Middle Men

		Men
Dúnedain		Middle Men		Wild Men and other branches
		Northmen

The descent of the Middle Men, and especially the Northmen, was rather more involved than this simple diagram can show. For more on this subject, see the entry for Northmen.

During the later First Age, Three Houses of Men crossed the Blue Mountains into Beleriand and fought beside the Eldar against Morgoth, the first Dark Lord. After Morgoth's defeat, these Edain were rewarded with the new land of Númenor far across the Western Sea, and so the Dúnedain (that is, the Edain of the west) came into being. After the Dúnedain had departed for their new home, however, many Men remained behind in Middle-earth.

For the most part, especially in the East and South, these Men of Middle-earth were Men of Darkness or Wild Men, who had fallen under Morgoth's power in their distant history. From these people came the Easterlings and the Haradrim of later generations.

Many others, though, held some kind of connection to the departed Edain. Some belonged to people who had passed westward with their ancestors, but not crossed the Blue Mountains and joined the Wars of Beleriand, while still others were descendants of the Edain who chose not to cross the Sea. These peoples of Men were known as the Middle Men or the Middle Peoples, those who did not rise so high as the Númenóreans, but were nonetheless free of the yoke of the Dark Lord. Notable among these were the Northmen, from whom the Rohirrim descended, who had in the distant past been kin to the Edain of the House of Hador.