Understand how Men (the Edain) first come to Beleriand, who the Three Houses of Men are, how Finrod and Bëor meet, and what place this alliance of Elves and Men holds in the overall design of the legendarium.
Content guide
What the chapter is about
Here Men, the “Younger Children of Ilúvatar,” enter the story. Until now it all rested on the Elves; now the first tribes of mortals cross the Blue Mountains into Beleriand from the east.
The key scene: one night Finrod Felagund comes upon a camp of sleeping Men and hears them singing, clumsily picking out a tune on a harp. He takes up the harp and plays, and the Men wake and take him for a god. So the friendship of Elves and Men begins. Finrod teaches them, and the first of their chieftains, Bëor the Old, honors him above all and enters his service.
The Men who came to Beleriand and joined the Elves against Morgoth are the EDAIN. Their three great kindreds are the THREE HOUSES OF MEN:
— The House of Bëor: the first to come, loyal to Finrod.
— The House of Hador (the people of Marach): the most numerous, tall and fair-haired; allies of Fingolfin and Fingon.
— The House (people) of Haleth: a forest folk ruled by a woman chieftain, Haleth; they keep apart in the Forest of Brethil.
Not all Men took the Elves' friendship. Some, swayed by speeches (with Morgoth behind them), go back east; Bereg and Amlach are named among the discontented. The Edain first settle in Estolad, “the Encampment.”
Note: the Three Houses are the ancestors of the greatest heroes: Beren, Túrin, and Tuor; and through Tuor and Beren come Elros and all the kings of Númenor down to Aragorn.
Lesson notes
What the chapter is about
Here Men, the “Younger Children of Ilúvatar,” enter the story. Until now it all rested on the Elves; now the first tribes of mortals cross the Blue Mountains into Beleriand from the east.
The key scene: one night Finrod Felagund comes upon a camp of sleeping Men and hears them singing, clumsily picking out a tune on a harp. He takes up the harp and plays, and the Men wake and take him for a god. So the friendship of Elves and Men begins. Finrod teaches them, and the first of their chieftains, Bëor the Old, honors him above all and enters his service.
The Men who came to Beleriand and joined the Elves against Morgoth are the EDAIN. Their three great kindreds are the THREE HOUSES OF MEN:
— The House of Bëor: the first to come, loyal to Finrod.
— The House of Hador (the people of Marach): the most numerous, tall and fair-haired; allies of Fingolfin and Fingon.
— The House (people) of Haleth: a forest folk ruled by a woman chieftain, Haleth; they keep apart in the Forest of Brethil.
Not all Men took the Elves' friendship. Some, swayed by speeches (with Morgoth behind them), go back east; Bereg and Amlach are named among the discontented. The Edain first settle in Estolad, “the Encampment.”
Note: the Three Houses are the ancestors of the greatest heroes: Beren, Túrin, and Tuor; and through Tuor and Beren come Elros and all the kings of Númenor down to Aragorn.
Men in Tolkien's design
— THE GIFT AND BURDEN OF MORTALITY. Elves are immortal and bound to the world; Men are mortal and leave the world at death, and not even the Valar know where they go. Tolkien calls death the “Gift of Ilúvatar” to Men: what looks like a curse is, in his theology, freedom, a way beyond what is foreordained. First heard here, the theme will become the core of Beren and Lúthien's story, and later of “Akallabêth.”
— THE UNION OF TWO PEOPLES. The friendship of Finrod and Bëor is no passing episode. Finrod will love Men more than any other of the Noldor and in the end give his life for a Man (Beren). The union of Elves and Men is the moral axis of all of “The Silmarillion”: only together can they stand against Morgoth.
— A SHADOW FROM THE EAST. Already we see that Morgoth reached Men before the Elves did: dim legends of a “Dark Lord in the west,” strife, the defection of Bereg and some of the people are all traces of corruption. Men reach Beleriand already “broken,” and this corruption will echo later (remember the treacherous Easterlings in the battles to come).
— THE HEROES' FAMILY LINE. Remember: Bëor, Hador, and Haleth are not just names. They are the roots of a family tree that, thousands of years later, will have Aragorn at its top. “The Silmarillion” is the prehistory of everything, and this chapter lays down the line of Men.