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By 'diminishing' I mean diminishing in strength of mind and body. I think that there are few people in M-E who can match the strength of the Noldor and the Edain of old. Alas for the fading of the Noldor and the weakning of Numenor.
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Excellent point, Inderjit - I liked this more than your original post. Even the greatest hero of his age, Aragorn, never did deeds in battle as great as Húrin, Túrin or Beren. Men are said to have grown greater as the years of the sun go past, but by comparing to these three I can't see it. Possibly they were greater for having basked in the glory of the Noldor.
I think that the greatness of the characters in The Silmarillion cuts right to the heart of the story. It was a golden age. The sorrows were greater, the stories more heart wrenching even when not described in detail, and the victories were more glorious. There is nothing in the Third Age to compare with the Silmarils, with Fëanor, or with Valinor and the Valar.
Even Frodo's story is not as unique or remarkable compared with the woes of Túrin, or the perils that Beren had to endure. But that's not to say we should let this diminish our opinions of the characters in the War of the Ring. It just happens that even greater deeds were done in the First Age. Still, horses for courses, and in the time in which they lived, Frodo, Gandalf, Aragorn etc. accomplished great things. The yardstick had shortened.
Conversely, I think that in our world the yardstick has gotten much, much longer. To write a book and have it published for example, is much more commonplace these days than it used to be. And the pace of inventions is frenetic, so much so that most of them go unnoticed. Many scientists that these days work away for companies such as Dow Chemical would, a century and a half ago, have found themselves queueing for awards.