A name used among the Elves for mortal Men, and indeed this name is commonly translated as 'Mortals'. When the Elves first encountered Men, they did not at first understand what manner of beings these were, imagining that they might be people of their own kind descended from the Avari, or possibly even some kind of Orc. As they came to understand that Men were in fact the Younger Children of Ilúvatar (as they themselves were the Elder) the Elves devised names for Men that reflected the nature of that people.
As the Elves were not themselves subject to ageing or death, at first it seemed remarkable to them that Men should live such short lives, and should suffer old age and sickness. At first, the immortal Elves had no immediate word for 'mortal' in their vocabulary. They therefore devised a new term based on the verb firië, meaning 'breathe out' or 'expire', to describe this new phenomenon. Thus Men became known as Fírimar, a word literally meaning 'those apt to die', but usually translated as simply 'Mortals'. This word first appeared in Quenya, but a Sindarin equivalent was also devised, which was Firebrim.1
Notes
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This Sindarin form does not appear in the canonical works, but is explained in the essay Quendi and Eldar in volume XI of The History of Middle-earth. Firebrim was a class plural (that is, it described all Mortals as a people). In Quenya, incidentally, the singular form of Fírimar was Fírima, 'a mortal', while the Sindarin equivalent of this singular form was Fíreb.
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- Updated 14 March 2023
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