Ethir Anduin

The Ethir Anduin (the 'Mouths of the Anduin') is a region of Gondor. Beneath Pelargir, the River Anduin was joined by the waters of the Poros, and spread into a great delta more than fifty miles across. This was a border region, populated mainly by fishermen.

Summary

This land did not exist at all prior to the Fall of Numenor; it was a large bay into which the Anduin flowed. With the Downfall, the river's course was changed, and the region became a sizeable estuary. It was settled at some point in Epoch III.

King Tarannon Falastur (ruled T.A. 830-913) loved the sea, and built a house below Pelargir "upon arches whose feet stood deep in the wide waters of Ethir Anduin”. It is not stated if this house lasted into the Fourth Age – it is possible that a noble family continued to live there.

There is nothing further mentioned about this region in the histories. Presumably they would have developed methods of warding off (or at least being warned about) the occasional raids from the Corsairs. The region was not abandoned though, as “men out of the Ethir” gathered to Aragorn’s banner during the War of the Ring. They are referred to as “sea-crafty” and “fisher-folk” so they were clearly fishermen with small ships capable of going out into the Bay of Belfalas.

The Ethir Anduin contains the following settlements:

• 4 hamlets (50-80 each)
• 4 farmsteads (25-30 each)
• 28 fishing homesteads (5-20 each)
• Total Population: 655

Climate and ecology

Broadly, the climate and vegetation resemble deltas in Greece and Turkey. It contains the following zones:

• J22 - Hellenic-Aegean meso-Mediterranean holm oak (Quercus ilex) and kermes oak (Quercus coccifera) forests with Arbutus andrachne, Asplenium onopteris, Cyclamen hederifolium, partly in combination with Pinus brutia forests
• J49 - East Mediterranean wild olive-locust tree forests (Ceratonia siliqua, Olea europaea subsp. oleaster) and kermes oak-mastic tree scrub (Pistacia lentiscus, Quercus coccifera), partly in combination with Pinus brutia forests, with Cyclamen graecum, Teucrium divaricatum
• P11 - West- and middle-Mediterranean sand-dune vegetation complexes
• R3 - Brackish water tall reed vegetation, alternating with salt meadows (Elymus repens, Alopecurus arundinaceus, Aeluropus littoralis, Puccinellia spp.) and halophytic herb communities (Salicornia europaea, Salsola mutica, Suaeda spp.)
• U18 - Apennine-Balkanic hardwood alluvial forests (Fraxinus angustifolia s. l., Quercus robur, Quercus pedunculiflora, Ulmus minor, Carpinus betulus) with Leucojum aestivum, Carex pendula, Periploca graeca in combination with alluvial forests (Salix alba, Populus alba, Populus nigra) and oak-hornbeam forests (Carpinus betulus, Quercus robur)