Middle Earth Lore questions: Numenorians, Dunedain, etc

[johnsemlak]

Like many of us I read the books as a kid but I never was a 'Tolkien scholor' as such.

Been doing a lot of re-reading for the trilogy and watching my extended editions of the first two movies etc.

I'm still trying to get my head around the difference between the following:

Numenorians
Dunedain
Men of Gondor

What is the difference between them, if any?

 

[aurance]

Encyclopedia of Arda will be your friend...

All LotR goodness

 

[johnsemlak]

funny, I was just there

 

[hong]

Numenoreans are the people who lived in Numenor in the Second Age. Numenor was the island given to the Edain, the men who were allied with the elves in the First Age. Numenor was destroyed near the end of the Second Age, in the Middle-Earth equivalent to the Atlantis/Great Flood myth: the Numenoreans went bad, started doing naughty things, and got their island sunk as a result.

The Dunedain are the people who survived the fall of Numenor, because they didn't go bad. They settled in the western lands of Middle-Earth (where the LotR takes place), where they founded the kingdoms of Arnor and Gondor. Their name roughly translates to "Men of the West".

Men of Gondor are, well, people who live in Gondor. Some of them are Dunedain, like Boromir and Faramir and most other Gondorians who play a significant role in the trilogy. Most are just normal humans, without any fancy-pants ancestry, though.

 

[Steverooo]

I'm still trying to get my head around the difference between the following:

Numenorians
Dunedain
Men of Gondor

What is the difference between them, if any?

Numenorians are people from the island of Numenor... descendants of Elros Tarminyatur (Elrond's Human brother). Elendil, Isildur, and Anarion all fall into this category.

Dunedain are their descendants living in ME, after the island sank. Aragorn, Arathorn, etc., fall into this category.

Men of Gondor are like Californians... If you live in Gondor, and are a man, you is one...

Now many Gondorites are Dunedain (Ecthelion, Faramir, etc.), but there have been no Numenorians since Elendil's days.

 

[Filby]

Numenoreans are the people who lived in Numenor in the Second Age. Numenor was the island given to the Edain, the men who were allied with the elves in the First Age. Numenor was destroyed near the end of the Second Age, in the Middle-Earth equivalent to the Atlantis/Great Flood myth: the Numenoreans went bad, started doing naughty things, and got their island sunk as a result.

The Dunedain are the people who survived the fall of Numenor, because they didn't go bad. They settled in the western lands of Middle-Earth (where the LotR takes place), where they founded the kingdoms of Arnor and Gondor. Their name roughly translates to "Men of the West".

Men of Gondor are, well, people who live in Gondor. Some of them are Dunedain, like Boromir and Faramir and most other Gondorians who play a significant role in the trilogy. Most are just normal humans, without any fancy-pants ancestry, though.

That's an excellent explanation... I'd like only to add some of the evil Numenoreans did survive, settling in the southern regions of Harad and Umbar. These "Black Numenoreans" could also be considered Dunedain.