| Drúedain | |
|---|---|
| In-universe information | |
| Other names | Woses, Drughu, Oghor-hai, Púkel-men, Wild men |
| Creation date | First Age |
| Home world | Middle-earth |
| Base of operations | Drúadan Forest |
| Language | Drûg |
| Leader | Ghân-buri-Ghân |
TheDrúedain are a fictional race ofMen, living in theDrúadan Forest, in theMiddle-earthlegendarium created byJ. R. R. Tolkien. They were counted among theEdain who made their way intoBeleriand in theFirst Age, and were friendly to theElves. InThe Lord of the Rings, they assist theRiders of Rohan to avoid ambush on the way to theBattle of the Pelennor Fields.
The Drúedain are based on the mythologicalwoodwoses, the wild men of the woods of Britain and Europe; the Riders of Rohan indeed call them woses.[1][T 1]
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Within Tolkien's fiction, the Drúedain call themselvesDrughu. When the Drúedain settled inBeleriand, theSindarin Elves adapted this toDrû (pluralsDrúin,Drúath) and later added the suffix-adan "man", resulting in the usualSindarin formDrúadan (pluralDrúedain).[T 2] Tolkien also used the formDrûg, with a regular English pluralDrûgs.[T 2]Drughu becameRú inQuenya, with the later suffixed formRúatan (pluralRúatani).[T 2] TheOrcs called the DrúedainOghor-hai.[T 2] John S. Ryan, writing inMallorn, notes that Tolkien also uses the forms "Drúadan Forest" (the home of the Woses) and "Drúwaith-laur" (the Dru-folk's ancient wilderness).[2]
The word used for the Drúedain by theRohirrim during theThird Age is represented by Tolkien asPúkel-men.[T 3][T 2] This includes theOld English wordpūcel "goblin, troll", which survives inShakespeare'sPuck inA Midsummer Night's Dream, and in two forms inKipling'sPuck of Pook's Hill.[3] Ryan adds that the word survives in English placenames such as Puckshot in Surrey, Pock Field in Cumberland,Puxton,Puckeridge,Pokesdown, Pockford, Pucknall, and perhapsPucklechurch. Ryan suggests that the Púkel-men may derive from a combination of "Proto-Celts,Druid-figures, or ... roadside fertility deities". Ryan notesChristopher Tolkien's statement that the name Púkel-men is "also used as a general equivalent to Drúedain".[2]
InWestron, the Common Tongue of western Middle-earth, the Drúedain were called theWild Men, or the[Wood-]Woses:[T 1]
You hear the Woses, the Wild Men of the Woods: thus they talk together from afar. They still haunt Druadan Forest, it is said. Remnants of an older time they be, living few and secretly, wild and wary as the beasts.[T 1]
The Tolkien scholarTom Shippey, aphilologist like Tolkien, notes that the office atLeeds University which both men used (at different times), is nearWoodhouse Moor, which, as "would not have escaped Tolkien", is a modern misspelling of Wood-Wose, Old Englishwudu-wāsa.Clark Hall renders this word as "faun,satyr".[1][4]
The Drúedain somewhat resembleDwarves in stature and endurance; they are stumpy, clumsy-limbed with short, thick legs, and fat, "gnarled" arms, broad chests, fat bellies, and heavy buttocks. According to theElves and other Men, they had "unlovely faces": wide, flat, and expressionless with deep-set black eyes that glowed red when angered. They had "horny" brows, flat noses, wide mouths, and sparse, lank hair. They had no hair lower than the eyebrows, except for a few men who had a tail of black hair on the chin. They were short-lived and had a deep hatred ofOrcs.[T 1] They had certain magical powers and sat still in meditation for long periods.
The Drûgs were the first to migrate from Hildórien, the land where the race of Men awoke inthe east of Middle-earth. Initially they headed south, intoHarad, but then they turned north-west, becoming the first Men to cross the great riverAnduin.[T 4] Many of them settled in theWhite Mountains, where they were thefirst people.
Some of the Drúedain continued north-west, settling inBeleriand. A band of them lived there in theFirst Age, in the forest ofBrethil among the Second House of Men, the Haladin, whence the Elves came to know and love them. Aghan the Drûg is a protagonist in "The Faithful Stone", a short story set inBeleriand in theFirst Age.
Although a number of the Drúedain came with the Edain toNúmenor, they had left or died out before theAkallabêth, as had the Púkel-men ofDunharrow. At the end of theThird Age the Drûgs still lived in the Drúadan Forest of the White Mountains, and on the long cape ofAndrast west ofGondor. The region north ofAndrast was still known asDrúwaith Iaur, or "Old Drûg land".
The termPúkel-men used by theRohirrim was also applied to the statues constructed by the Drúedain to guard important places and homes;[T 3] some evidently had the power to come to life.[T 5] Because of their ugly appearance and frightening statues the Drúedain were feared and loathed by other Men of the region; they were considered little better thanOrcs, and there was much enmity between those peoples.
Nevertheless, the Drúedain of Ghân-buri-Ghân's clan came to the aid of the Rohirrim during theWar of the Ring. A large company of Orcs had been sent to the Drúadan Forest to waylay the host of Rohan as it made its way to the aid ofGondor. It was the "woodcrafty beyond compare"[T 1] Drúedain who held off the Orcs with poisoned arrows whilst they guided the Rohirrim through the forest by secret paths.[T 1] Without their help the Rohirrim would not have arrived at theBattle of the Pelennor Fields, andSauron would likely have triumphed. This action earned the Drúedain the respect of other Men, and KingElessar granted them the Drúadan Forest "forever" in thanks.
Ghân-buri-Ghân is perceived as a "leftover," a prehistoric type of human surviving in the modern world. Like the rest of his people, Ghân has a flat face, dark eyes, and wears only a grass skirt.[T 1][6][7] He is seen as a good man with a kind of primitive nobility, a classic example of thenoble savage.[8] He is by no means stupid, and he "refuses to be patronized."[9] Susan Pesznecker describes the "Wodwoses", including Tolkien's, as a variant of the medievalGreen Man, which she calls "a Pagan symbol of fertility and rebirth".[5]
Themedievalist and Tolkien scholarVerlyn Flieger comments that the Wild Man "is infantile". Ghân-Buri-Ghân talks "like aHollywoodTarzan" using short broken phrases like "Wild Men live here before Stone-houses" and "kill orc-folk".[6] She compares him with the "WildHobbit"[6]Gollum, who ispsychotic, haunted by voices, and who uses "baby-talk", like "cruel little hobbitses": in her view, the Wild Man is "evolutionarily regressive", whereas Gollum is "psychologically regressive".[6]
Ghân-buri-Ghân is featured in the promotional expansion card set ofThe Lord of the Rings Trading Card Game[10] and in theLord of the Rings board game. The image for the latter was designed by theTolkien illustrator and concept designerJohn Howe.[11]
Ghan-Buri-Ghan
