Minhiriath: Difference between revisions

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| etymology=[[S.]] "between the rivers"
| etymology=[[S.]] "between the rivers"
| events=[[War of the Elves and Sauron]]
| events=[[War of the Elves and Sauron]]
| references=Appendix A of [[The Lord of the Rings]], [[Unfinished Tales]]
| references=[[Appendix A]] of [[The Lord of the Rings]], [[Unfinished Tales]]
|}}
|}}
'''Minhiriath''' was located in [[Eriador]], a name for all the lands between the [[Brandywine River|Brandywine]] and the [[Greyflood]] river.
'''Minhiriath''' was located in [[Eriador]], a name for all the lands between the [[Brandywine River|Brandywine]] and the [[Greyflood]] river.

Revision as of 08:30, 9 June 2009

Miniriath
Region
File:Miniriath map.jpg
General Information
LocationSouthern Eriador
TypeRegion
RegionsArnor, Cardolan, Reunited Kingdom
People and History
InhabitantsMen, Elves
EventsWar of the Elves and Sauron
GalleryImages of Miniriath

Minhiriath was located in Eriador, a name for all the lands between the Brandywine and the Greyflood river.

Geography

Minhiriath was located between the Brandywine River on its northern border and the Greyflood on its southern border. The Shire was north of the Brandywine across Sarn Ford. The region called Enedwaith was south of the Greyflood. The eastern border of Minhiriath was probably around the North-South Road. On the west, Minhiriath had a coast on the Sea. The forest of Eryn Vorn was on a cape on the coast of Minhiriath.

The city of Tharbad was on the Greyflood on the border between Minhiriath and Enedwaith. The port of Lond Daer was also on the Greyflood where it flowed into the Sea.

History

Earliest inhabitants

The original inhabitants of Minhiriath were descended from the same Atani as the ancestors of the Númenóreans, but because they spoke mutually unintelligible languages, the Númenóreans did not class the Minhiriathrim as Middle Men.

Second Age

When the large-scale deforestation of their land began under the Númenórean "Ship Kings" after the 7th century Second Age, the folk of Minhiriath became openly hostile, and were persecuted. Only those who fled from Minhiriath into the dark woods of the great Cape of Eryn Vorn survived. Most, if not all of these forest-dwellers subsequently welcomed Sauron and hoped for his victory over the Men of the Sea, but they were to be disappointed - and permanently trapped - by Sauron's burning of much of the rest of the surviving forest, and final defeat, in S.A. 1701.

From S.A. 3320, Minhiriath became nominally part of the newly established Kingdom of Arnor.

Third Age

From T.A. 861, Minhiriath was inherited by one of Arnor's three successor states, Cardolan, but the "ravaging" of Cardolan by evil forces in T.A. 1409 no doubt caused extensive depopulation of the whole country. Even worse was the advent of the Great Plague in 1636, after which Minhiriath was "almost entirely deserted". After 1975, even though a few secretive hunter-folk lived in the woods throughout the Third Age, Minhiriath was claimed by no kingdom at all.

Many of the inhabitants of Minhiriath died during the Great Plague of 1636. The Dúnedain of Cardolan were wiped out. In 2912, Minhiriath was devastated by floods in the spring thaw following the Fell Winter. Tharbad was ruined at this time.

Although it was still thickly forested in several places by the time of the War of the Ring, the once continuously forested Minhiriath bore the permanent scars of over 5000 years of felling, burning and war.

After the War of the Ring at the end of the Third Age, the North-kingdom of Arnor was reestablished by Elessar. Minhiriath and other regions of Eriador were repopulated during the Fourth Age.

Etymology

The name Minhiriath means "between the rivers" in Sindarin in reference to the Brandywine and Greyflood. The word min means "between"; hiriath is lenited from siriath meaning "rivers".

References