Haradrim

In J. R. R. Tolkien's fantasy world of Middle-earth the Haradrim or Southrons are a group of races of Men from "The Lord of the Rings". They are also mentioned in "Unfinished Tales" and in "The Silmarillion".

The Haradrim live in Harad, literally "south", the name given by the Men of Gondor to lands that lie to their south past the river Harnen. They belong to more than one culture; "Haradrim" being merely a Gondorian generic description of any of the men that came from south of their borders. They are a collection of proud and warlike races.

History

During the Second Age, the Haradrim first came into contact with the Men of Númenor, a great island-nation apart from Middle-earth. At first, these came as friends and teachers, but later the Kings of Númenor grew hungry for wealth and power and established territories in Middle-earth. They built a great city in the firth of Umbar, a vast natural harbour on the southern shores of the Bay of Belfalas, and eventually turned the city into a fortified citadel from whose gates they levied great tributes upon the tribes of Harad. Many of the Haradrim were killed or sold into slavery. From this point on, the tribes vowed revenge. They therefore allied themselves with Sauron and fought on his side in the War of the Last Alliance and subsequent conflicts. As Sam Gamgee surmises in "The Two Towers", the second volume of "The Lord of the Rings", they were likely deceived by his lies and served him in fear. However, they could have just wanted Mordor's alliance as help for conquering Gondor, an interest that they shared with Sauron.

The Haradrim were natural enemies of Gondor and fought many wars against the South Kingdom, mostly resulting in a draw for Harad and Gondor. The Haradrim first allied against Gondor in 1015 when, in alliance with the Black Númenóreans, they besieged Umbar. This strategy failed as they were unable to take the city and in 1050 King Hyarmendacil I of Gondor came against them and overcame the Haradrim in battle. From this time until Gondor's kin-strife the Kings of Harad were slaves of the King of Gondor, paying tribute and sending their sons as hostages. After the Kin-strife the Haradrim reasserted their independence and supported the rebels in Umbar in their war against Gondor. In 1540 they killed King Aldamir in Harondor, but were defeated by his son, Hyarmendacil II. Harad was quiet for many years, weakened by the Great Plague, although they overtook Umbar when Gondor abandoned it sometime after 1850. The Haradrim were next engaged in wars against Gondor, allying with the Wainriders, a type of Easterling, to attack in 1944, when they were defeated by the General Eärnil, in a Battle near the crossings of Poros. The Haradrim continued to debate the region of Harondor with Gondor, although they launched no large-scale attacks until 2758 when they attacked the coasts of Gondor, in conjunction with Umbar. Their final attack before the War of the Ring was mounted in 2885, but was beaten off by the forces of Gondor and Rohan.

At the time of the War of the Ring in the Third Age, Haradrim fought alongside Sauron's Orcs and other Men as his ally. The Haradrim rode the great "mûmakil" in battle, which Tolkien describes as having "...great legs like trees,enormous sail-like ears spread out,long snout upraised like a serpent about to strike, small red eyes raging". At the Battle of the Pelennor Fields the Haradrim cavalry were led by a chieftain bearing the standard of a black serpent on a red field. King Théoden of Rohan killed this unnamed Haradrim leader. At the Battle of the Morannon, the Haradrim, together with Sauron's other allies, fought the much-outnumbered Army of the West, but many of them retreated to Harad when Sauron was finally defeated by the destruction of his Ring at Mount Doom. However, some of the Haradrim did not surrender and fought to the death instead.

After their defeat in the War of the Ring and the beginning of the Fourth Age, the Haradrim sent emissaries to King Elessar, who made peace with them and made Harad a province of Gondor.

Appearance

The appearance of the Haradrim is somewhat ambiguous, but "The Two Towers" gives detailed descriptions of at least some of them. At the Black Gate, Gollum spies a Haradrim army marching into Mordor and describes them as tall, dark, and fierce-looking. They carry spiked shields and spears, and wear gold ornamentation. Frodo and Sam encounter Faramir and his Rangers of Ithilien just before the latter ambush a company of Haradrim. Frodo and Sam do not see much of the battle, since they are positioned somewhere else, but they hear the sounds of fighting, and a young armored boy from Harad who was slain by an arrow crashes at their feet. He is described as having brown skin, with black plaits of hair braided with gold. He wears a scarlet tunic, as do the other Haradrim, and a gold collar. His weapon and armour are simply described as a scimitar and a corslet of brazen scales. Here Sam experiences his moment of empathy; also here they see a "mûmak", to Sam's terror and delight.

Tolkien mentions another possible tribe or race of Haradrim in the third volume, "The Return of the King": "out of Far Harad black men like half-trolls with white eyes and red tongues." However, the "troll-men" are probably their own separate species,unlike the way as "half-orcs" and "goblin-men" refer to crossbreeds between Men and Orcs. Others think that these were simply large men. In the case of the former they would probably be from Far Harad. One piece of evidence for those who believe them to be merely men is the part of the sentence where is says that they are "like" half-trolls,as opposed to actually being half-trolls, and Tolkien's eventual 'conclusion' in "Morgoth's Ring" that Trolls were unable to cross-breed even with Orcs, never mind Haradrim.

In adaptations

In Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings film trilogy the Haradrim are inspired by Aztecs and Kiribati tribes, according to the ROTK DVD's "Weta Workshop" documentary. The apparent leader of the Haradrim force is killed in the film not by Théoden, but by Éomer. They appear in much merchandise for the film trilogy, such as toys, The Lord of the Rings Trading Card Game, and the computer game '. They also appear as "Haradrim Slayers" in the computer game, '.
The Lord of the Rings Strategy Battle Game, based on the above films, has given the unnamed Haradrim leader Théoden kills the name "Suladân" and the title "Serpent Lord", and its players often refer to him as the "Black Serpent" after his standard. Some Haradrim are assassins called "hasharin", and place-names such as "Dalamyr", "Kârna", "Badharkân", "Hidâr", "Nâfarat", "Abrakân", and "Dhâran-sar" appear.

However, all of these terms are non-canonical.

References