Summary
After the fall of Morgoth, and the Elves were invited to return to the Undying Lands, the survivors of the Edain were also rewarded by the Valar. Ëonwë lived among them for a time and taught them much, and they were granted a life much longer than other Men. And the Valar created a great island for them to live on, removed from the dangers of Middle-earth, and near to Valinor. The island they called (among many other names) Númenór. In the midst of the island was a great mountain named Meneltarma, the peak of which was sacred to Eru Ilúvatar. At the foot of Meneltarma they built their capital, Armenelos. Elros, son of Eärendil and brother of Elrond, who had chosen mortality, was their king, and to him and his line was granted long life even by Númenórean standards.
For many years they lived there in peace, with the protection of the Valar and the friendship of the Elves, while Middle-earth was largely under Sauron's dominion (save where Gil-galad ruled). They became great mariners and explored the seas, with one exception: the Valar forbade them to sail west beyond sight of their own shores. Manwë didn't want them to become too enamored of the glory of the Valar and the Elves in Valinor, and thought an enforced distance would help this.
The Númenóreans didn't really understand the purpose of the ban, but for a long time they were content. The world was wide, and there were many seas to explore. They were happy and prosperous. They came ever more often to Middle-earth, as teachers and friends to the Men there. Elves visited as well from the Undying Lands, and in the court at Armenelos was planted the white tree Nimloth, descended from Telperion, a gift from the Elves.
But as the Age passed, things changed. They had explored all the way to the eastern edge of Arda, and began looking westward. At first it was simply longing for new seas and undiscovered shores, and a desire to visit their friends the Elves as the Elves freely visited Númenór.
But that changed. As their joy in life grew, so did their fear of death. They were jealous of the Elves and Valar and their immortality, and some began to say that the secret to immortality was in Valinor. The Valar sent emissaries to explain that this was not so, but most of the Númemóreans didn't listen and turned their backs on the Valar and the Elves.
The change went deeper. Where they had once come to Middle-earth as teachers and friends, now they came demanding tribute at first, and later as conquerors. Where they had built harbors, they now built great fortresses on the coasts and ruled over the Men of Middle-earth as tyrants. Their wealth, power, and skill continued to grow, but their wisdom and happiness faded.
Some kept faith with the Valar and friendship with the Elves. They called themselves the Faithful, and they were led by the lords of Andúnië, descendants of Elros, second in honor only to the king. As the years passed and things got worse, they became more and more of a persecuted minority. Many left Númenór for Middle-earth, where they mostly went to the haven of Pelargír above the mouth of the River Anduin. The Kings were generally content to see them go.
Things took a brief upswing when the king Tar-Palantír ("The Far-Sighted") took the throne. He had been raised mostly by his mother, who was secretly of the Faithful. He was the first King in generations to take his name in High Elven (it had long been rejected in favor of Adûnaic, the Númenórean tongue), and sought to restore friendship with the Elves and Valar. But things were too far gone. But Tar-Palantír was indeed far-sighted, and he foresaw that the fate of the line of Kings was bound up with the fate of the White Tree Nimloth (which none of the Kings had dared cut down, despite its origins).
When Tar-Palantír died, by Númenórean law the scepter should have passed to his daughter, but instead his nephew seized the throne (and married his cousin the daughter as well, also against custom and law).
Ar-Pharazôn the Golden, as he came to be known, was a great and powerful man, but also arrogant and terrified of death. He assembled a great force to challenge Sauron, and landed at Umbar. Sauron, recognizing that his forces were no match for the might of Númenór - as well as sensing an opportunity - put on his fair form and surrendered. Ar-Pharazôn, in his pride (and with a healthy dose of flattery from Sauron) decided to take Sauron back to Númenór as a captive. It wasn't long before Sauron was Ar-Pharazôn's most trusted advisor.
Sauron poisoned Ar-Pharazôn's mind, telling him that Eru Ilúvatar was a fiction, and the true supreme being was Morgoth. The Númenóreans began worshipping Morgoth openly, including human sacrifices (as a rule chosen from among the Faithful) at the temple to Morgoth Sauron had built in Armenelos. And as the years passed and Ar-Pharazôn felt old age creeping up on him, Sauron lied and told him that whoever was lord of Valinor would possess immortality. Ar-Pharazôn began preparing the greatest force the world had yet seen for the invasion of Valinor.
Amandil, lord of Andúnië, remained of the Faithful, and saw how terrible an idea this was. He passed his lordship to his son Elendil and sailed secretly to Valinor. He chose to break the Ban and accept whatever consequences would come, in hope of pleading for mercy on behalf of Númenór, or at least for the Faithful. No one knows how that went or if Amandil even reached Valinor.
Sauron finally talked Ar-Pharazôn into cutting down and burning Nimloth (which Ar-Pharazôn had feared to do, because of what Tar-Palantír had foreseen). Elendil heard that he was going to do this, and his son Isildur took it upon himself to sneak into the guarded courtyard in Armenelos where Nimloth grew and steal a fruit of the tree before it was too late. Isildur was terribly wounded in the attempt, but succeeded in retrieving a fruit.
Númenór began to be afflicted by terrible earthquakes. Great storms began to appear out of the West in the shape of massive eagles of Manwë as warnings. One such storm brought with it great lightning that destroyed the dome of the temple of Morgoth, but Sauron stood atop the temple throughout the storm and defied the Valar. The Númenóreans from that day began treating Sauron himself as a god, and Ar-Pharazôn readied his invasion. The Faithful, meanwhile, prepared for the worst. Elendil, Isildur, and Anaríon prepared ships with the remaining Faithful and certain precious heirlooms of their House (including the sword Narsil, the Ring of Finrod Felegund, and the seven Palantíri).
Ar-Pharazôn launched his invasion. The fleet landed on Valinor and the Númenórean army surrounded Tirion. At that point Manwë appealed to Eru Ilúvatar himself.
Hills fell upon the armies of Ar-Pharazôn, burying them all. A great chasm opened in the sea, and Ar-Pharazôn’s fleets were drawn down into it. The foundations of Númenór were also drawn down into this chasm, and the island sank beneath the seas. Aman and Tol Eressëa were removed from the world entirely, and Arda was made round where before it had been flat.
Whether by the petition of Amandil, the will of Ilúvatar or of the Valar, or simple chance, the ships of Elendil and his sons were swept before the storm. Elendil was swept ashore in Gil-galad’s kingdom on Lindon (he founded Arnor on Lindon’s borders), and Isildur and Anaríon landed at Pelargír (and founded Gondor).
Sauron had been sitting on his throne in the temple laughing as Ar-Pharazôn launched his assault, but he underestimated the Valar and Eru Ilúvatar. He didn’t die when Númenór destroyed, for his spirit was able to return to Mordor and take up the Ring again in the Dark Tower, but his fair form was destroyed forever.
The exiles of Númenór believed that the pinnacle of Meneltarma, which had been sacred to Ilúvatar, still remained above the waves, and their mariners spent a long time searching for it. On a clear day before the Downfall, it was just possible to spot Tol Eressëa from the peak, and the exiles who searched hoped for a glimpse of the Blessed Realm. But they never found Meneltarma, and realized that the Undying Lands were removed from the world in truth, and “all roads are now bent.” It was assumed that there must still be a Straight Road that the Elves were permitted to take to reach Valinor. There were always tales of mariners who found themselves on that path, by luck or grace, as their ships sailed west rising steadily into the air, and were able to look upon the Undying Lands before they died.
Commentary
There’s a lot of names in this chapter and a lot of different languages. “Akallabêth” itself means “Downfallen” in Adûnaic, which in the language of Valinor was “Atalantë” (remind you of anything?). A big deal is made of the Kings switching from taking the scepter with a High Elven “Tar-” name to an Adûnaic “Ar-” name - even after they began using the Adûnaic, their names were still inscribed on the rolls in High Elven. The common folk of Númenór always spoke their own language among themselves, but the Elven language had been known, and was gradually rejected. Tolkien’s philology is showing (once again).
Manwë doesn’t get Men. He never has. Not to absolve the Númenóreans of their sins here, but their ultimate rejection of the Ban was entirely predictable. It was said all the way back in the first chapter of Quenta Silmarillion that Eru “willed that the hearts of Men should seek beyond the world and find no rest therein.” Men eventually explored the world, as their hearts couldn’t just rest, and when they had no where else they were permitted to explore, of course they began to wonder at that land that was literally just out of sight. Throw in the beauty and glory of the Elves and Morgoth’s lingering work of making death into something fearful, and what happened starts to look pretty inevitable.
I didn’t go into this in the summary, but during their years of happiness the Númenóreans treated death very differently than afterwards. It was treated as the next great adventure - when they were ready to move on, they simply gave up their lives willingly. It’s not suicide as we understand it, which is a rejection of life and a desire to end it (as happened with Túrin and Nienor and Maedhros). It’s more of an acceptance of Ilúvatar’s gift, and an embrace of the mysteries that lay beyond life. Aragorn, you might recall, went that way - he willingly yielded up his life rather than linger into old age. That change is marked as a major, major shift.
There’s a very nice call-back here that I’ve never noticed before:
And men saw his sails coming up out of the sunset, dyed as with scarlet and gleaming with red and gold, and fear fell upon the dwellers by the coasts, and they fled far away. But the fleet came at last to that place that was called Umbar, where was the mighty haven of the Númenóreans that no hand had wrought. Empty and silent were all the lands about when the King of the Sea marched upon Middle-earth. For seven days he journeyed with banner and trumpet, and he came to a hill, and he went up, and he set there his pavilion and his throne; and he sat him down in the midst of the land, and the tents of his host were ranged all about him, blue, golden, and white, as a field of tall flowers. Then he sent forth heralds, and he commanded Sauron to come before him and swear to him fealty. And Sauron came.
Sauron becoming more like Morgoth after his master’s exile has been remarked upon, but still, I love this. The Men of Gondor and Arnor always had complicated feelings about Ar-Pharazôn. They naturally weren’t big fans of the whole “let’s invade Valinor” thing, but they were nevertheless proud of the humbling of Sauron. Ar-Pharazôn built a monument on the spot where Sauron submitted, which was in land that would later be part of Gondor for at least a good chunk of the 3rd Age as that kingdom’s fortuned waxed and waned. Despite being a monument, at least in part, to the man who triggered the Downfall, Gondor kept it standing - it wasn’t until Sauron returned to Mordor near the end of the 3rd Age that it was torn down.
Lastly, props to Isildur for rescuing a fruit of Nimloth before the tree was destroyed. The man deserves better than the constant string of “DAE think Elrond should have kicked him into the fire??!!??!?!?!??!” questions that come up on the various LotR movie-subs.
We’re nearly done. Next week we’ll learn of the Rings of Power and the Third Age, and then we are done with the Silmarillion read along.
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