Quote Originally Posted by Forsaken Lover View Post
"The Age of Men is at an end."
Did you mean "at hand?" If Sauron had won, the Age of Men would have ended before it even started. RIP Men 2003-2003.

The Noldorin Elves who stayed after the end of the First Age definitely screwed themselves, when they listened to Sauron. Sure, he was tricking them the whole time, but the moment they put the Rings on, Sauron just dropped his mic and walked off-stage.

Quote Originally Posted by Loony BoB View Post
"The Age of Men is at hand" is nothing to do with Sauron vs. Middle Earth and everything to do with humans overtaking the Elves in racial dominance of Middle Earth. I don't think I ever felt it had anything to do with Sauron, although perhaps that's just because of how much time I spent reading the books over and over.
This is correct. The "Age of Men" thing was earned, and it wasn't some great prophecy. It could be compared to a little bit of foresight and reasoning reaching the level of prophecy, but not quite there. This Age was to signify the dominance in population of Men in comparison to Elves, but it would not have happened if Sauron were not defeated; really, it could have been any great non-Sauron enemy, too.

The Age of Men could make more sense in the total mythological context, if Tolkien had ever finished his LotR sequel about the beginning of the Fourth Age. In this extremely incomplete work, the story was to feature King Eldarion dealing with internal politics and a rising threat from further East of Mordor. Orcs never greatly troubled Men again after the defeat of Sauron. Eldarion instead had to deal with those who lived further East, the regions of Rhun and Harad, which had kingdoms of evil Men. From this point on, wars were strictly fought between different populations of Men.

If you treat Tolkien's work as being a legitimate entry into the stories that make up OUR world, these stories were to explain why wars happen between nations now, and all of the Beleriand/Middle Earth stuff happened something like 12000 years ago. Tolkien was aiming for a distinctly English-sourced myth about the creation of the world. "Finding out" about the stuff that happened until present day places it in the same tier as other myth/religion stories, like the Bible's Genesis. This desire doesn't come across very well in the published versions of the Silmarillion, the Hobbit, or LotR, but early drafts of every story had people speaking in old English, traveling to and from England, and exchanging tales and lessons.

Also, Sauron used to be a cat. This is the sort of storytelling permutation that Tolkien thought other people would pick up on and add on to (like actual myths), but then he abandoned his work about the Fourth Age, knowing it couldn't match people's expectations. Politicking and a full fading of magic does not make a very interesting high-fantasy work.