Silmarillion - Chapter 12 - Of Men

[Aiwendil]

In this brief chapter we are finally introduced to the race of Men. Though it is said here that ‘of men little is told in these tales’, this strikes me as actually being rather misleading. As we will see, much of the latter half of the Silmarillion focuses on the Men of the three houses of the Edain. I rather wonder why Tolkien makes this somewhat strange statement.

One could spend a lot of time comparing the awakening of Men to the awakening of the Elves. As is observed here, no Vala is sent to the aid of Men. Do you think this, on the whole, to their benefit or to their detriment, as compared to the Elves?

One point that is conspicuously absent from this chapter is the “fall of Man”; absent entirely is the conception of a primeval Eden which humans, as a result of their own sin, lose. However, in Letters, no. 131, Tolkien suggests that such a Fall did take place, but that he deliberately omitted it from the narrative. In fact, in HoMe X, ‘Adanel’s Tale’ does give an account of Melkor’s corruption of the earliest humans.

This chapter began as little more than a paragraph in the ‘Sketch of the Mythology’ and was subsequently expanded in the ‘Quenta Noldorinwa’ and the pre- and post-LotR versions of the ‘Quenta Silmarillion’. In the earliest version of the mythology (the ‘Book of Lost Tales’) the origins of Men were to have been told in ‘Gilfanon’s Tale’, of which, however, only a few pages were ever written. Some tantalizing notes, however, suggest a story very different from that which appeared later. It concerns a mysterious wizard named Tu or Tuvo and a Dark Elf called Nuin, the ‘Father of Speech’, who comes across the first Men still sleeping and wakes two of them before the rising of the Sun. Then a servant of Melkor variously called Fukil, Fangli, or Fankil, comes among Men and corrupts them, and the ‘Battle of Palisor’ is fought between Men and Elves. It’s a pity Tolkien never wrote this intriguing tale.

It should also be noted that in the projected change to the ‘Myths Transformed’ cosmology (wherein the Sun and Moon were to have existed from the beginning of Arda), the awakening of Men was necessarily dissociated from the first appearance of the Sun. In the outlines for this revised form of the mythology, the awakening of Men was to take place far earlier than it does in the Silmarillion.

Additional Readings
HoMe I – contains what exists of ‘Gilfanon’s Tale’.
HoMe IV, V – Pre-LotR versions of the chapter
HoMe XI – Post-LotR revision
HoMe X – contains the tale concerning the first fall of Men told by Adanel; also contains the ‘Myths Transformed’ notes.

[Bêthberry]

One point in this chapter has always intrigued me: the various names given to the race of men by the elves:

Originally Posted by "Of Men", para 2

The Atani they were named by the Eldar, Followers, and many other names: Apanónar, the After-born, Engwar, the Sickly, and Fírimar, the Mortals; and they named them the Usurpers, the Strangers and the Inscrutable, the Self-cursed, the Heavy-handed, the Night-fearers, the Children of the Sun.

It seems to me that none of these names suggest a particularly positive or strong attachment to the second children. Rather, these names sound like those of a first born possibly jealous of the next-born. The first set of names characterises men as coming later in a chronology while the later names certainly highlight what was supposed to be the special gift of men, their mortality. The third set of names are especially contrary and most clearly show a suspicion or fear the Edain had for the Atani, regarding them very much as "other."

What the chapter does not give us is how these various names developed, particularly the time frame in which they occurred. Does this progression of names suggest in itself the eventual estrangement of men and elves which we are told is the triumph of Morgoth? The latter characterisations become veritable foreshadowings of some of the stories to follow; it appears the Second Born are to be doom-ridden. At least from the Elves' point of view.

Perhaps the "of men little is told in these tales" refers more to the nature of The Silm as the story told from elven perspective?

[Hilde Bracegirdle]

An interesting passage regarding Elves

...and in those days they were more like to the bodies of Men, since they had not so long been inhabited by the spirit of fire, which consumes them from within in the course of time.

What sort of burnt out shell might they become?

also

The the Quendi wandered in the lonely places of the great lands and the isles, and took to moonlight and starlight, and to the woods and caves, becoming shadows and memories....

So reminiscent of King Thranduil crew's activites in Mirkwood, isn't it?

[Raynor]

Originally Posted by Hilde Bracegirdle

What sort of burnt out shell might they become?

I believe the hroa would dissappear altogether

Originally Posted by Of death and the severance of fea and hroa, Later Quenta Silmarillion, HoME X

As ages passed the dominance of their fear ever increased, 'consuming' their bodies (as has been noted). The end of this process is their 'fading', as Men have called it; for the body becomes at last, as it were, a mere memory held by the fea; and that end has already been achieved in many regions of Middle- earth, so that the Elves are indeed deathless and may not be destroyed or changed.

Originally Posted by Aelfwine's preamble, LQS, HoME X

Moreover their body and spirit are not separated but coherent. As the weight of the years, with all their changes of desire and thought, gathers upon the spirit of the Eldar, so do the impulses and moods of their bodies change. This the Eldar mean when they speak of their spirits consuming them; and they say that ere Arda ends all the Eldalie on earth will have become as spirits invisible to mortal eyes, unless they will to be seen by some among Men into whose minds they may enter directly.

[Morwen]

Originally Posted by Aiwendil

It should also be noted that in the projected change to the ‘Myths Transformed’ cosmology (wherein the Sun and Moon were to have existed from the beginning of Arda), the awakening of Men was necessarily dissociated from the first appearance of the Sun. In the outlines for this revised form of the mythology, the awakening of Men was to take place far earlier than it does in the Silmarillion.

This is interesting. In reading this chapter I assumed that the awakening of the Men with first rising of the Sun was meant to mimic the awakening of the Elves after the creation/regrouping of the stars and that therefore there was significance in the fact that both awakenings are triggered by light - that the Children (as originally created), both Atani and Eldar, are Children of Light in contrast to Melkor's perversions, creatures bred in the darkness of some underground lair.
The projected change would mean that the awakening of Men was simply an awakening, though that is significant in and of itself.

[Raynor]

Originally Posted by Aiwendil

In the outlines for this revised form of the mythology, the awakening of Men was to take place far earlier than it does in the Silmarillion.

However, in another essay from Myths Transformed, it is also stated:

Originally Posted by Orcs

For though the time of the awakening of Men is not known, even the calculations of the loremasters that place it earliest do not assign it a date long before the Great March began, certainly not long enough before it to allow for the corruption of Men into Orcs.

[Morwen]

Originally Posted by Aiwendil

In this brief chapter we are finally introduced to the race of Men. Though it is said here that ‘of men little is told in these tales’, this strikes me as actually being rather misleading. As we will see, much of the latter half of the Silmarillion focuses on the Men of the three houses of the Edain. I rather wonder why Tolkien makes this somewhat strange statement.

Perhaps he meant "men" in a broader sense, i.e. mankind as a whole and not just those who were fortunate enough to encounter the Eldar. The Silm doesn't tell us anything really about the Easterlings, the Southrons, etc.