Resurrecting Dale, City of A Thousand Untold Stories - Page 3
© Michael Martinez
In the north matters went differently. Vidugavia's power stopped at the Celduin, and the most likely reason is that he did not possess any ships. In The Hobbit Laketown is portrayed as a remnant of an ancient maritime power. The Celduin was navigable by large boats or small ships as far north as the Long Lake. Tolkien doesn't indicate where these Northmen learned the art of ship-building, but one could suppose they devised it on their own.
The ship-builders spread eastward to the Carnen, and indeed their largest towns may have been situated on the Long Lake, at the confluence of the Celduin and Carnen, and perhaps where the Carnen flowed out of the Iron Hills. Some of the Longbeard Dwarves lived in the Iron Hills, which they had always considered to be an eastern outpost of their territories. These Northmen would have been the Dwarves' main source for food.
The lands between the two rivers, from Erebor to the Iron Hills, seem to have been a mixture of open grasslands and woods. This would be ideal farming territory, and there is every reason to believe that there must have been scattered clans and villages living throughout the region. But the population centers were most likely built on the rivers.
Through the centuries Vidugavia's kingdom rose and fell. In The Hobbit Tolkien says that Laketown's ancient fleets fought great wars. The author undoubtedly had no clear idea of how that history unfolded when he wrote The Hobbit, but as the history of the Third Age unfolded in the early 1950s he provided opportunities to explain those wars. The Northmen living along the rivers must have come into conflict with the Wainriders, but because of their command of ships -- and the Wainriders' apparent lack of ships -- these Northmen were able to withstand the invasions.
Hence, in the 600 years after Narmacil II's death, the Northmen beyond Celduin seem to have survived, but their contact with Gondor would have been cut off. Not only that, all the communities of Northmen between Celduin and Gondor had been destroyed or replaced by the communities of enemies. Trade should have declined and with declining trade populations should have declined.
Where did the people go? Perhaps some migrated west through the forest, but it's more likely that families simply became smaller as it became more difficult to support children. Many people probably moved into the deeper woodlands or more remote regions to become farmers and herdsmen. Tolkien seldom mentions economics but he does seem to connect growth in populations and power with growth in wealth and commerce. Hence, a decline in commerce should have produced a decline in population. The Northmen essentially entered into a dark age after the Wainriders destroyed Gondor's eastern marches.
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