Easterling (at least in the sense of the UT Appendix description regarding the Third Age). And for myself anyway, to say otherwise I would want to see some evidence not to take the suggestion of either BE (Black Easterling) or SE (Shadow of the East),
or of both in tandem. That's not to say your notion is impossible, but at the moment I can't think of any good evidence to lead me down a different path here.

Khamul is also mentioned in various notes published by Hammond and Scull in their Reader's Guide to The Lord of the Rings, but unless I missed a further reference there (I don't think I did), K is not called BE in these, nor an Easterling. Hammond and Scull (not Tolkien admittedly) refer to K as "from the East."

🐾

My main question is whether Khamul is from the East. Even if we assumed that Tolkien rejected BE and used SE instead of BE in the present version, Why would Tolkien use the word "East" again in the present version (if he had a purpose to correct, or fix, that K was not from the East)? Therefore, Tolkien wanted to show again that Khamul is related to the east while writing the present version. From the information in Tolkien's sources, there is nothing to argue that Khamul was not from the east. If I am wrong, please correct it.

 

[Squint-eyed Southerner]

You are correct.

 

[ZehnWaters]

Hammond and Scull mailed to me on 22/12/2020 and allowed me to share their ideas (I shared this comment in the previous thread, but since that thread were closed, I am sharing it here again). Their ideas are very similar to yours.

“Khamûl does seem to have been an Easterling, or Man from the East of Middle-earth, whatever that may have meant in Tolkien's mythology in terms of race, ethnicity, or customs. Tolkien provides only scanty information, calling him in one version of The Hunt for the Ring 'the second to the Chief, Khamûl the Shadow of the East', and in another, rejected version (as you saw), though unnamed, 'the Second Chief (the Black Easterling)'. 'The Black Easterling' of course is only another way of saying 'the Shadow of the East', black and shadow referring to a dark evil rather than to, say, skin colour.
Best wishes,
Wayne Hammond & Christina Scull”

Besides, Carl F. Hostetter, the editor of Nature of Middle-Earth, wrote the following on this subject and again allowed me to share it.

“I see no reason whatsoever to think that Tolkien ever “rejected” the idea that Khamûl was an Easterling — i.e., a man from and/or ruling in the east of Middle-earth. I’m unsure why anyone would think otherwise.
Carl”

Mark Fisher, the editor and owner of Encyclopedia of Arda, wrote the following about this subject and allowed me to share it.

“Regarding the rejected passage, I'm not sure that there's much we can say (since we're not told much about it, and certainly not why it was rejected). The reason for rewriting this text might have had nothing to do with Khamûl at all, so I don't think we can take it for granted that the 'Black Easterling' title was definitively rejected by Tolkien. Perhaps he simply preferred 'Shadow of the East'. In either case, I'd say the natural presumption would be that he imagined Khamûl as coming from the East. (It would be rather odd to imagine him changing his mind on this point, and then choosing 'Shadow of the East' as a title.)”

Goodness, you have direct access to these people? I have so many questions I could ask...

 

[Gloranthan]

Khamul is the main antagonist in my Middle-earth sword & sorcery RPG games. I treated him as an Easterling, though to me that meant some vague remix of of Corded Ware people and the wild cousins of Persians they called Saka - basically, what I made up to be 'Wainriders'.

 

[ZehnWaters]

Khamul is the main antagonist in my Middle-earth sword & sorcery RPG games. I treated him as an Easterling, though to me that meant some vague remix of of Corded Ware people and the wild cousins of Persians they called Saka - basically, what I made up to be 'Wainriders'.

Good choices.

 

[Squint-eyed Southerner]

So. . . maybe General Khamul?

Or. . .Khamul on a khamel?

 

[norrinradd]

Note 1 also explains that "The Second Chief (the Black Easterling)" appears in a rejected version (a version which did not include the name Khamul) -- a rejected version of the passage that refers to "Khamul" as "the Shadow of the East". I would say (unless I'm forgetting another reference) that Tolkien's "Black Easterling" might have been rejected for "Shadow of the East", but it hardly seems a point worth wrangling over (not that anyone is), considering the suggestion of both descriptions.

If I had to bet, I'd say that Khamul is an Easterling (at least in the sense of the UT Appendix description regarding the Third Age). And for myself anyway, to say otherwise I would want to see some evidence not to take the suggestion of either BE (Black Easterling) or SE (Shadow of the East),
or of both in tandem. That's not to say your notion is impossible, but at the moment I can't think of any good evidence to lead me down a different path here.

Khamul is also mentioned in various notes published by Hammond and Scull in their Reader's Guide to The Lord of the Rings, but unless I missed a further reference there (I don't think I did), K is not called BE in these, nor an Easterling. Hammond and Scull (not Tolkien admittedly) refer to K as "from the East."

🐾

Once again, the logic of your comment is readily apparent. Thank you and congratulations. The reason I'm bringing this topic up again is related to Addenda & Corrigenda to The Lord of the Rings: A Reader's Companion of Wayne G. Hammond and Christina Scull. Arranged by Wayne G. Hammond and Christina Scull on their website (Arranged Date about Khamûl: 14/06/2024). I quote below the section about Khamûl from the 'Addenda & Corrigenda By Date' section of Wayne G. Hammond and Christina Scull's website, arranged by Wayne G. Hammond and Christina Scull on 14/06/2024.

"p. 84, ll. 14–15 from bottom: The name Khamûl does not appear in The Lord of the Rings, but is in Tolkien’s account The Hunt for the Ring, published in Unfinished Tales. Our statement that Khamûl was ‘from the East’ is based on his bynames; see Reader’s Companion p. 716, and our addendum for that page below."

"p. 716, paragraphs 1–2: A correspondent wrote to ask if Khamûl was, in fact, an Easterling in the published Lord of the Rings, since he is described as ‘the Black Easterling’ only in a rejected version of The Hunt for the Ring (as we quote here in the Reader’s Companion), a later version giving him a different byname, ‘the Shadow of the East’. He is generally accepted by Tolkien enthusiasts to have been from the East, in some sense; of course, neither we nor anyone else can state this authoritatively, Tolkien himself never having done so, though this seems to have been his thinking. The word Easterling suggests strongly that Khamûl was from the East of Middle-earth, whatever that may have meant in to Tolkien in terms of race, ethnicity, or customs. The byname Shadow of the East is more problematic: it may be synonymous with Black Easterling, black and shadow referring to a dark evil rather than to, say, skin colour. On the other hand, Shadow of the East might not necessarily mean that Khamûl was from the East, only that he was in the East, i.e. in Mordor, a ‘shadow’ out of the East relative to the West, or (as some have suggested) it could be connected with Dol Guldur, which was east of the Anduin on the borders of Mirkwood."

 

[ZehnWaters]

So. . . maybe General Khamul?

Or. . .Khamul on a khamel?
View attachment 20493

My favourite Tolkien moment was him leaving annotations on his map for the artist who was going to make a fancier version and he was like "you can put camels and elephants here!" for Harad.

 

[Klaatu]

Khamûl the Easterling! A name that rings like a drumbeat from beyond Rhûn. Tolkien, meticulous as a cartographer of myth, rarely slaps an epithet on a figure without some rooted soil beneath it. So yes—most likely, Khamûl truly was an Easterling in origin, not just nicknamed one for flavor. The “Black” in “Black Easterling” is more a matter of allegiance and dread—dark not of skin, but of shadowed will, one of Sauron’s Ring-slaves.

Now, that said, Tolkien’s use of “Easterling” was fluid through drafts. Early writings lumped nearly all men of the East under that term—tribes, mercenaries, wanderers, half-forgotten allies of Morgoth. By the time of Unfinished Tales, it becomes less a specific ethnicity and more a geographic and cultural signal. So, the title might have persisted in lore long after Khamûl’s mortal origins were dust, like calling an immortal ghost “the Corsair” centuries after the fleet has sunk.

In other words, yes, Khamûl was probably from those mysterious eastern tribes—perhaps one of the early warlords who accepted a Ring of Power in exchange for dominion. But to later peoples of Gondor and Rohan, “the Black Easterling” was shorthand for the shadow beyond the sunrise.

I myself once passed through those lands east of Mordor—though the locals called it “Sector 9.” Their hospitality was questionable, their tea was luminous, and every third moon they held festivals in honor of “The One Who Returned Twice.” I didn’t stay long; the air kept whispering my name backwards.

—Klaatu
Archivist of the Eastern Vault
Occasional Correspondent to Certain Hidden Administrations
Currently Filing Under Section Æ

 

[Glorfindel Goldtress]

Sector 9.

Quadrant 7!


If anyone gets the reference, you are a kindred spirit of a special kind.

 

[Klaatu]

Quadrant 7!


If anyone gets the reference, you are a kindred spirit of a special kind.

Quadrant 7! By Grabthar’s hammer, I knew it! I nearly confused it with Sector 9 until the star-maps aligned. If we’re speaking the same language, then the Omega 13 is definitely humming somewhere nearby.

—Klaatu
Certified Thermian Translator (First Class)
Former Navigator, Protector II

 

[Glorfindel Goldtress]

Quadrant 7! By Grabthar’s hammer, I knew it! I nearly confused it with Sector 9 until the star-maps aligned. If we’re speaking the same language, then the Omega 13 is definitely humming somewhere nearby.

Oh, of course! Yet I was adding onto your location with specificity.

"Sector 9! Quadrant 7!"

 

[Klaatu]

Oh, of course! Yet I was adding onto your location with specificity.

"Sector 9! Quadrant 7!"

Ah! The sacred coordinates themselves! Spoken like a true Protector helm officer under pressure. I can almost hear the Thermians cheering in perfect unison.

Never give up, never surrender—especially not your sector or your quadrant.

—Klaatu
Honorary Navigator, N.S.E.A. Protector (unofficially, of course)