Minhiriath

Minhiriath was a region of Eriador in Middle-earth.
Its expanse covered the western half of the lands between the Misty Mountains and the Blue Mountains. Minhiriath had no clear border in the north, but to the south, and east and west it was bounded by river and sea: the Brandywine, the Greyflood and the Belegaer.
== History ==
The original inhabitants of Minhiriath shared kinship with the Third House of the Edain, but because the Halethian language was unrelated to the language of the Númenóreans, the Forest-folk of Minhiriath were mistakenly grouped as Men of the Shadow.The History of Middle-earth The Peoples of Middle-earth, Part Two: Last Writings, X. Of Dwarves and Men", II. "The Atani and their Languages", note 72
When the large-scale deforestation of their land began under the Númenórean 'Ship Kings' after the 7th century Second Age, the Forest-folk of Minhiriath became openly hostile, and were persecuted. Only those who "fled from Minhiriath into the dark woods of the great Cape of Eryn Vorn" survived. Most, if not all of the Forest-folk subsequently "welcomed Sauron and hoped for his victory over the Men of the Sea", but they were to be disappointed - and permanently trapped - by Sauron's burning of much of the rest of the surviving forest, and final defeat, in SA 1701.
From SA 3320, Minhiriath became part of the newly established North Kingdom of Arnor, at which time it formed the upper part of ..a land that was far and wide, on either bank a desert, treeless but untilled.Unfinished Tales, The History of Galadriel and Celeborn
From TA 861, Minhiriath was inherited by one of Arnor's three successor states, Cardolan, but the "ravaging" of Cardolan by the evil forces of the Witch-king of Angmar in TA 1409 no doubt caused extensive depopulation of the whole country. Even worse was the advent of the Great Plague in TA 1636, after which Minhiriath was "almost entirely deserted". After TA 1975, even though "a few secretive hunter-folk lived in the woods" throughout the Third Age (probably a reference which includes Eryn Vorn), Minhiriath was claimed by no kingdom at all.
Although "still in places well-wooded" by the time of the War of the Ring, the once continuously forested Minhiriath bore the permanent scars of over 5000 years of felling, burning, and war.
The same is not necessarily the case for its human population, however, when talking of Eriador (and particularly the lands south and west of Bree) to an innkeeper at the end of the War of the Ring. For example, Gandalf confidently predicts that ..the waste in time will be waste no longer, and there will be people and fields where once there was wilderness.The Lord of the Rings
== Etymology ==
Minhiriath was a Sindarin word that meant 'Between Rivers'The Complete Guide to Middle-earth.
==Translations==
Foreign Language 	Translated name
Amharic 	ሚንሂሪኣት
Arabic 	مينهيريات
Armenian 	Մխիթարյան
Belarusian Cyrillic	Мінhіріат
Bengali 	মিনহিরিয়াত
Bulgarian Cyrillic 	Минхириат
Chinese 	米希里亚特
Danish 	Minhiriath ("Landet mellem floder")
Georgian 	მინჰირიათი
Greek 	Μινχίριαθ
Gujarati 	મિનિરિયાટ
Hebrew 	מינהיריאת
Hindi 	मिन्हिरिअत
Hungarian 	Folyóköz
Japanese 	ミンヒリアス
Kannada 	ಮಿನ್ಹಿರಿಯಟ್
Kazakh 	Минхириат (Cyrillic) Mïnxïrïat (Latin)
Korean 	민 히아 탓
Kyrgyz Cyrillic 	Минhириат
Macedonian Cyrillic	Минхириат
Marathi 	मिनिरियात
Mongolian Cyrillic 	Минhириат
Nepalese 	मिन्हिरिअत
Pashto 	منريريټ
Persian 	مینییریت
Punjabi 	ਮਿਨੀਰਿਤ
Russian 	Минхириат
Serbian 	Минирајт (Cyrillic) Minirajt (Latin)
Sinhalese 	මින්හිරියට්
Tajik Cyrillic 	Минҳириат
Telugu 	మించిరియేట్
Ukrainian Cyrillic 	Мінгіріат
Urdu 	منیرریٹ
Yiddish 	מינהיריאַט
== References ==
Category:Sindarin names & words
Category:Regions
Category:Eriador
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pl:Minhiriath
ru:Минхириат