Timeline Event
Easterlings subjugate Hithlum after the Nirnaeth Arnoediad
Event Type: Cultural/Social
Age: 1st Age
Date: September 1, 0472
Description:
... to Hithlum came back never ... any tidings of the battle and the fate of their lords. But Morgoth sent thither the Easterlings that had served him, denying them the rich lands of Beleriand which they coveted; and he shut them in Hithlum and forbade them to leave it. Such was the reward he gave them for their treachery to Maedhros: to plunder and harass the old and the women and the children of Hador's people.
The Silmarillion, Quenta Silmarillion, Ch 20, Of The Fifth Battle: Nirnaeth Arnoediad
Those days were evil; for the Easterlings that came into Hithlum despised the remnant of the people of Hador, and they oppressed them, and took their lands and their goods, and enslaved their children.
The Silmarillion, Quenta Silmarillion, Ch 21, Of Túrin Turambar
Morwen Eledhwen remained in Hithlum, silent in grief, her son Túrin was only in his ninth year, and she was again with child. ... The Easterlings came into the land in great numbers, and they dealt cruelly with the people of Hador, and robbed them of all that they possessed and enslaved them. All the people of Húrin's homelands that could work or serve any purpose they took away, even young girls and boys, and the old they killed or drove out to starve. But they dared not yet lay hands on the Lady of Dor-lómin, or thrust her from her house; for the word ran among them that she was perilous, and a witch who had dealings with the white-fiends: for so they named the Elves, hating them, but fearing them more. For this reason they also feared and avoided the mountains, in which many of the Eldar had taken refuge, especially in the south of the land; and after plundering and harrying the Easterlings drew back northwards. ...
Thus it came to pass that after the first inroads Morwen was let be, though there were men that lurked in the woods about, and it was perilous to stir far abroad. ... though Morwen laboured hard she was poor, and would have gone hungry but for the help that was sent to her secretly by Aerin, Húrin's kinswoman; for a certain Brodda, one of the Easterlings, had taken her by force to be his wife. ... it was this Brodda who had seized the people, the goods, and the cattle of Húrin's homelands, and carried them off to his own dwellings. He was a bold man, but of small account among his own people before they came to Hithlum; and so, seeking wealth, he was ready to hold lands that others of his sort did not covet. ...
Brodda made thralls of the Strawheads, as he named the people of Hador, and set them to build him a wooden hall in the land to be northward of Húrin's house; and within a stockade his slaves were herded like cattle in a byre, but ill guarded. ... But Brodda took Aerin as a wife and not a slave, for there were few women amongst his own following, and none to compare with the daughters of the Edain; and he hoped to make himself a lordship in that country, and have an heir to hold it after him.
Unfinished Tales, Part 1, Ch 2, Narn I Hîn Húrin: The Departure of Túrin
... in the winter of that year [of the Nirnaeth Arnoediad] Rían ... bore a child in the wilds of Mithrim, and he was named Tuor, and was taken to foster by Annael of the Grey-elves, who yet lived in those hills.
Now when Tuor was sixteen years old the Elves ... were assailed by Orcs and Easterlings ... and Tuor was taken captive and enslaved by Lorgan, chief of the Easterlings of Hithlum. For three years he endured that thraldom, but at the end of that time he escaped; and returning to the caves of Androth he dwelt there alone, and did such great hurt to the Easterlings that Lorgan set a price upon his head.
The Silmarillion, Quenta Silmarillion, Ch 23, Of Tuor and the Fall of Gondolin
[Note: the date is an estimate, set to follow the Nirnaeth Arnoediad.]
Contributors:
Elena Tiriel 5Dec04
