Middle-Earth Reconstruction in the Fourth Age

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DrPaul
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Middle-Earth Reconstruction in the Fourth Age

Post by DrPaul »

What would have happened in Middle-Earth in the first decades of the Fourth Age. Here's one scenario.

The young and middle-aged male populations of Gondor, Rohan, Dale, etc, would have been severely depleted as a result of deaths and disabling injuries incurred during the War of the Ring. Hence in the societies of mortal humans in the West and North, many positions in previously male-dominated sectors of those societies - including their political leadership, running of workshops, farms, etc, management of institutes of lore, etc, would have to be be assumed by women during the first few decades of the Fourth Age.

The resulting social and cultural changes regarding sex roles would become permanent. They would cause fertility rates to fall to replacement level, or below. Thus Aragorn, Eomer, etc, faced with the problem of repopulating their kingdoms, would have to resort to large-scale immigration. The migrants would be sourced from among the Dunlendings, Haradrim, Easterlings and Variags. Over time these immigrants would also come to share leading positions in their adopted societies.

I think this is a plausible scenario, and it would be interesting to consider how it could develop further. One potential consequence is that the immigrants from the East and South would bring with them a different perspective on Third Age events than those of the peoples of West and North, and these perspectives would be passed on to their descendants. This could make for some interesting historical debates by a century or two into the Fourth Age.

Whatever one thinks of the scenario I have sketched above, I think it is undeniable that the reconstruction of the societies of the Western kingdoms after the War of the Ring, the cultural reorientation of those societies after the elimination of a long-standing enemy whose threat had shaped them for centuries, and the renovation of their relations with the peoples of the East and South after these were no longer under Sauron's hegemony, would have provided some interesting challenges.
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High Lord Tolkien
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Post by High Lord Tolkien »

Lots of good ideas!
I don't see it proceeding like that though (but who knows though, :D )
Here are my thoughts.
Eriador was already pretty desolate before the end of the 4th Age.
I'm not thinking that immigration/migration is going to be much of a cultural issue for a long time.
Especially if the Rangers continue to keep the unsavory elements out.

Wasn't Rohan's population almost wiped out during the Long Winter?
They bounced back.
And I doubt they would have allowed any Dunlendings on their land for a long long time.

(Millions of men were killed in WW2 but we had the world's greatest baby boom after.)

There's a passage in the Appendix that said, Aragorn and Eomer often rode together against Gondor's enemies in the East.
So, probably not too much cultural exchange going on there for a while either.
There's so much available land that it would be easy to keep the borders of Gondor free from settlement.
Trade is going to be interesting though.

I always like to wonder how Tolkien would have developed the Mordor slaves that were freed and given land next to the Sea of Nurnen (I had to look that name up)
You would think that they would be friendly and trade partners to Gondor but they are closer to Khand and Harad.
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Post by wayfriend »

Wait ... Can you apply reality-logic to Middle Earth?

Tolkien's over-arching history shows a world doomed to "decline", which more or less means that it will be left to Men to make of it what they can. Elves, Dwarves, Hobbits, even Orcs, would eventually disappear. The great civilizations would wane. Forests and fields would be hacked up and turned into mills. Like that.

Then there is the frozen-technology phenomenon of all epic fantasy. The peoples of middle earth are locked into a pre-Renaissance level of technology which perpetuates for literally tens of thousands of years. People were making swords and castles when Iluvatar plopped them down on Arda. They are still making the same ones in the Fourth age.

The same frozen-technology phenomenon is paralleled by a frozen socio-cultural civilization. Always ruled by kings. Always dominated by males, with powerful females an exception not a rule. Always ultimately agricultural.

So, no, I don't see those kinds of things happening that DrPaul says. It's not that it's not logical and makes sense. It's that I am not sure you're playing with the right rules.

What I see is a (relative) golden age of Men in Gondor. Arnor is re-populated (driving the Halflings into hiding). Elves leave. Dwarves dwindle and retreat under ground. Orcs are exterminated. Middle Earth becomes the dominion of Men alone, and for a while it is glorious and peaceful.

Then the slow decline re-asserts itself.
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Post by Wosbald »

+JMJ+
wayfriend wrote:[…]

Tolkien's over-arching history shows a world doomed to "decline" …

[…]

So, no, I don't see those kinds of things happening that DrPaul says. It's not that it's not logical and makes sense. It's that I am not sure you're playing with the right rules.

[…]
Bingo.

Death — and the fleeting, almost desperate, hope of renewal/rebirth — is an (if not the) overarching thematic of Tolkien's mature work.

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