First Age Easterlings were known as Swarthy Men, and after the War of Wrath, the evil side of this men fled back into the East where their kinsfolk spread and lived. Are the Second Age and the Third Age Easterlings related to these Swarthy Men, or not?
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2Karen Wynn Fonstad certainly thinks so– EdlothiadCommented Jul 8, 2020 at 19:30
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1We have no reason to think there was much of a connection between them. @Edlothiad Does she?– MithoronCommented Jul 8, 2020 at 19:35
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1@Mithoron She must have some reason to think so, otherwise she wouldn’t have published it...– EdlothiadCommented Jul 8, 2020 at 20:29
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1@Mithoron: I have read some of that. I think she referred there according to the First Age (ending): “After the victory of the Lords of the West those of the evil Men who were not destroyed fled back into the east, where many of their race were still wandering...” (Silmarillion, Akallabêth (Part: The Downfall of Númenor)”. In the second age: “many savage tribes in the East (of old corrupted by Morgoth)”. In the third age: “...Former servants and worshippers of Sauron, they were released now from his tyranny, but not from the evil and darkness that he had set in their hearts.”– user128662Commented Jul 8, 2020 at 20:48
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1In the Atlas of Middle-Earth, Fonstad backs up the assertion that @Edlothiad mentions with two references. One is near the start of Akallabeth, and says that the surviving 'evil Men' fled back east and became kings among their people (how far east is unclear). The other reference is to RotK, but I can't find it. The page number given is 326, but the edition (Houghton Mifflin) is clearly different to mine (Unwin).– Ian ThompsonCommented Jul 8, 2020 at 21:43
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1 Answer
Short summary: we can't say for certain they are not the same. Anything else is conjecture.
In the First Age, "Easterling" referred to Men that lived east of Beleriand; this would have included Eriador. In later Ages, it still refers to peoples from "the East", which is to say, further east than those lands settled by the Dunedain.
If there were any survivors among the Swarthy Men, they necessarily relocated to Eriador or further east after the War of Wrath. There is no information on what they did there, or how they mixed with groups of Men that never entered Beleriand.
The only thing we know about the various non-Dunedain groups is that the inhabitants of Rhovanion (the Woodsmen, the men of Dale, and the ancestors of the Rohirrim, for example) were thought to be descendants of Men related to the Edain that did not cross into Beleriand in the First Age. Nothing else is really known about the other groups.
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1you are wrong about the something for example; we do not need to look If swarthy men survived after the War of Wrath (which have already survived). Their relatives already lived in the east (they were Swarthy Men, whether their hearts were bad or not). You can look: “After the victory of the Lords of the West those of the evil Men who were not destroyed fled back into the east, where many of their race were still wandering in the unharvested lands, wild and lawless...” (Silmarillion, Akallabêth (Part: The Downfall of Númenor).– user128662Commented Jul 8, 2020 at 22:29
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1I did forget to mention (edit).– user128662Commented Jul 8, 2020 at 23:17
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1My point was that we can assume the Men I singled out in Rhovanion aren't related (closely) to the Swarthy Men. Yes, there are relatives of the Swarthy Men, but they are never identified with any other group. Are the two groups of Easterlings the same? There's no particular evidence for or against the assertion.– chepnerCommented Jul 9, 2020 at 0:21
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1There's isn't even any reason to believe that all the Easterlings are even a single group/race/etc. That would be like assuming that all the various "barbarians" mentioned in Roman history (Celts, Germans, Slavs, Bulgars, Avars, etc) were all the same.– chepnerCommented Jul 9, 2020 at 0:23
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All those living in the east at the end of the First Age were already Swarthy Men. Because the Swarthy Men, that survived after the War of Wrath, fled to the east where their kinsfolks lived (before Belerianda came). Even if they did not survive the War of Wrath, their lineage (kinsfolk) was already living in the east. In order for the Easterlings of the Second and Third Ages not to be related to the Swarthy Men, all the Easterlings of the First Age should have died and there is never such information about this comment.– user128662Commented Jul 9, 2020 at 7:23