question about Easterlings

[Midnighter1021]

I was playing LOTR War of the ring 2 and was wondering. Do they ever mention anything about the Easterlings in the books ( i.e. culture, homeland, or reasons for fighting with Sauron) or are they just considered an unimportant horde. I have read the books but it has been a while and dont really remember anything

[WalkingTarget]

Just an unimportant, generic horde basically. The thing is, the men in the north-west of Middle-earth are the only ones who have had dealings with the elves and are, therefore, the only ones to have any knowledge of the Valar or Eru Illuvatar. Sauron's pretty much had free reign to convert/conquer the remaining mortal lands whose populace worship him as a god-king.

[Telonius]

It's extremely sketchy. There's a little bit about them mentioned in the appendices of RotK (if I'm not mistaken). The only other time they're mentioned at all is in a passing reference in Tolkien's notes that didn't quite make it into the Silmarillion. There were originally five Wizards - Gandalf, Saruman, Radagast, Alatar, and Pallando. Alatar and Pallando, the "Blue Wizards," were supposed to have gone off East and were never heard from again. I believe there was either a note in that same section, or speculation among Tolkien scholars, that the Blue Wizards were the founders of some mystery cults out East that established some sort of resistance to Sauron's dominions. But that's never really fleshed out or described in greater detail.

[SAMAS]

Most other information is courtesy of Games Workshop.

[Midnighter1021]

Thanks guys, I was just wondering because I thought that they looked really cool, especially in the movies.

[EvilElitest]

WT, i expected better of you



The easterlings were the men who didn't migrate west (duh) and never encountered the elves. Some later allied with the elves, but most betrayed them (not all, those that didn't later became the northmen) as the lived under Morgoth's shadow. They live in the massive eastland and have many clans, including the normal Easterlings, the Swartymen, the East men (most likely just another name), the Wain riders, the Balcoth, the men of Rhun, the Black easterlings (who dwelt near mordor and who's chief became one of the Nazgul) and the who know how many other tribes. The ones in the movie are the men of Rhun and one of hte coolest things in that game
from
EE

[Arang]

There are also people from the far South, e.g Haradrim and Black Numenoreans. You don't get to know a whole lot about them in the books, but the movies' appendixes and the support books have some stuff on them, at least design-wise.

Again, not Easterlings, but they're the ones with the huge elephants, which makes them cooler and thus mentionable.

[WalkingTarget]

WT, i expected better of you



The easterlings were the men who didn't migrate west (duh) and never encountered the elves. Some later allied with the elves, but most betrayed them (not all, those that didn't later became the northmen) as the lived under Morgoth's shadow. They live in the massive eastland and have many clans, including the normal Easterlings, the Swartymen, the East men (most likely just another name), the Wain riders, the Balcoth, the men of Rhun, the Black easterlings (who dwelt near mordor and who's chief became one of the Nazgul) and the who know how many other tribes. The ones in the movie are the men of Rhun and one of hte coolest things in that game
from
EE

Expected better how? You talk about them as being cool things in a game and in the movies, but the OP wanted detail from the books. There, strictly speaking, isn't much there. You bring up a lot of names for possible sub-groups, but (with the exception of maybe the Wainriders, who aren't present in the timeframe of LotR) there isn't any cultural information on them. OP asked about have homelands (East, of mapped territory, obviously), reasons for fighting for Sauron (worship him as god-king as they haven't had dealings with the elves so don't know any better), and culture (we know nothing about it, unless there's a lot of information in the History of Middle-Earth series that I haven't read). My original response covered the second point and the first is self-evident from the name (well, there's the added datum that we don't know anything about their lands other than the direction) and the third is pretty much a big question mark (unless you take the Sauron-worship to be indicative of their culture in general).

[Midnighter1021]

Well resently I did Wiki them and see what the poster there said and so far it has answered all of my questions. I'm pretty new to Tolkien lore but now my questions are answer. My little brother thought that they were somehow related to the Numenoreans but I didn't think so.

[jamroar]

Well resently I did Wiki them and see what the poster there said and so far it has answered all of my questions. I'm pretty new to Tolkien lore but now my questions are answer. My little brother thought that they were somehow related to the Numenoreans but I didn't think so.

No, the Black Numenorean descendants were the Corsairs of Umbar pirate guys Aragorn defeated using the Army of the Dead, and whose fleet he commandeered to get his forces to Gondor.

[EvilElitest]

Expected better how? You talk about them as being cool things in a game and in the movies, but the OP wanted detail from the books. There, strictly speaking, isn't much there. You bring up a lot of names for possible sub-groups, but (with the exception of maybe the Wainriders, who aren't present in the timeframe of LotR) there isn't any cultural information on them. OP asked about have homelands (East, of mapped territory, obviously), reasons for fighting for Sauron (worship him as god-king as they haven't had dealings with the elves so don't know any better), and culture (we know nothing about it, unless there's a lot of information in the History of Middle-Earth series that I haven't read). My original response covered the second point and the first is self-evident from the name (well, there's the added datum that we don't know anything about their lands other than the direction) and the third is pretty much a big question mark (unless you take the Sauron-worship to be indicative of their culture in general).

I used the books and the movies

For the books i mentioned their history in the first age (remember the battle of unnumbered tears?), the sub groups (wainriders, balcoth, ect) and pretty much everything i could recall about them. I also just mentioned the the land of Rhun, sorry for insulting you (calm down) i just pointed out more specific details to who they were.
2. I throw in the movie part just in case he was interesting in the movie potrayal as well
from
EE