Quote:
Originally Posted by The Mouth of Sauron
I remember reading somewhere that Gondor retained some kind of presence at Tharbad until the year 2912 of the Third Age. With Gondor's bounds diminished by then and Arnor ancient history, why would Gondor have maintained a garrison at Tharbad until 2912?
|
There is no indication the Gondorions had a garrison in Tharbad as late as 2912, Third Age. After the Great Plague of 1636, the population was radically reduced, and it seems likely that by the time of the ending of the reign of the last Gondorion king in 2050, only the ancestors of the Dunlendings and Bree-men lived there, no longer subject to Gondor. The Royal Road was no longer kept, and eventually became known as the Greenway, due to it resembling the rutted remnants of old Roman roads that were still accessible centuries after the collapse of Rome in France and England.
A note attached to the essay on "The Muster of Rohan" (in
Unfinished Tales) states the following:
Quote:
|
When the days of the Kings ended (1975-2050) and the waning of Gondor began, they ceased in fact to be subjects of Gondor; the Royal Road was unkept in Enedwaith, and the Bridge of Tharbad becoming ruinous was replaced only by a dangerous ford. The bounds of Gondor were the Isen, and the Gap of Calenardhon (as it was then called). The Gap was watched by the fortresses of Aglarond (the Hornburg) and Angrenost (Isengard), and the Fords of Isen, the only easy entrance to Gondor, were ever guarded against any incursion from the “Wild Lands.”
|
I can imagine it as a sort of dilapidated pioneer town, where trade merchants and migrants (heavily armed, I would imagine) still occasionally traversed up and down the Greenway.