Of Men

[Arvegil145]

Originally Posted by Findegil

Here is the passage from the Athrabeth does for me denie an early contact of ELves or Aniur with Men:Andreth speaks here was a sureness not shown in many passages: When Men first meet Elves they had already gained 'their lore' about thier true nature in thier beginning. To develop such a 'lore' you need speech. Therefore Nuin as father of speech is impossible.

Anyhow, to take Nuin as one of the messangers sent by Eru himself from the NoME text would in itself deny that he would wake Ermon and Elmir before the appointed time.

To take anything from Gilfanos Tale is a stretch in itself. I think we have gone that way as far as we can.

Respectfully
Findegil

I guess you can look at Nuin's awakening of Ermon and Elmir as an act of 'providence' in itself - especially since the Elves were according to Iluvatar's original plan meant to stay in Middle-earth and serve as the mentors to Men.

And as to the passage about Eru's 'messengers to Men' in the NoME, I suppose Tu serves that function better than Nuin.

But as to your reference to the Athrabeth: one thing I always took from the discussion between Finrod and Andreth, and Andreth's recital of the Tale of Adanel, is that Men seem to be profoundly clueless as to their original nature (for one), and even the Edain still hold beliefs marred by Melkor's influence.

Which is why I'm so liberal about the inclusions from the Gilfanon's Tale: all of the myths/legends/rumors about Men's early days are (and should be!) a giant mess of garbled, corrupted, and contradictory accounts.