Men of Middle-earth: Edain, Númenóreans, Gondor, Rohan and More
Try It Yourself — Free Elvish Tools
Quick Answer: Men are the Second-born of Ilúvatar, who woke in the east at the first rising of the Sun and, unlike Elves, die and leave the world, the Gift of Men. The Edain who fought beside the Elves in the First Age were rewarded with the island of Númenor, whose people grew mighty, turned against the Valar and were drowned in the Downfall. The survivors founded Gondor and Arnor; their heirs are the Dúnedain, Aragorn's people. Other Men include the Rohirrim, Beornings, Dunlendings, Drúedain, Easterlings and Haradrim. In Quenya a Man is an Atan; in Sindarin, an Adan, plural Edain.
Men are the most varied people in Middle-earth. Some are kings descended from Elves and Maiar; some are wild hill-folk who hate their neighbours; some are horse-lords singing in a tongue like Old English; some live quietly in Bree and never think about the wars at all. Tolkien wrote that the Third Age was the end of the time of the Elves and the beginning of the Dominion of Men, and The Lord of the Rings is in part the story of that handover.
This guide follows Men from their awakening to the crowning of Aragorn: the Edain of the First Age, the rise and Downfall of Númenor, the Dúnedain of Gondor and Arnor, the Rohirrim, and the many other peoples of Men, friendly and hostile. For every other people in Tolkien's world, start from the Races of Middle-earth complete guide.
The Second-born and the Gift of Men
In The Silmarillion, Elves and Men are the two Children of Ilúvatar. The Elves woke first, under the stars; Men woke in Hildórien, in the far east of Middle-earth, when the Sun rose for the first time. The Elves call Men the Second-born, the Followers, and in Quenya the word for a Man is Atan (plural Atani), which Tolkien's papers gloss simply as "man, mortal human." Quenya also has the adjective firya, "mortal; human."
The great difference between the two peoples is death. Elves live as long as the world, and when they are slain their spirits wait in the Halls of Mandos. Men die and leave the circles of the world altogether, to a destination known only to Ilúvatar. The Silmarillion calls this the Gift of Men, and says that even the Valar would one day envy it. But Morgoth reached Men early, in a dark episode Tolkien never fully told, and taught them to fear death as a curse. That fear runs through every Mannish story, from the fall of Númenor to the Ringwraiths, who were Men who accepted Rings to escape death and became slaves instead.
The Elves' view of mortality is explored in Elves of Middle-earth.
The Edain: Elf-friends of the First Age
"Mae govannen" — want to actually speak Elvish?
Try It Free →Some Men wandered west across Middle-earth and, near the end of the First Age, crossed the Blue Mountains into Beleriand. There they met the Noldor in exile, and Finrod Felagund, finding them asleep around a fire, became the first Elf to speak with them. These Men became allies of the Elves against Morgoth, and the Elves called them the Edain, the Sindarin plural of Adan.
The Silmarillion names three houses:
- The House of Bëor, the first to arrive, wise and quiet. Beren, who won a Silmaril with Lúthien, was of this house.
- The Haladin, or People of Haleth, who lived in the forest of Brethil and kept apart from the Elves. Their lady Haleth was one of the great leaders of the age.
- The House of Hador, golden-haired and tall, the most numerous. Húrin, Túrin and Tuor belong to it.
The great tales of the First Age are largely about these houses: Beren and Lúthien, the tragedy of Túrin Turambar, and Tuor's journey to Gondolin, where he married Idril, daughter of the king. From Tuor and Idril came Eärendil, who sailed to Valinor and won the Valar's help in the War of Wrath.
Not every Man in Beleriand was faithful. Some Easterlings who arrived later betrayed the Elves at the Battle of Unnumbered Tears, a betrayal that shaped the Elves' attitude to Men of the East ever after.
Númenor: The Island Kingdom
At the end of the First Age the Valar rewarded the Edain with a great island in the Western Sea, raised from the waters and shaped like a five-pointed star. Its first king was Elros, son of Eärendil, the Half-elven brother of Elrond. Given the choice of fate, Elrond chose the Elves and Elros chose Men. Elros lived five hundred years, and the kings descended from him lived three times as long as ordinary Men.
The Númenóreans became the greatest mariners in history, sailing to every coast of Middle-earth. At first they came as teachers and friends. Later they came as lords and tax-collectors, building fortresses like Umbar. Their own language, Adûnaic, grew from the speech of the Edain, while their nobles and loremasters also spoke Sindarin and knew Quenya. You can read about it in Adûnaic, the Language of Númenor.
The one thing the Númenóreans could not have was immortality, and the Ban of the Valar forbade them to sail west to the undying lands. Over the centuries their envy of the Elves grew into rebellion. The last king, Ar-Pharazôn, brought Sauron to the island as a prisoner, and Sauron became his chief counsellor, set up a temple to Morgoth, and finally persuaded him to invade Valinor itself.
The Downfall followed. Ilúvatar changed the shape of the world: Valinor was removed beyond the circles of the world, the Sea opened, and Númenor sank. The story is told in the Akallabêth, part of The Silmarillion.
Elendil and the Dúnedain
Not every Númenórean had rebelled. A party called the Faithful, who kept friendship with the Elves and loyalty to the Valar, was led in the last days by Amandil and his son Elendil. When Númenor fell, Elendil and his sons Isildur and Anárion escaped in nine ships, carrying a seedling of the White Tree and the palantíri, the seeing-stones.
They founded two realms in exile:
- Arnor, in the north, ruled by Elendil.
- Gondor, in the south, ruled jointly by Isildur and Anárion.
Gondor's name is Sindarin and means "Stone-land." At the end of the Second Age, Elendil and Gil-galad led the Last Alliance of Elves and Men against Sauron. Both died, and Isildur cut the Ring from Sauron's hand with the hilt-shard of Narsil, his father's broken sword. He refused to destroy it, and was killed by Orcs at the Gladden Fields soon after, where the Ring was lost.
The descendants of the Númenóreans in Middle-earth are the Dúnedain, the Men of the West, from Sindarin dûn, "west." In Arnor, the kingdom split into three and was destroyed over centuries by the Witch-king of Angmar; the surviving Dúnedain of the North became the Rangers, guarding the lands around the Shire in secret. Their chieftains kept the line of Isildur unbroken down to Aragorn. Our Aragorn Elvish language guide and the article on Aragorn's Elvish names and Andúril cover his many titles.
Gondor in the Third Age
Gondor lasted much longer than Arnor, but it declined. Its kings married with lesser Men and their lifespans shortened. A civil war, the Kin-strife, weakened it; a great plague emptied its cities; and the line of kings ended when King Eärnur rode into Minas Morgul to answer the Witch-king's challenge and never returned. From then on Gondor was ruled by Stewards, the House of Húrin, down to Denethor II and his sons Boromir and Faramir.
By the time of The Lord of the Rings, Minas Tirith is the great bulwark against Mordor, and the Men of Gondor still speak Westron with old Sindarin names for their places and nobles. Faramir in particular is shown as a Man of the old Númenórean kind, who would not take the Ring even if he found it by the road.
The Rohirrim: Riders of the Mark
The Rohirrim are not Númenórean at all, though they are distantly related to the Edain of the House of Hador. They descend from the Éothéod, a horse-loving people of the north. In 2510 of the Third Age, Gondor was being overrun at the Field of Celebrant, and Eorl the Young rode from the far north to save it. In gratitude the Steward Cirion gave his people the empty province of Calenardhon, and Eorl swore the Oath of Eorl, binding the two realms in alliance. The story is in Unfinished Tales.
The new land was called Rohan in Sindarin, a name Tolkien's papers gloss as "Riddermark," literally "Horse-country." The Rohirrim themselves called it the Mark. Their language, which Tolkien rendered as Old English in the books, is covered in our guide to Rohirric, the Language of Rohan.
Théoden, Éomer and Éowyn are the Rohirrim of The Lord of the Rings. The charge of the Rohirrim at the Pelennor Fields, and Éowyn's killing of the Witch-king with Merry's help, are among the most famous moments in the book.
Beornings, Bree-folk and the Men of the North
Several other peoples of Men are friends of the free peoples:
- The Beornings are the followers of Beorn, the skin-changer of The Hobbit who can take the form of a great black bear. At the time of The Lord of the Rings they keep the High Pass and the Ford of Carrock open, and Glóin says at the Council of Elrond that they are no friends of Orcs or Wargs.
- The Men of Bree live alongside Hobbits in the Bree-land, the only place in Middle-earth where the two peoples share a village. Butterbur of the Prancing Pony is their best-known member.
- The Men of Dale and Esgaroth live near the Lonely Mountain. Bard the Bowman, of the line of Girion, kills Smaug in The Hobbit and refounds Dale.
Dunlendings and Drúedain
Two older peoples were displaced by the newer realms.
The Dunlendings are hill-folk living west of Rohan. They remember that the Rohirrim were given lands they regarded as theirs, and they bear a centuries-old grudge. Saruman exploits it, and Dunlendings fight for Isengard at Helm's Deep. The people of Bree are said in The Lord of the Rings to be related to them.
The Drúedain, or Woses, are a small, ancient people of the forests, whom the Rohirrim mistook for wild men. In the First Age they lived among the People of Haleth, who valued them. In The Return of the King, their chieftain Ghân-buri-Ghân guides the Rohirrim through the Stonewain Valley to Minas Tirith, avoiding an Orc ambush. Unfinished Tales has a whole essay on them, including the watch-stones they carved.
Easterlings and Haradrim
The Men who serve Sauron are not monsters, and Tolkien takes care to show it.
The Easterlings come from Rhûn, the East (Sindarin rhûn). Over the Third Age waves of them, the Wainriders and the Balchoth, attacked Gondor and Rohan. In The Lord of the Rings they fight at the Black Gate and at the Pelennor.
The Haradrim come from Harad, the South (Sindarin harad). They ride the great mûmakil, the war-elephants, and fight at the Pelennor and in Ithilien. The Corsairs of Umbar, descended from rebel Númenóreans and later mixed with Haradrim, raid Gondor's coast until Aragorn captures their fleet with the Army of the Dead.
Sam's reflection on a fallen Southron in Ithilien, wondering what his name was and whether he would rather have stayed at home, is one of Tolkien's clearest statements that the enemy's soldiers were people too. After the war Aragorn makes peace with Harad and the East.
Men in the Films Versus the Books
Peter Jackson's adaptation changed several Mannish characters:
- Faramir is tempted by the Ring and takes Frodo to Osgiliath in the film; in the book he resists at once.
- Denethor is far more broken in the film; the book's Denethor is proud and shrewd, ruined by the palantír rather than by incompetence.
- Aragorn's reluctance to be king is played up in the films; in the books he has been preparing for it all his life.
- The Army of the Dead wins the Pelennor in the film. In the book they only take the Corsairs' fleet at Pelargir, and living Men from the south of Gondor sail it to Minas Tirith.
Men in Elvish
The Elves had many names for Men and for their peoples and lands. These are the attested ones, with Tolkien's glosses.
| Word | Language | Meaning | Pronunciation |
|---|---|---|---|
| Atan, pl. Atani | Quenya | man, mortal human | A-tan, A-ta-ni |
| Adan, pl. Edain | Sindarin | man, mortal human | A-dan, EH-dine |
| firya | Quenya | mortal; human | FEER-ya |
| dûn (in Dúnedain) | Sindarin | west | DOON |
| aran | Quenya and Sindarin | king | A-ran |
| Gondor | Sindarin | Stone-land | GON-dor |
| Rohan | Sindarin | Riddermark, Horse-country | RO-han |
| Rochir | Sindarin | lord of horses (a title) | RO-khir |
| Rhûn | Sindarin | East | ROON |
| Harad | Sindarin | South | HA-rad |
Note the Sindarin plural: Adan becomes Edain by changing the vowels inside the word, not by adding an ending. This vowel change is the normal Sindarin plural and appears in many place-names.
One sentence in The Lord of the Rings uses Edain directly: Gilraen's farewell to her son, Ónen i-Estel Edain, ú-chebin estel anim, "I gave Hope to the Dúnedain, I have kept no hope for myself." Estel, "hope," was Aragorn's childhood name. You can explore that line and others in our guide to Lord of the Rings Elvish phrases, and see how Gondor and Rohan got their names in Sindarin place names and their etymology.
Want to write the name of your favourite king of Gondor in Elvish letters? The Tengwar name tool does it in seconds, and the Elvish translator will show you words like Adan and aran in sentences.
The Language Men Spoke
Men spoke many languages, and Tolkien rendered several of them through real ones. The Common Speech, Westron, descended from Adûnaic mixed with the languages of Middle-earth, and Tolkien "translated" it as English; see Westron, the Common Speech. Rohirric is shown as Old English. The Dúnedain also kept Sindarin as a noble language, which is why Aragorn, Faramir and the Rangers can speak it and why so many names in Gondor are Elvish.
People Also Ask
Are the Dúnedain the same as Númenóreans? They are the Númenóreans' descendants in Middle-earth. "Númenórean" refers to the people of the island; "Dúnedain" to those who survived the Downfall and their heirs.
Why did Men live so long in Númenor? The lifespan of three times that of other Men was part of the Valar's gift to the Edain. It shortened as the Númenóreans turned away from the Valar, and in Middle-earth as the Dúnedain mixed with other peoples.
Is Aragorn a Man or a Half-elf? A Man, of the line of Elros. His distant ancestors include Elves and a Maia, Melian, which is why the line of the kings lived so long, but he is fully counted among Men.
Who were the first Men to meet the Elves? The House of Bëor, when Finrod Felagund found them in Ossiriand, as The Silmarillion tells.
Read Gondor's Names in the Language of the Elves
The Men of the West spoke Westron in their daily lives, but they named their kings, their swords and their cities in Elvish. Elendil, Isildur, Gondor, Minas Tirith: all of them are Quenya or Sindarin, and you can learn to read them.
Learn Elvish free. Tengwar's course offers ten free lessons in Quenya and Sindarin, with real Tolkien vocabulary and audio for every word. Start learning Elvish, or copy a line in Tengwar with the Tengwar Scribe.
Related Reading
People Also Ask
Who are the Edain in Tolkien?
The Edain are the Men of the three houses that came west into Beleriand in the First Age and allied with the Elves against Morgoth: the House of Bëor, the Haladin or People of Haleth, and the House of Hador. Edain is the Sindarin plural of Adan, "man, mortal human"; the Quenya form is Atani.
What is the Gift of Men?
Mortality. In The Silmarillion, Men are given the gift of leaving the circles of the world when they die, going to a fate that not even the Valar know. Elves, by contrast, are bound to Arda until its end. Sauron and Morgoth taught Men to fear this gift as a curse.
Who are the Dúnedain?
The Dúnedain, the Men of the West, are the descendants of the Númenóreans who survived the Downfall. In the Third Age the name covers the people of Gondor of Númenórean blood and, especially, the Rangers of the North, the remnant of Arnor led by Aragorn. The word comes from Sindarin dûn, "west," and Edain.
Where did the Rohirrim come from?
The Rohirrim descend from the Éothéod, a people of the upper Vales of Anduin related to the Edain of the House of Hador. In the year 2510 of the Third Age their lord Eorl rode to Gondor's aid at the Field of Celebrant, and the Steward Cirion gave them the plain of Calenardhon, which became Rohan.
Why do some Men serve Sauron?
Many peoples of the East and South, the Easterlings and Haradrim, were under Sauron's influence for thousands of years and had old grievances against Gondor, which had once conquered or threatened their lands. The Lord of the Rings shows them as enemies, but Tolkien also gives Sam a moment of pity for a dead Southron soldier, wondering whether he was truly evil.
