The Wild Men of the Woods

[Old Man Willow]

In Return of the King, Theoden converses with the Wild Man Ghan-Bhuri-Ghan. Though Ghan-Burhi-Ghan reveals a bit about his people, the Wild Men, little else is told of how long the men of the wood have been in existence. I've read the Silmarillion once, but cannot remember if anything is mentioned of the Wild Woodmen.


Does anyone know anything about them in relation to their existence and/or relations to the Southrons or Easterlings?

 

[Greenwood]

Unfinished Tales has an essay on them (they are also called the Druedain). I am afraid I can't give you anything else at the moment because I don't have my copy of UT with me where I am right now. Perhaps tonight.

 

[Elanor2]

If I remember correctly, they are of the Edain, related to the People of Haleth, and kept their own language and lived in harmony with nature. They had strange powers of the mind and were very loyal to their friends. Hated orks and never had anything to do with Sauron or similar.

They seem like funny wild men in LOTR, but in UT they seem almost to have druidical powers, or even like tibetan lamas. And they are great fighters.

I would have loved to see the passage of the Ridders through their forest from their point of view.

 

[JeffF.]

Not related to Easterlings or Haradrim

Unfinished Tales is the best source of information on them. By the WAr of the Ring they lived in the Druadan forest and in the Druwaith Iaur (land at the western end of the White Mountains). Aparently more lived in the latter area than the Druadan Forest because they rallied against the Dunlendings who fled from the Rohirrim after the battles of the Ford and Helm's Deep.

Earlier in their history they lived South of Mordor and migrated west in stages due to the advance of the Southrons and Easterlings. They once roamed a far greater area of the West but the intrusions of the ancestors of the Dunlendings and the coming of the Dunedain (Numenoreans) gradually pushed them into the marginal areas. They were a short lived people. They were grouped with the people of Haleth and considered s members of the three houses of the Edain but were a separate people. They were wood crafty beyond all other men and had certain mystical powers. They were few in number. Pick up or borrow Unfinished Tales for their story in detail.

 

[Old Man Willow]

Great guys, thanks.