[Eomer of the Rohirrim]

The tale of the forgotten Men of the Grey Mountains.


The Withered Heath is a wretched, horrific, ghastly place on Middle-earth, yet it was once green and fresh, and merry Men were aplenty in the lush valleys (valleys considered even more lush than those in Chile on our world, which is really saying something. Have you ever visited Chile?). These Men lived in the Grey Mountains for parts of the year, and in the valleys in other times, especially summertime.

These people were protected by Wargs who lived nearby, though no-one ever found out where. The people had a huge respect for the Wargs, though there was never much contact between the two groups.

On the day of the terror, all the Men were in the valleys. It was summer, and a particularly fine summer too. They must have seen a great host of Wargs approaching them.

Here is where the story becomes difficult, as there were absolutely no survivors of the people. It was a massacre. Thousands upon thousands of corpses were discovered by other Men a couple of days later. There were also a few Warg bodies laying on the ground, shot with arrows. Only five; the Men were hopeless at defending themselves because they had relied on the Wargs for so long. The Wargs then torched the valleys, completely ruining the area, and so it became known as the Withered Heath.

The Wargs were identified as being alien to the Men, by travellers who had not been present for the massacre. They returned to their homes, and through their grief were able to pinpoint the differences between the Wargs. The dead Wargs were slightly smaller and had thoroughly different eyes to the Wargs who were recognised as protectors.

The Good Wargs were never seen again by Men. The Evil Wargs certainly did not remain in the same area. A couple more Warg corpses were discovered in open ground, probably around 50 leagues from the formerly lush valleys. These were identified as being protector Wargs. They had been murdered clinically.

No-one really knows what happened in those days. Most suppose that the Evil Wargs destroyed the Good Wargs before destroying the Men of the Grey Mountains. There are more outlandish stories as well. The problem stems from the fact that there were no human survivors.