An Overview of The Silmarillion: Part Seven

My 1980 book club edition of Unfinished Tales.  It contains more than 400 pages of incomplete stories, fragments, and short essays that Tolkien wrote but never published pertaining to all three Ages of Middle-earth.  The section regarding the Second Age offers a detailed description of Númenor, a wonderful tale entitled "Aldarion and Erendis," and "The Line of Elros."  It contains more information on the Second Age than you can find anywhere else outside of The Silmarillion.

Note:  This continues the series I began in April analyzing J.R.R. Tolkien's greatest literary achievement.

The Quenta Silmarillion takes up about three-quarters of The Silmarillion with about one-eighth of the book offered before (Creation and Valar) and after (Second and Third Ages).  Most of the book thus far has dealt with Elves and higher powers with Men playing a late but increasing role (Beren and Húrin, for example).  At the beginning of the Second Age, Men take center stage and Elves are relegated to a declining influence on events.   The Eldar Days are over though Gil-galad still rules Lindon on the new western coasts of Middle-earth.

Now we come to the Akallabêth and the story of Númenor.  The First Age numbered only about 600 years but, of course, a lot happened during it before the Sun and the Moon were fixed and days were reckoned.  Melkor (Morgoth) was imprisoned for “three ages” and the Elves were in Valinor a very long time before Fëanor sailed back to Middle-earth.  We have a much better idea of how long the Second Age lasts - about 3,350 years.  Chiefly, that is the time of 22 Kings and 3 Queens of Númenor.

As the Valar cast Beleriand asunder at the end of the First Age, so too did the powers raise Númenor out of the sea at the beginning of the Second Age.  It is a large island located between Middle-earth to the east and Aman to the west.  The Ban of the Valar was placed upon the Númenoreans.  Being mortal Men, they could not sail west (toward Valinor) beyond the view of their own coast line.  The “Blessed Realm” was forbidden to them.  Curiously, the Valar choose to position the island closer to Valinor than to Middle-earth.  As will become obvious, whether by design or not, this is a mistake.

The Valar and the Elves remain loyal to the Edain and the Elves call them the Dúnedain.  As is told in Part Six, Elros, the brother of Elrond, chose a mortal life.  He is rewarded for his race’s deeds in the First Age and for his choice of mortality with many gifts, including long life and vast knowledge.  It is the Valar themselves that ordain him as the first King of Númenor.  Elros lives 500 years, ruling for over 400, the longest of any King that follows him.  He regularly welcomes the Elves sailing in from Valinor with riches of the Valar and passing along a diversity of useful knowledge and craft.  During his time, Númenor builds and becomes a great and glorious culture.
  
Perhaps unlike their First Age ancestors, Númenoreans are clearly religious.  We get passing references to this.  Speaking of the highest mountaintop on the island: “…the Meneltarma, the Pillar of Heaven, and upon it was a high place that was hallowed to Eru Illúvatar, and it was open and unroofed, and no other temple or fane was there in the land of the Númenoreans.” 

It should be recalled that Melian, a Maiar, is Elros’s great-great-great-grandmother.  So he has a tiny bit of higher power in his Half-Elven blood.  Perhaps this is the basis for his extraordinary reign and for the grand early centuries of the rule of his descendents, who live in complete peace and prosperity.  This is the necessary set-up for Tolkien to, once again, slowly wreck everything, this time with a brilliant depiction of the unhurried creep of evil through the passage of time.

Elros knows his father and mother are in the Blessed Realm, though the fate of Eärendil is unclear. Certainly, the King must have been among the first to look west from the mountaintop and behold.  “… at times, when the air was clear and the sun was in the east, they would look out and far off to the west a city white-shining on a distant shore, and a great harbor, and a tower.” He is at peace with this arrangement and focuses completely upon Númenor.  He learns Quenya and his people are bilingual in the High-Elven tongue.  Understanding the language and the lore, his accomplishments are great during his time.

But, as centuries pass, future Kings and Queens begin to ponder the west ever more.  Some of them sail out to the farthest point where they could still see the Númenorean coast and, with tall ships, they could peer westward into the glow of Valinor.  Perhaps fatally, the High-Elves sail to the island from where Men cannot go.  It is a situation humans often mishandle.  I say “fatally” because Men are being showered with trinkets from Valinor but they are not allowed to go there.  Tolkien thus creates a bizarre existential conflict.  Often such conflicts have unintended consequences.  Why do the Valar fail to foresee that their well-intended gifts are actually a temptation?  Their trinkets entice Men to defy the Ban.

“And thence at times the Firstborn still would come sailing to Númenor in oarless boats, as white birds flying from the sunset.  And they brought to Númenor many gifts: birds of song, and fragrant flowers, and herbs of great virtue.  And a seedling they brought of Celeborn, the White Tree that grew in the midst of Eressëa; and that was in its turn a seedling of Galathilion the Tree of Túna, the image of Telperion that Yavanna gave to the Eldar in the Blessed Realm.  And the tree grew and blossomed in the courts of the King in Armenelos; Nimloth it was named…”

The secondary narrative of the Tree dates, directly and indirectly, all the way back to the original Two Trees of Light before (during?) the First Age.  This story of Light is, in fact, one of the central themes to The Silmarillion.  Nimloth is not the original pristine Light that was contained in the Trees and in the Silmarils.  It is, rather, an image of an image of Telperion.  So it is not immaculate, but its heritage and beauty are, nevertheless, glorious.  Tolkien will continue this narrative by placing it in the White Tree of Gondor in The Lord of the Rings.  It truly is an innermost element to everything Tolkien conceived. 
 
The Númenoreans become great sailors and builders of ships.  They frequently sail east and south all around Middle-earth.  They befriend Gil-galad and his Elves.  They meet other Men surviving the end of the First Age, who “sat under the Shadow were now grown weak and fearful.  And coming among them the Númenoreans taught them many things.”  They could be the masters of Middle-earth and yet they choose to not settle there, at first.  Their thoughts keep returning to the west and to the glow on the horizon beyond their grasp. 

Their long life allows them to experience the “weight” of the world that is previously only known to the immortal Elves.  “For though the Valar had rewarded the Dúnedain with long life, they could not take from them the weariness of the world that comes at last, and they died, even their kings of the seed of Eärendil; and span of their lives was brief in the eyes of the Eldar.  Thus is was that a shadow fell upon them; in which maybe the will of Morgoth was at work that still moved in the world.  And the Númenoreans began to murmur, at first in their hearts, and then in open words, against the doom of Men, and most of all against the Ban which forbade them to sail into the West.”  Mortality is the “gift” by which they can escape the heaviness of living.  Even so, Men question why this is so.

Messengers are sent when the Eldar, sailing back and forth, report this change in attitude to the Valar.  This sets up a fascinating exchange between the Númenoreans and the Eldar in what the Valar see as “the noon-tide of Númenor.”  The King, Tar-Atanamir, asks the Messengers why he can’t go to Valinor when Eärendil, his own forefather, is there now.  Or is he not in Aman?

The Messengers simply say that Eärendil has “a fate apart.”  This does little to satisfy the King.  Tolkien reveals the great knowledge of the Kings.  Why do some of the Eldar go unpunished in Valinor even though they rebelled?  The reply is an excellent example of Tolkien philosophy, fundamental to The Silmarillion.  “Yet it is to them neither reward nor punishment, but fulfillment of their being.  They cannot escape, and are bound to the world, never to leave it as long as it lasts, for its life is theirs.  And you are punished for the rebellion of Men, you say, in which you had small part, and so it is that you die.  But that was not at first appointed because of punishment.  Thus you escape, and leave the world, and are not bound to it, in hope or in weariness.  Which of us therefore should envy the others?”

The Númenoreans complain that:  “For us is required blind trust, and a hope without assurance, knowing not what lies before us in a little while.  And yet we also love the Earth and would not lose it.”  So, while Tolkien hints of some sort of religion toward Illúvatar it apparently does not enter into a hypothesis about what happens when Men die.  Incredibly, this advanced civilization with all the wisdom of the High-Elves and the Valar to draw upon has no belief at all about “what lies before us in a little while.”

The Messengers proclaim: “Indeed the mind of Illúvatar concerning you is not known to the Valar, and he has not revealed all things that are to come.”  And then they warn Men that rules are rules and they cannot escape the "Gift of Men" and, incredibly, stand before the Númenoreans perplexed.  If long life brings Men weariness why do they seek immortality at all?  “We who hear the ever-mounting burden of years do not clearly understand this; but if grief has returned to trouble you, as you say, then we fear that the Shadow arises once more and grows in your hearts.”

And indeed, a change comes over the Númenoreans from here on.  Tar-Atanamir lives to be very old even by Dúnedain standards.  And he becomes the first King to not relinquish his throne to his son before he dies “witless and unmanned.”  The Númenoreans are now a divided people with most of them growing “proud and were estranged from the Eldar and the Valar.”  The “lesser party” are those most loyal to the House of Elros, desiring to maintain the old alliances.  Those who are “estranged” still do not break the Ban, however.  Instead, they perfect embalming to preserve the “incorrupt dead flesh of Men.”  Númenor becomes filled with tombs (also indicating a religion, perhaps ancestor worship), as the Númenoreans struggle with their mortality.

It is now that they make their first settlements upon Middle-earth.  “Great harbors and strong towers they made, and there many took up their abode; but they appeared now rather as lords and masters and gatherers of tribute than as helpers and teachers.”  But we are told that the “lesser” party, “the Elf-friends,” played little part in this.  They mostly visit Gil-galad and aid the Elves against Sauron’s return.

Sauron rises up again in the Second Age and he takes his home in Mordor, building the massive Tower of Barad-dûr.  He also secretly forges the One Ring during this same time and sends armies of Orcs and impious Men out against the savage Men and the Elves.  The other rings of Power are also wrought.  Of the Nine Ringwraiths, three are once Númenorean Kings, indicating that it took several centuries for the Rings of Power to be made and distributed, it wasn’t a one-time occurrence.  

This also reflects a bit of a narrative problem.  As far as we know, Sauron never met any Númenorean Kings until the last.  How he ensnared two others that were already dead is another small issue with the incomplete state of the text.

An important milestone in the “waning” of the House of Elros happens with the twentieth king who “ascended the throne in the name Adûnakhôr, Lord of the West, forsaking the Elven-tongues and forbidding their use in his hearing.  Yet in the Scroll of Kings the name Herunúmen was inscribed in the High-elven speech, because of ancient custom, which the kings feared to break utterly, lest evil befall.”  His title is preceded by “Ar-” as opposed to “Tar-” like all previous rulers.

Unfinished Tales offers a chapter on “The Line of Elros” which features a short paragraph about each of the Kings and Queens.  Ever the philologist, this shows the reader the fundamental importance of languages to Tolkien’s fantastic world.  It details that this change in title reflects “…a name in the Adûnaic tongue…But these titles were held by the Faithful to be blasphemous, for they signified ‘Lord of the West’, by which title they had been wont to name one of the great Valar only, Manwë in especial.”

By the time of Ar-Gimilzôr “the White Tree was untended and began to decline.”  But when his father dies, Tar-Palantir brings a small resurgence of the past (as reflected by his choice of Tar- over Ar-).  He learns Quenya and holds rituals “at due seasons to the Hallow of Eru upon Meneltarma…The White Tree was tended again in his honor.”  But now, something unexpected happens.  The Valar do not accept Palantir’s “repentance.”  This is a stunning lack of forgiveness by the Valar who have forgiven the Eldar so much, reflecting the inherent “double standard” between mortal and Elf-kind and, ironically, more or less proving part of the Númenoreans argument against the Ban.

As if fortified by this, Palantir’s brother, Gimilkhâd, opposes the King with a majority of the people.  Therefore, the King accomplishes little else during his rule and is said in Unfinished Tales to have spent much of his time looking to the west for Elven ships that never come.  “But no ship came ever again out of the West because of the insolence of the Kings, and because the hearts of the most part of the Númenoreans were still hardened.”

Then comes Ar-Pharazôn the Golden, the “mightiest and proudest” of the Sea-kings of Númenor.  He builds a massive navy with arms and sets sail for Middle-earth to do battle with Sauron.  Before the majesty of the great King, Sauron realizes his wicked Men and Orc army cannot prevail.  Sauron, whose body is fair in appearance at this time, feigns humbling himself before Pharazôn, who takes him back to Númenor as prisoner. 

Sauron is of flexible mind, however.  He has plenty of time to accomplish his ends and realizes that his “imprisonment” might actually further his ends better than outright war.  He beholds “the city of Armenelos in the days of its glory, and he was astounded; but his heart within was filled with more envy and hate.”  That Sauron is “astounded” is perhaps the best single indicator of how wondrous Númenor is at its pinnacle.  

As the years go by, Sauron becomes counselor to Pharazôn and, in due course, he spins falsehoods about the Valar and all the things they have taught.  He elevates Melkor as the true power who can “make other worlds to be gifts to those who serve him, so that the increase of their power shall find no end.”  

Pharazôn begins “the worship of the Dark” as his true religion, at first secretly, then openly.  Most of the people follow the King’s lead.  Only the folk of Amandil, the King’s former counselor, remain Elf-friends, “the Faithful who kept Ilúvatar in their hearts.”  Amandil’s grandson is Isildur who manages to steal a fruit from Nimloth, which is kept under armed guard, just before Pharazôn commands the Tree be cut down to feed the fires of a mighty Temple that Sauron orders constructed for the worship of Melkor. 

The Númenoreans continue to grow in power.  They make war upon the Men of Middle-earth where they build more temples with altars and offer live sacrifices to Melkor.  But, though their power seems ever greater, death still comes to all, and even more quickly now along with greater sickness and madness.  Pharazôn finally decides to make war upon the Valar themselves; to take Aman for his own.

Amandil, inspired by the act of his forefather Eärendil, sails west to plea for mercy from the Valar.  He is never heard from again.  Before he leaves, he instructs his son, Elendil, to prepare some ships to sail the Faithful to Middle-earth.  This is accomplished even as Sauron summons lightning and power from the height of the great Temple; “and in that hour men called him a god and did all that he would.”  

Pharazôn assaults the Blessed Realm with his gigantic fleet.  Tolkien writes that “pride was now his master,” again touching on another central theme in The Silmarillion, the intoxicating sin of arrogant power.  The Valar are swift and vengeful.  Pharazôn and his fleet are swallowed by an abyss along with Númenor.  All of Middle-earth is refashioned. Aman and Eressëa are removed from the world so that Humans can no longer go there.

But Tolkien tells us that Arandil’s “prayer” is answered.  Elendil and the Faithful are spared and manage to make it to Middle-earth amidst the great calamity even though the coastlines “suffer great change.”  Elendil and his sons (Anárion and Isildur) populate the kingdoms of Arnor and Gondor late in the Second Age.

The evolution of the Númenoreans from Elros (Tar-Minyatur) to Ar-Pharazon is not one of power.  It is true that the last King was the mightiest but the glory of Númenor remains consistently great throughout the Second Age.  Rather, it is one of being at balance with the laws of nature (Elros respected the Valar and the Ban) versus the imbalance of overconfident power against nature.  

As the Kings and Queens began to revel in their greatness, as their pride grew in proportion to their talents and accomplishments, Tolkien shows us that it takes control of them.  Ultimately, it makes Pharazôn weak before the lies and temptations of Sauron.  Once more, this is a central theme in the book.  The swollen pride of Pharazôn is different in degree but no kind from the pride of Fëanor.

Having first-hand experience with the horrors of the First World War and being highly distrustful of mechanical and industrial “progress,”  Tolkien knows perfectly well how evil manifests out of the best of intentions.  Millions died in Europe's Great War because perfectly “reasonable” men made bad decisions.  The worst evil often comes not from bad purposes but from the steady expanse of misguided reason that seems incrementally justified.  That is the story of Númenor in a nutshell.

Over the course of centuries, the arguments that the Númenoreans make against the Ban of the Valar do not seem unreasonable.  Eärendil was a Man (Half-Elven actually) and he went to Aman.  The Eldar returned to dwell there and yet it was they, not Men, that rebelled and go unpunished.  Men worship Illúvatar and display great skill.  Their craft adorns the land that rivals the Elves.  So it seems sensible to them that the Ban is a form of punishment, that they deserve better than to simply accept death without knowing what comes next.  This perspective seems justified and yet it is the root of their downfall because, quite simply, it is not in the nature of things as ordained by the highest power.  

But I have two problems with Tolkien’s Second Age.  First of all, since there is a Ban on Men wishing to visit Valinor, why did the Valar place Númenor closer to Aman than to Middle-earth?  The glow of Blessed Realm is on the horizon to the farsighted and yet it takes several days to sail to Gil-galad’s Lindon.  Either the Valar are ensuring that Men will have to endure the greatest of temptations or it is naivety on their part for not understanding the affect this will have upon the nature of Men.  

Secondly, and most importantly, although the Númenoreans are a religious people, they have no myth or teaching of the afterlife.  They complain that death is a “blind trust, and a hope without assurance.”  Against this the Valar simply shrug and remind Men that mortality is the “gift of Illúvatar.”
 
I’m sure Tolkien, being a man of faith, felt that faith was required of the Númenoreans as well.  And he wishes to show how, with the exception of Amandil’s people, their faith declined as their power rose.  But that does not answer why, with all their immense skill and the lore taught to them by the High-Elves, they did not address this existential chasm.  There is no promise of anything after death.  The question of death and mortality is left fundamentally unaddressed by anyone in Tolkien’s world, the Valar, the Elves, or even Men themselves.  This seem disingenuous to me though, obviously, it is convenient to the narrative of the downfall of Númenor.

Sauron leaves his body, never again to appear fair in the eyes of Men, as the Temple falls into the abyss.  He is a Maiar, “not of mortal flesh,” and returns to Barad-dûr where “he wrought himself a new guise, an image of malice and hatred made visible.”  And, once again, he takes up his great Ring of Power.

Sauron foresaw the consequences of doing everything within his power to build-up Pharazôn and espouse the dark religion of Melkor.  He knew it would bring about the end of the Númenoreans.  But, like all Maiar, his foreknowledge is limited.  Apparently, he felt he would be left as ruler of whatever remained of Númenor.  Instead, his malevolence brought more than he bargained for.  In the final part of The Silmarillion Tolkien revisits the deeper and lasting costs of his actions in Akallabêth as we transition toward the Third Age.
 
(to be continued)