[jallanite]

The Wildmen of the Wood in The Lord of the Rings appear to be Tolkien’s approximate version of Neanderthals. They have a more primitive culture than the Rohirrim, but are far from stupid as Ghân-buri-Ghân shows when he patronizingly explains to the Rohirrim that they can count quite well and know well enough by observation that the Orc army is larger than the host of the Rohirrim.

Pathetically Ghân-buri-Ghân asks in return for guiding the Rohirrim on a secret road to Gondon:

But if you live after the Darkness, then leave Wild Man alone in the Woods and do not hunt them like beasts any more.

In his last years Tolkien, unnecessarily, drew the Wild Men, or Druédain, into his Silmarillion material. But good stories need not be necessary.

By making their numbers small, Tolkien help explain why Druédain in Beleriand are not mentioned in tales written earlier. Tolkien adds much to their description as written earlier: their contagious laughter, their glowing, red eyes when roused to anger, their short life spans, their abilities to enter a trance state, and their apparent magical powers.

Tolkien tells the story of the Drûg Aghan but does not say that this tale really happened. It is one of the stories that the Folk of Haleth told which embodied their belief that the Drûgs possessed “uncanny and magical powers”. Tolkien does not indicate that this belief was true.

Tolkien indicates that drûg was a word in the language of the Folk of Haleth but does not indicate any meaning it might have had in that language other than meaning one of the Drûgs.