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