Branch thread: Tolkien's military technology

[Kuruharan]

Originally Posted by Alfirin

(I sort of get the impression that travel between the North and the South of ME was NEVER all that common and that Near and Far Harad and the lands beyond have always been sort of terra incognita to the north).

To some extent yes, but don't forget Gondor had holdings in Harad (specifically Umbar which seems to have been a major hub in the south) for years and years and stories of oliphants could have crept north by that route, via their relatives in Arnor, and survived as a sort of folk legend among the hobbits.

Dwarves were another widely traveled folk and while we don't commonly associate them with the south we don't know where in the east the other dwarven kingdoms were. A southeastern location for one of them is as good a guess as any and commerce with their relatives might have brought all sorts of stories to the northwestern regions of Middle earth.