When the Edain awoke in Hildorien and trekked all the way across Middle Earth into Beleriand there were presumably tens of thousands, who didn't fall under Melkor's deception and service, who were welcomed by the Sons of Finarfin in Narthogrond. Many of these Edain fought with the Host of Valinor in the War of Wrath by this point numbering in the hundreds of thousands but then they faced extreme casualties and by the time Numenor was raised there weren't as many as before the war. So how many Edain survived at the end of the First Age.

  • Are you looking for an order of magnitude number, or a specific citation from JRRT's notes? – KorvinStarmast Jan 9 '16 at 6:37
  • Tolkiens notes if you can find the info – Fingolfin Jan 9 '16 at 18:13

Less Than 14,999

The Peoples of Middle Earth talks about the migration of the Edain to Numenor.


Whilst being vague and confirming that there is no concrete numbers an estimate of 5,000 to (an upper limit of) 10,000 Edain travelled to Numenor.

The Peoples of Middle Earth also suggests that this is the best part of the surviving Edain. It just took some time for them all to get there

The legends of the foundation of Numenor often speak as if all the Edain that accepted the Gift set sail at one time and in one fleet. But this is only due to the brevity of the narrative.



But some must have stayed behind if Cirdan was instructed to stop, implying some were still crossing piecemeal.

Therefore it can be fairly safely assumed that the majority of the Edain travelled in the first great fleet of Elros, with the remainder arriving in the following fifty years.

We can extrapolate from this that more than 5,000 Edain survived the First Age, as this was the lower limit of the main fleet to somewhere slightly over 10,000, the upper limit of the main fleet plus the stragglers.

If we take majority to mean greater than 50%, then we could suggest that no more than 14,999 Edain survived the First Age.

  • Well, it suggests there was more than that. – Mithoron Jan 20 '16 at 13:03
  • @Mithoron I would say it suggests after 50 years not many more were crossing and therefore the top limit of 10,000 that dos cross wouldn't have been exceeded in any meaningful way – Cearon O'Flynn Jan 20 '16 at 13:04

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