... review me this little composition. It\'s a introduction to a project I must hand in. The rest of it is copied from several sources and so, but this little is written by myself. Thanx a lot.
1. Introduction
At the first rising of the Sun the Younger Children of Iluvatar awoke in the land of Hildarien in the eastward regions of Middle-earth; but the first Sun arose in the West, and the opening eyes of Men were turned towards it, and their feet as they wandered over the Earth for the most part strayed that way. (Tolkien, 1950).
This is the paragraph in which Tolkien tells us the awakening of the race of Men in The Silmarillion. Among the vast universe of Tolkien\'s literature (short in number of works but deep in contents), it is not easy indeed to keep in mind who were Elves, Orcs, Hobbits or Men. But, first of all, who was Tolkien?
John Ronald Reuel Tolkien (1892-1973) was a major scholar of the English language, specialising in Old and Middle English. Twice Professor of Anglo-Saxon (Old English) at the University of Oxford, he also wrote a number of stories, including most famously The Hobbit (1937) and The Lord of the Rings (1954-1955), which are set in a pre-historic era in an invented version of the world that he called by the Middle English name of Middle-earth. This was peopled by Men (and women), Elves, Dwarves, Trolls, Orcs (or Goblins) and of course Hobbits. He has regularly been condemned by the English Literature establishment, with honourable exceptions, but loved by literally millions of readers world-wide.
And, what about the race of Men? In Tolkien\'s mythology, they are the youngest of the races of Arda (with the possible exception of Hobbits). The first Men awoke in the far eastern land of Hildarien as the Sun first rose and the Noldor returned from Valinor. Seeing the sunrise, many of the first Men set out westwards, and so came eventually to Beleriand after some three hundred years of wandering. Men are unique in possessing the Gift of Men, Death, by which they leave the world after an allotted time and go beyond it.
At the end of the First Age when Beleriand was destroyed, some of the Edain fled East, while others were gifted with the land of Numenor (Westernesse). Those that went West, became known as the Dunedain, who had life three times that of lesser Men. Those that fled East became the Northmen of Rhovanion (the aim of our research), of whom were descended the Rohirrim.
As the reader can see, the world of Tolkien is not easy to neither study nor explain, so a deep knowledge of his works, characters and plot of, at least, The Lord of the Rings, will be basic to achieve our objective: to learn more about the forgotten race of the Northmen.
