Editing Men in Middle-earth (section)

=== Free peoples ===
{{anchor|Free peoples}}
{{further|Middle-earth peoples#Free peoples}}

Men are one of the four "free peoples" in the list-poem spoken by the [[Ent]] [[Treebeard]]; the others being Elves, [[Dwarf (Middle-earth)|Dwarves]], and Ents.<ref group=T name="Treebeard">{{harvnb|Tolkien|1954}}, book 3, ch. 4 "Treebeard"</ref> [[Hobbit]]s, not included on that list, were a branch of the lineage of Men.<ref group=T>{{harvnb|Tolkien|1954a}}, "Prologue"</ref><ref group=T>{{cite book |last=Tolkien |first=J. R. R. |editor-last=Lobdell |editor-first=Jared |editor-link=Jared Lobdell |chapter=Guide to the Names in The Lord of the Rings, "The Firstborn" |title=[[A Tolkien Compass]] |date=1975 |publisher=[[Open Court Publishing Company|Open Court]] |page=162 |isbn=978-0875483030 |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/tolkiencompass00lobd/page/162}}</ref><ref group=T>{{harvnb|Carpenter|2023|loc=#131 to [[Milton Waldman]], late 1951 }}</ref> Hobbits were not known to the Ents, but on meeting [[Merry Brandybuck|Merry]] and [[Pippin Took|Pippin]], Treebeard at once worked that people into the list.<ref group=T name="Treebeard"/>

The concept of the free peoples is shared by [[Elrond]].<ref group=T>{{harvnb|Tolkien|1954a}}, book 2, ch. 3 "The Ring Goes South"</ref> The Tolkien scholar [[Paul H. Kocher]] writes that, in the style of the medieval [[Great Chain of Being]], this list places Men and the other speaking peoples higher than the beasts, birds, and reptiles which he lists next. "Man the mortal, master of horses" is listed last among the free peoples, who were created separately.{{sfn|Kocher|1974|pp=73–78}}