Who are the 'wild men'?

[Ivriniel]

I don't believe that there's a "natural" link between family relationships and a claim to a specific territory. From my point of view there's no such thing as "rightful" or "legitimate" owners simply by biological or cultural heritage. "Property" and "rights" are social categories which are tied to a political construct, i.e. a state and only make sense in that context. And those political constructs are always established and sustained by force.

On a personal note I don't adhere to ideas about land ownership, either, and would be quite happy if we didn't have passports but - no one agrees with me about this. I expected anti-Numenorean commentary to elicit objections from pro-Numenorean readers. Of late, I've grown rather anti-Numenorean, excepting Silmarien's line and excepting the poor fellas and women in the Forgotten Caves, who have to rot there until the End of Days I wonder if they're bored, annoyed, for example "if Ar Pharazon asks us one more time for a dinner invitation after what he's done to us, I'd scream except that we're all still screaming since the drowning of Numenor. I told everyone it was a bad idea to go along with his 'attack the west thing' and now look - our idiot cousins got away from Andunie". hahaha

So, I don't agree that the Dunlendings of 3019 T.A. can justify their war against the Rohirrim based on something that happened over 500 years ago. Or would you suggest that I have an inherent right and a claim to some territory my distant ancestors inhabited in the year 1516, wherever this may be?

Apart from the moral question, I think it's fair to assume that the "history" between the Rohirrim and the Dunledings created a highly ideologized feud and hatred between them.

But, Leaf ownership, sovereignty, territoriality as characterise by Tolkien it seems to me were central tenets used to explain the tensions between the Dunlendings, the Dunedain, Numenor and Rohan. Longstanding gripes over land ownership. I wonder if the Dunlendings were expected to pay taxes to Gondor and Arnor for example, during -- as Dunlendings would have put it -- "the occupation".

Dunlendings were antagonistic to Rohan and Dunedain and the conflict emphasised jealousies and conflict over sovereignty of the region.