A name for those Men who crossed the Blue Mountains into Beleriand from about the year I 310, and allied themselves with the Eldar in their Wars against the Dark Lord Morgoth. This name comes from the fact the Beleriand was the most northwesterly of all the lands of Middle-earth during the First Age (though much of it was lost beneath the Great Sea at the end of that Age).

These Men, commonly called by their Elvish name, the Edain, remained faithful allies to the Elves over the centuries that followed. Some became lords over domains of their own, notably in Dorthonion and Dor-lómin.¹ In the years that followed, Morgoth slowly achieved victory after victory, overcoming Elves and Men alike, so that as the First Age approached its end, the Three Houses of the Edain had been almost completely defeated.

The survivors were saved by the actions of Eärendil (himself in part descended from the Men of the North-west) whose embassy across the Great Sea drew the Valar into the struggle against Morgoth. Beyond hope, the Dark Lord was defeated, though in the cataclysmic War of Wrath, much of the northwestern land was broken and lost. As a reward for the steadfast endurance of the Men of the North-west, the Valar created a new land for the Edain, an island far out in the Great Sea. This was the beginning of Númenor, and so the Men of the North-west were also accounted the Fathers of the Númenóreans.