Do you suppose 'The Breaking of the World' means anything east beyond Rhun? I must imagine that between the War of Wrath and the Fall of Numenor, the bent of history might well be inverted depending on who experienced what - the War of Wrath destroyed the West, but it freed the East from Morgoth's reach where the elves (presumably) never bothered, with the possible exception of the Avari. And the Fall of Numenor is just straight up the wholesale elimination of the colonial power dominating everything.
I just have this funny image in my head of eastern scholars of Middle Earth being like, 'Cataclysm? Tragedy? Breaking of the world? We became free for the first time in all our history.'
As one does, I immediately had imposter syndrome about my own memory and went to go reread Chapter 17: “The Coming of Men Into the West.” LOTS of interesting stuff there.
First of all, a quick geography recap: the men originally came from Hildórien in the east. The exact location of this place is a bit screwy, but the maps seem to say it’s closer to Rhûn than Mirkwood. Definitely nowhere in Beleriand! So the origins of men are likely to be somewhat close to the region you’re interested in later in time: falling off the edges of Tolkien’s fuzzily bordered maps.
Here’s the interesting thing to me: Morgoth did reach out to Men in their original lands to the east to see what he could do with them. Morgoth sent spies there to plant evil but had some mixed success.
“To corrupt or destroy whatsoever arose new and fair was ever the chief desire of Morgoth; and doubtless he had this purpose also in his errand: by fear and lies to make Men the foes of the Eldar, and bring them up out of the east against Beleriand. But this design was slow to ripen, and was never wholly achieved; for Men (it is said) were at first very few in number, whereas Morgoth grew afraid of the growing power and union of the Eldar and came back to Angband, leaving behind at that time but few servants, and those of less might and cunning.”
And what’s even more interesting to me is that this memory doesn’t come down to us through the Men themselves! Finrod, who first found Bëor, was only told, “A darkness lies behind us… and we do not wish to return thither even in thought.” And furthermore, this darkness in the Men’s hearts is explicitly compared to the the Kinslaying and the Doom for the Noldor. These are telling examples because those events were partially self-inflicted. We can argue divisions of fault—I sure have—but the Noldor aren’t blameless. If we take this metaphor somewhat literally, neither are the Men for their darkness.
In the discipline of human geography, mass migrations can have both push and pull factors: aka reasons to go, or reasons to leave. I think we’re looking at both things here. Melkor clearly got up to some shenanigans with the early Men; he sent spies and traitors to sow dissent even if little came of it for him personally. But I think that something bad happened far to the East—something so bad that the Men deliberately excised it from their cultural heritage and stories. I’m speculating on some kind of treachery and in-fighting—definitely some senseless destruction. That’s Morgoth’s characteristic work style, and the Men’s conclusion was to forget this darkness rather than use it as a cautionary parable. “Don’t trust the dark and don’t look back” isn’t a complicated lesson and it doesn’t require elaboration.
But we also have a pull factor: Bëor’s people and later clans are chasing the “Light” over the mountains. He says that “Westwards our hearts have been turned” and leaves it at that. And this is a frustrating case of real world considerations clash with fantasy logic, because… what??? Light? Who put that on their hearts? Presumably Eru, but that feels like cheating from an out-of-universe standpoint. Personally, and you can disagree with me if you like, I think this “Light” probably evolved as a natural need for an opposite to the Dark they left behind. It’s a simple template. Leave the Dark in the East; go the Light in the West. Pass it down enough generations, and it’s easy to turn that dichotomy into a semi-religious belief that inspires you cross a two entire continents.
And here’s the other thing. People will not keep moving unless there’s a reason. It sounds basic, but it’s worth emphasizing. Mass migrations can take generations. Groups splinter and settle down along the way, just like the Sindar on the Great Journey. And so the most reasonable view for the clans who made it to Beleriand is that they are a very small fraction of the people who scattered from the mysterious Darkness in their original land. People probably went in different directions and stopped after different distances.
And I think there’s a solid reasoning for different groups to have different oral traditions of remembering the Darkness and Morgoth’s corruption. Certainly Bëor’s approach—excising it from their histories—is not the only approach. So other groups will tell stories about this to their children. It’s the nature of legends—as the time depth would make these things—to get rearranged in the retellings. But the core? A Darkness that drives you from your homeland because of the foul whispers of the Enemy-over-the-mountains? Oh no, it isn’t going anywhere; it becomes the boogeyman and the antagonist and the thing that frightens children into good behavior. It’s the enemy with a thousand faces but the same essential truths. There was evil in our past. We fled to escape it. But it is not truly gone. And that is what the generations will pass down to each other.
And then we return to the thing you actually asked about, because I’ve gotta save the good stuff for last! I think that the Breaking of the World and the defeat of Morgoth is relevant to the far-East people, but more in a way of “Oh, that sounds familiar. You lost your home to the Darkness too? So did our ancestors. That’s rough, buddy.” Maybe losing a continent and getting displaced is hard, but it isn’t your continent, is it? At the end of the day, not being personally invested in the fight mostly says you’re not personally invested in its outcome. Maybe some people are impressed that the legends do have an answer—the Shadow was conquered after all!—but life goes on.
Well, until it doesn’t, and until the Darkness strolls eastward in the person of Sauron. And then sometimes you may wish you paid more attention to how the people over the mountains managed it the first time.
