The Complete History of the Easterlings | Tolkien Explained

Think we will see some Easterling kingdoms in the Amazon show? What do you think the blue wizards were up to in Rhûn?

I think one of the worst decisions in the Peter Jackson cinematic cut was to delete the scene where Faramir laments on killing one of the easterlings. He basically monologues to Frodo as he stares into his fallen enemy's eyes about what sort of trick or coercion had Sauron played on the easterlings to get them to help, and how he, just like Faramir was a man, flaws and all.

One thing I have to say about Sauron: he was very industrious. Dude never stopped working.

In the Silmarillion, it is said that the surviving Easterlings of Beleriand fled back to the East after the War of Wrath and became the rulers of their cousins who had remained there. It's likely that this "aristocracy" kept the memory of Morgoth and his hate against the West alive - a perfect basis for Sauron's corrupting influence.

I've always felt that the story of the Easterlings ,who opposed Sauron would have been a very interesting one. Sadly Tolkien never got too deep in the history of the East.

The Easterlings are visually the COOLEST looking of the "bad guy" nations of Men. They look and feel exotic and ELITE, hardcore shocktroops. they really made me want to know more about them when I saw them in the movies.

I'm 98.99% convinced that the Blue Wizards completed their task, and Rhun was actually in a semi-war-torn state because of the unbridled civil war that progressed throughout the ages.

As a kid in the '80s who first heard about the "Easterlings", I thought they were led by the Easter Bunny. That was my mindset while watching the animated cartoon Lord of the Rings back then hoping to see them.

Remember, recruiting Easterling men in the beginning was easier as Sauron could still take fair form, and so not appear as a terrible and fearful being, but pretend to help them.

I think a show about the Easterlings, Khamûl and the blue wizards would have been really cool! It sounds like their are many stories to explore in the lands of Rhûn!

This, to me, demonstrates Tolkien's understanding that while of course there are good and evil men, the majority are neither and influenced by charismatic leaders (see F.Herbert's Dune for further reading).

I wish Tolkien explained and developed Middle Earth's eastern hemisphere. We really have no clue what the eastern shores of the Middle Earth continent looks like. Like I feel pretty sure Rhun isn't the eastern-most political entity of Middle Earth...

Everytime I see these videos the only thing that comes to mind is: "Tolkien is a great civ player"

The Easterlings are fashioned (at least aesthetically) after the Persians and Turks of mediaeval ages

I wish we saw more of the Easterlings fighting alongside the orcs. I’ve always been drawn to men fighting for Sauron

Nerd of The Rings; the GOAT on YouTube for Tolkien lore 🐐 Series idea: Characters lineages! (i.e Aragorns lineage tracing back to Beren, etc)

The last King of Gondor until the return of the King, Aragorn II, son of Arathorn, was in fact, Earnur, son of Earnil II, who disappeared after accepting the challenge of a duel with the Witch-King, and was never seen again.

8:00 "one of nine" gave me goosebumps because of how Gandalf pronounces it in the Hobbit movies when he and Radagast are in the high fells or Rhudaur.

Some commenters say that the Valar abandoned the eastern men or favored the elves over men. While there are quite some arguments for and against this position, I'd like to point out that - according to the fictional meta-story invented by Tolkien himself - we only have very limited information about the true thoughts and intentions of the Valar. Virtually all stories about the earlier times of Arda (= the Silmarillion) that we have access to came from one single translation Bilbo made in Rivendell. This book was then copied and transformed over and over again, until Tolkien himself supposedly translated it into English. (Of course he invented it all, but that's the fictional meta-story he wrote into the Lord of the Rings). This means that all we know about the Valar, the beginning of the world and the first age, is only hearsay, pieced together from what some of the remaining high elves in Middle Earth like Elrond or Glorfindel told Bilbo - and even these stories are for the most part (as it is admitted in the Silmarillion) only interpretations made by the elves of Valinor. Only five mortals have ever spoken to the Valar, and of those, Tuor, Earendil and Elwing remained in the west forever, while Beren and Lúthien never spoke to any mortal man again, before they left the world. What we know about the Valar is therefore only a faint echo of the truth.

Life as Easterling must have been pretty bleak, just constantly under the influence of one dark Lord then another, knowing nothing else since pretty much the moment of their waking. The valar did them dirty tbh.