The race of Men known as Woses or Wild Men of the Woods had, in their own language, a name for their own kind: Drughu. When the Elves first encountered these people, they fitted the name 'Drughu' to their own sound-systems, and in the Sindarin language the name translated as Drû.
As the Elves came to know these people better, and to recognise their bitter enmity to Morgoth and his creatures, so their name was changed. Drû acquired the ending edain, a word reserved for the Elves' principal allies among Men during the First Age. So the race of Woses became known in Sindarin as Drúedain. That term survived, for example, in the name 'Drúadan Forest', where Ghân-buri-Ghân and his people dwelt to the north of Minas Tirith.
Notes
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Drû as applied to this people is derived from their own word Drughu, but the same word is also used in Sindarin for 'wild' or 'untamed'. Given that the Drúath were sometimes called 'Wild Men', this does not seem to have been a coincidence, and so perhaps the meaning 'wild' in Sindarin evolved by association with the Wild Men of the Woods.
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- Updated 20 March 2023
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