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DarkLord153
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Post Haradrim
on: February 08, 2017 04:33
As seen in the films,the Haradrims are coming from the South of Mordor,with Mumakils.What do we know of these people,is that the only place you can find Oliphaunts and why did they ally with Sauron in the first place? I will be looking forward to your answers.
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Gandolorin
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on: February 08, 2017 05:46
We know very little about the Haradrim, or, for that matter, about the Easterlings. A short version would be that the Evil derived from Morgoth, and after his fall from Sauron, in his case through direct presence there, caused Men east and south of the sphere of influence of the Númenóreans (in the Second Age) or of Arnor, but mostly Gondor (in the Third Age) to become corrupted and evil. The Three Houses of the Edain of the First Age, allies of the Elves in the wars against Morgoth, had entered Beleriand (which sank under the sea in the battle ending the First Age) fleeing evil in the east - at least remnants of Morgoth's evil.

For (western) Europeans in the real world, evil invasions almost always had their origin in the east - the Huns in the first millennium, the Mongols and Turks in the second - or the south - the Moorish invasion of Spain in the first millennium, piracy in the second. For the Japanese, the Mongol threat (with assistance from Korean sailors) came out of the west - but the LoTR was written on the island of Britain, not Japan, so that is its viewpoint.
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Evil~Shieldmaiden
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on: February 08, 2017 09:54
J.E.A. Tyler's, The Complete Tolkien Companion, 3rd Edition, has the following entry on the Haradrim which you may find interesting.

Haradrim ‘People of-the-South’(Sind.) –The inhabitants of the lands of Harad; the Southrons, a fierce race of Men divided into a number of different but belligerent kingdoms. Throughout much of the Third Age their armies repeatedly marched against Gondor; mostly they were defeated and driven back to their desert lands. Yet on only one occasion were the Haradrim totally overthrown by Gondor’s might and for over two thousand years they remained an unpredictable threat on the southern borders.

For all their (observed) warlike intentions and (ascribed) lust for gold, the Haradrim were nonetheless accounted True Men. Their methods of warfare were unlike those of other folk: many horsemen, and troops of giant war-beasts, called mûmakil, on the backs of which rode their chieftains. Their soldiers were armed with spear and shield, helm and scimitar, all adorned with gold and much ornament. They were also reportedly darker-skinned than the Dúnedain of Gondor, due no doubt to the long effect of the bright Sun in those distant lands. By all accounts, the Men of Harad were formidable warriors and determined opponents, and their enmity towards Gondor was deep-rooted.

The principal issue behind the initial outbreak of hostilities between the two peoples was the possession of Umbar, which lay on the coast of Haradwaith some seventy leagues south of the river Harnen. Traditionally Black Númenorean land, it had been seized by Gondor in the tenth century of the Third Age; and in 1015 the Haradrim –stirred up by the dispossessed Black Númenoreans –attacked Umbar in great strength. Ciryandil King of Gondor was slain and both the Havens and City of Umbar were invested. But the besieged Dúnedain held out, and some years later the Southron Federates were heavily defeated by King Ciryaher –so heavily, in fact, that for several hundred years afterwards none of the Haradrim dared to cross the Poros, and the wide lands between that river and the Harnen became subject to Gondor.

But in the course of time Gondor’s hold over the Harad was loosened and eventually broken. In 1540 a second King of Gondor was slain by the Southrons, and even though King Hyarmendacil II avenged him, Gondor could no longer prevent the Haradrim from raiding her frontiers. Moreover, it seems clear that from this point onwards there was an increasing measure of co-operation between the Haradrim and the Corsairs of Umbar (for Gondor had not long held Umbar, having lost it again in 1448 ). In any event the Haradrim themselves were in possession of Umbar by the nineteenth century; furthermore, in 1944 they made an alliance for the first time with an Easterling people (the Wainriders). So the net around Gondor drew ever tighter.

Yet although Gondor was eventually forced to evacuate the debatable land of Harondor, for many centuries her strength still proved sufficient to defend her shortened borders. And though there was intermittent raiding by land and sea throughout this period, it was not until almost a thousand years later that any further full-scale assault came from south of the Poros. It was Sauron himself –or rather, his emissaries –who brought this about; for in 2885 their whisperings stirred up the Haradrim, who invaded South Ithilien by their traditional route. This army was heavily defeated and driven south in disarray.

Nonetheless the Haradrim were never again quiescent while the Third Age lasted. Their incessant border-raiding bled Gondor’s strength at a time when Sauron the Great was once more openly returning to power in Mordor; and in due course Sauron brought them more and more under his sway. During the War of the Ring, a great force of Haradrim, supported by many mûmakil, fought for Sauron’s part at the Battle of the Pelennor Fields. But in that great clash at Gondor’s gate, they were defeated yet again, and their hopes of plunder dashed once more. Nevertheless, the warriors of Haradwaith were not so easily subdued, and in the first decades of the Fourth Age there was fighting again along the Harnen
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I hope this additional information will be of help.
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DarkLord153
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on: February 08, 2017 11:47
Thank you for your respones guys!
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