What do the High Elves really think of Men?

[CSteefel]

Originally Posted by Loslote

Also, just by looking at some of the names the Eldar give to the Edain: Firimar, the sickly ones, comes readily to mind; also the Atani, the Second People. Yes, Atani describes a true aspect of Men, but Firimar doesn't seem to be entirely necessary as a descriptive name.

I think the Eldar naturally felt superior. Their attitude towards the dwarves, for example, was almost always condescending and arrogant. Celeborn disliked them on first sight, going so far as to refuse to pass through Khazad-dum in one version of The History of Galadriel and Celeborn. It does seem natural that this discrimination should apply to Edain as well.

Not that I want to defend Celeborn all that much, but at the time of the writing of the LOTR, I believe that Celeborn had been present at the sack of Doriath (later this seems to have changed, with Celeborn perhaps crossing over the mountains before the end of the First Age). As I believe Tolkien himself pointed out in the Unfinished Tales, the Dwarves that populated Khazad-dum had nothing to do with the sack of Doriath, but this could be the explanation for Celeborn's hostility (rightly or wrong, which evidently he had not completely forgotten by the end of the Third Age).