Welcome Felagund -
Måns is right, it was lack of elvish/dunedain culture.
In the entirety of the Legendarium we see that mankind's connection to elvish culture [or lack thereof] is often the determining factor in whether there is nobility or not.
Gondor waned 'spiritually' as they almost completely cut themselves off from all of the Elves dwelling northward; whereas the Rangers of the North, while few in number still maintained their 'stature' or being, as it can be seen when in TTT it says that the men of Rohan appeared as boys beside them.
Not to put the men of Gondor down, but as Faramir admits, 'we have in most ways become like unto the Middle Men, the Men of Rohan and can scarely any longer claim the title of High.
The Elves were in an identical situation, those who had lived with either the Valar [the High Elves] or Melian the Maia [The Grey Elves] had a refined culture and higher level of being than the Avari who were wild and had rejected the Light.
I think that one of JRRT's main contributions and more subtle points he wished to make is that life is heirarchical abd that to progress we must link ourselves to something higher than that which we ourselves possess. THus the Valar look to Eru, the Maia to the valar, the Elves to the Ainur, the Dunedain to Elves and in later days the Men to the King of the Dunedain [who had not co-incidentally] the most 'elvish' blood.
His point was, I believe, to indicate that if we in our time wish to rise above being 'middle or low' men we must yoke ourselves, become students to that which is connected to, or at least closer to God.
As Jose Ortega y Gasset has said
Quote:
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He who wishes to teach us a truth should not tell it to us, but simply suggest it with a brief gesture, which starts an ideal trajectory in the air along which we glide until we find ourselves at the feet of the new truth.
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So to me, JRRT used the Easterlings [as he used so many things in M-E] tp point to truth.
[ August 14, 2003: Message edited by: lindil ]