les rois païens du SdA

[Faenglor]

Bonjour à tous.
Bien que le sujet date de deux ans, je voudrais répondre sur les Middle Men. Je ne pense pas que le terme désigne simplement les Hommes de la Terre du Milieu. HoME XII, page 312 nous dit :

HoME XII, p.312 a dit :

There Faramir gives a brief account of the contemporary classification in Gondor of Men into three kinds: High Men, or Númenór-eans (of more or less pure descent); Middle Men; and Men of Darkness.
(...)
It [the term Middle-Men] was therefore modelled on the classification by the Atani of the Elves: the High Elves (or Elves of Light) were the Noldor who returned in exile out of the Far West; the Middle Elves were the Sindar, who though near kin of the High Elves had remained in Middle-earth and never seen the light of Aman; and the Dark Elves were those who had never journeyed to the Western Shores and did not desire to see Aman.

Je dirais que nous avons donc les High Men, les Númenoréens, qui partirent sur l'île de Númenor offerte par les Valar, les Middle Men, qui restèrent sur la Terre du Milieu (la plupart n'étant en fait jamais allé au Beleriand, je suppose), et les Men of Darkness, Hommes ayant rejoint Morgoth-Sauron.

(notez tout de même que ce sont les Hommes qui donnaient ces classifications aux Elfes)

Voilà pour la théorie. En pratique, il semble qu'il était utilisé au départ seulement pour les Hommes d'Eriador (du peuple de Bëor pour la plupart, quoique quelques-uns eûssent été du peuple de Hador). Puis, il semble que le principal "test d'appartenance" aux Middle Men fût l'amitié envers "l'Ouest" (les Elfes et les Númenoréens) mais qu'en réalité on appliquait le terme seulement aux Hommes ressemblant physiquement aux Númenoréens. Un autre critère était la parentée de la langue.

Concernant les "Dunlendings" (et leurs ancêtres), bien que leur hostilité envers les Númenoréens (dûe aux ravages de ceux-ci) et l'étrangeté de leur langue aient conduit les Númenoréens à les classer dans les Men of the Shadow, ils n'en étaient pas, descendants du peuple de Haleth (dont la langue n'avait pas de partentée avec celles des autres Edain, d'où une incompréhension des Númenoréens). Peut-on les classer dans les Middle Men pour autant ? Je ne saurais conclure, car cela dépend sans doute du l'exacte définition que l'on fait de ce terme. Si je trouve du nouveau, je complèterai.

Ci dessous les citations sur lesquelles je me base.

HoME XII, p.313 a dit :

Their term Middle Men was thus originally applied to Men of Eriador, the most westerly of Mankind in the Second Age and known to the Elves of Gil-galad's realm. At that time there were many men in Eriador, mainly, it would seem, in origin kin of the Folk of Bëor, though some were kin of the Folk of Hador.

HoME XII, pp. 313-314 a dit :

Thus it came about that the Númenórean term Middle Men was confused in its application. Its chief test was friendliness towards the West (to Elves and to Númenóreans), but it was actually applied usually only to Men whose stature and looks were similar to those of the Númenóreans, although this most important distinction of ‘friendliness’ was not historically confined to peoples of one racial kind. It was a mark of all kinds of Men who were descendants of those who had abjured the Shadow of Morgoth and his servants and wandered westward to escape it - and certainly included both the races of small stature, Drugs and Hobbits. Also it must be said that ‘unfriendliness’ to Númenóreans and their allies was not always due to the Shadow, but in later days to the actions of the Númenóreans themselves. Thus many of the forest-dwellers of the shorelands south of the Ered Luin, especially in Minhiriath, were as later historians recognized the kin of the Folk of Haleth; but they became bitter enemies of the Númenóreans, because of their ruthless treatment and their devastation of the forests, 69 and this hatred remained unappeased in their descendants, causing them to join with any enemies of Númenor. In the Third Age their survivors were the people known in Rohan as the Dunlendings.

HoME XII, p.314 a dit :

Thus it came about that a kinship in language, even if this was only recognizable after close acquaintance, was felt by the Númenóreans to be one of the marks of ‘Middle-men’.

Avec une note que voici :
HoME XII, p.330, Note 72 a dit :

This may have been one of the reasons why the Númenóreans failed to recognize the Forest-folk of Minhiriath as ‘kinsmen’, and confused them with Men of the Shadow; for as has been noted the native language of the Folk of Haleth was not related to the language of the Folks of Hador and Bëor.

Voilà, si j'ai dit des bêtises (conclusions hâtive, mauvaise interprétation des passages, problème de se baser sur un seul passage d'un seul livre), vous avez le droit de me corriger ;)