Drúwaith Iaur - The Mysterious Wilderness of the South

this is the first lotr video on youtube where i didn’t know the location it was being talked about so i am IMPRESSED— love your vids keep it up

There is more wilderness in middle-earth than actual civilisation

I'd love to hear about Eryn Vorn

I would also add that Drúwaith Iaur would make a workable refuge of last resort had Sauron won. It's remote yet within reach of Gondor. It's protected in the west by the ocean, and in the south and east by mountains with no history of Goblin infestation. To the North, it's protected by a major freshwater river. It has caves and a population of men extremely hostile to Orcs, and a possible settlement of Elves nearby. This is about as perfect a refuge from Sauron as you can find on the map of Middle Earth. A small remnant of Gondorians could survive a very long time there in an age dominated by Sauron.

I've thought a time or two of writing a fanfic about the Druedain of Druwaith Iaur - - I envision Maglor Son of Feanor dwelling there in a cave part of the year, and other times he wanders up and down the coastline; he is known to the Druedain, and trades/barters with them for his simple needs, on rare occasions making music for them or serving them as a healer, since his knowledge of Elven healing surpasses their own more primitive skill.

What about the cape of Andrast itself? In some places it is described as a part of Gondor, but in others it is said that the western border of Gondor was the river Lefnui, and all areas beyond it were considered parts of Druwaith Iaur. Also there are no warriors from Andrast that came to fight for Minas Tirith (while there were reinforcements from Anfalas), so it seems that at least in the end of the Third Age Andras was at least de-facto independent. Since there are some mentions of Numenorian bases in Andrast, I doubt it was completely wild, though. So a semi-independent lordship inhabited by mixed people seemes the most likely situation there (similar to Isengard before it was given to Saruman).

thanks for the video i hope Lotro adds this one day

Love hearing about the more obscure places in Middle-Earth and how you can draw such logical and sensible conclusions about the nature of these places when there is so little written about them in Tolkien's books. In addition to Druedain, I wonder if Avari or Nandorin elves also inhabited that region. The Silmarillion does mention Avari living in the wild southern forest of Taur-in-Duinath and Nandorin elves in Ossiriand in Beleriand, so it's possible that there might have been Avari or Nandorin settlements all along the remote western regions near the coast. These elves might have have also taught the Druedain their woodcraft which would explain the almost magical way they could avoid detection in forests. Two remote and obscure regions I'd be interested in learning more about are Avathar and Araman, the uninhabited southern and northern parts of the continent of Aman. There's little enough written about either place, but what there is seems to indicate that the Valars' influence in maintaining an uncorrupted land did not extend to all parts of their continent.

I love these kinds of videos, I didn't know that bit about Saruman's forces running into the Druedain after the First Battle of the Fords of Isen

I would love to see some videos on merp lore and other fan created sources. There is essentially no one on YouTube covering it. There is definitely some crazy wacky stuff in there but most of that can be ignored in favor of the tons of amazing worldbuilding. I would particularly love to see a video on Bellakar.

Drew-wayth yah-oor, not ee-yah-(glottal stop)-her

The underdevelopment of the Isen Delta always struck me as odd.

My favorite part about looking at maps of Arda/ Middle Earth is looking at the more obscure places and imagining what life would be like. Or what stories may have taken place, that we are just not privy to.

Druwaith Iaur would be a good place to look for the Entwives

I just noticed that Anfalas has the name (langstrand) which is swedish for long beach. 10/10 Tolkien

It's definitely places like this that let imagination run wild in Middle-earth. Truly you could have nearly anything in there trying to coexist with the Druedain.

Can you do a video on Middle Earth Role Playing lore? They have really cool tales about far harad like Ciryatandor

Another obscure location maybe worth a video is Taur-im Duinath in the very south of the map of Beleriand, but I don't remeber it ever being mentioned in the Silmarilion.

Druedain, the indigenous people of Middle Earth

I always conquer Druwaith Iaur first in DAC when i play with Gondor, best decision i ever do while holding the Anduin. Also what a gigachad voice, Mr Darth Gandalf