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APPENDIX F
I
THE LANGUAGES AND PEOPLES OF
THE THIRD AGE
The language represented in this history by English was the
Westron or ‘Common Speech’ of the West-lands of Middle-earth
in the Third Age. In the course of that age it had become the
native language of nearly all the speaking-peoples (save the
Elves) who dwelt within the bounds of the old kingdoms of
Arnor and Gondor; that is along all the coasts from Umbar
northward to the Bay of Forochel, and inland as far as the Misty
Mountains and the Ephel Dúath. It had also spread north up
the Anduin, occupying the lands west of the River and east of
the mountains as far as the Gladden Fields.
At the time of the War of the Ring at the end of the age these
were still its bounds as a native tongue, though large parts of
Eriador were now deserted, and few Men dwelt on the shores of
the Anduin between the Gladden and Rauros.
A few of the ancient Wild Men still lurked in the Drúadan
Forest in Anórien; and in the hills of Dunland a remnant lingered
of an old people, the former inhabitants of much of Gondor.
These clung to their own languages; while in the plains of Rohan
there dwelt now a Northern people, the Rohirrim, who had come
into that land some five hundred years earlier. But the Westron
was used as a second language of intercourse by all those who
still retained a speech of their own, even by the Elves, not only
in Arnor and Gondor but throughout the vales of Anduin, and
eastward to the further eaves of Mirkwood. Even among the
Wild Men and the Dunlendings who shunned other folk there
were some that could speak it, though brokenly.