The word Enedwaith referred both to the land between the rivers Greyflood and Isen and west of the Misty Mountains, and to the people that once dwelled there. The name itself means “middle-folk, middle-region”. In the Second Age, the Enedwaith people were a pre-Númenórean population descended from the Haladin of the First Age. In spite of this, the colonizing Númenóreans did not recognize them as distant kindred due to linguistic differences. They exacted tribute from the Enedwaith and decimated the land’s forests in order to obtain the lumber necessary for their ships. Though the indigenous people were subjugated or displaced, the land of Enedwaith never belonged fully to either Arnor or Gondor, but the main road between the two kingdoms ran through it, and cities and monuments were built along it, such as Tharbad. Eventually, Arnor fell and Gondor’s authority in Enedwaith was forsaken. The land returned to the wild, and to the descendants of the Enedwaith: the Dunlendings in the east and a wild fisherfolk along the coast. The old works of Gondor and Arnor were abandoned and fell into ruin.