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Drúwaith Iaur

'The old wilderness of the Drû-folk' in the mountainous promontory of Andrast.
"Index", Unfinished Tales

Coastal region of Middle-earth, south of the Isen and west of the White Mountains. Though the region was nominally part of Gondor, by the WotR it was largely wilderness, and was not visited by either the (southern) Dúnedain or the Rohirrim.

DrúwaithIaur was not entirely uninhabited, however. In the First Age, many of the Drúedain who did not later accompany the Haladin on their journey to Beleriand settled here. They were joined, late in the FirstAge or early in the SeA, by other Drû-folk from the eastern Ered Nimrais, fleeing persecution. When the Númenorean mariners returned to Middle-earth in the first millenium SeA, it is told that they brought with them--in twos and threes--Drúedain who wished to return to their folk, and these also may have dwelt in the DrúwaithIaur. The region may therefore be considered the "homeland" of the Drúedain, and their "realm" (if so it may be called) spread from Ras Morthil to the line of the Adorn. The Drûgs fiercely protected their land: refugees from Númenorean incursions into Minhiriath and Enedhwaith would not cross south over the Isen because they feared the poisoned darts of the inhabitants.

DrúwaithIaur was, like other lands in western Middle-earth, heavily deforested by the Númenoreans. Nevertheless, the Drûgs of this land probably always lived as they had lived elsewhere--in caves and in the foothills of the mountains, in secret, avoiding the lowlands and coastlands (except to hunt). Unfinished Tales speaks of a primitive fisher-folk dwelling by the Sea between the Isen and the Greyflood, said to have been "akin" to the Drúedain, though it is not told whether there is any connection between the two peoples. If any of the Drû-folk still lingered near the Isen in the Third Age, they would have been finished off by the Great Plague of 1636, the Southron invasion of 2758, and devastating floods in 2912.

However, at the time of the WotR, although neither the Rohirrim nor the peoples of Gondor ventured into the wilderness of "Old Pukel-land", it was rumoured among the folk of Anfalas that "some of the old 'Wild Men' still lived there secretly" (Unfinished Tales). These were said to have assailed forces of Saruman fleeing south from the Battles of the Fords of Isen.


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