Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Silmarillion, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Unity vs. Division
Fate, Doom, and Free Will
Pride and Arrogance
Greed, Jealousy, and Obsession
Inevitable Loss
Myth and Memory
Summary
Analysis
During the years of peace in Beleriand, Finrod, while hunting in the east, wanders alone towards the Blue Mountains. He hears singing in a valley and looks down into a camp of men led by Bëor. Finrod hides until they fall asleep, then picks up one of their harps and plays music for them. He decides to live with them and teach them, and they call him Nóm, meaning wisdom.
Though the elves of Beleriand were skeptical and fearful of the arrival of men when Morgoth spread rumors about them, Finrod welcomes and teaches the men he meets. Rather than treating them as outsiders and interlopers, he becomes their defender and guide.
Themes
Bëor won’t tell Finrod much about where they came from, only that they’ve left a darkness behind them and seek light in Beleriand. The elves don’t know for certain, but it’s said that Morgoth went among the men when they were young and spread fear and lies to make them hate the elves, though his plan didn’t work since he had to return to Beleriand to fight the Noldor. Bëor reports that many other men are crossing the mountains to Beleriand.
Even before the elves know of the awakening of men, Morgoth attempts to turn them against each other. Fortunately, his efforts largely fail because of his preoccupation with fighting the Noldor. Morgoth plagues the early men the same way he did the early elves—by teaching them fear and mistrust.
Themes
The elves of Ossiriand (the land beside the Blue Mountains) ask Finrod to tell the men to return to the east—they don’t want to live with strangers. Finrod tells Bëor to gather the wandering men and lead them instead to a land near Doriath they call Estolad, the Encampment. When Finrod returns to his own land, Bëor accompanies him for the remainder of his life.
Some of the elves are less welcoming to Bëor’s followers than Finrod. Still, the men make a home in Beleriand and form lasting alliances with the elves. Finrod’s attachment to the men doesn’t only result in good will between the races, but personal friendship.
Themes
Other men arrive, some moving to the north and others seeking out Bëor’s people. Finrod visits the men often, and other elves become friendly with them, naming them the Edain. Fingolfin sends messengers welcoming them, and many men travel away to serve the kings of the Eldar, including a man named Malach who lives in Hithlum and learns to speak Sindarin. Over generations, the men of Estolad begin to migrate around Beleriand and the lands of the elves.
As more men arrive, the elves must learn to share Beleriand with them. Through the men who live among the elves, the two races become acquainted. By living with the elven kings, men learn about the culture and traditions of the elves, then grow and expand their own communities and cultures, spreading around Beleriand.
Themes
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Thingol is displeased with the presence of the men and only allows them to have lands in the north. He declares that no man will ever enter Doriath. Melian says nothing to him but tells Galadriel that a man of Bëor’s house will come to Doriath, and history will remember him. Her Girdle won’t be able to prevent him since he has a fate stronger than her power to keep him out.
Thingol is suspicious of all newcomers to Beleriand—men are only another race to guard his borders against. Melian, however, foresees a man who will break through the Girdle because his important fate is more powerful than she is, and the Girdle only repels what is less powerful than her. However this man enters Doriath and whatever his fate is, Melian knows that his story will be remembered.
Themes
Morgoth’s influence stirs up discontent among the men remaining in Estolad. At a council of men, a man named Amlach argues that the Valar aren’t real and that the elves have provoked the dangerous creatures in the north with their greed. The Elf-friends know that Morgoth is real and sends spies among them because he fears them. Still, a man named Bereg leads many people out of the lands of the elves, though Amlach swears he wasn’t at the council—implying that Morgoth’s servant impersonated him there—and joins Maedhros’s service.
Morgoth’s influence among the men of Beleriand finally results in action that benefits him—the departure of many men from the land and their refusal to fight him—but it also disadvantages him in small ways. By meddling in the lives of men, Morgoth makes enemies of some of them, such as Amlach, who had no quarrel with Morgoth until one of his servants impersonated him.
Themes
Morgoth, angry that he can’t estrange the elves and men, sends orcs to attack a scattered group of men called the Haladin. Among them is a man named Haldad who builds a stockade and organizes a defense. Both he and his son are killed in the battle, so his daughter Haleth leads her people until Caranthir comes to their aid a week later. Caranthir finally realizes the valor of the Edain and offers Haleth land and protection if she’ll move to the north, but she refuses to be ruled and leads her people west to the Forest of Brethil. Though Brethil is in Thingol’s land, Finrod obtains permission for her to settle there as long as her people guard the forest against orcs.
Haleth proves that, while many of the communities of men are willing to befriend the elves, they are less willing to be ruled by them. Men are as powerful and resilient as the elves and, though younger, they are as capable of governing themselves and defending themselves against Morgoth’s attacks, both physical and psychological, when properly armed and prepared.
Themes
Eventually, the elves decide that the men should have their own lands and leadership. Hador Lórindol, a descendent of Malach and a servant of Fingolfin, is given lordship over Dor-lómin and becomes the greatest ruler of the Edain. Sindarin is spoken there, but the men remember their own language as well, which becomes the language of Númenor. Boromir, the grandson of Bëor, is given command of the people of Bëor. All of their descendants are caught by the curse of the Noldor and are still remembered by the elves.
Since men have proven themselves capable, the elves give them a share of the lands of Beleriand. Middle-earth is for men and elves to share, not for only the elves to rule over. The close friendship of the elves and men results in a more equal partnership as fellow inhabitants of Beleriand and benefits them both. However, because they share the land and even language, men also share in the Noldor’s fate of betrayal and loss.
Themes
The men of the Three Houses prosper. The house of Hador is the strongest, the house of Bëor is most like the Noldor, and the house of Haleth is largely solitary. Though the lives of the Edain are lengthened in Beleriand, Bëor dies at almost four hundred. With his death, the elves understand for the first time the concept of a death of weariness rather than violence. The men of Beleriand grow nobler than the men elsewhere who don’t know about the light of Valinor.
Despite their fate to share in the doom of the Noldor, men prosper in close friendship with the elves, who teach and guide them. The elves, too, learn and better understand their own fate of immortality in comparison with the fate of men. The concept of weariness is new to them, but Mandos promised that they would grow to understand it in time, even if they can’t die from it as men can.
Themes
