How we cite our quotes: (Book.Chapter.Paragraph).
Quote #10
They were led then to seats beside Faramir: barrels covered with pelts and high enough above the benches of the Men for their convenience. Before they ate, Faramir and all his men turned and faced west in a moment of silence. Faramir signed to Frodo and Sam that they should do likewise.
"So we always do," he said, as they sat down: "we look towards Númenor that was, and beyond to Elvenhome that is, and to that which is beyond Elvenhome and will ever be. Have you no such custom at meal?"
"No," said Frodo, feeling strangely rustic and untutored. "But if we are guests, we bow to our host, and after we have eaten we rise and thank him." (4.5.103-5)
Culture clash alert. What we find most interesting about this scene is not the natural discomfort that often comes between people of two different cultures sharing a meal. The Gondorians look to the west before eating. It's like a Gondorian way of saying grace, except the power that they are thanking "Númenor that was," a.k.a. the West. Then they look even further west, to Elvenhome, and then whatever power is beyond that. Faramir is tracing a line of descent, from the creative power of Middle-earth to the elves in Elvenhome to the Men of Númenor to Gondor. So, in the cosmology of Middle-earth, elves are closest to what might be called God, or whatever it is that is "beyond Elvenhome and will ever be." Since the Men of Westernesse are closest to elves, it makes sense that, on balance, elves seem better than men, and the people of the line of Númenor (despite Isildur and Boromir's various troubles) seem better than the rest of mankind. The origins of elves and the Men of Westernesse are actually physically, geographically closer to the holiness of Middle-earth than those who come from elsewhere. Or at least Faramir thinks so.
Quote #11
For so we reckon Men in our lore, calling them the High, or Men of the West, which were Númenoreans; and the Middle Peoples, Men of the Twilight, such as are the Rohirrim and their kin that dwell still far in the North; and the Wild, the Men of Darkness.
Yet now, if the Rohirrim are grown in some ways more like to us, enhanced in arts and gentleness, we too have become more like to them, and can scarce claim any longer the title High. We are become Middle Men, of the Twilight, but with memory of other things. For as the Rohirrim do, we now love war and valour as things good in themselves, both a sport and an end; and though we still hold that a warrior should have more skills and knowledge than only the craft of weapons and slaying, we esteem a warrior, nonetheless, above men of other crafts. (4.5.124)
Based on Faramir's account, the men of Middle-earth have a rigid class system. At the top are the guys who value "arts and gentleness," the men of Númenor. In the middle are the horse lords; they're good-looking and brave ("tall men and fair women, valiant both alike, golden-haired, bright-eyed" [4.5.122]) but not quite as elite as the Men of Westernesse. And then at the bottom are the wild men, who hardly seem civilized at all. Descent lines matter a huge amount to this novel, since the whole point of Aragorn's rise to power is that, in him, the blood of Elendil has been reborn. Here, Faramir is worrying a lot about degeneration of bloodlines, because the once-great Gondorians have become lesser men. Still, blood and class aren't everything in The Lord of the Rings. Sam may have his limitations as a character, but his class does not interfere with his ability to be a great hobbit once he returns to the Shire. And Faramir says himself that the men of Númenor had faults: "for the most part they fell into evils and follies. Many became enamoured of the Darkness and the black arts; some were given over wholly to idleness and ease, and some fought among themselves, until they were conquered in their weakness by the wild men" (4.5.117). There has to be some additional ingredient to achieve greatness. What that is, it is hard to say, but clearly compassion and mercy have greater importance even than noble blood in achieving grand deeds like the destruction of the Ruling Ring.