The brave people of Ithilien

[TheGreatElvenWarrior]

Originally Posted by Huinesoron

By my count, Ithilien was abandoned by Gondor in 2002, 2475, 2885, 2901, and 2951. Did they... like, keep going back? I feel that that would be a hard sell - "Hey kids, we're moving to the countryside! Don't worry, it's usually a couple hundred years between invasions of monsters and sorcerers, I'm sure we'll be fine!"

Honestly, how many people are temporarily relocated out of cities that have been destroyed in a natural disaster and then go back as soon as the disaster is over, only for it to happen again a few years later? A few hundred years really makes you forget how bad it was the last time the Witch King was in town.

[Zigûr]

Yes, multiple generations would have lived and died in Ithilien, apparently largely unmolested, between, for instance, the fall of Osgiliath (when Rohan still wasn't even founded yet!) and the Haradrim crossing the Poros in 2885. Survival doesn't appear to have been much of a struggle for multiple centuries at a time, given that Minas Morgul appears to have just sat there looking spooky for lengthy periods.

[William Cloud Hicklin]

In RL, can anyone think of a populated region in Europe that ever enjoyed four-plus centuries of uninterrupted peace?

[Pervinca Took]

In RL, would a dynasty last as long as Aragorn's *and* return to more or less Emperor status after centuries as wandering chieftains?

[Huinesoron]

Originally Posted by William Cloud Hicklin

In RL, can anyone think of a populated region in Europe that ever enjoyed four-plus centuries of uninterrupted peace?

First off, this is an excellent point; sometimes I forget how short human generations actually are!

Secondly: Peace, or freedom from invasion? I know they call it the Watchful Peace, but I suspect Gondor still squabbled with Umbar, so Ithilien soldiers would still have gone off to war. For that matter, they were probably still in border skirmishes in South Gondor - and with Mordor still orc-infested, I can't imagine there weren't raiding parties bopping around.

For Europe, though: Wales springs to mind. I don't know whether there was any action there during the English Civil Wars, but I don't think anything happened after that until... oh, WWI zeppelin bombings, maybe? That's... wait, no, that's actually only 250 years. Hmm. Apparently I'm losing track of how long centuries are, too!

Originally Posted by Pervinca Took

In RL, would a dynasty last as long as Aragorn's *and* return to more or less Emperor status after centuries as wandering chieftains?

Okay, now I want to know what the longest a real dynasty was 'out of power' for was... the question that springs to mind is whether Augustus (or any other Roman Emperor) claimed descent from Romulus (or indeed any of the other kings). That would be a very analogous situation, given that the Republic lasted some 500 years.

Alternately: the Solominic Dynasty of Ethiopia is held to have actually begun around 900 CE, but claimed its authority from the Biblical King Solomon, ca. 900 BCE. That's a nearly 2000 year gap, and involves a priestly lineage very similar to Aragorn's.

The main difference is that nobody really believes it, whereas Gondor seems to uncritically accept Aragorn's claim. I suppose when you have a bunch of immortals wandering around who can vouch for his entire family tree, this sort of thing gets a bit easier...

hS

[William Cloud Hicklin]

Mind you, given the length of a Numenoran royal generation, the comparable span of RL generations would only cover ~half as many years. And the Jacobites are still pushing Franz von Bayern well over 300 years after James II was run off.