Strange as news from Bree... - Page 5
© Michael Martinez
The lands beyond Baranduin had plenty of hills. There were the Green Hills, the White Downs, and the Far Downs, smaller than the great hills of the east but still sufficient to house many Hobbit communities. Encouraging the Hobbits to settle the western lands would have reduced pressure on the Men living north of Bree, if their own numbers were increasing. Argeleb and his advisors must have felt Arnor's future was looking rather bountiful. And Sauron must concluded as much, too.
Gondor had passed through the Kin-strife (1432-48) soon after Angmar was defeated in the war of 1409. But though the rebel Gondorians eventually fled to Umbar and seceded from the southern kingdom, Gondor remained strong and was reinforced by many Northmen who settled in the kingdom. Sauron must have felt his efforts to weaken the Dunadan realms by flinging war after war at them wasn't working. So he cooked up the Great Plague and unleashed it on Middle-earth. It didn't seem to matter to him that the Men who served him also suffered. His chief goal seems to have been to weaken the Dunadan realms, and in that he succeeded admirably.
The Great Plague swept north and west and denuded land after land. The Dunlendings survived because they were essentially still a primitive people, probably still living in scattered clans and households much like their ancestors had thousands of years before. But the Stoors of Dunland lived together in communities, and they died out as a result of the plague. Tharbad probably suffered greatly, too, but being the base for royal garrisons it probably had a contingent of healers and loremasters who could help preserve the town.
The unfortunate people in Minhiriath and northern Cardolan, on the other hand, were devastated. All the remaining Dunedain of Cardolan (who must have been relatively few in number now) perished, and most of the other people living there died, too. Whole towns probably vanished in the course of a season. One month people were tilling the fields, selling goods at the market; the next month they were gone, or too ill to carry on.
The plague lessened as it entered the northern parts of Eriador, so the Hobbits beyond the Baranduin suffered greatly but they survived. Nonetheless, it may be that many other Hobbits living outside the Shire and Bree died at this time. Bree may also have had some resident healers and loremasters, being an important town, but its folk must have suffered much like the Hobbits.
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