Understand who Men are in the legendarium, how they differ from the Elves (the Gift of Death), and when and how they awoke.
Chapter guide
What this chapter is about
A short but important chapter: the second people of the Children of Ilúvatar takes the stage — Men (the Atani, Quenya for “the Second”).
Men awoke in the far east, in the land of Hildórien, at the first rising of the Sun; so the Elves call them “Children of the Sun,” and themselves, born under the stars, “Children of the Stars.” Men are mortal: their lives are short, and by Eru's design they leave the world after death, going where not even the Valar go. This is the Gift of Men (the Gift of Death): the freedom to leave the circles of the world.
The Elves, by contrast, are bound to Arda until its end: when they die, they go to the Halls of Mandos and can be reborn. The chapter also hints that Morgoth's shadow fell on Men too at the beginning (this is told only darkly), and foreshadows the meeting of Men and Elves in Beleriand.
Lesson notes
What this chapter is about
A short but important chapter: the second people of the Children of Ilúvatar takes the stage — Men (the Atani, Quenya for “the Second”).
Men awoke in the far east, in the land of Hildórien, at the first rising of the Sun; so the Elves call them “Children of the Sun,” and themselves, born under the stars, “Children of the Stars.” Men are mortal: their lives are short, and by Eru's design they leave the world after death, going where not even the Valar go. This is the Gift of Men (the Gift of Death): the freedom to leave the circles of the world.
The Elves, by contrast, are bound to Arda until its end: when they die, they go to the Halls of Mandos and can be reborn. The chapter also hints that Morgoth's shadow fell on Men too at the beginning (this is told only darkly), and foreshadows the meeting of Men and Elves in Beleriand.
Elves and Men
— Elves (the Quendi, “the Firstborn”) are immortal while the world lasts; at death their fëa (soul) goes to Mandos. They do not age and do not leave Arda.
— Men (the Atani, “the Followers”) are mortal; for them death is not a curse but the Gift of Eru: their souls go beyond the world, and where, not even the Valar know.
— Tolkien's paradox: what Men dread (death) is closed to the Elves and secretly desired by them, for they are doomed to watch the world wear away (the “long weariness” of the immortals). This motif is the heart of the legendarium.
— Hildórien — “land of the Followers,” the eastern cradle of Men.
The distortion of the Gift is evil's chief temptation: later Sauron will persuade the Númenóreans that death can be defeated, and this will destroy Númenor (see “Akallabêth”). Understanding this chapter is the key to the ending of the whole book.
Where this leads
— Mortality as freedom. In Tolkien the death of Men is not a punishment but a chance to go beyond what is fated. The wish to take this Gift away from oneself, to “live forever,” leads to the fall (the Ring prolongs the lives of Gollum and Bilbo, and this is shown as a painful, unnatural “stretching”).
— The union of peoples. The great heroes of the legendarium often come from unions of Men and Elves: Beren and Lúthien, Tuor and Idril, and their Half-elven descendant Eärendil; through Elros come the kings of Númenor and later Aragorn. This chapter prepares the ground.
— “Children of the Stars” and “Children of the Sun”: a poetic contrast of two peoples and two sources of light, linking chapter 12 to the one before.
— Link to “The Lord of the Rings”: Arwen's choice to give up Elvish immortality for mortal love of Aragorn is a direct echo of this chapter; she chooses the Gift of Men.