QUESTIONS AND INFORMATION
QUESTION: What is it Sidhen envy the Elves? Immortality or something else entirely? Besides Númenor, I've always found the concept of jealousy for the immortal races to be a tad unexplored in Tolkien's works. I mean, who wouldn't be jealous of others being given immortality when you were not on the basis of your birth alone? Either way, it's an interesting character trait! :)
ANSWER: I’m sorry to disappoint you, it’s not the immortality, it’s their their clothes :)))) (and maybe their societal structure too) I had a passage in “By the Fire” about this:
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“Do you know how I’ve never worn one of those fancy dresses, silk ones, like the women of Gondor wear? I wonder how it’s like to walk all day in them, instead of this garb.” Her arms raised, trying to emphasize her poor garments.
[...] He (Toram) would have liked some fine clothes, like elvish garbs.”
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The absolute canonical information we have about the dunedain is that they are “few and scattered” and live in small settlements throughout Eriador. Arnor has been destroyed, Arthedain, Cardolan and Rhudaur have been completely eviscerated. The dunedain have no huge settlement to call home. They have no Minas Tirith, they have no Edoras, no Imladris to go home to, when the fighting is done. All they have are tiny, hidden settlements throughout Eriador and chieftains that fall too young.
From an outsider perspective, the life of the dunedain truly seems bleak. For generations they have been forced to fight against the shadows of Angmar, their young people dying, their hope broken (until Aragorn came). Were it not for them, Eriador would have long fallen.
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Quite funny that the moment the dunedain form the Grey Company and ride south, leaving Eriador defenseless, is the moment the pieces fall into place for the Scouring of the Shire to happen.
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Coming back to Sidhen. Comparing her thankless duty to the luxury elves seem to live into, made Sidhen quite envious. They have Lindon and Imladris to call home. Why can’t the dunedain live in a serene mountain valley or a beautiful harbor? Why do they have to wear linen and itchy wool, when the elves adorn themselves with the most beautiful jewelry and dresses made of silk. The dunedain don’t have the luxury of having “Halls of Song” and artisans that fashion swords with jeweled pummels. In her eyes it just seems that her people struggle so much, while others just get to live their lives free of the shadow.
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That doesn’t mean she doesn’t respect her duty. She is one of the most ardent voices and people remember her by her famous words “We can’t question our duty. We can only perform it.”
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Why is she jealous on the people of Gondor? Well, they have a highly structured society. They have well defined regions and an administrative capital. Their documents are safe and well in the archives of Minas Tirith, compared to how the northern dunedain lost everything they had when Fornost fell. They have a well defined nobility, military, working class and so on. Not that she doesn’t understand the fact that they are the only wall against Mordor and that their country has been ravaged by a plague and by dynastic battles of power.
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​Why can’t the elves come and help more? Sure, Elladan and Elrohir are around all the time. But two out of so many elves? This is the phenomenon I was trying to counteract with Lothrin and with my musings about various elves from Lindon and Imladris coming to help on a frequent basis.
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I believe these negative feelings simply come from a feeling of powerlessness. She just wishes her people didn’t have to always watch their backs and always patrol and always fight and all these feelings of worry and anxiety simply found the elves as their target. Quite human feelings if you ask me.