Áistan: 3rd Age Woodman of the Anduin Vale

Áistan: 3rd Age Woodman of the Anduin Vale
My primary Middle-earth persona is that of a common Woodman named Áistan (this is simply the Gothic-language analogue to my given name), living in the Anduin river valley near western Mirkwood, during the period between the Quest of Erebor and the War of the Ring.



Áistan: Soft Kit Áistan: Hard kit Áistan: Sleeping Áistan: Food Áistan: Weapons Áistan: Lifestyle

I eventually settled on this persona for several reasons. First, I grew up (and still live) on the banks of the Ohio, so I’ve always had a natural affinity for river and riverbottoms—it was only natural that I’d gravitate to the “green vale” of the Anduin.

Secondly, while it might seem easier to interpret a Beorning persona, as a living historian strongly influenced by the writings of Mark Baker, John Curry, and others of their caliber in this lifestyle, I know that to get a more authentic taste of life in a given culture, one must look at the ‘common’ people…and direct descent from a sole were-bear chieftain seemed anything but ‘common’ to me.

Thirdly, I was also attracted to this cultural zone as it is an area ‘off the beaten path’—though with known settlements of common folk—of which at first glance it would seem little is actually known. While it is located along useful trade routes, the area always seems to be just on the periphery—we never actually meet any Woodmen in the course of the story, and we only see this area firsthand once (when Thorin and Company spend a few nights at Beorn’s homestead).

Finally, as an individual with a habit of self-reliance trying to live with a lighter footprint via indigenous or ‘traditional’ lifeways, adopting a persona of a frontiersy woodland homesteader was the next logical step in Middle-earth immersion for me.

Inspired by Tolkien’s suggestion in Letter No. 154 that “as far as the ‘mortals’ go… the situations are so devised that economic likelihood is there and could be worked out”, I extrapolated from what we know about the area and its inhabitants to produce a clearer picture of homestead life in the Anduin valley.