Post by Falconer on Mar 2, 2021 14:05:28 GMT -6
Men of Arthedain
In Rangers of the North, three types of Men are established as living in Arthedain: Dúnedain, Northmen, and Dunlendings.
Bree is said to house all three types, but there is no concept of a “Bree-man” mixed or generic Man; Bree-men are all still classified as one of the above three types.
Dúnedain of Arthedain are referred to as Arthedain (sing. Arthadan). Not sure, but I don’t think this usage originates in Tolkien.
A specific Northman culture is detailed, called Rivermen. But there are said to be Northmen elsewhere throughout Eriador.
It took me a while to wrap my head around ICE’s use of the term Northmen in the context of Eriador. Tolkien uses Northmen to refer to the Men of Rhovanion. To Tolkien, the Men of Eriador are simply referred to as the Men of Eriador. However, I am warming to the usefulness of the term Northman, as basically the concept is the same for the Eriadorans as it is for the (other) Northmen—they are all Middle Men, Men descended from the ancestors of the Bëorian and Marachian Edain. This really clicked when I went back to the footnotes of “Aldarion and Erendis” in UT:
In Rangers of the North, three types of Men are established as living in Arthedain: Dúnedain, Northmen, and Dunlendings.
Bree is said to house all three types, but there is no concept of a “Bree-man” mixed or generic Man; Bree-men are all still classified as one of the above three types.
Dúnedain of Arthedain are referred to as Arthedain (sing. Arthadan). Not sure, but I don’t think this usage originates in Tolkien.
A specific Northman culture is detailed, called Rivermen. But there are said to be Northmen elsewhere throughout Eriador.
It took me a while to wrap my head around ICE’s use of the term Northmen in the context of Eriador. Tolkien uses Northmen to refer to the Men of Rhovanion. To Tolkien, the Men of Eriador are simply referred to as the Men of Eriador. However, I am warming to the usefulness of the term Northman, as basically the concept is the same for the Eriadorans as it is for the (other) Northmen—they are all Middle Men, Men descended from the ancestors of the Bëorian and Marachian Edain. This really clicked when I went back to the footnotes of “Aldarion and Erendis” in UT:
There is a description in a late philological essay of the first meeting of the Númenóreans with Men of Eriador at that time: “It was six hundred years after the departure of the survivors of the Atani [Edain] over the sea to Númenor that a ship first came again out of the West to Middle-earth and passed up the Gulf of Lhûn. Its captain and mariners were welcomed by Gil-galad; and thus was begun the friendship and alliance of Númenor with the Eldar of Lindon. The news spread swiftly and Men in Eriador were filled with wonder. Although in the First Age they had dwelt in the East, rumours of the terrible war ‘beyond the Western Mountains’ [i.e. Ered Luin] had reached them; but their traditions preserved no clear account of it, and they believed that all the Men who dwelt in the lands beyond had been destroyed or drowned in great tumults of fire and inrushing seas. But since it was still said among them that those Men had in years beyond memory been kinsmen of their own, they sent messages to Gil-galad asking leave to meet the shipmen ‘who had returned from death in the deeps of the Sea.’ Thus it came about that there was a meeting between them on the Tower Hills; and to that meeting with the Númenóreans came twelve Men only out of Eriador, Men of high heart and courage, for most of their people feared that the newcomers were perilous spirits of the Dead. But when they looked on the shipmen fear left them, though for a while they stood silent in awe; for mighty as they were themselves accounted among their kin, the shipmen resembled rather Elvish lords than mortal Men in bearing and apparel. Nonetheless they felt no doubt of their ancient kinship; and likewise the shipmen looked with glad surprise upon the Men of Middle-earth, for it had been believed in Númenor that the Men left behind were descended from the evil Men who in the last days of the war against Morgoth had been summoned by him out of the East. But now they looked upon faces free from the Shadow and Men who could have walked in Númenor and not been thought aliens save in their clothes and their arms. Then suddenly, after the silence, both the Númenóreans and the Men of Eriador spoke words of welcome and greeting in their own tongues, as if addressing friends and kinsmen after a long parting. At first they were disappointed, for neither side could understand the other; but when they mingled in friendship they found that they shared very many words still clearly recognisable, and others that could be understood with attention, and they were able to converse haltingly about simple matters.” Elsewhere in this essay it is explained that these Men dwelt about Lake Evendim, in the North Downs and the Weather Hills, and in the lands between as far as the Brandywine, west of which they often wandered though they did not dwell there. They were friendly with the Elves, though they held them in awe; and they feared the Sea and would not look upon it. It appears that they were in origin Men of the same stock as the Peoples of Bëor and Hador who had not crossed the Blue Mountains into Beleriand during the First Age.
