Reason Behind The Decline Of Arnor And The Rise Of Gondor.

[Formendacil]

Originally Posted by Andsigil

Unfortunately I'm coming into this thread a bit late, and only have had time to skim a few replies.

Has anyone mentioned Gondor's favorable geography? It is ringed by mountains, which act both as a barrier against invasion and a source for rivers. Combined with the rivers, the mild climate would allow the land to yield excellent harvests.

Let's not go painting Arnor as a barren wasteland, though--comparable to Greenland in Eric the Red's day. The Shire clearly had a mild climate--with excellent farmland, rivers, little snow, high produce. While it is true that the North Farthing was a bit cooler, I don't think it was far enough north to make a great difference, nor that Annúminas and Fornost were so much farther as to make them utterly uninhabitable.

In any case, even if the re-settlers of the 4th Age were deterred from going as far as Annúminas, there is no reason they could not have focused resettlement on Cardolan--at the latitude of the southern parts of the Shire and comparable and nearer to the presumed Dúnedainic settlements in the Angle--or even in southern Cardolan, about Tharbad. We know that Aragorn re-established Annúminas as Arnor's capital, but we don't know how much of the incoming settlers went that far north--Gandalf seems to imply to Butterbur that this would happen, but perhaps it was merely the increase in business at Bree that would follow, as the way station on the way to Annúminas and the Shire.

Indeed, it would make good sense to me for Eriador to have been resettled from the South. Tharbad and the coast would have had better opportunities for trade, thanks to the sea, and Gondorian settlers might have found the land just the other side of Andrast more familiar and homelike--and also less of a distant journey. Tharbad also continues to make great sense as the meeting of the nations--now including Rohan as well as Gondor and Arnor.

What's more, with Rohan now in the picture (the Éotheod did not settle the Mark until a few hundred years after Arnor fell), I do not see the Dúnedain wishing to lose control of Minihiriath, as both kingdoms experienced a population boom. I think they would have preferred to see Rohan expand past the Anduin than over the Isen. What's more, southern Cardolan was proximate to Dunland. Even granting the favourable relations between the Dúnedain, on the one hand, and Rohan and Dunland on the other during Elessar's reign, it would have made sense for the Reunited Kingdom to have put its energy first on repopulating the crucial central region--which, in any case, might have been more favorable to Gondorian settlers.

[Andsigil]

Originally Posted by Formendacil

Let's not go painting Arnor as a barren wasteland, though--comparable to Greenland in Eric the Red's day.

That wasn't my intention. But Eriador/Arnor didn't enjoy the natural barriers behind which Gondor endured.

Just looking at the map Gondor seems one, tough nut to crack. Combine that with the climate and rivers, and it seems no wonder that it was able to last so long.