Khand - Definition and Overview

In J. R. R. Tolkien's universe of Middle-earth, Khand was the name of a land which lay to the south-east of Mordor and to the east of Near Harad. The Men of Khand were called Variags.

Little is known about Khand or its people, but it appears to have been much like Rohan: the Variags were a people of riders.

Khand was under the influence of Mordor and supplied it with horses, and twice came into the history of Gondor: first in the year 1944 of the Third Age when the Variags together with the Wainriders attacked Gondor, and later during the War of the Ring when they fought and died on the Pelennor Fields. While this is not directly said in the literature, it is probable that Khand gradually fell under the control of Gondor during the Fourth Age and was hostile to it no longer.