Places in Middle-earth
Enedwaith
Type: Kingdoms, Realms, Lands
Region: Other Middle-earth
Meaning: middle folk, central wilderness
Location: Between the Greyflood (Gwathló) and the Isen Rivers, south of the Glanduin River.
Description: "mainly plains, open and mountainless. At the point of the confluence of Glanduin and Mitheithel [Hoarwell] the land was almost flat, and the waters become sluggish and tended to spread into fenland."
This was an area that "… in the earlier days, at the time of the first explorations of the Númenóreans, ... Minhiriath and Enedwaith were occupied by vast and almost continuous forests, except in the central region of the Great Fens."
Due to the cutting of the forests by the Númenóreans "In the time of the War of the Ring the lands were still in places well-wooded, especially in … the south-east of Enedwaith; but most of the plains were grassland."
Unfinished Tales, Part 2, Ch IV, The History of Galadriel and Celeborn, Appendix D, The Port Of Lond Daer
In The Hunt for the Ring from Unfinished Tales, Tolkien mentions "the desolation of Enedwaith…"
The area is sparsely populated:
"…[it] was never settled by Numenoreans owing to the hostility of the Gwathuirim (Dunlendings), except in the fortified town and haven about the great bridge over the Greyflood at Tharbad."
Peoples of Middle-earth, Part 2, Ch X, Of Dwarves and Men Note 76
It was inhabited by "the remnants of the Dunlendings [who] lived in the east in the foothills of the Misty Mountains; and a fairly numerous but barbarous fisher-folk dwelt between the mouths of the Gwathló and the Angren (Isen).
Unfinished Tales, Part 2, Ch IV, The History of Galadriel and Celeborn, Appendix D, The Port Of Lond Daer
In UT there is a reference to "tribes of 'Wild Men', fishers and fowlers, on the coasts of Enedwaith, who were akin in race and speech to Drúedain of Anórien."
Unfinished Tales, Part 4, Ch I, The Drúedain Note 13
There is some discrepency as to which kingdom, if any, Enedwaith belonged to. In Unfinished Tales:
"In the days of the Kings it was part of the realm of Gondor, but it was of little concern to them, except for the patrolling and upkeep of the great Royal Road."
Unfinished Tales, Ch V, The Battles Of The Fords Of Isen, Appendix
Which is contradicted by:
"The Enedhwaith (or Central Wilderness) was shared by the North and South Kingdoms…"
Peoples of Middle-earth, Part 2, Ch X, Of Dwarves and Men Note 76
Contributors: Lyllyn 12.23.03
