Drúedain
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In J. R. R. Tolkien's legendarium, the Drúedain are a fictional race of Men which were counted amongst the Edain. They were also know as Drûgin (singular being Drug), Woses, Wild Men of the Woods and Púkel-men and were related to the Dunlendings.
The Drûgin lived among the Third House of Men, the Haladin, in the First Age in the forest of Brethil. They were an alien folk to the other Men: 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. Although a number of the Drúedain were present in Númenor they had left or died out before the Akallabêth, as had the Púkel-men of Dunharrow. At the end of the Third Age the Drûg still lived in the Drúadan Forest of the White Mountains, and at the long cape of Andrast west of Gondor. The region north of Andrast was still known as Drúwaith Iaur, or "Old Drûg land".
Púkel men was also the name used by the Rohirrim to refer to the fearsome statues constructed by the Drúedain. These statues were built to guard important places and homes of the Drúedain, and seemed to have to the power to come to life in a similar fashion to golems.
Because of their ugly appearance and frightening statues the Drúedain were feared and loathed by other Men of the region. Indeed the name Púkel man meant Goblin-man and they were considered little better than Orcs, and there was much enmity between these peoples.
Nevertheless the Drúedain of Ghân-buri-Ghân's clan came to the aid of the Rohirrim during the War of the Ring. A large company of Orcs had been sent to the Drúadan Forest to waylay the host of Rohan as it made its way to the aid of Gondor. It was the Drúedain who held off the Orcs with poisoned arrows whilst they guided the Rohirrim through the forest by secret paths. Without their help the Rohirrim would not have arrived at the Battle of the Pelennor Fields, and Gondor would almost certainly have been lost.
As a result the Drúedain gained the love and respect of the other Men, and King Elessar granted the Drúadan Forest "forever" to them in thanks.
The Drúedain are reminicient of the mythological woodwoses, and like them their apparent relic status and physical description is interestingly similar to the typical depiction of Neanderthals.
