Angmar

Around T.A. 1300, Sauron's shadow became stronger and evil things multiplied, heralded by the reappearance of the Nazgûl. The lord of the Nazgûl came north and established the evil realm of Angmar between the Ettenmoors and the Mountains of Angmar on both sides of the Misty Mountains, because he intended to destroy the Dúnedain of the North and to exploit the disunity of the splinter realms of Arthedain, Cardolan and Rhudaur. He gathered many evil men, Orcs and other fell creatures in Angmar and became known as the Witch-king of Angmar, but it was not known at that time that he was the lord of the Nazgûl.

Rhudaur was the first kingdom to fall. There were few Dúnedain in Rhudaur and an evil lord of the Hillmen, who had a secret alliance with Angmar, seized the power. As a consequence, Argeleb I, the king of Arthedain fortified the line of the Weather Hills, which formed the eastern border between the realm of Arthedain and the realm of Rhudaur. Nevertheless, Argeleb I was killed in a battle with the realms of Rhudaur and Angmar. However, his son Arveleg I managed to push back the forces of his enemies from the Weather hills with help from Cardolan and Lindon. After that Arthedain and Cardolan maintained a line of defence along the Weather Hills, the Great East Road and the lower Hoarwell for many years.

In T.A. 1409 a large army from Angmar invaded Cardolan and besieged Weathertop. The forces of Angmar defeated the Dúnedain, killed King Arveleg I and burned and destroyed the Tower of Amon Sûl, which stood on Weathertop. However, the palantír that was located in the tower was evacuated during the retreat to Fornost Erain. Rhudaur was occupied by evil men, which were subject to the realm of Angmar and the Dúnedain that had remained in Rhudaur were killed or fled to the west. Cardolan was devastated, but a remnant of the Dúnedain of Cardolan defended the Barrow-downs or fled to the Old Forest. The last prince of Cardolan was slain in that year and was said to have been buried in the barrow in the Barrow-downs in which Meriadoc Brandybuck and Frodo Baggins were trapped by a Barrow-wight almost 1700 years later. King Araphor, the brave young son of Arveleg I, drove away the forces of the enemy from Fornost and the North Downs with the aid of Círdan and the Elves of Lindon. The Elves from Rivendell and Elves of Lórien also attacked the forces of Angmar and managed to subdue Angmar for a time. Because of the war with Angmar and of their fear of Angmar, the Stoors who lived in the Angle in Rhudaur fled to the west, to the south or returned east to Rhovanion to live next to the river Gladden.

During the reign of King Argeleb II most people of Cardolan, especially in Minhiriath died in the Great Plague, which brought an end to the Dúnedain of Cardolan. As a consequence, evil spirits from Angmar and Rhudaur occupied the deserted mounds.

King Araphant and his son King Arvedui continued to defend Arthedain against assaults of Angmar, but the strength of Arthedain was dwindling. In the autumn of T.A. 1973 the kingdom of Gondor received messages that Arthedain was in great danger, because the Witch-king of Angmar was preparing an attack against it. In response, King Eärnil II of Gondor sent his son Eärnur north with a fleet as fast as he was able.

In T.A. 1974 Angmar had recovered and invaded Arthedain from the north before the end of the winter. The Witch-king overran Arthedain and conquered Fornost before the end of the year and drove away most of the remaining Dúnedain over the river Lhûn, including the sons of the king. King Arvedui of Arthedain defended the North Downs as long as he could until he had to flee to the north with some of his guards on horses. Arvedui hid in tunnels of old dwarf-mines at the northern end of the Blue Mountains until his supplies ran out and then fled to a camp of the Lossoth at the southern shore of the Icebay of Forochel where he was forced to wait. The Elves of Lindon heard of the flight of Arvedui to the north and sent a ship to rescue Arvedui, but it sank shortly after picking up Arvedui in the bay of Forochel when the ship was driven back to the ice by a storm and was crushed by further ice that was piled up against it in March T.A. 1975.

When Prince Eärnur of Gondor arrived with his fleet at the havens of Lindon in T.A. 1975 it was too late, because Arthedain had already been conquered and King Arvedui was already dead. Círdan gathered a force from Lindon and Arnor and the combined forces of Lindon, Arnor and Gondor, which included tall and fair riders, princes from Rhovanion and horses from the Vales of Anduin crossed the river Lhûn and marched north. The Witch-king came from Fornost with the forces of Angmar to meet them, but was defeated in a battle on the plain between Lake Evendim and the North Downs. The Witch-king fled northwards with a remnant of his forces in the direction of Angmar, but his forces were overtaken by the cavalry of Gondor and by forces led by the Elf-lord Glorfindel who came north from Rivendell before they could reach the shelter of Carn Dûm. The Witch-king was able to escape from the north on a black horse, but the realm of Angmar was utterly defeated so that no Men and Orcs of Angmar remained on the west side of the Misty Mountains.

The Éothéod, the ancestors of the Rohirrim, lived in the vales of Anduin between the Carrock and the Gladden in those days. The middle vales of the Anduin were populated by many Men and the shadow of Dol Guldur grew at that time. When the Éothéod heard that the Witch-king of Angmar had been defeated, they wanted to obtain more territory in the north and drove away the remnants of the people of Angmar on the east side of the Misty Mountains. It is possible that the Éothéod heard of the defeat of Angmar from riders from the Vales of Anduin who defeated Angmar as part of the cavalry of Eärnur. As a result the Éothéod moved north from their old land to the region near the sources of the Anduin between the northernmost ranges of the Misty Mountains and the norhernmost parts of Mirkwood.