Editing Men in Middle-earth (section)

=== Fading ===
{{further|Decline and fall in Middle-earth}}
[[File:Tolkien&#039;s Imagined Prehistory.svg|thumb|Tolkien imagined [[Cosmology of Middle-earth|Arda]] as the [[Earth]] in the distant past.<ref name="Letter 211" group=T/>{{sfn|Kocher|1974|pp=8–11}} With the loss of all its peoples except Man, and the reshaping of the continents, all that is left of Middle-earth is a dim memory in [[folklore]], [[legend]], and [[Etymology|old words]].<ref name="Lee Solopova 2005">{{cite book |last1=Lee |first1=Stuart D. |author1-link=Stuart D. Lee |last2=Solopova |first2=Elizabeth |author2-link=Elizabeth Solopova |title=The Keys of Middle-earth: Discovering Medieval Literature Through the Fiction of J. R. R. Tolkien |title-link=The Keys of Middle-earth |date=2005 |publisher=[[Palgrave Macmillan|Palgrave]] |isbn=978-1403946713 |pages=256–257}}</ref> Shapes of continents are purely schematic.]]

The overall feeling in ''The Lord of the Rings'', however, despite the victories and Aragorn's long-awaited kingship and marriage, is of [[Decline and fall in Middle-earth|decline and fall]], echoing [[Tolkien and the Norse|the view of Norse mythology]] that everything will inevitably be destroyed.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Ford |first1=Mary Ann |last2=Reid |first2=Robin Anne |chapter=Into the West |editor1-last=Bogstad |editor1-first=Janice M. |editor2-last=Kaveny |editor2-first=Philip E. |title=[[Picturing Tolkien]] |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jNjKrXRP0G8C&pg=PA172 |year=2011 |publisher=[[McFarland & Company]] |isbn=978-0-7864-8473-7 |pages=169–182}}</ref> As the Tolkien scholar [[Marjorie Burns]] put it, "Here is a mythology where even the gods can die, and it leaves the reader with a vivid sense of life's cycles, with an awareness that everything comes to an end, that, though [the evil] Sauron may go, the elves will fade as well."<ref name="Burns 1989">{{cite journal |last=Burns |first=Marjorie J. |author-link=Marjorie Burns |title=J.R.R. Tolkien and the Journey North |journal=[[Mythlore]] |date=1989 |volume=15 |issue=4 |pages=5–9 |url=https://dc.swosu.edu/mythlore/vol15/iss4/1/ |jstor=26811938}}</ref> This fits with Tolkien's equation of Middle-earth with the real Earth at some distant epoch in the past, and with his apparent intention to create a [[England in Middle-earth|mythology for England]]. He could combine medieval myths and legends, hints from poems and nearly-forgotten names to build a world of [[Wizards (Middle-earth)|Wizards]] and Elves, Dwarves, [[Rings of Power]], Hobbits, Orcs, [[Troll (Middle-earth)|Trolls]] and [[Ringwraiths]], and heroic Men with Elvish blood in their veins, and follow their history through long ages, provided that at the end he tore it all down again, leaving nothing, once again, but dim memories. By the end of ''The Lord of the Rings'', the reader has learnt that the Elves have left for the Uttermost West, never to return, and that the other peoples, Dwarves, Hobbits, Ents and all the rest, are dwindling and fading, leaving only a world of Men.<ref name="Lee Solopova 2005"/><ref name="Burns 1989"/><ref name="Hannon 2004"/>

Kocher writes that the furthest look into Man's future in ''The Lord of the Rings'' is the conversation between the Elf [[Legolas]] and the Dwarf [[Gimli (Middle-earth)|Gimli]], close friends, at the moment when they first visit [[Minas Tirith]], the capital city of the Men of Gondor, "and see the marks of decay around them".{{sfn|Kocher|1974|p=53}} Gimli says that the works of Men always "fail of their promise"; Legolas replies that even if that's so, "seldom do they fail of their seed", in marked contrast to the scarcity of children among Elves and Dwarves, implying that Men will outlast the other races. Gimli suggests again that Men's projects "come to naught in the end but might-have-beens". Legolas just replies "To that the Elves know not the answer".{{sfn|Kocher|1974|p=53}}<ref group=T>{{harvnb|Tolkien|1955}}, book 5, ch. 9 "The Last Debate"</ref> Kocher comments that this "sad little fugue" is at variance with the hopeful tone of the rest of the work, remaining cheerful even in the face of apparently insuperable odds.{{sfn|Kocher|1974|p=53}}