@lesbiansforboromir sorry I fell asleep but!!
Amlach of the house of Marach appears very briefly in Chapter 17 of the Silmarillion. He speaks at a council of men trying to decide whether or not they trust elves, and argues very persuasively not to, saying that the elves are liars, there is nothing beyond the sea, and no need to fight Morgothā¦ and then turns up a few days later, saying heād never been at that council, and he never said that. Lots of people are like ābut fake you made a good point thoā, and go hide from Morgoth, but Amlach gets mad.
Amlach repented, saying: āI have now a quarrel of my own with this Master of Lies, which will last to my lifeās endā; and he went away north and entered the service of Maedhros.
Because it saysĀ āa quarrel of my ownā lots of people take this as somewhat petty, like Amlach is just mad that Morgoth used his form and wants revenge on him for that? And Iāll admit that it does sound like that, but Iām going to do what I always do when I disagree with something in the Silmarillion and say that since Pengolodh wasnāt there (he was already in Gondolin) he misinterpreted or badly translated the situation.
To me, Amlach realises in that moment that Morgoth wants them to say that only elves have a quarrel with Morgoth, to stand down and not fight him. Thatās why he immediately rides to Himring, the literal frontline against the forces of evil, despite the fact that he doesnāt know or trust any elves: heās had the same realisation as all Tolkienās heroes, which is that to fail to stand against evil is the same as opening the door and inviting evil in. Itās the same as Tuor and Beren fighting Morgoth even though theyāre just lone outlaws in the woods, or Aragorn doing all he can as a mercenary even when heās not ready to embrace his destiny yet, or Fingolfin deciding to do single combat against a god, or Glorfindel taking on a balrog, or Gondor desperately holding the border against Mordor, or Frodo choosing to be the ringbearer.
Because, if you choose not to fight, you end up as Grima Wormtongue, or the Sackville-Bagginses, or Maeglin, who choose their own comfort or greed over whatās right and cause massive damage. Itās not enough to just look after yourself, you have to actively fight!! And you have to have solidarity with people who are different to you, and recognise that you have a common cause - Amlach goes to Himring, an elf stronghold, just as later the most important battles are fought by all theĀ āfree peoplesā together in the Union of Maedhros, the Last Alliance, all of the War of the Ring. (Also, this is early enough in Edain-Eldar relations that Iām pretty sure Amlach is the first human Maedhros ever meets? I think heās a good introduction to us :).)
TL;DR: Amlach is kind of the first and simplest example we have of Tolkienās central moral message, which is INACTION IS COMPLICITY: STAND TOGETHER AND NEVER STOP FIGHTING.
