And he picked Ithilien over Fangorn--or Lothlorien? OK, Legolas is "Lord of Ithilien" according to the first post. Lord of what in Ithilien? It's been established that he rules the elves in Ithilien. So where do the elves in Ithilien live? Gondorians don't live in Ithilien [which is in GONDOR (except for lumberjacks)] but the elves do?

And if no there are no Rangers to be captain of and no people (except lumberjacks) living in Ithilien; Faramir is Prince of Ithilien, or Prince of "a desolate god-forsaken forest"?

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Um, Ithilien is part of Gondor, it's just got a more specific name. Like Pennsylvania is part of the USA. Same thing.

And yes, Gondorians did live in Ithilien. So Faramir ruled a gorgeous land, populated by his own people, plus elves, who were ruled by Legolas.

Legolas visited Fangorn, and he'd been to Lothloríen, but Lothloríen had a ruler already (Celeborn & Galadriel), as did Fangorn. But I think he chose Ithilien because it was the 'fairest' and the closest to the Sea.

Witch_King, Ithilien wasn't deserted until 2954. That's 62 years before the events in The Lord of the Rings. Not that long of a time. I'm sure people would move back there. Gondor's population wasn't as depleted as you might think. There would be people living there after the War of the Ring, so Faramir would have Gondorians to rule.

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i didnt,i just thot he just..well lived there until i read somewhere in the net tht he became "Lord" of Ithilien which i thot was ruled by Faramir,the Prince of Ithilien...

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That kind of contradicts what Witch_King said... Does that mean there were people BESIDES LUMBERJACKS
( ) to rule? Where do they live in the middle of a forest? What kind of houses did they build? [I'm facinated by the architecture of Minas Tirith, so I'm curious to see how they would build in Ithilien]



Yes, but Galadriel left, didn't she? She took Nenya w. her. Why would Legolas choose to patch up Ithilien? Didn't the appendices say Celeborn couldn't keep Lothlorien beautiful without a Ring of Power? Who rules Fangorn? The Ents? Why doesn't Legolas help them find the Entwives? Or something...

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I admit my mistake on dates, but I restate that the resettlement of lumberjack land wouldn't exactly be a focus of Aragorn as he embarked on whatsoever wars. Not to mention how many got killed in the recent war. I honestly don't think anyone would want to move to Ithillian with the cities already pretty empty, any meaningful resettlement would worsen this emptying condition.

I'm just going to keep quoting this until someone can answer me.

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The Gondorians? You would probably see several typical small villages, and maybe a couple of cities somewhat like Minas Tirith. Probably not as artistically original or anything, since they aren't in the golden age of Gondor anymore, but it's easy to imagine.

Yeah, they'd probably be in small villages and houses, most likely few and far between.

But why do you imply that the forest is desolate, Witch_King? Legolas considered it more beautiful in its own way than Lothlorien and Fangorn. It's never described as being 'desolate' or 'empty.' It didn't have anyone living there during the War of the Ring, but there were still animals, obviously.

As for why people would move back there, it was the fairest place in Gondor (aside from Minas Tirith...it really depends on whether or not you like stone cities over lush forests). Many people would probably have been born there (Mablung the Ranger among them), and whether or not they really had any memories of it, it would still have some sentimental value. I know I'd move there instead of Minas Tirith, if I was given a choice.

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Empty of PEOPLE! Anyone borne there would be old or dead, since you stated that happened 67+ years earlier. Honestly, no one has an incentive to leave Minas Tirith or any of those cities, where they can get all they need. Beauty means nothing next to practicality in this period, and moving to a pretty forest with nice animals when you already have a family, job, and city is NOT desirable. No one will WANT to go back, unless they're one of the few rangers, who I doubt have families.

Who dies naturally when they're younger than sixty-seven in the books? Theoden was older, Bilbo was older, Frodo was pretty close (well, he was 50, so I guess close, not pretty close), Denethor was older, etc. I'm sure people would want to go back.

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After 60 years of being in some nice city in Gondor, like Minas Tirith, you honestly expect someone just to return to what was because of longing for the grand beauty of it? Admit it, the reasons for going back to Ithilian are nil, the population was too small and the incentives nonexistent

Who cares about population? Who needs company? I'd go for solitude. I'd go for the beauty. Why do you think the elves went? They wouldn't go because of population, they'd go because it's a beautiful land. I happen to share their opinion. Ithilien was one of the most beautiful forests in Middle-earth, and I enjoy forests. Why in the world wouldn't a Gondorian appreciate them as much as I do?

Seriously, you need to think some outside of population. Most of the people of Lamedon and Lebennin weren't at Minas Tirith until the end (most still didn't come), and then, thanks to Frodo's great timing, most survived the Battle of the Morannon. Gondor's population wasn't at a low, it was simply what could be expected after fighting two great battles. Just because they lost a lot of fighting men doesn't mean people can't re-populate their old homes.

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Yeah, I'd want to move to Ithilien also, but only after patching up Minas Tirith [and living there for a while].

I think they do describe Gondor's population getting smaller and smaller, but that's not the point. Reading about Ithilien in TTT can give you reasons for wanting to live there--it's so beautiful! And lots of people love Faramir [and Eowyn] so you'd think he'd have some loyal followers coming to Ithilien also.

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I'm frankly astounded that you think someone who has a perfectly good life after being uprooted by war would return for solitude or beauty. And to address your point that depopulation was due to "two great battle", no, it has been going down as loss of territory and constant warfare, not to mention a few plagues, render colonisation of anything pointless. It's like getting medieval England after the black plague or something like that and expecting it to try to colonise some place in France that was lost in war. The Gondorians would eventually colonise, I'm sure, but by the time it was feasible Legolas would've already controlled it for a hundred or so years.

Whoa. That took me a while to understand...

But after the Black Death was the Renaissance Era, eh?

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But between those eras Europe went through a good 200 years of recovery, but to be fair the Renaissance was a product of the Black Plague.