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Ruins in Gondor

Eriol_Eandur

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Should we build ruined villages and farms ouside Osgiliath is a recurring question so we'd better discuss it here.
So here are my thoughts about it:

The population of Gondor was decreasing over the last 1600 years of Third Age:
  • It began with with the kinstrife in T.A. 1432.
  • Osgiliath was not destroyed by war but fell into decay after King Tarondor moved the capital to Minas Arnor. Like in Annuminas in the north there were just not enough people left to populate the huge town after the Great Plague of T.A. 1636.
  • Especially the northern and eastern areas were de-populated as they were less safe than the southern parts of Gondor (except the shores because of Corsair attacks). Calenardhon could no longer be defended by Gondor because there was not enough population left there. Thus Cirion gave it to Eorl the Young in T.A. 2510
  • Most of the inhabitants of Ithilien withdraw over Anduin in T.A. 2901 because of recurring attacks of Uruks from Mordor.
This was the situation at the end of Third Age:
RotK - Minas Tirith said:
The townlands were rich, with wide tilth and many orchards, and homesteads there were with oast and garner, fold and byre, and many rills rippling through the green from the highlands down to Anduin. Yet the herdsmen and husbandmen that dwelt there were not many, and the most part of the people of Gondor lived in the seven circles of the City, or in the high vales of the mountain-borders, in Lossarnach, or further south in fair Lebennin with its five swift streams.
Even Minas Tirith was half de-populated before the War of the Ring:
RotK - Minas Tirith said:
Yet it was in truth falling year by year into decay; and already it lacked half the men that could have dwelt at ease there. In every street they passed some great house or court over whose doors and arched gates were carved many fair letters of strange and ancient shapes: names Pippin guessed of great men and kindreds that had once dwelt there; and yet now they were silent, and no footsteps rang on their wide pavements, nor voice was heard in their halls, nor any face looked out from door or empty window.
Though no hosts of Mordor ever crossed the Anduin into Gondor before the War of the Ring the areas close to the River were regarded unsafe. Why else Ecthelion II would have spend huge efford to build the Rammas Echor? That wall was about 45 kilometers long!! Such a wall makes no sense at all against a large host, but it can hold up bands of raiding orcs.
No such raids are recorded but it seems obvious that most people would prefer to live within the fenced area, not outside. On the other hand the Rammas quickly fell into decay itself and was restored only shortly before the Battle of the Plennor Fields.

Looking at all these information my conclusion is, yes we should have a lot of ruins in Gondor. But I don't think we should have ruined villages and not ruined villages. Such would happen only during war when attackers destroy a village wheras another one is defended. In Gondor the situation is very different. There was no war in Gondor west of Anduin and south of Calenardhon for at least 1500 years.
Instead there was a constant thread from the east while the population decreased slowly over the ages and people retreated to more safe areas in the west and south. Thus all villages in northern Gondor (at least down to Minas Tirith) and Minas Tirith itself should have ruined houses and fields. The closer a village is to the Anduin the more ruined houses it should contain. Same for farms and fields. The Rammas Echor gives additional security so there should be a sharp drop of ruined houses and fields inside.
 
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