Rhûn

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Rhûn
Realm
File:Rhunmap.jpg
General Information
Other names	The East
Location	Eastern Lands of Middle-earth, north of Mordor
Type	Realm
Description	Centered by Sea of Rhûn
Regions	Rhûn
Inhabitants	Easterlings
Gallery	Images of Rhûn

Rhûn' refers to the little-known lands in the far east of Middle-earth inhabited by peoples known as the "Easterlings", from whom many attacks on Gondor and its allies came during the Third Age.

History

Almost nothing of the lands beyond the great Sea of Rhûn is known. Even Gandalf had never explored there, and though Aragorn had travelled there, we have no report of his doings.

Of its ancient geography we can glean a little from The Silmarillion; far beyond the Sea of Rhûn was another inland sea, the Sea of Helcar, and beyond that a range of Red Mountains known as the Orocarni. Somewhere in the lost east, too, lay Cuiviénen and Hildórien, where Elves and Men first awoke: all the Children of Ilúvatar could trace their ancestries back to the eastward regions of Middle-earth. We know also that it was a wide and vast land with many kingdoms, and strange and unexplored places.

Rhûn was far from an empty land; it was the domain of the Easterlings, Men of Darkness who were ready to follow both the Dark Lords and fought as their allies in war. These lands, too, were peopled by lost Elves, Avari and Úmanyar, and by four of the seven clans of the Dwarves who dwelt in the Orocarni.

During the Third Age, Rhûn was visited by three Wizards; Saruman, Alatar and Pallando, and though Saruman returned into the west, the two Blue Wizards remained. Sauron himself journeyed into the eastward lands, in hiding from the White Council during the centuries known in the west as the Watchful Peace.

Geography

The wstern part of Rhun is shown on the Lord of the Rings map. It contains the great Sea of Rhun, connected with three rivers, one northeast, a part of River Running, one northwest and one running south to Mordor. It also shows a small mountain range southeast of the sea and a forest northwest of it. Northwest of the Sea of Rhun lays also the land of Dorwinion.

Rhûn's ancient geography can be gleaned a little from The Silmarillion; throughout most of the First Age the vast Sea of Helcar was located there and beyond that the Orocarni ('red mountains').

Etymology

Rhûn means "east" in Sindarin.