# Why Men?



## Celebthôl (Jul 3, 2003)

Why in all stories are Men the most important? Aswell as making up the numbers?

In the Sil, Men were kinda of the big thing, aswell as swelling the ranks.
In the Hobbit, a Man emerges as hero and slays Smaug
In LOTR, it is the strength of Men that wins ME must put their trust into.

In the Chronicals of Narnia it has to be Adams flesh and blood that sits on the throne at Cair Paravell

In Legend it has to be a Man that kills the dark lord


Why is it always Mankind?


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## BlackCaptain (Jul 3, 2003)

Well in the Sil, it's all about the Elves

*The Silmarillion
The epic history of the elves in The Lord of the Rings*

In LotR, it's all about the Men because we're in ME now, and ME is the place of Men. Aman is Elves, ME is Men. If we've got a novel in ME, it's bound to be centered around Men


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## Celebthôl (Jul 3, 2003)

What about the other stories and things, all the fantasy stories i can think of are centered around Men...


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## BlackCaptain (Jul 3, 2003)

In the Silmarillion? The only stories centered around Men are in the Alkalebeth and the stories of Turin and Beren. The other information given in the Sil about men is just essentialities to complete the stories about the Elves


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## Celebthôl (Jul 3, 2003)

Ok that aside, what about the others?


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## Annushka (Jul 3, 2003)

Maybe because we are menkind and it's supposed that for us reading about ourselves is the most interesting thing


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## Celebthôl (Jul 3, 2003)

LOL, pretty lame, i enjoy readin about Elves more  

Maybe they are trying to make us seem better than we actually are


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## Captain (Jul 3, 2003)

There were more Elves in the Sil than Men.


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## Celebthôl (Jul 3, 2003)

but we are putting the Sil asside, what about the others?


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## Anamatar IV (Jul 3, 2003)

What _others_? Lord of the Rings took place in the _third_ (err yes...not fourth.) Age, the age when the Elves were leaving Middle-earth, the *age of Men*. The Hobbit had Elves as villains, captured the Dwarves, why should an Elf be the hero? So what others are you talking about?


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## Eriol (Jul 3, 2003)

Perhaps because we never read a story written by an Elf


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## Celebthôl (Jul 3, 2003)

Im talking about all other fantasy books, not just the Tolkien ones, C.S.Lewis did it, and there are others...

LOL if an Elve did write one, you can bet it would be the best book ever in no time...hmmm...maybe Mr Tolkien was an Elve


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## VioletFalcon129 (Jul 3, 2003)

Ask Anne about the star of one of her books. That isn't a human person. Infact, there was only one main character that was human orginally, and only one more comes in the second book.


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## BlackCaptain (Jul 3, 2003)

> _Originally posted by Anamatar IV _
> *Lord of the Rings took place in the Fourth Age*



Third 

And I wouldnt know... I haven't read any C.S louis yet. Mabey they all do it because the want to make us look good. Who needs the little high pitched voiced elves? .


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## Captain (Jul 3, 2003)

I read some C.S. Lewis. It didn't interest me much.


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## HLGStrider (Jul 3, 2003)

Because they're us. 

People like to identify with their characters and the characters they read about. 

That's why I think Harry Potter is so popular. It gives magic to a boy who is in our age and seems like us. 

The more we can relate the a character the more we like them.


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## Malbeth (Jul 3, 2003)

I think Tolkien addressed this somewhere... since we're men, we're not able to write stories about other people, specially about how their minds work. We only can do that by
"humanizing" them, and that takes away some of the believability about the story (since elves are not men and vice-versa). That is why while the History of Middle-Earth begin long before man, the stories of middle-earth only begin when men appear on stage (the best stories in the Silmarillion, Beren's and Turin's, are stories about men... when Tolkien's talking about elves he's "out of his depth", and so does not get into detail about them).


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## HLGStrider (Jul 5, 2003)

I personally think this thread has too much merit for this section. . .perhaps Related Topics would be better?

I personally stand by my answer.


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## Boromir (Jul 5, 2003)

Yeah, the Wheel of Time is centered around men. It's about a man (Rand) how haz to defeat the Dark One from destroying the world. And there's Mat, Perrin, and Lan and tons more men.


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