The Resurrection of Arnor

[The Squatter of Amon Rûdh]

I should like to return briefly to a point about the Dunlendings and their mingling with other groups of Men. Freca, the lord whom Helm kills at his council, is said to have Dunlending blood, so we can probably assume that at the very least the border-dwelling Rohirrim were mingling with them. If this was happening on the marches of Rohan, I think we can assume that it was happening elsewhere in the restored Kingdom of Arnor as well.

I've not noticed much in the way of references to the population of Arnor at the time of Aragorn's succession. Officially, all that a place needs to be a kingdom is a king who is acknowledged by most of the population, and Aragorn's many visits to Fornost look to me to me like the perambulations of a monarch who is in the process of establishing himself in new lands. He can't simply have been gallivanting off to see his Hobbit friends and neglecting the affairs of state: it just wouldn't suit what we know of his attitude to kingship.

[Snowdog]

In the long years of relative peace after the defeat of Angmar, I can't believe that the population didn't grow.

Actually, I think the years of the Chieftains were more of a diligent watch and battle for the Rangers, with a 'relative peace' assumed by the populace of Bree and an 'ignorant peace' in the Shire.

I've always imagined that there were other small towns and villages like Bree scattered across Eriador. They're not mentioned because they're not important to the story.

Exactly!