The Wild Men

[MatthewM]

What are your opinions on the fate of the Wild Men after the War of the Ring? Do you suppose they still inhabit Druadan Forest for years to come, and eventually cease as a race from lack of communication?

I'm aware not of any exterior knowledge of the Wild Men outside the text, so my opinion is that they fade away, perhaps like the Ents, only much faster.

[Lalwendë]

Maybe they thrive after the Rohirrim promise to leave them alone and not hunt them any more?

I suppose that like any old group of tribespeople their survival would depend on a couple of factors:

Whether their environment survived and hence they could maintain their traditional way of life. Many rainforest tribes have suffered from having loggers cut down the forests and have been forced out to live in modern settlements, even forced to live in cities; this is something which has happened a lot in South America. Once the land is gone, the culture dies too.

Whether excessive contact with other people harms their way of life. This is a common factor in destroying old cultures. Unfortunately the explorers and missionaries played an immense part in destroying global cultures throughout history, imposing other cultural ideas upon people and forever destroying ways of life. The last place in the world with undiscovered tribes is Papua/Papua New Guinea/Irian Jaya where some indigenous people still live who have remained untainted by contact with western culture.

Whether economic/social factors would allow them to carry on. Many tribes lose land due to other cultures taking it from them - history's full of this, notably the Native Americans. Every nation has a history of both perpetrating and suffering it seemingly, including Britain.

[Elmo]

I guess that after a few generations the Rohirrim forgot their pledge to stop hunting the poor men and their numbers suffered accordingly...

[The Might]

I guess they were able to live well under the Reunited Kingdom. Just as the Shire, the Druadan Forest was part of the kingdom, but still was off-limits for any outsiders.
Now that they had been left alone and that no more Orcs would trouble them I see no particular reason why they wouldn't be able to thrive.

I however agree with Lalwende's idea. Definitely a loss of their natural habitat would have a severe blow to the Druedain. We know they would have been able to live in a more developed society such as the Gondorian one, since some of their ancestors lived in Numenor for a while, however it was in the forest that they felt most at home and that's where they belong.

They clearly had special powers considering the essay in the Unfinished Tales and Ghan-buri-ghan's affirmations in LOTR. I guess that as long as no exterior factors would come to destroy this balance, nothing could really go wrong.

Lastly, there is one other idea I have. Tolkien hinted on several occasions that the appearence of a "new shadow" over Gondor would eventually take place. If matters would get worse, I am sure the Wild Men would leave the forest, just as they left Numenor when they started feeling that a disaster is no longer avoidable. If they were to settle in a new area I would think they would head westward searching for a safer place to live and perhaps meeting their brethren living in the Druwaith Iaur eventually.

[Rhod the Red]

The Wild Men, another mysterious bunch Tolkien's been mostly ambiguos about.

[The Might]

Not necessarily, he provides us with quite much information considering that they were a secretive folk.
It makes sense, that if the folk was so isolated from others, that not so many details on their way of life would exist. As shown by Ghan's request in LOTR, all they wished for is to be left alone.