A rare collective term for the Drûgs, otherwise known by their Elvish name, the Drúedain. Like the Hobbits, the Drûg-folk represented a distant branch of the human race (though Tolkien makes it clear that these two peoples were not otherwise connected with one another). Historically, representatives of the Drûg-folk had lived in Beleriand and in Númenor, though by the later Third Age they were limited to a scattered people living on the wooded fringes of the White Mountains, and in hidden places in the land of Drúwaith Iaur to the west.
Notes
1 |
The Drûg-folk were a branch of Men, and we know that the first Men of any kind awoke in the year I 1 (that is, at the beginning of the Years of the Sun). We also know that there were Drûg-folk living among the Men of Brethil, who migrated into their forest home in about I 375.
This gives very little time indeed for the Drûg-folk to emerge as a separate people and form their own culture. They would have to have done so in a matter of about fifteen generations - a very brief timescale, but perhaps not absolutely implausible. An alternative possibility is that the primordial Drúedain awoke as a distinct branch of Men in Hildórien, and that they had therefore existed as a separate people from the beginning.
|
2 |
It is perhaps notable that drû was an Elvish word for 'wild'. Though the name the Drûg-folk chose for themselves was presumably from their own tongue, it is conceivable that they were influenced by the speech of Dark Elves. If that is the case, then they named themselves the 'wild folk'. Of course, this may simply be a linguistic coincidence, and the name Drûg might instead have some other unknown meaning in its original language.
|
Indexes:
About this entry:
- Updated 7 February 2022
- This entry is complete
For acknowledgements and references, see the Disclaimer & Bibliography page.
Original content © copyright Mark Fisher 2005, 2022. All rights reserved. For conditions of reuse, see the Site FAQ.
SHARE
