One thing I hate about Tolkien stupidly long timescales is that they make everyone look lazy and sitting on their butts for millennia. Sauron ruled the east for like 3000 years but couldn't even get them to invent gunpowder in that time? Or you know, teach them better tactics than to constantly lose against weaker and less numerous foe?
In the Silmarillion, it is said that the surviving Easterlings of Beleriand fled back to the East after the War of Wrath and became the rulers of their cousins who had remained there. It's likely that this "aristocracy" kept the memory of Morgoth and his hate against the West alive - a perfect basis for Sauron's corrupting influence.
I'm pretty sure many of them also settled west of the Misty Mountains and mingled with the middle-men, with the Hillsmen of Rhuadur being in part descended from Ulfang's men, while the Dunlendings and/or maybe the Bree-men being partly descended from Bor's men.
@@Mateo-oq7ui you're at least partly true, the hillmen menacing the "kingdom in exile" in eriador in the second age and the men of rhudaur and dunland are related to the "invading" easterlings coming to beleriand in the first age. The men of dunharrow (army of the dead) may even related to these "easterlings". However if you take a look at beleriand. Every man east of the ered luin may be interpreted as "easterling"
@@murphyblogs2984 I think any adaption would it make worse. It can't transport the literary qualities of Tolkien's work and would be the complete opposite of what he intended. People always want Tolkien adaptations like cheap popcorn without realizing that they are destroying his work. He once wrote that "the followers of Morgoth won" - the uncaring and cold world of modern industrial capitalism, where everything is valued by it's price and profit is the only relevant thing. Netflix, New Line Cinema, etc. have turned his work of beauty and art into a monstrosity (to quote Christopher Tolkien) and many "fans" are falling for it, because they see Tolkien as another meaningless form of entertainment like GoT etc. Consumed because it's cool, not valued because it's beautiful or touching. How many people have actually read "The Lord of the Rings"? I estimate about two thirds of the people who get the popcultural reference have only seen the movies and thus have a completely warped and one-sided image of Tolkien's work. With a series based on the "Silmarillion" the percentage of viewers who actually know the original will shrink to perhaps 5% (at best). The rest will not be able to tell if the stuff the watch is actually a good adapation or just a profit-oriented abomination like the Hobbit movies.
I think one of the worst decisions in the Peter Jackson cinematic cut was to delete the scene where Faramir laments on killing one of the easterlings. He basically monologues to Frodo as he stares into his fallen enemy's eyes about what sort of trick or coercion had Sauron played on the easterlings to get them to help, and how he, just like Faramir was a man, flaws and all.
I've always felt that the story of the Easterlings ,who opposed Sauron would have been a very interesting one. Sadly Tolkien never got too deep in the history of the East.
@@willek1335 🙄yeah, it’s shame everything is so vague and shrouded in mystery. What a world it would be if he had written books with detail, and left behind multiple writings he had worked on all his life, and maybe have a son who could compile those notes and release them as other books, to kind of flesh out the history of Middle Earth. Ahhh, if only…😂
@@mtlbstrd Perhaps, but on the other hand it gives some authenticity to the LOTR world, that characters are not aware of some things, and we are guessing with them
I'm 98.99% convinced that the Blue Wizards completed their task, and Rhun was actually in a semi-war-torn state because of the unbridled civil war that progressed throughout the ages.
My personal view is that Blue Wizards had many names and appearances over the years and held many positions of subtle influence. I think they encouraged peaceful trade and coexistence in East and South and generally did their best to quell their war-like legacy. After Sauron's defeat they chose to stay as there was still lots of things to do. Survivors would be returning home and struggle for survival would start again.
Unfortunately that's not really supported by anything in the text. Rhun is absent through most of the War of the Ring as detailed in LOTR primarily because their primary target was Erebor. They fielded an army large enough to fight the combined forces of Dale and Erebor and besiege them. Doesn't sound like they were were all that war torn back home :(
I'd like to believe they ended up like St. Cyril and Methodius, who were absolutely instrumental in converting Eastern Europe to Christianity. The Blue Wizards might have been the first messengers of the Valar to the East who start a slow but steady movement to push the people there away from the lingering influence of Melkor and Sauron.
@@brandoncarlington7494 There was likely rebellions in Rhun. Remember the East were numerous and vast, the kingdom of Rhun wasn't just a few tribes deserted through a desert. It could've been even greater in number than even Gondor, even a war torn kingdom like that could still send aid to Sauron presuming that it wasn't a full scale civil war within Rhun. You can imagine a few thousand rebelling against Sauron within Rhun, but there were likely over tens of thousands on the opposing side who knows
I would love to see an Easterling focused series on LOTR probably even a companion piece to the book, I would like to see a proper Tolkien take on the Near East, India and Central Asia with some East Asian inspiration.
As a kid in the '80s who first heard about the "Easterlings", I thought they were led by the Easter Bunny. That was my mindset while watching the animated cartoon Lord of the Rings back then hoping to see them.
The Easterlings are visually the COOLEST looking of the "bad guy" nations of Men. They look and feel exotic and ELITE, hardcore shocktroops. they really made me want to know more about them when I saw them in the movies.
Their armor looks Persian. Their cavalry are clearly cataphracts. They also have elements taken from Turkic steppe soldiers and Mongols. In our world, these were the kind of bad guys that captured the western imagination before the Nazis took that title in the 20th century. That's why Patton called the Nazis "Huns".
@@kuanged the "Germans are Huns" moniker came all the way from World War 1 as a piece of British propaganda to depict the Germans as ruthless brutes. The British had a hard time selling the Germans as brutes when the common British subject saw them as their cousins across the continent (their kings were cousins), so they had to de-Germanize the Germans. This image carried over (rightfully) to World War 2 where they committed atrocities to earn than name.
I think a show about the Easterlings, Khamûl and the blue wizards would have been really cool! It sounds like their are many stories to explore in the lands of Rhûn!
Remember, recruiting Easterling men in the beginning was easier as Sauron could still take fair form, and so not appear as a terrible and fearful being, but pretend to help them.
Considering how isolated they were, no matter the form sauron took, they probably saw him as a terrible thing after a little experience. It's like we meeting sauron, with no knowledge of how his magic works, easy pickings. Even the numenorians, who had some knowledge, after some were corrupted with smooth talking, ended up being subjugated with fear. But one interesting this is that he gave one ring of power to the easterlings but not the haradrum. It's a corrupting influence, not really a reward for loyalty... My guess is that sauron knew it was pointless to try and corrupt the pockets of resistance in the south, maybe because they were closer, maybe because they were stronger, or for other reasons.
Ironic that it helped with men, but it cost him orcs. So when he came back from Numenor mode-locked into evil, he got more orcs because suddenly they were scared enough to join up
the wain riders is absolutely the mongols or Turkic tribes. And the first easterling that came to belerian probably the Huns which did came and attack rome and some of them join the romans. Tolkien took a lot of his inspiration from real history. Don't know about Haradrim and the Variag thou...probably The northern African kingdom like Hannibal from carthage or modern Libya because they do have oliphants there :P
@@legiohysterius4624 yeah as a turk it always struck me that way as well. I love his work but some of it is disturbing. Especially considering what french and english done until the end of the independence war
This, to me, demonstrates Tolkien's understanding that while of course there are good and evil men, the majority are neither and influenced by charismatic leaders (see F.Herbert's Dune for further reading).
I’m reading Dune right now and yeah, I see what you mean. One of Harkonnen’s men (I think the one who replaces Piter but that could be wrong) just wants spice and takes the mantle no questions asked. You can lap shame on this guy, but all anyone wants in the book is spice, so are you gonna lap shame on literally everyone else? It’s interesting Again I could be completely wrong with this example, it’s taking be a very long time to get through the book, it’s been a few weeks since I read about this guy
When it comes to the easternlings, I wouldn't put it to charisma. Sauron is coasting there for a very long time and we know what sauron does. Fear here is probably the biggest motivation factor. Which is probably why orcs loook like "mongoloids", sauron ran out of elven stock to experiment. First orcs were likely made in the same way as wargs and trolls by melkor, but with apes in the mockery of elves. Then they are interbred with elves, giving them greater sentinence. After they are interbred with easterlings to maintain the sentience, by sauron, who has to invent the black speech. Then saruman furthers breed them with men and does a better job. I'd love having the blue wizards explain this, but with other theories in mind, to add to the mystery.
I wish Tolkien explained and developed Middle Earth's eastern hemisphere. We really have no clue what the eastern shores of the Middle Earth continent looks like. Like I feel pretty sure Rhun isn't the eastern-most political entity of Middle Earth...
Yes, but sometimes a little mystery is nice, leaves room for wonder and imagination. That's why most movies are poor nowadays; every tiny detail in a book is then exploited to "invent" new stories and completely ruins the original theme of that story.
Tbf, he died before he could even finish revising Hobbit to fit in better with the tone and feel of LotR (and include Legolas, whom he finally decided was Thranduil's son and not a separate similarly named dude after all), let alone finalize the Silmarillion and Unfinished Tales, or expand Middle-Earth's non-centric to main plot-peoples. I still sigh sadly over not knowing what his fully-realized 'verse would've looked like.
@@NerdoftheRings I would love for that. I myself made a giant family-tree with nearly all important characters and all their connections. One can go from Imin to Eldarion in one line for example. The whole topic realy intrigues me.
It does sound epic. However it kinda bothers me that it's not even a bit canon. The nazgul weren't buried. And quite some years ago the witch king of angmar harassed and destroyed arnor. And they all saw him flee eventually. It didnt make any sense to "give him a grave" in the hobbit movie. It was a decent addition to the movie itself to create some mysticism and backstory, however they could've stayed a bit more close to the writings.
this means that the matriarchal kingdoms of the people of the north have not sucked all the male juice out of you, you are not alone, for many Sauron and his troops are more understandable, courageous, patriarchal and free..
I wanted to see that last stand, where the Easterlings basically held back the good guys and died to the last man defending the retreat Like, ok its very awesome to be badass enough to die saving beautiful woman or brave soldiers in arms, but they died simply for the cause basically saving orcs and some rabble. Absolute balls of steel, true professionals.
Some commenters say that the Valar abandoned the eastern men or favored the elves over men. While there are quite some arguments for and against this position, I'd like to point out that - according to the fictional meta-story invented by Tolkien himself - we only have very limited information about the true thoughts and intentions of the Valar. Virtually all stories about the earlier times of Arda (= the Silmarillion) that we have access to came from one single translation Bilbo made in Rivendell. This book was then copied and transformed over and over again, until Tolkien himself supposedly translated it into English. (Of course he invented it all, but that's the fictional meta-story he wrote into the Lord of the Rings). This means that all we know about the Valar, the beginning of the world and the first age, is only hearsay, pieced together from what some of the remaining high elves in Middle Earth like Elrond or Glorfindel told Bilbo - and even these stories are for the most part (as it is admitted in the Silmarillion) only interpretations made by the elves of Valinor. Only five mortals have ever spoken to the Valar, and of those, Tuor, Earendil and Elwing remained in the west forever, while Beren and Lúthien never spoke to any mortal man again, before they left the world. What we know about the Valar is therefore only a faint echo of the truth.
In addition, it seems that Eru established special rules for Men that didn't apply to the Elves. We don't know what those were and what the Valar had been told about it. so it's entirely possible that "don't protect the Men at all" was an explicit commandment. After all, why send five Wizards when they could have themselves gone?
This is precisely what causes me to withhold judgment on the Valar regarding their decisions concerning humans, as we don't truly comprehend the entire picture based off that translation that Bilbo carried out which obviously could either not contain all the angles or some of it, bare minimum, is inaccurate. As like what you said Michael, perhaps the Valar were prohibited from helping and protecting humans from Melkor and his dark forces by Eru.
My guess is that the intention was to show the harmony of the song of the ainur without the conductor's direct influence. The only problem probably was that there was a big difference between being good people to ever knowing how the magic of the maia worked. Probably why the blue wizards are sent so early to the east and south, but why the influence of valinor was postponed until sauron made his move. I think that's a simile of tolkiens idea that christianity is better appreciated by the pagan, translated with the harmony of the song of ainur being better appreciated by those outside the influence of valinor. Universal morality feels more universal when a lot of different people come up with it in parallel instead of having it imposed top down unto them. The bor were gentle earth tillers, it feels a lot like the hobbits but without the constant visits of gandalf and with a bit more courage.
The last King of Gondor until the return of the King, Aragorn II, son of Arathorn, was in fact, Earnur, son of Earnil II, who disappeared after accepting the challenge of a duel with the Witch-King, and was never seen again.
I love that the loading screen art from Mount and Blade Warband had been used in almost all medieval-themed videos. The artist by the way is Ganbat Badamkand
I’ve been waiting for a history of the Easterlings for so long! Harad is so mysterious and full of potential. I hope with all my heart that it’s exploited in the show!! 🤩
I’d really like them to go deep with the Easterlings. We could even see legitimate reasons for their opposition to Gondor. I’m not saying demonize the Gondorians or anything like that, but It would be nice to see some of their moral failings over the years. I’d like for some of the Easterling nations (I assume their must be many) to be kind of tragic in their devotion to Sauron. Men who were tainted by a false god that promised them salvation against their bitterest enemies: the descendants of the larger than life sea-lords who had stolen away their people as slaves and as sacrifices, and who had run rampant through their lands. I’m sure if I lived in Rhun I’d see that white tree emblazoned on every Gondorian shield as a bitter reminder of the “evil” empire that had sunk its roots into every corner of Middle-Earth. Thats a story right there. And who knows what Sauron told them beyond that about rich soil and unspoiled lands ripe for the taking.
It probably started with Numenoreans colonizing Middle Earth thanks to their naval and military superiority. For example, if I remember correctly, the southern city of Umbar was founded by Numenoreans before falling to the Haradrim, and they ruled the place for centuries.
Tolkien's Second and third age are rife with excellent backdrops for potentially awesome shows, so long as the creators don't get too full of themselves. Arthedain, Numenor, the Easterlings, Umbar, the Southrons, (Though the creators just couldn't keep themselves from making this one all about race) and possibly the best backdrop for drama, the Gondorian Kin-Strife. All would make excellent fodder for movies, TV, or literature.
If compared to the rightful fictional kingdoms of the West conceived by Tolkien, where pledges are sacrossanct, and treachery is something almost unthinkable. Any realm whose leaders behaves like our world's historic kingdoms would seem diabolical in nature. I believe that the Easterlings would feel undistinguishable from many of our worlds' historical kingdoms. They had good and bad people within their population, but most of their leaders were self-serving, corrupt and treacherous - like our own politicians.
cuz there is no good and evil - they chose to fights for Sauron for there benefit. Gondor and the elves never gave a f@ck about the East (neither the dwarfs) so its logical that they followed "the evil".
@@DB_Muscle dwarves may have. There were four dwarf houses in the East. And not everyone decided to leave their homes to migrate West when the Shadow fell over Rhûn. It would stand to reason that there contact, possibly even trade between the Easterlings and these eastern Dwarves
@@DB_Muscle 'They're not bad, they just chose to follow the most evil being in the world for their own benefit, to the detriment of the rest of the world'
I love that the two blue wizards' names cannot be known and their deeds are unknown. I think it speaks volumes about their task in the east and that the all-seeing eye of Sauron could only be beaten by layer after layer after layer of subterfuge, that not even we the readers of this tale can know what they did nor can we know who they really are. Like maybe we did read what they did in the books, but their spell of memory erasure is so great that even we forgot reading about it. Thus no one in the east could ever give up the 2 blue wizards to Sauron because no one could as they would have forgotten everything about them and what they did. It must have been the only way for Sauron to not see what they were doing in the East to combat that the number of men in the East was greater than that in the West, for if Sauron did see, then surely he would have been able to stop it.
Another great video Matt! The Easterlings have such a interesting history. Though I really do wonder what kind of influence the Blue Wizards may have had on the Easterlings when they went East.
Your channel is something the fandom really needed for a long time. Congratulations on your efforts. I just wanted to ask, please, that you review your pronounciation of characters and place names in the next videos, as I believe you are to become a canon source for old and new fans alike, and it'd be great if they could be introduced to the correct pronounciation, as Tolkien intended, as the way words sounded was his true passion. There are some good articles on the web, in places like Ardalambion, that cover the pronounciation. Both Quenya (for the Gondorian kings' names) and Sindarin (for places like Dol Guldur) have the same rules for stressing syllables and compatible phonemes. For exemple, Rómendacil is a paroxytone, the acute accent prolongs the vowel, and c always has the sound of k in both languages. Thus, that name would be pronounced something like "roomenDAkil". As another example, Galadriel's husband, Celeborn, should be "KEleborn".
It is already amazing that, as an english speaking individual, he manages not to butcher most names and pays attention to pronunciation. Always room for improvement, but the guy does a good job of it
Life as Easterling must have been pretty bleak, just constantly under the influence of one dark Lord then another, knowing nothing else since pretty much the moment of their waking. The valar did them dirty tbh.
Interestingly enough Saurons rule in the east, while most likely cruel and tyrannical, seemed to have promoted urbanization, population growth and technological progress. So I can only guess that it might not have been all bad for the average city dwelling or nomadic Easterling compared to the life of simple peasants under Gondor or Rohan. And for all they probably knew, Morgoth was the real big Valar™ willing to help them and Sauron his bringer of order and "peace" all mixed with local myths about creation and the afterlife. The average human would not know the truth of Arda without influence from Elder races or Dunedain afterall.
@@morpheussandman3984 That is what I thought also. The Blue Wizards in my speculation, one helped raise a rebellion against Sauron's forces further East. While the other wizard gave knowledge for others to focus on developing themselves, thus refused to be part of Sauron's forces.
Rhum was vassal of Sauron but i dont think they were subject to total enslavement like the Orcs. Sauron in the books distrust orcs because they are caotic and destructive (as he's a malevolent being of absolute order), and instead much prefer the humans, whose societies are much more "predictable" and willing to voluntary subjugation in exchange of order and safety (tolkien distrupt any form of "big goverment"). With Sauron staying most of the time on Mordor, i suppose he simply left Rhum under the controll of trusted hereditary warlords. The worst eras to live in Rhum where in the phases where Sauron had to flee from the west and directly rule the land
Oh baby! I'm ready for this one!.... Thank you. As far as looks go, the Easterlings were my favorite army depicted in the movies. It is nice to know more about their history!
"But the Men of Rhun and of Harad, Easterling and Southron, saw the ruin of their war and the great majesty and glory of the Captains of the West. And those that were deepest and longest in evil servitude, hating the West, and yet were men proud and bold, in their turn now gathered themselves for a last stand of desperate battle."- Tolkien The Easterlings have my respect, for they were men of courage and valor.
I wouldn't mind if the Easterlings and the blue wizards were a big part of the Amazon show, and it makes sense with the casting and what we've heard so far. It will probably be like GoT where they mostly focus on the conflict in the west and the different factions, The Faithful, The Kingmen and the Elves and then the east will be it's own thing, but in the final season they'll all come together for the war of the last alliance.
The casting is only for "diversity points". I seriously doubt Amazon will even remotely touch the Eastern parts of the Middle Earth. Anyway, I won't watch it cause Amazon will surely screw it up. I'm curretly re-reading the Lord of the Rings, don't need any Amazon right now to ruin my taste.
Blue Wizards, like all Istaris like Gandalf, were sent in the mortal lands at the start of the Third Era. So i strongly doubt it. Putting Numenor way southernmost that it actually was (according to the official map) tho likely meants some extented flavor for the Haradrims
@@TheUrobolos The Blue Wizards were sent 2 times, first in the 2nd age around the forging of the rings, and again in the 3rd with the other 3. Tolkien wasn't really clear about what they did, he even changed his mind about them, but I think he suggested that they might've had a big positive influence in the East fighting Sauron's power but that they eventually betrayed their purpose.
Absolutely fascinating! I especially loved learning that one of the Ring Wraiths was an Easterling. I think the fact that Tolkien left the story of the Blue Wizards unsolved and open to interpretation to add to the mysticism of the world he created. I wonder if that was done purposefully or whether or not he simply ran out of time?
We know that Saruman disrupted the Fellowship's quest to Mordor, with the Crowbine from Dunland watching the passage south, and with the storm that forced them into Moria, along with what happened at Amon Hen, but what was Gandalf's original plan for getting into Mordor? Were they going to just rock up at the Black Gate and say 'knock knock'?
Thank you for illustrating every about middle earth. i struggled to read The Silmarillion as i was hard to understand the names and lands. Definitely will come back to enjoy more.
Captivating video as always. Incredible work, especially in giving us an insight in the impact the Easterlings had during the first, second and third age. I would also like to complement your use of artwork during your video's. They truly allow the viewer to immerse in the world that Tolkien created. Thank you for your hard work!
The Easterlings and the Blue Wizards' mystery is my favourite topic. Imagine what must be happening in the East when not everyone follows Sauron and a lot is not known about those people. Btw: May I ask, what music do you use in your videos? I like the part which starts at 10:20...
How are easterlings evil? Even those who served Sauron? Men of the east were abandoned by the valar. Only thing they knew was Morgoth. Its surprising that there were some who did not serve the dark lord. Imagine early humans and a litteral god walking among them. Who would not worship him? Morgoth was cunning, he would not display malice upon his servants, he would sway them with kindness, guidance and gifts. He would care for them for hundreds of years and then tell them to go to war against his enemies. Of course they would follow him, not questioning the morals of their beloved master. Anyway, easterlings and blue wizards deserve their own stories, books, film/ video game adaptation.
Now imagine a Cyrus the Great figure emerging from the Easterlings after the War of the Ring: a man and father-figure that breaks the East's corruption
If they do appear in the show then I want them to be designed after the Mongol tribes of the steppe and Khamul basically takes the role of Genghis Khan uniting all the clans under one banner
Nerd of the Rings, by far the best UA-cam channel linked with Tolkien s Lore, especially with the use of maps which gives better clear understanding of Tolkien s Saga. Also helpful for those who play Third Age Total War, it helps to make your personal scenario on which faction will suffer your wrath. I m playing with the Easterling Realm and I know that when I will have defeated the Dwarves in the North, Easterlings will take their revenge on Gondor :-)
Easterlings one of the races alongside Corsairs who made havoc in middle earth kingdoms. We always appreciate your hard work and dedication towards these videos.
The blue wizards did exactly what Gandalf did. They helped the east. However, it took two wizard's to do so and they still 'failed' because Sauron and Morgoth's corruption was too deep. Before the armies of the east marched into the west during the War Of The Ring , they no doubt clashed with the blue wizards and faithful men of the east. They all died but we're able to slow and waeken the forces in the east and south.
13:03 no wonder the Khergate Khanite were so fierce of warriors, they had Sauron’s backing! Just kidding, just found your channel recently and have been on a binge of your content. Excellent work man, you gained a sub out of me
*Tolkien:* "It was after thought that the people of Ulfang were already secretly in the service of Morgoth ere they came to Beleriand. Not so the people of Bor, who were worthy folk and tillers of the earth. Of them, it is said, came the most ancient of the Men that dwelt in the north of Eriador in the Second Age and after-days."
The Tolkien universe is so huge and vast that comparing it with the Harry Potter universe would be equivalent to comparing the amount of hair Saruman has on his head with the amount of hair Voldemort has on his head.
@@dutchmilk yeah Harry Potter is very much in the "urban fantasy" genre, where mystical/magical worlds exist within and alongside our own "real world" as we know it. Whereas LOTR is High Fantasy and takes place in an entirely fictional universe with no relation to our own. So you can't really compare them at all.
They sent the White Wizard to guide the strong. They sent the Brown Wizard to protect the weak. The sent the Grey Wizard to help those who think themselves weak realize they are strong. And to those who have fallen and needed to get up they sent the Blue. That is why they sent two.
The only one to ever sail to the undying lands. God tier dwarf. Each of the members of the fellowship are true embodiments of loyalty, friendship, and courage in the face true evil.
Such an Awesome video! Love how you show that they are just a people as everyone else in middle Earth and how Toilkien makes a point to show the good choices and dark choices they made for Good or Evil. Tolkiens world is so big and Awesome!
I've been working on a fic about the Blue Wizards for the past few months and even dressed up as Alatári for Halloween, so this is perfect timing! Sauron went back to the East so many times, but we never hear what happened. I think Tolkien had wanted to write a whole story about the Blue Wizards and Sauron in Rhûn in SA1600, but didn't get the chance. Them arriving the same year Sauron crafts the One Ring can't be coincidence, and it was among Tolkien's last retcons before his death. I hope the Amazon series has Rhûn as a B-plot happening concurrently with all the Celebrimbor stuff.
Your focus on these individual topics is always a pleasure to watch. Very interested in these lesser known side-histories. Have you done a video on the geography / and major geographical transformations that have occurred throughout the ages? For me (a big map person) I’ve found the internet lacking on explanations of what caused beleriand to disappear. How it occurred. Where those people went, how quickly it all happened. Early maps of the world look vastly different than the map as it does during lotr. What was life like for people who were alive during these unimaginable transformations. Did anyone really survive it? I’m not sure if all the changes happened at once or at different stages. Everything east of the Misty mountains is so completely different in the early map, you can’t even make out the unnaturally square mountain range surrounding what became Mordor. (And how did those mountains get their shape? ) Climates seem to be different as well. Yet everything to the west (aside from beleriand) looks pretty much the same. Also you never hear anything about the area south of the ered nimrais- or west of Rohan. in real life that’d all be prime property presumably. Full of ports and beach front Real estate. Yet in general throughout all of middle earth there doesn’t appear to be many big port cities at all. The only substantial cities on the sea seem to be the grey havens way north and umbar way south. (And numenor which was an island). It seems odd that there are so few - it’s starkly different to how civilizations have developed in the real world. Also why is there only one major city on the Anduin? It’s like the Mississippi of middle earth - it should be a major north/south trade route.
I think we tend to think of the Easterlings as a specific group of men, albeit a very large and broad one. However, I think it’s actually just an arbitrary term referring to people of the East, wherever that may be relative to the people using that term. I used to be very confused why the Easterlings came all the way west to Beleriand in the FA, then retreated all the way back to Rhun after the War of Wrath, and who the heck the Northmen were and where they came from. However, with my new perspective on the term, it makes perfect sense, with Easterling in the Silmarillion just referring to everyone who came West over the Blue Mountains after the Edain, while in later ages it comes to refer to the inhabitants of Rhun, the Far East, with the inhabitants of Eriador and Rhovanion labeled as Northmen. Seeing these as purely arbitrary terms has made the geographical human history of Middle Earth make so much more sense! I imagine that in the Second Age, all non-Numenorian men of Middle Earth were dominated by forms of Melkor worship and ripe for Sauron’s control, and so the Blue Wizards were sent to free them from the Dark Lord’s influence, spending the centuries prior to the fall of Numenor in the lands of those who would be called the Northmen before moving east into Rhun by the TA, having done much to free the men of the relative west from darkness so that they would quickly ally with the Dunedain kingdoms upon their arrival in Middle Earth at the end of the SA.
Could you imagine the Easterlings of Bor. I like to thing they had the golden armor, just for the cimimatic effect of these golden armored men staring down hordes of orcs, golbins, and other creatures of Morgoth. I like to think they gave Morgoth's forces a little frieght as they forgoed their allegence to him and stayed faithfull to the forces of good. The House of Bor truely was faithful, and holy crap were they awesome, fighting to the end to aid their friends.
@@Shadow-gm9ct Thank you for the correction. However the concept is sound. I am currently re-reading the Silmarillion for the fifteenth time. Tolkien's works are replete with the idea that Melkor and Sauron could not create. They could only mock and corrupt the works of Iluvatar and the Valar.
very interesting! i have always been fascinated by the Easterlings. Tolkien missed a great opportunity to give them a chance to shine. He could have written a story that parallels the war of the ring but from the perspective of good easterlings and the blue wizards.
Also can you do a video on the Waning of the Dúnedain? How they became lesser with time, and their lifespans, wisdom, stature and strength waned. How they forgot their own architecture (forgetting how to build mighty things like Orthanc, The Rammas Echor, the Black Walls of Minas Tirith, Hornburg etc. To the point that by the late Third Age, most Gondorian commoners lived a mere 80 to 100 years. The high lords around 110 - 120 at most (the exclusions being the Stewards and his line and those of Dol Amroth (with somewhere around 130 - 135 years). Even the Dúnedain of the North, with a mere 130 - 175, the exception being Aragorn with 210 years by the end of his life (still a mere Shadow compared to his ancestors in pre-fall Nûmenor, who lived around 250 - 300 years or the kings with 350 - 450 approx). I'm a huge fan of this topic in the Legendarium
these background of the factions is amazing. they should be a lot of cities, armies and battles that we dont see in the movies or books. the universe is very big and interesting
You've done a very good job of research. With your knowledge, perhaps you could write out the story of the Blues, maybe along with Deep, just a thought.
Love this video and your "Sauron in the First Age" one! This video is very helpful for an Easterling faction I am adding to 'Battle for Middle-earth II' while that other video of yours is easily useful for how I am doing Sauron as this faction's 'Ring Hero'! Thanks for making both this video and that video!
It's important to note that "Easterling" was a catch up term for any kind of people East of the know world, often (but not always) on the side of the Dark Lords. It's more than possible than the First Age easterlings didnt had anything to do with the following easterlings, outside coming from the unknow east. It's not different from medieval Europeans using the catch up term "Saracens" for whatever non christian individual coming from exotic places in the east and the south (and the counter-name "Franks" used by muslims for any westener unbelievers)
I always had the sense the Beleriand easterlings would be different from the Second and Third Age ones. There were humans all over the place after all, and even on Eriador and Rhovanion, they could have aligned themselves with Morgoth or not, as the struggles against the Dark Lord focused on Beleriand alone
What happened to the ones who stayed east of Middle Earth? Around 1:48, it's said that "some" of the ones who stayed in the east travel west (and of those, some stay in Rhun while others travel further west). So I wonder what happened to the ones who stayed on the eastern shores. Also would love to know how Harad was populated!
Think we will see some Easterling kingdoms in the Amazon show? What do you think the blue wizards were up to in Rhûn?
I think they were being methheads in rhun and chilling with walter
not to be that guy...however, their is a better chance of a seeing a preteen on a stripper pole then Amazon holding to any semblance of LOTR
They’ll probably make Khamûl a main character :/
Blue wizards were probably running a vast Rhunic drug trade formed around various pre-existing underground markets
Would be awesome to see how they live
One thing I have to say about Sauron: he was very industrious. Dude never stopped working.
He got that Dark Lord grindset
LOL
Well... EVIL NEVER RESTS 😎
Could someone tell me who the necromancer is? Is he Sauron? Lamens need info
One thing I hate about Tolkien stupidly long timescales is that they make everyone look lazy and sitting on their butts for millennia. Sauron ruled the east for like 3000 years but couldn't even get them to invent gunpowder in that time? Or you know, teach them better tactics than to constantly lose against weaker and less numerous foe?
In the Silmarillion, it is said that the surviving Easterlings of Beleriand fled back to the East after the War of Wrath and became the rulers of their cousins who had remained there. It's likely that this "aristocracy" kept the memory of Morgoth and his hate against the West alive - a perfect basis for Sauron's corrupting influence.
I'm pretty sure many of them also settled west of the Misty Mountains and mingled with the middle-men, with the Hillsmen of Rhuadur being in part descended from Ulfang's men, while the Dunlendings and/or maybe the Bree-men being partly descended from Bor's men.
@@Mateo-oq7ui you're at least partly true, the hillmen menacing the "kingdom in exile" in eriador in the second age and the men of rhudaur and dunland are related to the "invading" easterlings coming to beleriand in the first age. The men of dunharrow (army of the dead) may even related to these "easterlings". However if you take a look at beleriand. Every man east of the ered luin may be interpreted as "easterling"
We're are the movies or we're is a Netflix series on this so much source material. 👀🐢
@@murphyblogs2984 I think any adaption would it make worse. It can't transport the literary qualities of Tolkien's work and would be the complete opposite of what he intended. People always want Tolkien adaptations like cheap popcorn without realizing that they are destroying his work. He once wrote that "the followers of Morgoth won" - the uncaring and cold world of modern industrial capitalism, where everything is valued by it's price and profit is the only relevant thing. Netflix, New Line Cinema, etc. have turned his work of beauty and art into a monstrosity (to quote Christopher Tolkien) and many "fans" are falling for it, because they see Tolkien as another meaningless form of entertainment like GoT etc. Consumed because it's cool, not valued because it's beautiful or touching.
How many people have actually read "The Lord of the Rings"? I estimate about two thirds of the people who get the popcultural reference have only seen the movies and thus have a completely warped and one-sided image of Tolkien's work. With a series based on the "Silmarillion" the percentage of viewers who actually know the original will shrink to perhaps 5% (at best). The rest will not be able to tell if the stuff the watch is actually a good adapation or just a profit-oriented abomination like the Hobbit movies.
An astute observation!
I think one of the worst decisions in the Peter Jackson cinematic cut was to delete the scene where Faramir laments on killing one of the easterlings. He basically monologues to Frodo as he stares into his fallen enemy's eyes about what sort of trick or coercion had Sauron played on the easterlings to get them to help, and how he, just like Faramir was a man, flaws and all.
Wasn't that a Haradrim?
@@jackiemortes Could be, all I remember is the golden spiky armor which in the films I always colloquially associated with Easterling gear
@@alicearnold8610 yeah that's Haradrim with their Mumakil
You should check out the extended edition
Different guys. The Easterlings just sort of disappear after the gate seen.
I've always felt that the story of the Easterlings ,who opposed Sauron would have been a very interesting one. Sadly Tolkien never got too deep in the history of the East.
Agreed. The idea of somewhat of a civil war breaking out after the Last Alliance defeats Sauron is really interesting to me.
Tolkien never got too deep in the history of anything other than main peoples.
@@willek1335 🙄yeah, it’s shame everything is so vague and shrouded in mystery. What a world it would be if he had written books with detail, and left behind multiple writings he had worked on all his life, and maybe have a son who could compile those notes and release them as other books, to kind of flesh out the history of Middle Earth. Ahhh, if only…😂
@@mtlbstrd 😁
@@mtlbstrd Perhaps, but on the other hand it gives some authenticity to the LOTR world, that characters are not aware of some things, and we are guessing with them
I'm 98.99% convinced that the Blue Wizards completed their task, and Rhun was actually in a semi-war-torn state because of the unbridled civil war that progressed throughout the ages.
My personal view is that Blue Wizards had many names and appearances over the years and held many positions of subtle influence. I think they encouraged peaceful trade and coexistence in East and South and generally did their best to quell their war-like legacy. After Sauron's defeat they chose to stay as there was still lots of things to do. Survivors would be returning home and struggle for survival would start again.
Unfortunately that's not really supported by anything in the text. Rhun is absent through most of the War of the Ring as detailed in LOTR primarily because their primary target was Erebor. They fielded an army large enough to fight the combined forces of Dale and Erebor and besiege them. Doesn't sound like they were were all that war torn back home :(
I'd like to believe they ended up like St. Cyril and Methodius, who were absolutely instrumental in converting Eastern Europe to Christianity. The Blue Wizards might have been the first messengers of the Valar to the East who start a slow but steady movement to push the people there away from the lingering influence of Melkor and Sauron.
@@brandoncarlington7494 There was likely rebellions in Rhun. Remember the East were numerous and vast, the kingdom of Rhun wasn't just a few tribes deserted through a desert. It could've been even greater in number than even Gondor, even a war torn kingdom like that could still send aid to Sauron presuming that it wasn't a full scale civil war within Rhun. You can imagine a few thousand rebelling against Sauron within Rhun, but there were likely over tens of thousands on the opposing side who knows
I would love to see an Easterling focused series on LOTR probably even a companion piece to the book, I would like to see a proper Tolkien take on the Near East, India and Central Asia with some East Asian inspiration.
As a kid in the '80s who first heard about the "Easterlings", I thought they were led by the Easter Bunny. That was my mindset while watching the animated cartoon Lord of the Rings back then hoping to see them.
That sounds like something Narnia would do.
That's fuqing hilarious. I'm imagining Peter Cottontail astride a horse doing deeds in the name of Sauron.
😂
I thought it was real history when I was small.
That sounds cool and sinisterly creepy at the same time.
The Easterlings are visually the COOLEST looking of the "bad guy" nations of Men. They look and feel exotic and ELITE, hardcore shocktroops. they really made me want to know more about them when I saw them in the movies.
Their helmets are pretty kick ass tbh.
Aaaaaand then they're never seen again.
Their armor looks Persian. Their cavalry are clearly cataphracts. They also have elements taken from Turkic steppe soldiers and Mongols. In our world, these were the kind of bad guys that captured the western imagination before the Nazis took that title in the 20th century. That's why Patton called the Nazis "Huns".
@@kuanged Patton also preferred Germans over the Soviets.
@@kuanged the "Germans are Huns" moniker came all the way from World War 1 as a piece of British propaganda to depict the Germans as ruthless brutes. The British had a hard time selling the Germans as brutes when the common British subject saw them as their cousins across the continent (their kings were cousins), so they had to de-Germanize the Germans. This image carried over (rightfully) to World War 2 where they committed atrocities to earn than name.
I think a show about the Easterlings, Khamûl and the blue wizards would have been really cool! It sounds like their are many stories to explore in the lands of Rhûn!
Yeah that would be awesome and, unlike basically everything in Tolkiens world, there's a fair bit of freedom to explore what might have been going on
Remember, recruiting Easterling men in the beginning was easier as Sauron could still take fair form, and so not appear as a terrible and fearful being, but pretend to help them.
Considering how isolated they were, no matter the form sauron took, they probably saw him as a terrible thing after a little experience.
It's like we meeting sauron, with no knowledge of how his magic works, easy pickings.
Even the numenorians, who had some knowledge, after some were corrupted with smooth talking, ended up being subjugated with fear.
But one interesting this is that he gave one ring of power to the easterlings but not the haradrum.
It's a corrupting influence, not really a reward for loyalty...
My guess is that sauron knew it was pointless to try and corrupt the pockets of resistance in the south, maybe because they were closer, maybe because they were stronger, or for other reasons.
Ironic that it helped with men, but it cost him orcs. So when he came back from Numenor mode-locked into evil, he got more orcs because suddenly they were scared enough to join up
The Easterlings are fashioned (at least aesthetically) after the Persians and Turks of mediaeval ages
the wain riders is absolutely the mongols or Turkic tribes. And the first easterling that came to belerian probably the Huns which did came and attack rome and some of them join the romans. Tolkien took a lot of his inspiration from real history. Don't know about Haradrim and the Variag thou...probably The northern African kingdom like Hannibal from carthage or modern Libya because they do have oliphants there :P
@@wewenang5167 yeah I’m aware and yes your probably right about the haradrim
Turkic seljuk nomads in my opinion
I assumed ottomans specifically because ww1. I know he was in the western theater but still...
@@legiohysterius4624 yeah as a turk it always struck me that way as well. I love his work but some of it is disturbing. Especially considering what french and english done until the end of the independence war
This, to me, demonstrates Tolkien's understanding that while of course there are good and evil men, the majority are neither and influenced by charismatic leaders (see F.Herbert's Dune for further reading).
I’m reading Dune right now and yeah, I see what you mean. One of Harkonnen’s men (I think the one who replaces Piter but that could be wrong) just wants spice and takes the mantle no questions asked. You can lap shame on this guy, but all anyone wants in the book is spice, so are you gonna lap shame on literally everyone else? It’s interesting
Again I could be completely wrong with this example, it’s taking be a very long time to get through the book, it’s been a few weeks since I read about this guy
When it comes to the easternlings, I wouldn't put it to charisma.
Sauron is coasting there for a very long time and we know what sauron does.
Fear here is probably the biggest motivation factor.
Which is probably why orcs loook like "mongoloids", sauron ran out of elven stock to experiment.
First orcs were likely made in the same way as wargs and trolls by melkor, but with apes in the mockery of elves.
Then they are interbred with elves, giving them greater sentinence.
After they are interbred with easterlings to maintain the sentience, by sauron, who has to invent the black speech.
Then saruman furthers breed them with men and does a better job.
I'd love having the blue wizards explain this, but with other theories in mind, to add to the mystery.
this is funny to me because Tolkien despised Herbert's writing
The Reagan era is a pretty good example of that
@@lloydgushthe black speech existed before sauron bud, none of this is what tolkein wrote. Orcs bred in the ways of the children of Iluvatar
I wish Tolkien explained and developed Middle Earth's eastern hemisphere. We really have no clue what the eastern shores of the Middle Earth continent looks like. Like I feel pretty sure Rhun isn't the eastern-most political entity of Middle Earth...
Yeah I’d like to see where the stars are strange!
if i remember correctly 4 out of 7 dwarven houses were in the east, In Rhun or even further
Yes, but sometimes a little mystery is nice, leaves room for wonder and imagination. That's why most movies are poor nowadays; every tiny detail in a book is then exploited to "invent" new stories and completely ruins the original theme of that story.
I dont mind that much...
Leaves Room for imagination
Tbf, he died before he could even finish revising Hobbit to fit in better with the tone and feel of LotR (and include Legolas, whom he finally decided was Thranduil's son and not a separate similarly named dude after all), let alone finalize the Silmarillion and Unfinished Tales, or expand Middle-Earth's non-centric to main plot-peoples. I still sigh sadly over not knowing what his fully-realized 'verse would've looked like.
Nerd of The Rings; the GOAT on UA-cam for Tolkien lore 🐐
Series idea: Characters lineages! (i.e Aragorns lineage tracing back to Beren, etc)
Thanks so much! I really like that idea too!
Thanks so much! I really like that idea too!
@@NerdoftheRings I would love for that. I myself made a giant family-tree with nearly all important characters and all their connections. One can go from Imin to Eldarion in one line for example.
The whole topic realy intrigues me.
8:00 "one of nine" gave me goosebumps because of how Gandalf pronounces it in the Hobbit movies when he and Radagast are in the high fells or Rhudaur.
It does sound epic. However it kinda bothers me that it's not even a bit canon. The nazgul weren't buried. And quite some years ago the witch king of angmar harassed and destroyed arnor. And they all saw him flee eventually. It didnt make any sense to "give him a grave" in the hobbit movie. It was a decent addition to the movie itself to create some mysticism and backstory, however they could've stayed a bit more close to the writings.
I wish we saw more of the Easterlings fighting alongside the orcs. I’ve always been drawn to men fighting for Sauron
Whys that? Ive mostly heard orcs
this means that the matriarchal kingdoms of the people of the north have not sucked all the male juice out of you, you are not alone, for many Sauron and his troops are more understandable, courageous, patriarchal and free..
@@borodatborodat6511huh????
I wanted to see that last stand, where the Easterlings basically held back the good guys and died to the last man defending the retreat
Like, ok its very awesome to be badass enough to die saving beautiful woman or brave soldiers in arms, but they died simply for the cause basically saving orcs and some rabble. Absolute balls of steel, true professionals.
@@borodatborodat6511: so, you're embracing evil.
Some commenters say that the Valar abandoned the eastern men or favored the elves over men. While there are quite some arguments for and against this position, I'd like to point out that - according to the fictional meta-story invented by Tolkien himself - we only have very limited information about the true thoughts and intentions of the Valar. Virtually all stories about the earlier times of Arda (= the Silmarillion) that we have access to came from one single translation Bilbo made in Rivendell. This book was then copied and transformed over and over again, until Tolkien himself supposedly translated it into English. (Of course he invented it all, but that's the fictional meta-story he wrote into the Lord of the Rings).
This means that all we know about the Valar, the beginning of the world and the first age, is only hearsay, pieced together from what some of the remaining high elves in Middle Earth like Elrond or Glorfindel told Bilbo - and even these stories are for the most part (as it is admitted in the Silmarillion) only interpretations made by the elves of Valinor.
Only five mortals have ever spoken to the Valar, and of those, Tuor, Earendil and Elwing remained in the west forever, while Beren and Lúthien never spoke to any mortal man again, before they left the world. What we know about the Valar is therefore only a faint echo of the truth.
In addition, it seems that Eru established special rules for Men that didn't apply to the Elves. We don't know what those were and what the Valar had been told about it. so it's entirely possible that "don't protect the Men at all" was an explicit commandment.
After all, why send five Wizards when they could have themselves gone?
This is precisely what causes me to withhold judgment on the Valar regarding their decisions concerning humans, as we don't truly comprehend the entire picture based off that translation that Bilbo carried out which obviously could either not contain all the angles or some of it, bare minimum, is inaccurate. As like what you said Michael, perhaps the Valar were prohibited from helping and protecting humans from Melkor and his dark forces by Eru.
My guess is that the intention was to show the harmony of the song of the ainur without the conductor's direct influence.
The only problem probably was that there was a big difference between being good people to ever knowing how the magic of the maia worked.
Probably why the blue wizards are sent so early to the east and south, but why the influence of valinor was postponed until sauron made his move.
I think that's a simile of tolkiens idea that christianity is better appreciated by the pagan, translated with the harmony of the song of ainur being better appreciated by those outside the influence of valinor.
Universal morality feels more universal when a lot of different people come up with it in parallel instead of having it imposed top down unto them.
The bor were gentle earth tillers, it feels a lot like the hobbits but without the constant visits of gandalf and with a bit more courage.
Always been very interested in the easterlings. So glad you made this video!!!
The last King of Gondor until the return of the King, Aragorn II, son of Arathorn, was in fact, Earnur, son of Earnil II, who disappeared after accepting the challenge of a duel with the Witch-King, and was never seen again.
I am so thankful for channel's like yours who respect and faithffully bring to life Tolkien's great work.
Everytime I see these videos the only thing that comes to mind is: "Tolkien is a great civ player"
I love that the loading screen art from Mount and Blade Warband had been used in almost all medieval-themed videos. The artist by the way is Ganbat Badamkand
Scrolled a while to find this, you're not the only one who recognized that! Love that game and the art
@@funafish2351 haha It's my all time favorite! Also, I just noticed UA-cam finally removed the number of dislikes or LIke-Dislike ratio now
I’ve been waiting for a history of the Easterlings for so long! Harad is so mysterious and full of potential. I hope with all my heart that it’s exploited in the show!! 🤩
Alas, this aged like milk instead of wine. What a waste of potential.
I’d really like them to go deep with the Easterlings. We could even see legitimate reasons for their opposition to Gondor. I’m not saying demonize the Gondorians or anything like that, but It would be nice to see some of their moral failings over the years. I’d like for some of the Easterling nations (I assume their must be many) to be kind of tragic in their devotion to Sauron. Men who were tainted by a false god that promised them salvation against their bitterest enemies: the descendants of the larger than life sea-lords who had stolen away their people as slaves and as sacrifices, and who had run rampant through their lands. I’m sure if I lived in Rhun I’d see that white tree emblazoned on every Gondorian shield as a bitter reminder of the “evil” empire that had sunk its roots into every corner of Middle-Earth. Thats a story right there. And who knows what Sauron told them beyond that about rich soil and unspoiled lands ripe for the taking.
It probably started with Numenoreans colonizing Middle Earth thanks to their naval and military superiority. For example, if I remember correctly, the southern city of Umbar was founded by Numenoreans before falling to the Haradrim, and they ruled the place for centuries.
Tolkien's Second and third age are rife with excellent backdrops for potentially awesome shows, so long as the creators don't get too full of themselves. Arthedain, Numenor, the Easterlings, Umbar, the Southrons, (Though the creators just couldn't keep themselves from making this one all about race) and possibly the best backdrop for drama, the Gondorian Kin-Strife. All would make excellent fodder for movies, TV, or literature.
If compared to the rightful fictional kingdoms of the West conceived by Tolkien, where pledges are sacrossanct, and treachery is something almost unthinkable. Any realm whose leaders behaves like our world's historic kingdoms would seem diabolical in nature.
I believe that the Easterlings would feel undistinguishable from many of our worlds' historical kingdoms. They had good and bad people within their population, but most of their leaders were self-serving, corrupt and treacherous - like our own politicians.
@@frankmueller2781 no show is better than defilements like ROP
Ever since the two towers I always wondered who were the Easterling and why the choose the side of evil.
cuz there is no good and evil - they chose to fights for Sauron for there benefit. Gondor and the elves never gave a f@ck about the East (neither the dwarfs) so its logical that they followed "the evil".
@@DB_Muscle - You're looking at this with a real-world perspective, but Middle-Earth isn't in the real world.
@@DB_Muscle dwarves may have. There were four dwarf houses in the East. And not everyone decided to leave their homes to migrate West when the Shadow fell over Rhûn. It would stand to reason that there contact, possibly even trade between the Easterlings and these eastern Dwarves
@@DB_Muscle 'They're not bad, they just chose to follow the most evil being in the world for their own benefit, to the detriment of the rest of the world'
Well I have heard that Sauron said the others like elves, the other men factions ate their prisoners alive
I love that the two blue wizards' names cannot be known and their deeds are unknown. I think it speaks volumes about their task in the east and that the all-seeing eye of Sauron could only be beaten by layer after layer after layer of subterfuge, that not even we the readers of this tale can know what they did nor can we know who they really are. Like maybe we did read what they did in the books, but their spell of memory erasure is so great that even we forgot reading about it. Thus no one in the east could ever give up the 2 blue wizards to Sauron because no one could as they would have forgotten everything about them and what they did. It must have been the only way for Sauron to not see what they were doing in the East to combat that the number of men in the East was greater than that in the West, for if Sauron did see, then surely he would have been able to stop it.
Easterlings: Your conquest will be halted
Gondor: My empire will stop at your borders
Easterlings: we have heard such promises before
Another great video Matt! The Easterlings have such a interesting history. Though I really do wonder what kind of influence the Blue Wizards may have had on the Easterlings when they went East.
Your channel is something the fandom really needed for a long time. Congratulations on your efforts. I just wanted to ask, please, that you review your pronounciation of characters and place names in the next videos, as I believe you are to become a canon source for old and new fans alike, and it'd be great if they could be introduced to the correct pronounciation, as Tolkien intended, as the way words sounded was his true passion.
There are some good articles on the web, in places like Ardalambion, that cover the pronounciation. Both Quenya (for the Gondorian kings' names) and Sindarin (for places like Dol Guldur) have the same rules for stressing syllables and compatible phonemes. For exemple, Rómendacil is a paroxytone, the acute accent prolongs the vowel, and c always has the sound of k in both languages. Thus, that name would be pronounced something like "roomenDAkil". As another example, Galadriel's husband, Celeborn, should be "KEleborn".
It is already amazing that, as an english speaking individual, he manages not to butcher most names and pays attention to pronunciation. Always room for improvement, but the guy does a good job of it
Life as Easterling must have been pretty bleak, just constantly under the influence of one dark Lord then another, knowing nothing else since pretty much the moment of their waking. The valar did them dirty tbh.
Basically every race who isn't the Elves have been done dirty by the Valar.
Interestingly enough Saurons rule in the east, while most likely cruel and tyrannical, seemed to have promoted urbanization, population growth and technological progress. So I can only guess that it might not have been all bad for the average city dwelling or nomadic Easterling compared to the life of simple peasants under Gondor or Rohan.
And for all they probably knew, Morgoth was the real big Valar™ willing to help them and Sauron his bringer of order and "peace" all mixed with local myths about creation and the afterlife. The average human would not know the truth of Arda without influence from Elder races or Dunedain afterall.
They sent the Blue Wizards that freeded a lot of them. You're unfair.
@@morpheussandman3984 That is what I thought also. The Blue Wizards in my speculation, one helped raise a rebellion against Sauron's forces further East. While the other wizard gave knowledge for others to focus on developing themselves, thus refused to be part of Sauron's forces.
Rhum was vassal of Sauron but i dont think they were subject to total enslavement like the Orcs. Sauron in the books distrust orcs because they are caotic and destructive (as he's a malevolent being of absolute order), and instead much prefer the humans, whose societies are much more "predictable" and willing to voluntary subjugation in exchange of order and safety (tolkien distrupt any form of "big goverment"). With Sauron staying most of the time on Mordor, i suppose he simply left Rhum under the controll of trusted hereditary warlords. The worst eras to live in Rhum where in the phases where Sauron had to flee from the west and directly rule the land
Always fascinated by the Easterlings. Wished we knew more about them.
Oh baby! I'm ready for this one!.... Thank you. As far as looks go, the Easterlings were my favorite army depicted in the movies. It is nice to know more about their history!
The Easterling armor that is shown in The Two Towers is so cool looking
This is an understatement
"But the Men of Rhun and of Harad, Easterling and Southron, saw the ruin of their war and the great majesty and glory of the Captains of the West. And those that were deepest and longest in evil
servitude, hating the West, and yet were men proud and bold, in their turn now gathered themselves for a last stand of desperate battle."- Tolkien
The Easterlings have my respect, for they were men of courage and valor.
Like perfect writing
They were filthy cultists who sided with a turncoat.
@@darthkenobi6726 so un civilized
I wouldn't mind if the Easterlings and the blue wizards were a big part of the Amazon show, and it makes sense with the casting and what we've heard so far. It will probably be like GoT where they mostly focus on the conflict in the west and the different factions, The Faithful, The Kingmen and the Elves and then the east will be it's own thing, but in the final season they'll all come together for the war of the last alliance.
The casting is only for "diversity points". I seriously doubt Amazon will even remotely touch the Eastern parts of the Middle Earth. Anyway, I won't watch it cause Amazon will surely screw it up. I'm curretly re-reading the Lord of the Rings, don't need any Amazon right now to ruin my taste.
@@Ignisan_66 Its funny to see people melt down over people of different shades being put into roles lmfao
Blue Wizards, like all Istaris like Gandalf, were sent in the mortal lands at the start of the Third Era. So i strongly doubt it. Putting Numenor way southernmost that it actually was (according to the official map) tho likely meants some extented flavor for the Haradrims
@@TheUrobolos The Blue Wizards were sent 2 times, first in the 2nd age around the forging of the rings, and again in the 3rd with the other 3. Tolkien wasn't really clear about what they did, he even changed his mind about them, but I think he suggested that they might've had a big positive influence in the East fighting Sauron's power but that they eventually betrayed their purpose.
@@flixerdk7947 Yea you are right mate, forgot about their first trip
Absolutely fascinating! I especially loved learning that one of the Ring Wraiths was an Easterling.
I think the fact that Tolkien left the story of the Blue Wizards unsolved and open to interpretation to add to the mysticism of the world he created. I wonder if that was done purposefully or whether or not he simply ran out of time?
We know that Saruman disrupted the Fellowship's quest to Mordor, with the Crowbine from Dunland watching the passage south, and with the storm that forced them into Moria, along with what happened at Amon Hen, but what was Gandalf's original plan for getting into Mordor? Were they going to just rock up at the Black Gate and say 'knock knock'?
This is by far the best and most comprehensive video about the Easterlings that I’ve watched, thank you!
Thank you for illustrating every about middle earth. i struggled to read The Silmarillion as i was hard to understand the names and lands. Definitely will come back to enjoy more.
Like that you brought the Blue Wizards into this vid. Nice one 👍
Captivating video as always. Incredible work, especially in giving us an insight in the impact the Easterlings had during the first, second and third age. I would also like to complement your use of artwork during your video's. They truly allow the viewer to immerse in the world that Tolkien created. Thank you for your hard work!
This would make a great show as long as it stay true to Tolkien’s writings.
The Easterlings and the Blue Wizards' mystery is my favourite topic. Imagine what must be happening in the East when not everyone follows Sauron and a lot is not known about those people.
Btw: May I ask, what music do you use in your videos? I like the part which starts at 10:20...
How are easterlings evil? Even those who served Sauron? Men of the east were abandoned by the valar. Only thing they knew was Morgoth. Its surprising that there were some who did not serve the dark lord. Imagine early humans and a litteral god walking among them. Who would not worship him? Morgoth was cunning, he would not display malice upon his servants, he would sway them with kindness, guidance and gifts. He would care for them for hundreds of years and then tell them to go to war against his enemies. Of course they would follow him, not questioning the morals of their beloved master.
Anyway, easterlings and blue wizards deserve their own stories, books, film/ video game adaptation.
Now imagine a Cyrus the Great figure emerging from the Easterlings after the War of the Ring: a man and father-figure that breaks the East's corruption
i wish they would make that movie man
If they do appear in the show then I want them to be designed after the Mongol tribes of the steppe and Khamul basically takes the role of Genghis Khan uniting all the clans under one banner
Nerd of the Rings, by far the best UA-cam channel linked with Tolkien s Lore, especially with the use of maps which gives better clear understanding of Tolkien s Saga. Also helpful for those who play Third Age Total War, it helps to make your personal scenario on which faction will suffer your wrath. I m playing with the Easterling Realm and I know that when I will have defeated the Dwarves in the North, Easterlings will take their revenge on Gondor :-)
Easterlings one of the races alongside Corsairs who made havoc in middle earth kingdoms. We always appreciate your hard work and dedication towards these videos.
The blue wizards did exactly what Gandalf did. They helped the east. However, it took two wizard's to do so and they still 'failed' because Sauron and Morgoth's corruption was too deep.
Before the armies of the east marched into the west during the War Of The Ring , they no doubt clashed with the blue wizards and faithful men of the east. They all died but we're able to slow and waeken the forces in the east and south.
13:03 no wonder the Khergate Khanite were so fierce of warriors, they had Sauron’s backing!
Just kidding, just found your channel recently and have been on a binge of your content. Excellent work man, you gained a sub out of me
*Tolkien:* "It was after thought that the people of Ulfang were already secretly in the service of Morgoth ere they came to Beleriand. Not so the people of Bor, who were worthy folk and tillers of the earth. Of them, it is said, came the most ancient of the Men that dwelt in the north of Eriador in the Second Age and after-days."
Bor The Faithful is really an interesting character. Wish there are more light to his story.
The Tolkien universe is so huge and vast that comparing it with the Harry Potter universe would be equivalent to comparing the amount of hair Saruman has on his head with the amount of hair Voldemort has on his head.
Do harry potter even have a universe?
@@dutchmilk yeah Harry Potter is very much in the "urban fantasy" genre, where mystical/magical worlds exist within and alongside our own "real world" as we know it. Whereas LOTR is High Fantasy and takes place in an entirely fictional universe with no relation to our own. So you can't really compare them at all.
Dude done compare it spoils it for other people who like fantasy
nice allegory ..lol
You never disappoint your story telling abelites are phenomenal.
They sent the White Wizard to guide the strong.
They sent the Brown Wizard to protect the weak.
The sent the Grey Wizard to help those who think themselves weak realize they are strong.
And to those who have fallen and needed to get up they sent the Blue. That is why they sent two.
Of The Blue one was cunning to show peace is better living and one was bold to teach humility to followers of old
Been waiting for this for a long time nice video
The only one to ever sail to the undying lands. God tier dwarf. Each of the members of the fellowship are true embodiments of loyalty, friendship, and courage in the face true evil.
Love all of the artwork you have accumulated for this. Along with of course all the info.
I wish the Easterlings had more screen time in the LOTR Trilogy. Great video!
Great video! The use of maps with moving figures really helps me understanding the events. I always learn something when I watch one of your vids :D
Such an Awesome video! Love how you show that they are just a people as everyone else in middle Earth and how Toilkien makes a point to show the good choices and dark choices they made for Good or Evil. Tolkiens world is so big and Awesome!
Lovely video like always. Keep up the great work. Especially the visualization on the map is a blast to watch and follow.
I've been working on a fic about the Blue Wizards for the past few months and even dressed up as Alatári for Halloween, so this is perfect timing!
Sauron went back to the East so many times, but we never hear what happened. I think Tolkien had wanted to write a whole story about the Blue Wizards and Sauron in Rhûn in SA1600, but didn't get the chance. Them arriving the same year Sauron crafts the One Ring can't be coincidence, and it was among Tolkien's last retcons before his death.
I hope the Amazon series has Rhûn as a B-plot happening concurrently with all the Celebrimbor stuff.
Dope way to start a Saturday. Good work
Your focus on these individual topics is always a pleasure to watch. Very interested in these lesser known side-histories. Have you done a video on the geography / and major geographical transformations that have occurred throughout the ages? For me (a big map person) I’ve found the internet lacking on explanations of what caused beleriand to disappear. How it occurred. Where those people went, how quickly it all happened. Early maps of the world look vastly different than the map as it does during lotr. What was life like for people who were alive during these unimaginable transformations. Did anyone really survive it? I’m not sure if all the changes happened at once or at different stages. Everything east of the Misty mountains is so completely different in the early map, you can’t even make out the unnaturally square mountain range surrounding what became Mordor. (And how did those mountains get their shape? ) Climates seem to be different as well. Yet everything to the west (aside from beleriand) looks pretty much the same. Also you never hear anything about the area south of the ered nimrais- or west of Rohan. in real life that’d all be prime property presumably. Full of ports and beach front Real estate. Yet in general throughout all of middle earth there doesn’t appear to be many big port cities at all. The only substantial cities on the sea seem to be the grey havens way north and umbar way south. (And numenor which was an island). It seems odd that there are so few - it’s starkly different to how civilizations have developed in the real world. Also why is there only one major city on the Anduin? It’s like the Mississippi of middle earth - it should be a major north/south trade route.
I would love to see a series based around the east and blue wizards and sauron.
Big props to The House of Bor. They can be considered Edain as well.
Wow, the final part about the good in the Easterlings and how they resist sauron influence... Was beautifull man
I think we tend to think of the Easterlings as a specific group of men, albeit a very large and broad one. However, I think it’s actually just an arbitrary term referring to people of the East, wherever that may be relative to the people using that term. I used to be very confused why the Easterlings came all the way west to Beleriand in the FA, then retreated all the way back to Rhun after the War of Wrath, and who the heck the Northmen were and where they came from. However, with my new perspective on the term, it makes perfect sense, with Easterling in the Silmarillion just referring to everyone who came West over the Blue Mountains after the Edain, while in later ages it comes to refer to the inhabitants of Rhun, the Far East, with the inhabitants of Eriador and Rhovanion labeled as Northmen. Seeing these as purely arbitrary terms has made the geographical human history of Middle Earth make so much more sense! I imagine that in the Second Age, all non-Numenorian men of Middle Earth were dominated by forms of Melkor worship and ripe for Sauron’s control, and so the Blue Wizards were sent to free them from the Dark Lord’s influence, spending the centuries prior to the fall of Numenor in the lands of those who would be called the Northmen before moving east into Rhun by the TA, having done much to free the men of the relative west from darkness so that they would quickly ally with the Dunedain kingdoms upon their arrival in Middle Earth at the end of the SA.
An excellent summation of an overlooked era of the ages.
They have really cool looking armour and shields. That's all I need to hear!
I wish we could get an Easterling TV series. WITH GOOD STORYTELLING
I would love to see a Movie of the Easterlings led by Bor. It would be Epic!
Could you imagine the Easterlings of Bor. I like to thing they had the golden armor, just for the cimimatic effect of these golden armored men staring down hordes of orcs, golbins, and other creatures of Morgoth. I like to think they gave Morgoth's forces a little frieght as they forgoed their allegence to him and stayed faithfull to the forces of good. The House of Bor truely was faithful, and holy crap were they awesome, fighting to the end to aid their friends.
“Evil cannot create anything new, they can only corrupt and ruin what good forces have invented or made”
― JRR Tolkien
Incorrect quote
@@Shadow-gm9ct Thank you for the correction. However the concept is sound. I am currently re-reading the Silmarillion for the fifteenth time. Tolkien's works are replete with the idea that Melkor and Sauron could not create. They could only mock and corrupt the works of Iluvatar and the Valar.
Thank u for putting this together. This is excellent!
The Easterlings and the Nazgul are my favorite design of characters in LOTR, so unique looking.
You could have a whole book series that covers the conflicting influences of the Blue Wizards and Sauron. This is a fascinating idea.
A very in depth Explanation.
Beautiful video, as always. Also, gave you another opportunity of saying again "nirnaeth arnoediad", and you LOVE saying those words, I know. XD
very interesting! i have always been fascinated by the Easterlings. Tolkien missed a great opportunity to give them a chance to shine. He could have written a story that parallels the war of the ring but from the perspective of good easterlings and the blue wizards.
Wonderful video, man! So informative, but communicated in a way that isn’t overwhelming. I just finished reading the Silmarillion :)!!
Great video as always! Hope the video on the Gondorian civil war is coming soon. Keep it up NotR :)
Happy Easter ... lings.
Nice topic! The more remote the better!
Amazing! Super well-done and helpful! 👍
Also can you do a video on the Waning of the Dúnedain?
How they became lesser with time, and their lifespans, wisdom, stature and strength waned. How they forgot their own architecture (forgetting how to build mighty things like Orthanc, The Rammas Echor, the Black Walls of Minas Tirith, Hornburg etc.
To the point that by the late Third Age, most Gondorian commoners lived a mere 80 to 100 years. The high lords around 110 - 120 at most (the exclusions being the Stewards and his line and those of Dol Amroth (with somewhere around 130 - 135 years). Even the Dúnedain of the North, with a mere 130 - 175, the exception being Aragorn with 210 years by the end of his life (still a mere Shadow compared to his ancestors in pre-fall Nûmenor, who lived around 250 - 300 years or the kings with 350 - 450 approx).
I'm a huge fan of this topic in the Legendarium
Would love to see a topic of that too! And the numenorean expansion to colonization!
Fantastic video. Hope you do one on harad next
I love this lore so much it gives me goosebumps
these background of the factions is amazing. they should be a lot of cities, armies and battles that we dont see in the movies or books. the universe is very big and interesting
You've done a very good job of research. With your knowledge, perhaps you could write out the story of the Blues, maybe along with Deep, just a thought.
I don't know who Debbie is but I like that the sponsor shoutout always ends on "and Debbie."
Thank you. Always loved the eastern & southern lands
Love this video and your "Sauron in the First Age" one! This video is very helpful for an Easterling faction I am adding to 'Battle for Middle-earth II' while that other video of yours is easily useful for how I am doing Sauron as this faction's 'Ring Hero'! Thanks for making both this video and that video!
I would love to see how relationships continued after Aragon's reign.
Super interesting! Why we don’t have tons of tv shows cartoons and video games covering all this stuff is beyond me
It's important to note that "Easterling" was a catch up term for any kind of people East of the know world, often (but not always) on the side of the Dark Lords. It's more than possible than the First Age easterlings didnt had anything to do with the following easterlings, outside coming from the unknow east. It's not different from medieval Europeans using the catch up term "Saracens" for whatever non christian individual coming from exotic places in the east and the south (and the counter-name "Franks" used by muslims for any westener unbelievers)
I always had the sense the Beleriand easterlings would be different from the Second and Third Age ones. There were humans all over the place after all, and even on Eriador and Rhovanion, they could have aligned themselves with Morgoth or not, as the struggles against the Dark Lord focused on Beleriand alone
We are all sombody's easterlings.
What happened to the ones who stayed east of Middle Earth? Around 1:48, it's said that "some" of the ones who stayed in the east travel west (and of those, some stay in Rhun while others travel further west). So I wonder what happened to the ones who stayed on the eastern shores.
Also would love to know how Harad was populated!
These peoples will undoubtedly b shown in Amazon
Very interested to see how they are portrayed and what stories will arise from their point of view
Best video on Easterlings so far, There could be a whole series based on this race of men alone