Battle of the Plains

The first assault of the Wainriders upon Gondor

Third age 1899

When the Great Plague in the winter of 1635 in the Third age spread from the East, the people of Gondor suffered great losses. They were living in cities and not like the Northmen of Rhovanion out on the open plains. But unlike the Northmen, they in Gondor had preserved the skills of healing and medicine, and if Gondor had great losses, the Northmen suffered even more.

As a result, the Northmen, who had served as a bulwark against the East and were slow to recover the numbers in their population, could not hold the frontier when the wainriders attacked the north and eastern borders of Gondor in 1851.

King Narmacil II took a great army north into the plains south of Mirkwood. There he gathered all he could of the scattered Northmen, but he is defeated and falls himself in battle in 1856. The remnants of the army retreated over Dagorlad into Ithilien. During the retreat the King of the Northmen, Marhari, fell in the rearguard defending the retreat. Possibly his actions saved Gondor from an utterly deroute. Gondor, under the new King Calimethar who was a son of Narmacil II, abandoned all the lands east of Anduin, save Ithilien. Some of the Northmen fled north to Dale. Some took refugee in Gondor, and others were gathered under Marhwini, the son of Marhari, and passed north between Mirkwood and river Anduin. These settled in the vales of Anduin, where they were joined by many fugitives who had came through the forest

Gondor abandoned all the lands east of Anduin, save Ithilien, These abandoned lands were occupied by the Wainriders; and those Northmen, who did not flee, were reduced to servitude to the Wainriders.
But between Calimethar and Marhwini grew an alliance, and messengers came to Calimethar from Marhwini. The message they carried said that the Wainriders were not only plotting to raid Calenardhon over the North and South Undeep, but that a revolt of the enslaved Northmen would also burst out if the Wainriders were involved in war. Calimethar was determined to avenge the defeat and death of his father. As soon as he could ( 1899 ) he led an army out of Ithilien, taking care that its approach was well known to the enemy. In order to divide the strength of the enemy and to remove as many of the Wainriders from the first assault as possible, Calimethar had sent horsed warriors over Calenardhon to the Undeeps, where they met the forces of Marhwini. These joined forces were meant to fall upon the rear of the Wainriders.

The Wainriders came down with all the strength they could spare, and Calimethar gave way before them, drawing them as far away as he could from their homes. At length he gave battle at Dagorlad, and the outcome of the battle was long in doubt. However, at its height, the horsemen he had sent over the Undeeps joined with the Éored ( Horsed warriors ) led by Marhwini. They assailed the Wainriders in the flank and rear and their victory over the enemy was overwelming. The enemy broke and were soon in disordered flight north towards their homes. The Éored and Marhwini harried the fugitives and inflicted great loss upon the Wainriders in their long rout over the plains, until they were within sight of Mirkwood, where they finally left them. Taunting them with the sight that met them - the smoke and fire of their homes, storage and wagons, for the planned revolt of the enslaved Northmen had indeed broken out. But the Wainriders were not utterly destroyed, their women and children and those who were left at home had fiercely defended their homes and the Northmen retired again to the land beside the Anduin.