Q: Who were the Men Sauron was Gathering?
ANSWER: By the end of the Third Age Sauron had extended his influence over many tribes and kingdoms of men scattered across eastern and southern Middle-earth. These ancient peoples had had little friendly contact with Elves and Dwarves through the various ages of Middle-earth; hence, they were most often under the control or influence of Morgoth and Sauron. According to a footnote attached to Letter No. 183, J.R.R. Tolkien said of Sauron:
…When he found how greatly his knowledge was admired by all other rational creatures and how easy it was to influence them, his pride became boundless. By the end of the Second Age he assumed the position of Morgoth’s representative. By the end of the Third Age (though actually much weaker than before) he claimed to be Morgoth returned.
Hence, Sauron was presenting himself as a living god to men and other creatures. While this self-representation was certainly blasphemous, those peoples had been lied to for so long they believed Sauron’s claims and followed him willingly, believing they were serving “the right side”.
Some readers have attempted to retell the story from the point of view of Morgoth and Sauron’s servants, although the Tolkien Estate has disavowed any such retellings. Although J.R.R. Tolkien was clearly implying there were multiple points of view about “good and evil”, The Lord of the Rings (and The Silmarillion) was written from the point of view that true good is not subjective — that is, one does not establish “good” by one’s own choices; rather, “good” is determined by God the creator of everything. This is, of course, a very Biblical and Christian point of view.
Hence, any of Sauron’s followers who honestly believed they were fighting for the right side were still on the wrong side, and their faith was misplaced. These followers consisted of Orcs, Trolls, Men, and perhaps some Dwarves. The Men implicitly identified with the ancestors of modern Asians and Africans, but such identification is only intended to preserve geographical logic; it is not a subtle intentional condemnation of the peoples living in those nations.
Tolkien attempted to make the Easterlings and Southrons both alien and remote, such that the reader is shielded from any confusion over whose side is right. But in several passages that appear in both The Silmarillion and The Lord of the Rings Tolkien portrays some Easterlings and/or Southrons in sympathetic ways, thus illustrating that these peoples were not evil by nature. In his private notes and essays, and even in one conversation between Gandalf and Frodo, Tolkien considered that all “evil” things had been “good” to begin with.
Ultimately Tolkien traced the corruption of the Easterlings and Southrons to Morgoth, who had also corrupted Elves and Ainur. It is a bit harsh to insist that Tolkien was using Easterlings and Southrons to belittle historical Asians and Africans when his supposedly “good” races (Ainur, Elves, and Numenoreans — even Hobbits) all had their own “falls” and gave rise to evil and corruption.
In Tolkien’s world no “race” is perfect, and all men are left free by Sauron’s final defeat to learn the truth about “good” and “evil”. Although we don’t know where Tolkien would have taken Middle-earth next, had he finished The New Shadow (a sequel he attempted to write twice), it seems evident that he envisioned the new evil arising from amidst Gondor’s “good” people (who through their Numenorean heritage had given rise to evil more than once).
Morgoth and Sauron are credited with the worst evils in Tolkien’s mythology — corrupting other rational beings; but the Elves committed the worst act of evil by creating the Rings of Power and the Numenoreans created the second worst act by trying to seize immortality from the Valar. Compared to the Elves and Numenoreans the Orcs, Easterlings, Trolls, and Southrons seem rather tame when it comes to “being evil”.
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Have you read our other Tolkien and Middle-earth Questions and Answers articles?
Even the word “towel” seems to have quite a long etymological history. As a philologist Tolkien may have appreciated the ancientness of these words.
