The distant lands far to the south of
Gondor.
The name simply means the Far South (as opposed to
Near Harad,
the more familiar southern lands). It was a region almost
unknown to the peoples of the northwestern parts of
Middle-earth.
Nonetheless, some of its fierce people travelled north at the
time of the
War of the Ring,
and fought on the side of
Sauron at
the
Battle of the Pelennor Fields.
An indefinite region that lay to the south
of
Gondor
and
Mordor,
beyond the River
Harnen.
Little is said of it in the histories of
Middle-earth,
except that the
Men of
that land conspired with those of
Khand,
and with the
Wainriders,
to overthrow
Gondor in
the time of
King
Ondoher.
The
Gondorians
anticipated their strike, and
Ondoher
created a
Southern Army
to defend his land against them. That
Southern Army,
under the command of
Eärnil,
met the invading
Men of
Near
Harad in
South Ithilien,
and defeated them completely.
Though Near
Harad is
not otherwise described in any detail, its inhabitants were
clearly great enemies of the
Gondorians,
and it seems likely that many of Tolkien's references to the
Haradrim,
the
Men of Harad
in general, actually describe those of Near
Harad.
This is especially true of their dealings with the sometime
Gondorian
outpost of
Umbar,
which lay on the shores of
Middle-earth
to the west of Near
Harad.
Information From
Encyclopedia
of Arda
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