eriador

I read that while the War of the Ring was taking place, there were minor clashes between evil forces and local people in eriador. What are these wars called? What is the name of these wars?

Northmen have Anglo-Saxon based names, the Dunedain have Sindarin based names, the Dunmen have Welsh based names. I wonder what basis the Middle Men of Eriador and Gondor use. Would they be similar to those used by Breefolk? Some other form of Celtic? Nothing I can think of seems right.

One of Professor Tolkien's most appealing qualities was his love of trees and forests, acquired from a childhood in the rural loveliness of outer Birmingham. He laments the fall of the wild woods and seems to have regarded them, and most other aspects of Middle Earth, to be in irreversible...

Just fifty days until Christmas! Since one of Tolkien's purported purposes was to create a mythology for England, I wonder if his inclusion of a "Yule" season in the calendars of the Shire and Arnor represents the start of an attempt to explain the origins of the (pre-Christian) Christmas...

From Appendix B, The Tale of Years, The Second Age I know he wasn't there for very long, but Sauron must have had some place to stay while in Eriador. Does anyone know what/where his dwelling place was in Eriador? Is it mentioned in UT or one of the HOME books?