24

The Lord of the Rings Wikia notes the following about Mordor following Sauron's defeat:

After the ultimate defeat of Sauron, Mordor became mostly empty again as the orcs inside it fled or were killed. Crippled by thousands of years of abuse and neglect, but capable of sustaining life, the land of Mordor was given to the defeated foes of Gondor as a consolation, as well as to the freed slaves of Nurn who were formerly forced to farm there to feed the armies of Mordor.

[MORDOR - LOTR WIKIA]

Besides the Nurn, who else received ownership of Mordor following the War of the Ring? As well, was Mordor ever decontaminated, or was it just too poisonous and toxic after thousands of years of evil to ever be recultivated?

I'm looking for a canon answer, meaning the actual novels or any of J.R.R. Tolkien's supplemental books, papers, or letters.

Improve this question

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
26

The canon source is, I believe, taken from a preliminary draft of The Steward and The King chapter of RotK.

A notable visitor to Minas Tirith among the many embassies that came to the King is found in A:

... and the slaves of Mordor he set free and gave them all the lands about Lake Nurnen for their own. ...

This was not rejected on the manuscript, but it is not present in B.

A is the preliminary draft, whereas B is the fair copy. The extract from Morgoth's Ring, Vol 9 of the History of Middle-Earth.

I cannot find any other canon references for what happened to Mordor after Sauron's overthrow, as to who else was granted ownership or what state Mordor was in other than the areas surrounding Mount Doom, which would have been devastated by its eruption.

Improve this answer
4
  • I concur. I've searched through every piece of canon I know of, and there are no references to the fate of Mordor after the War of the Ring. All of the wikis agree that it was given to the defeated foes of Gondor, but I can find no back up for that. Will keep looking, though.
    – Gabe Willard
    Commented May 20, 2012 at 5:08
  • 2
    @GabeWillard Updated with what I assume to be the reference. Very tenuous link (based on an extract of a very preliminary draft) to be quoted in a wiki as definitively canon.
    – dlanod
    Commented May 20, 2012 at 5:13
  • 3
    This statement (about the slaves of Mordor) is actually present in my copy of RotK itself, and is also attested in Hammond & Scull's "Reader's Companion".
    – user8719
    Commented Dec 8, 2013 at 14:45
  • 1
    As I recall ROTK mentions that Faramir was made "Prince of Ithilien", but no one could live close to Minas Morgul which was still haunted and cursed. So Gondor annexed and resettled most of the lands between Anduin and the mountains bordering Mordor.
    – Royal Canadian Bandit
    Commented Jan 17, 2014 at 12:10

Your Answer

By clicking “Post Your Answer”, you agree to our terms of service and acknowledge you have read our privacy policy.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.