Drúedain

The Drúedain are a fictional race of Men which were counted amongst the Edain, who made their way into Beleriand in the First Age, and were friendly to the Elves. They are part of the Middle-earth legendarium created by J. R. R. Tolkien.

Names and etymology

The Drúedain called themselves Drughu. When the Drúedain settled in Beleriand, the Sindarin Elves adapted this to Drû (plurals Drúin, Drúath) and later added the suffix -adan "man", resulting in the usual Sindarin form Drúadan (plural Drúedain). Tolkien also used the form Drûg, with a regular English plural Drûgs.

Drughu became Rú in Quenya, with the later suffixed form Rúatan (plural Rúatani). The Orcs called the Drúedain Oghor-hai. The word used for them by the Rohirrim during the Third Age was represented by Tolkien as Púkel-men, which includes the Anglo-Saxon word púcel "goblin, troll" (surviving also in Shakespeare's "Puck" and Kipling's "Pook's Hill").

Appearance

The appearance of the Drúedain is entirely different from the appearance of the other races of the Middle-earth legendarium. They are a bit like Dwarves in stature and endurance, stumpy, clumsy-limbed (with short, thick legs, and fat, "gnarled" arms), had broad chests, fat bellies, and heavy buttocks. According to the Elves and other Men, they had "unlovely faces": wide, flat, and expressionless with deep-set black eyes that glowed red when angered. They had "horny" brows, flat noses, wide mouths, and sparse, lank hair. They had no hair lower than the eyebrows, except for a few men who had a tail of black hair on the chin. They were short-lived and had a deep hatred of Orcs. They were known to have certain magical powers and to be still in meditation for long periods of time.