Dissension among Men...

Let us return to The Silmarillion. We have seen how the Fathers of Men entered the service of the Elven-lords and were sundered from the old and the ''suspicious'' (let's call them) who remained in Estolad. For there were many in Estolad (beside the old, who deemed that their wandering days were over) who mistrusted Beleriand and the Elven-wars (in which can be discerned the influence of Morgoth and his spells). The leaders of discontent were Bereg of the House of Bëor and Amlach, one of the grandsons of Marach, and they declared openly that they came to Beleriand in the hope of escaping the pain and death from which they fled, but they found it here before them, for the Lord of the Darkness dwelt yet in the North, and the Eldar made endless war upon him.

A council of Men was then summoned, and thither came many, and the Elf-friends defended the Eldar at that council against the charges of Bereg and Marach. But there arose one of the sons of Amlach, Imlach by name, who declared that the very Elven-wars and the Light beyond the Sea was but Elvish fancy, tales to beguile newcomers into Beleriand, and those who heard his words became troubled. Afterwards, Amlach denied that he had been at this debate, and there was confusion among Men. And so the Elf-friends declared that there was indeed a Dark Lord in the North who was a Master of Lies, and that his spies and emissaries had been among Men. But still, there were some among Men who desired no enmity with the Dark Lord, and many of the Men of Estolad gathered such sundered companies as leaned rather to their sympathies and departed beyond the Mountains. Afterwards, Amlach entered the service of Maedhros.

Many Men remained in Thargelion, the land of Caranthir. But when Morgoth saw that he could not overcome the newcome Men of Beleriand by deceit and fear he was filled with wrath, and so he sent forth from Angband an Orc-raid, which passed in stealth over Ered Lindon and escaped the leaguer of the North, and so came into Thargelion by the old Dwarf-road and assailed the Haladin. These people did not live in large settlements but rather in small homesteads far sundered, and so they were worsted. But Caranthir came with a host and drove the Orcs into the river; and Caranthir looked kindly upon Men in that hour, and did them honour, whereas before he scarcely heeded them. And he offered recompense to Haleth, lady of the Haladin, for her dead kindred, but she was proud and unwilling to be guided or ruled by the Eldar, and she removed from Thargelion and went to dwell in Brethil by the long and arduous paths between Doriath and the Mountains of Terror, which Thingol claimed as part of his kingdom. Thingol would have denied Haleth this part of his realm, but Felagund obtained this grace for them, that they had leave to dwell in Brethil, so long as they guarded the Crossings of Teiglin against all the enemies of Doriath, and that no Orc could enter those woods. But Haleth found this arrangement strange, and declared that the Elven-king feared the friendship of Men.

In this manner came to be the sundering of Men, one kindred from another, and most of them learned the Grey-elven tongue, as a common-speech among themselves, and because many of them desired to learn the lore of the Eldar. And soon, seeing that it was not fitting for Elves and Men to dwell with eachother in ill-ordered communities, the Elven-lords ordered regions to be set up for Men with chieftains of their own kind. Hador, great-grandson of Marach who entered Beleriand soon after Bëor, entered the household of Fingolfin, High King of the Noldor, and was well loved by the king. And so Fingolfin rewarded him with the wide lands of Dor-lómin, and thither came most of the House of Hador. In his house only the Elven-tongue was spoken, but their own speech was not forgotten, and from it came the common tongue of Númenor. The years of the Edain were increased according to the reckoning of Men in those days, but death was not withheld from them, and so in the end old Bëor himself died at the age of 93, of no wound or grief, and the Eldar grieved much at the strange fate of Men. Nonetheless, the Edain learned all of the Eldar that they could of arts and lore, and increased in stature of mind and body beyond all others of lesser Men who dwelt yet beyond the Mountains, and had not heard of the Eldar, nor of the Light of Aman beyond the Sea.