Battle of the Camp

   The victory of Eärnil II of Gondor over the Wainriders in Ithilien in Third Age 1944.

   -----

   The final desctruction of the Wainriders.

   At the end of the second millennium of the Third Age, the realm of Gondor came close to its destruction. The Wainrider people from the east made an alliance with the Haradrim, and a dual attack on Ithilien was launched. While the Wainriders assaulted Ithilien from the north, the armies of the Haradrim crossed the Poros and invaded South Ithilien.

   The northern assault of the Wainriders was met by the King of Gondor himself, Ondoher, with his two sons Artamir and Faramir. The Easterlings swept through Gondor's defence, cutting down the King and his heirs and routing his army. Their victory complete, and Gondor defenceless before them, the Wainriders paused in North Ithilien to celebrate their conquest.

   Unknown to the victorious Wainriders, their allies in the south had met with much less success. Beyond hope, the Gondorian Captain Eärnil had led Gondor's Southern Army to victory over the Haradrim, destroying their army in South Ithilien, to the north of the Poros. Then Eärnil turned north.

   The feasting Wainriders suddenly found their success reversed, as Eärnil appeared with his Southern Army, reinforced by fleeing members of Ondoher's defeated northern troops. Eärnil's army descended on the unprepared Wainriders, driving many of them into the swamplands of the Dead Marshes. That eastern people, for so long a dreaded enemy of Gondor, never challenged her again, and the battle where Eärnil won his success was named after the Wainrider camp where it had taken place: the Battle of the Camp.