The Peoples of Middle-earth (55 page)

The vague tradition preserved by the Hobbits of the Shire was that they had dwelt once in lands by a Great River, but long ago had left them, and found their way through or round high mountains, when they no longer felt at ease in their homes because of the multiplication of the Big Folk and of a shadow of fear that had fallen on the Forest. This evidently reflects the troubles of Gondor in the earlier part of the Third Age. The increase in Men was not the normal increase of those with whom they had lived in friendship, but the steady increase of invaders from the East, further south held in check by Gondor, but in the North beyond the bounds of the Kingdom harassing the older 'Atanic' inhabitants, and even in places occupying the Forest and coming through it into the Anduin valley. But the shadow of which the tradition spoke was not solely due to human invasion. Plainly the Hobbits had sensed, even before the Wizards and the Eldar had become fully aware of it, the awakening of Sauron and his occupation of Dol Guldur.(60) On the relations of the different kinds of Men in Eriador and Rhovanion to the Atani and other Men met in the legends of the First Age and the War of the Jewels see The Lord of the Rings II.286-7 [in the chapter The Window on the West]. There Faramir gives a brief account of the contemporary classification in Gondor of Men into three kinds: High Men, or Numenoreans (of more or less pure descent); Middle Men; and Men of Darkness. The Men of Darkness was a general term applied to all those who were hostile to the Kingdoms, and who were (or appeared in Gondor to be) moved by something more than human greed for conquest and plunder, a fanatical hatred of the High Men and their allies as enemies of their gods. The term took no account of differences of race or culture or language.

With regard to Middle Men Faramir spoke mainly of the Rohirrim, the only people of this sort well-known in Gondor in his time, and attributed to them actual direct descent from the Folk of Hador in the First Age. This was a general belief in Gondor at that time,(61) and was held to explain (to the comfort of Numenorean pride) the surrender of so large a part of the Kingdom to the people of Eorl.

The term Middle Men, however, was of ancient origin. It was devised in the Second Age by the Numenoreans when they began to establish havens and settlements on the western shores of Middle-earth. It arose among the settlers in the North (between Pelargir and the Gulf of Lune), in the time of Ar-Adunakhor; for the settlers in this region had refused to join in the rebellion against the Valar, and were strengthened by many exiles of the Faithful who fled from persecution by him and the later Kings of Numenor. It was therefore modelled on the classification by the Atani of the Elves: the High Elves (or Elves of Light) were the Noldor who returned in exile out of the Far West; the Middle Elves were the Sindar, who though near kin of the High Elves had remained in Middle-earth and never seen the light of Aman; and the Dark Elves were those who had never journeyed to the Western Shores and did not desire to see Aman.

This was not the same as the classifications made by the Elves, which are not here concerned, except to note that 'Dark Elves'

or 'Elves of Darkness' was used by them, but in no way implied any evil, or subordination to Morgoth; it referred only to ignor-ance of the 'light of Aman' and included the Sindar. Those who had never made the journey to the West Shores were called 'the Refusers' (Avari). It is doubtful if any of the Avari ever reached Beleriand (62) or were actually known to the Numenoreans.

In the days of the earlier settlements of Numenor there were many Men of different kinds in Eriador and Rhovanion; but for the most part they dwelt far from the coasts. The regions of Forlindon and Harlindon were inhabited by Elves and were the chief part of Gil-galad's kingdom, which extended, north of the Gulf of Lune, to include the lands east of the Blue Mountains and west of the River Lune as far as the inflow of the Little Lune.(63) (Beyond that was Dwarf territory.)(64) South of the Lune it had no clear bounds, but the Tower Hills (as they were later called) were maintained as an outpost.(65) The Minhiriath and the western half of Enedhwaith between the Greyflood and the Isen were still covered with dense forest.(66) The shores of the Bay of Belfalas were still mainly desolate, except for a haven and small settlement of Elves at the mouth of the confluence of Morthond and Ringlo.(67) But it was long before the Numenorean settlers about the Mouths of Anduin ventured north of their great haven at Pelargir and made contact with Men who dwelt in the valleys on either side of the White Mountains. Their term Middle Men was thus originally applied to Men of Eriador, the most westerly of Mankind in the Second Age and known to the Elves of Gil-galad's realm.(68) At that time there were many men in Eriador, mainly, it would seem, in origin kin of the Folk of Beor, though some were kin of the Folk of Hador. They 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 close friendships between them were rare. Also they feared the Sea and would not look upon it. (No doubt rumours of its terror and the destruction of the Land beyond the Mountains (Beleriand) had reached them, and some of their ancestors may indeed have been fugitives from the Atani who did not leave Middle-earth but fled eastward.)

Thus it came about that the Numenorean term Middle Men was confused in its application. Its chief test was friendliness towards the West (to Elves and to Numenoreans), but it was actually applied usually only to Men whose stature and looks were similar to those of the Numenoreans, although this most important distinction of 'friendliness' was not historically confined to peoples of one racial kind. It was a mark of all kinds of Men who were descendants of those who had abjured the Shadow of Morgoth and his servants and wandered westward to escape it - and certainly included both the races of small stature, Drugs and Hobbits. Also it must be said that 'unfriendliness' to Numenoreans and their allies was not always due to the Shadow, but in later days to the actions of the Numenoreans themselves. Thus many of the forest-dwellers of the shorelands south of the Ered Luin, especially in Minhiriath, were as later historians recognized the kin of the Folk of Haleth; but they became bitter enemies of the Numenoreans, because of their ruthless treatment and their devastation of the forests,(69) and this hatred remained unappeased in their descendants, causing them to join with any enemies of Numenor. In the Third Age their survivors were the people known in Rohan as the Dunlendings.

There was also the matter of language. It was six hundred years after the departure of the survivors of the Atani oversea to Numenor that a ship came first to Middle-earth again out of the West and passed up the Gulf of Lune.(70)

The story that follows, recounting the meeting of the Numenorean mariners with twelve Men of Eriador on the Tower Hills, their mutual recognition of an ancient kinship, and their discovery that their languages though profoundly changed were of common origin, has been given in Unfinished Tales, pp. 213-14.(71) Following the conclusion of that extract (ending with the words 'they found that they shared very many words still clearly recognizable, and others that could be understood with attention, and they were able to converse haltingly about simple matters') the essay continues as follows.

Thus it came about that a kinship in language, even if this was only recognizable after close acquaintance, was felt by the Numenoreans to be one of the marks of 'Middle-men'.(72) The loremasters of later days held that the languages of Men in Middle-earth, at any rate those of the 'unshadowed' Men, had changed less swiftly before the end of the Second Age and the change of the world in the Downfall of Numenor. Whereas in Numenor owing to the longevity of the Atani it had changed far more slowly still. At the first meeting of the Shipmen and the Men of western Eriador it was only six hundred years since the Atani went oversea, and the Adunaic that they spoke can hardly have changed at all; but it was a thousand years or more since the Atani who reached Beleriand had parted from their kin. Yet even now in a more changeful world languages that have been separated for fifteen hundred years and longer may be recognized as akin by those unlearned in the history of tongues.

As the long years passed the situation changed. The ancient Adunaic of Numenor became worn down by time - and by neglect. For owing to the disastrous history of Numenor it was no longer held in honour by the 'Faithful' who controlled all the Shorelands from Lune to Pelargir. For the Elvish tongues were proscribed by the rebel Kings, and Adunaic alone was permitted to be used, and many of the ancient books in Quenya or in Sindarin were destroyed. The Faithful, therefore, used Sindarin, and in that tongue devised all names of places that they gave anew in-Middle-earth.(73) Adunaic was abandoned to unheeded change and corruption as the language of daily life, and the only tongue of the unlettered. All men of high lineage and all those who were taught to read and write used Sindarin, even as a daily tongue among themselves. In some families, it is said, Sindarin became the native tongue, and the vulgar tongue of Adunaic origin was only learned casually as it was needed.(74) The Sindarin was not however taught to aliens, both because it was held a mark of Numenorean descent and because it proved difficult to acquire - far more so than the 'vulgar tongue'. Thus it came about that as the Numenorean settlements increased in power and extent and made contact with Men of Middle-earth (many of whom came under Numenorean rule and swelled their population) the 'vulgar tongue' began to spread far and wide as a lingua franca among peoples of many different kinds.

This process began in the end of the Second Age, but became of general importance mainly after the Downfall and the establishment of the 'Realms in Exile' in Arnor and Gondor. These kingdoms penetrated far into Middle-earth, and their kings were recognized beyond their borders as overlords. Thus in the North and West all the lands between the Ered Luin and the Greyflood and Hoarwell (75) became regions of Numenorean influence in which the 'vulgar tongue' became widely current. In the South and East Mordor remained impenetrable; but though the extent of Gondor was thus impeded it was more populous and powerful than Arnor. The bounds of the ancient kingdom contained all those lands marked in maps of the end of the Third Age as Gondor, Anorien, Ithilien, South Ithilien, and Rohan (formerly called Calenardhon) west of the Entwash.(76) On its extension at the height of its power, between the reigns of Hyarmendacil I and Romendacil II (Third Age 1015 to 1366) see The Lord of the Rings Appendix A p.325.(77) The wide lands between Anduin and the Sea of Rhun were however never effectively settled or occupied, and the only true north boundary of the Kingdom east of Anduin was formed by the Emyn Muil and the marshes south and east of them. Numenorean influence however went far beyond even these extended bounds, passing up the Vales of Anduin to its sources, and reaching the lands east of the Forest, between the River Celon (78) (Running) and the River Carnen (Redwater).

Within the original bounds of the Kingdoms the 'vulgar speech' soon became the current speech, and eventually the native language of nearly all the inhabitants of whatever origin, and incomers who were allowed to settle within the bounds adopted it. Its speakers generally called it Westron (actually Aduni, and in Sindarin Annunaid). But it spread far beyond the bounds of the Kingdoms - at first in dealings with 'the peoples of the Kingdoms', and later as a 'Common Speech' convenient for intercourse between peoples who retained numerous tongues of their own. Thus Elves and Dwarves used it in dealings with one another and with Men.

The text ends here abruptly (without a full stop after the last word, though this may not be significant), halfway down a page.

NOTES.

1. A notable case is that of the conversation between Ghan chieftain of the Wild Men and Theoden. Probably few if any of the Wild Men other than Ghan used the Common Speech at all, and he had only a limited vocabulary of words used according to the habits of his native speech.

2. The Kings and their descendants after Thengel also knew the Sindarin tongue - the language of nobles in Gondor. [Cf. Appendix A (II), in the list of the Kings of the Mark, on Thengel's sojourn in Gondor. It is said there that after his return to Rohan 'the speech of Gondor was used in his house, and not all men thought that good.']

3. The effect on contemporary speakers of the Common Speech of Gondor being comparable to that which we should feel if a foreigner, both learned and a skilled linguist, were when being courteous or dealing with high matters to use fluently an English of say about 1600 A.D., but adapted to our present pronunciation.