Númenor
Númenor | |
---|---|
Second Age | |
Founder | Elros Tar-Minyatur |
Númenor, also called Elenna-nórë or Westernesse, is a fictional place in
Fictional geography
Physical geography
A Description of the Island of Númenor, published in Unfinished Tales, was supposedly derived from the archives of Gondor.[T 2] Númenor was in the Great Sea, closer to Aman in the West than to Middle-earth in the east.[T 3] In shape it was a star, with five peninsulas extending from the central region, which was around 250 miles (400 km) across.[T 2] Karen Wynn Fonstad estimated the island to be 167,691 square miles [435,017 km2] in area.[1] Númenor had six main regions: the five promontories, named Andustar, Hyarnustar, Hyarrostar, Orrostar, and Forostar; and the central area, Mittalmar, which contained the capital city Armenolos.[T 2][T 4][T 5] The fifth king Tar-Meneldur built a tower in Forostar to watch the stars.[T 6]
Human geography
A tall tower was constructed in Armenolos by the first King Elros, son of the seafaring hero
Culture
The Númenóreans were descended from the
Their common language,
Before the coming of the Shadow, the Númenóreans maintained traditions of worship of
The Númenórean calendar, the "King's Reckoning", is similar to the Gregorian, with a week of seven days, a year of 365 days except in leap years, and twelve months (astar): ten with 30 days and two with 31.[T 13]
Fictional history
Land of gift
Númenor was raised from the sea as a gift from the
Sea-kings
Númenor was surrounded by the
The Shadow looms
The increasing power of the Númenóreans had a dark side; the exploitation of Middle-earth's forests devastated much of Eriador. The Númenóreans established further settlements in Middle-earth, coming to rule a coastal empire with no rival. At first, they engaged with the Men of Middle-earth in a friendly manner, but Minastir's successors, Tar-Ciryatan and Tar-Atanamir "the Great", became tyrannical, oppressing the Men of Middle-earth and exacting heavy tribute. The Númenóreans made
Sauron
Late in the Second Age, Ar-Pharazôn, the 25th monarch of Númenor, sailed to Middle-earth to challenge
Cataclysm
Prompted by Sauron and fearing old age and death, Ar-Pharazôn built a great armada and sailed into the West to make war upon the Valar, intending to seize the Undying Lands and achieve immortality. Sauron remained behind. Ar-Pharazôn landed on the shores of
Sauron himself was caught in the cataclysm he had helped bring about. His body was destroyed, and he never again had a fair form. He fled back to Middle-earth as a monstrous spirit of hatred that "passed as a shadow and a black wind over the sea",[T 3] and returned to Mordor.[T 3]
Aftermath
The Faithful, led by the nobleman Elendil, had come to Middle-earth. Elendil's sons, Isildur and Anárion, founded the two Kingdoms in Exile: Arnor in the north, and Gondor in the south. The two kingdoms attempted to maintain Númenórean culture. Gondor flourished, and "for a while its splendour grew, recalling somewhat of the might of Númenor".[T 18] Sauron gathered strength in Mordor, setting the scene for a struggle lasting thousands of years.[T 3] Some of his servants, called the Black Númenóreans since they worshipped the Darkness and were "enamoured of evil knowledge",[T 19] had left Númenor before its destruction. For over a millennium, their descendants lingered on and remained allied to Sauron in Middle-earth.[T 19]
Influences
Lyonesse
Númenor first appears in The Lord of the Rings, as the vague land of "Westernesse", an advanced civilisation which had existed long ago, far to the west over the Sea, and the ancestral home of the Dúnedain. Tolkien chose the name for its resonance with "Lyonesse", a faraway land that sank into the sea in the Middle English romance King Horn.[T 20][T 21]
Atlantis
The destruction of Númenor earned it the Quenya name Atalantë "the Downfallen";[T 3][a] Tolkien described his invention of this additional allusion to Atlantis as a happy accident when he realized that the Quenya root talat- "to fall" could be incorporated into a name for Númenor.[T 23] Tolkien wrote of Númenor as Atlantis in several of his letters.[T 1]
The commentator Charles Delattre has noted that the tale of Númenor is a retelling of the myth of Atlantis, the only drowned island in surviving ancient literature, matching several details: it began as a perfect world, geometrically laid out to reflect its balance and harmony; it abounds in valuable minerals; and it has unmatched power, with a strong fleet able to project control far beyond its shores, like ancient Athens. Númenor's pride, too, writes Delattre, matches the hubris of Plato's Atlantis; and its downfall recalls the destruction of Atlantis, the divine Old Testament retribution on Sodom and Gomorrah, and Milton's Paradise Lost.[5]
Fall of man
Tolkien, a devout
Philology
Tolkien was a professional
Germanic | Old English | Meaning | Modern name | In Númenor[11] |
---|---|---|---|---|
Alboin | Ælfwine | Elf-friend | Alwin, Elwin, Aldwin | Elendil |
Audoin | Eadwine |
Bliss-friend | Edwin | Herendil |
— | Oswine | God-friend | Oswin, cf. Oswald | Valandil ("Valar-friend") |
Decline and fall
The names connected by his philological studies formed for Tolkien the possibility of an inexorable downward progression, from the long-lost mythical world of Númenor in the Second Age, to his fantasy world of Middle-earth in the Third Age, also now lost, to the real ancient Germanic and Anglo-Saxon thousands of years later, and finally down to the modern world, where names like Edwin still survive, all (in the fiction) that is left of Middle-earth, carrying for the knowledgeable philologist a hint of a rich living English mythology. Shippey notes that in Númenor, the myth would have been still stronger, as being an Elf-friend, one of the hated Elendili, marked a person out to the King's Men faction as a target for human sacrifice to Morgoth. Tolkien's "continuous playing with names" led to characters and situations, and sometimes to stories.[11]
Delattre notes that the position of Númenor in Tolkien's Middle-earth is curious, being "at once marginal and central",[5] not least because in The Lord of the Rings, the glory of Númenor is already ancient history, evoking a sense of loss and nostalgia. This, he writes, is just one of many losses and downfalls in Tolkien's legendarium, leading finally to the last remnants of Númenor in the North, the Dúnedain, and the last Númenorean kingdom, Gondor, which "keeps alive the illusion that Númenor still exists in the South".[5]
Origins of the calendar
The calendar of Númenor is similar in structure to the French Republican calendar. For example, the names of the third month of Winter, Súlímë, Gwaeron, and Ventôse, all mean 'Windy'.[13]
Quenya[T 13] | Sindarin[T 13] | Meaning | French Republican[13] |
Fr. Rep. meaning |
---|---|---|---|---|
Narvinyë | Narwain | new sun[T 25] | Nivôse | snowy |
Nénimë | Nínui | watery[T 25] | Pluviôse | rainy |
Súlimë | Gwaeron | windy / wind month[T 25][T 26] | Ventôse | windy |
Víressë | Gwirith | new / young / budding? [T 25] | Germinal |
budding |
Lótessë | Lothron | flower month[T 25] | Floréal | flowery |
Nárië | Nórui | sunny[T 25] | Prairial | grassy |
Cermië | Cerveth | harvest [13] | Messidor | (wheat) harvest |
Urimë | Urui | hot[T 27] | Thermidor | hot |
Yavannië | Ivanneth | fruit giving[T 25] | Fructidor | fruit |
Narquelië | Narbeleth | sun-fading[T 28] | Vendémiaire | wine harvest |
Hísimë | Hithui | misty[T 29] | Brumaire | misty, foggy |
Ringarë | Girithron | cold / shivering month[T 25] | Frimaire | cold, frosty |
Development
Originally intended to be a part of a time-travel story in The Notion Club Papers, Tolkien once saw the tale of the fall of Númenor as a conclusion to his The Silmarillion and the "last tale" about the Elder Days. Later, with the emergence of The Lord of the Rings, it became the link back to his mythology of earlier ages.[T 30][14][15]
Adaptations
The television series The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power is set mainly in the Second Age. It includes the port city of Armenelos in Númenor, its architecture designed to convey the character of its people.[18][19] The set is described as "an entire seaside city" with buildings, alleyways, shrines, graffiti, and a ship docked at the harbour.[20] The production designer Ramsey Avery based Númenor's "looming marble structures" on Ancient Greece and Venice, while he used the colour blue to reflect the culture's emphasis on water and sailing.[16]
Notes
References
Primary
- ^ a b c Carpenter 2023, #131, 154, 156, 227.
- ^ a b c d e f g Tolkien 1980, part 2, ch. 1 "A Description of the Island of Númenor"
- ^ Akallabêth"
- ^ Tolkien 1996, "The History of the Akallabêth"
- ^ a b c Tolkien 1980, part 2, III, "The Line of Elros".
- ^ a b c d e f g Tolkien 1980, part 2, ch. 2 "Aldarion and Erendis"
- ^ Tolkien 1980, "The Drúedain", note 7.
- ^ Tolkien 1980, "The Disaster of the Gladden Fields", "Appendix: Númenórean Linear Measures"
- ^ Tolkien 1980, "The Line of Elros: Kings of Númenor"
- ^ Tolkien 1977, ch. 18 "Of the Coming of Men into the West"
- ^ Tolkien 1996, "The Problem of Ros", p. 368 and note 5.
- ^ Tolkien 1996, "Of Dwarves and Men" note 71, pp. 329–330.
- ^ a b c Tolkien 1955 Appendix D
- ^ Tolkien 1980: Part Two, II Aldarion and Erendis, "The Further Course of the Narrative"
- ^ Tolkien 1996, p.145.
- ^ Tolkien 1954, book 3, ch. 4 "Treebeard"
- ^ Tolkien 1992, pp. 250, 284, 437
- ^ Tolkien 1954a, book 2, ch. 2 "The Council of Elrond"
- ^ a b Tolkien 1955, book 5, ch. 10 "The Black Gate Opens"
- Nomenclature of The Lord of the Rings" in Hammond & Scull 2005
- Tolkien Society of America, 12 September 1965
- The Etymologies"
- ^ Carpenter 2023, #257 to Christopher Bretherton, 16 July 1964
- ^ Carpenter 2023, #131 to Milton Waldman, c. 1951
- ^ a b c d e f g h Salo 2004, Appendix 6
- ^ Tolkien 1977, Appendix, s.v. sul
- ^ Tolkien 1977, Appendix, s.v. ur
- ^ Lost Tales I, "Cottage of Lost Play", p. 41
- ^ Tolkien 1977, Appendix, s.v. hith
- ^ Tolkien 1987, "The early history of the legend".
Secondary
- ^ Fonstad 1991, page 191
- ^ Shippey 2005, pp. 324–328, "The Lost Straight Road".
- ISBN 0-04-803001-5.
- ISBN 978-0-670-02080-5.or naval power.
Plato also wrote the myth of Atlantis as an allegory of the archetypal thalassocracy
- ^ ISSN 0035-1466.
Il est évident que dans ce cadre, Númenor est une réécriture de l'Atlantide, et la lecture du Timée et du Critias de Platon n'est pas nécessaire pour suggérer cette référence au lecteur de Tolkien
- ^ a b Schweicher, Eric (15 October 1996). "Aspects of the Fall in The Silmarillion". Mythlore. 21 (2).
- ^ Shippey 2005, p. 64.
- ISBN 978-0-415-86511-1.
- ISBN 978-0-415-86511-1.
- ^ Genesis 3
- ^ a b c d Shippey 2005, pp. 336–337.
- ^ JSTOR 26811938.
- ^ ISBN 978-0-905220-10-9.
- ISBN 978-0-87338-824-5.
- ISBN 978-1-119-65602-9.
- ^ a b c Coggan, Devan (19 July 2022). "How 'The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power' crafted a new (old) Middle-earth". Entertainment Weekly. Archived from the original on 19 July 2022. Retrieved 1 August 2022.
- ISBN 978-1-58768-026-7.
- ^ Breznican, Anthony; Robinson, Joanna (10 February 2022). "Amazon's Lord of the Rings Series Rises: Inside The Rings of Power". Vanity Fair. Archived from the original on 10 February 2022. Retrieved 10 February 2022.
- TheOneRing.net. 10 June 2022. Archivedfrom the original on 10 June 2022. Retrieved 27 June 2022.
- ^ Coggan, Devan (13 July 2022). "Get an exclusive look at 'The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power'". Entertainment Weekly. Archived from the original on 14 July 2022. Retrieved 31 July 2022.
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