Recently I wrote a Tolkien LOTR Post. It was at the request of a friend. I had written these cliff notes for Tolkien before and she asked that I publish them here for her friends to see. I guess once i reprint those posts I will write some more as they seem to be popular. I won't edit them much.
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Recently while speaking with a friend it came to my attention that not everyone was a Tolkien fanatic but may simply enjoyed the game. Horrified....I eventually came to my senses and thought: Maybe people would like to know the stories behind some of the places in LOTRO.
So if you have read all of the books and are a card carrying member of Tolkien lore....you can probably skip this but for those of you who are interested ....read on. Perhaps more of the background will pull the game together for you.
I used my memory and a few online articles to make this as compact as possible
::Fornost::
Fornost was the capital city (Chief City actually) of the Arthedain and the place where the Kings of the Arthedain sat overlooking their kingdom that stretched from Amlaith to Arvendui.
So who were the Arthedain? This could be really confusing but I will try to keep it short. The Arthedain was the westernmost region of the lost realm of Arnor. Arnor was the northern kingdom of the Dunedain. Does that trigger any memories? The Dunedain are the Rangers. There was a northern kingdom and a southern kingdom. The Southern kingdom is Gondor, the Northern was Arnor.
What happened to Arnor? Why is Fornost in ruin and not a sister city to Gondor? All good questions...and of course the evil forces of Sauron play a role in this tale.
We all remember Isildur....the one who cut the One Ring from the hand of Sauron right? Well he had three eldest sons with him when he was killed at the Disaster of the Gladden Fields. His youngest son...took the throne of Arnor (he was kept safe in Rivendell) .....He was considered the 3rd King of Arnor (another story for another day)
The tenth king of arnor was Earendur (remember that name) After his death each of his 3 sons made claim to the throne...and Arnor was divided into separate but connected Kingdoms: Arthedain, Cardolan and Rhudar.
Ok...back to Fornost....Fornost was the where Earendur's eldest son, Amlaith of Fornost, became king of the Arthedain and was considered to be the true heir to the line of Isildur.
So ....Fornost is the capital city of the Northern Kingdom... that kingdom's people became the Rangers....how did that happen?
In the middle of the Third age...The Lord of the Nazgul took control of Angmar with the plans to wipe out the Northern Kingdoms (Arthedain and its allies...) We know they all fell....but Arthedain was the strongest and the last to fall the other ones will be stories for another day.
The kingdom of Arthedain sent for help to Gondor but Gondor was being attacked by other foes at that time and could not immediately help. The witch-king overran most of the remaining Dunedain with little trouble and captured the city of Fornost and King Arvendui (Dunedain King of the time) fled into the icy north......Forochel!....
The witch king made Fornost the capital city in his growing evil empire but the following year the ships of a great fleet sailed into the harbours at Mithlond carrying a force of Gondorian warriors sent north under the command of the great general Earnur. Not only Gondorians but also Elves of Lindon and the last remnants of the Northern Dunedain....and then avenged the loss of their kingdoms.
They fought not at Fornost itself but westward towards Lake Evendim. Glorfindel was there with forces from Rivendell. The Witch King's armies were swept away but he got away and this is where Glorfindel made the prophecy that the Witch King would not fall by the hand of man. (we all know this to be true as he was killed by a woman)
Fornost shaped the future of Middle earth in a way no one was prepared for. When the Witch King fled he came to Mordor and remembering that Earnur's forces defeated him he challenged Earnur to single combat (Earnur was the king of gondor at that time with no sons) Earnur did not accept his first challenge but did accept his second challenge many years later. Earnur rode to Minas Morgul and was never heard from again (Taken by all the Nazgul)
So Gondor was left without a king...and the stewards were put in place to sit on the throne. The only true Kings left of the Dunedain were of the north....Specifically the line of Isildur as the others had been killed.
I will retell what happen to King Arvendui who fled Fornost to Forochel if you liked this story.
Oh? Why is Fornost filled with evil beings still? It wasn't always this way. Fornost lay in ruin after the battles and continued to be that way until Sauron emerged once again during the time of the Fellowship. The Witch King and the darkness was said to return to Angmar......which is where LOTRO is set today. The second rise of the Witch King in Angmar. Something that really wasn't addressed in the Movies at all and was only hinted at in the books.
If you liked this...let me know. I will do another one
Friday, May 13, 2011 at 03:29PM