We return to the events of Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers to understand who the Duneans are, and why they sided with Sauron and Saruman in The War of the Ring.
Who are the Duneans: from their ancestors to the conflicts with Rohan
First of all, let’s remember who the Duneans are, and where they come from. The Duneans (from the English Dunlendings), also called Men of the Land of Dun, live in the west of Middle-earth, on the plains of the Land of Dun. They seem to be the descendants of the Hillmen tribeswho were wary of the arrival of the Númenóreans around the year 600 of the Second Age. They then gathered in the valleys of the White Mountains and the grassy plains of the Land of Dun, which lie west of the Misty Mountains, between Moria and Isengard.
But everything changes during the Third Age, after a series of conflicts between the Men of the Land of Dun and Gondor, which will result in the creation of the Kingdom of Rohan. This occurs after the victory of a coalition led by Gondor and the people of Éothéod, (including 7,000 horsemen), on wild men. The Duneans were then expelled from the kingdom of the Rohirrim, and felt hatred and enmity, which lasted for centuries.
After a few failed attempts at incursions, we hear of the Duneans again 200 years later, during the reign of Déor, then during that ofHelm Hammerland, scene of a real escalation depicted in images by Kenji Kamiyama in his animated film The Rohirrim War. We are not going to go into the context and history of the film, but those who also call themselves the Dunlanders are finally driven out of Isengard, which they have besieged for several decades.
-The promise of ancestral lands
Ruminating on their defeat in the shadows of centuries, the Dunneans receive Saruman’s unexpected help during the Great War of the Ringafter he fell under the influence of Sauron. The corrupted Wizard then raises an army of Uruk-Hai in the foundations of Isengard, with a view to invading the Kingdom of Rohan (while Sauron takes care of Gondor). And in its quest to exterminate free peoples, he then offers the Dunelanders the opportunity to take revenge attack Théoden and his men. Peter Jackson’s film The Two Towers focuses on a scene in which these “barbarians” pillage the surrounding villages to destabilize the Kingdom. In the books, they participate in the Helm’s Deep Offensive alongside the Orcs, and in the Cleansing of the Shire under the guise of half-orcs. As a mad scientist, Saruman crossed Dunelanders with Orcs.
In return for their help, Saruman promised the Men of the Land of Dun the restitution of their lands, formerly called Calenardhon. But as everyone knows, the rout suffered by Saruman at Isengard and the defeat of his troops at Helm’s Deep broke the contract. Defeated by the Rohirrim, they are finally spared and used as workers to repair the damage to Fort-le-Cor. After the War of the Ring, they sent their ambassadors to the court of the new King Elessar, thus beginning a lasting peace with the kingdoms of Gondor and Rohan.
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