Drúwaith Iaur

Drúwaith Iaur or Old Púkel land was a region with dark forests on the west of Gondor. It was between the river Isen and the western edge of the Ered Nimrais.

Drúwaith Iaur was not a part of the realm of Gondor, and therefore also not of the Reunited Kingdom. It was the original home of the Drúedain, the original inhabitants of the Ered Nimrais, who were dispersed by the Númenóreans as they were hostile to them. By the end of the Third Age, the Men of Anfalas believed that some of the Drúedain still lived secretly in the woods. And indeed, after the Battles of the Fords of Isen, it was found that many of the Drúedain did survive in the Drúwaith Iaur, for they came out to attack a remnant of Saruman's forces that had been driven southward.

Etymology

Drúwaith Iaur is a Sindarin name, consisting of drú ("wild") + waith ("folk, land") and iaur ("old"); it is thus a literal translation of Old Púkel land. On a "scrap of writing", according to Christopher Tolkien, the word Iaur did not mean "original" but "former".

Other versions of the legendarium

In his essay about the Drúedain, J.R.R. Tolkien says that the region east of the Mountains, in Anorien, was believed to be the home of the remnants of the Drúedain, called "the Old Pukel-wilderness (Druwaith Iaur)" by the Gondorians,^{:p. 384} obviously referring to the Drúadan Forest. However in A Map of Middle-earth, he indicated the coastal land west of Gondor to Pauline Baynes^{:p. 387, Note #13} indicating this time their original homeland.