Numenor

Numenor, also called Westernesse, was a great island kingdom of Men in the Second Age of Middle-earth, raised from the sea by the Valar as a gift to the Edain, the Men who had aided the Elves against Morgoth in the wars of the Elder Days. There the Numenoreans, the Dúnedain, grew into the mightiest and most noble race of Men, blessed with long life, great wisdom, and surpassing skill, before pride and the fear of death led them to ruin in the cataclysm called the Downfall of Numenor.

Numenor lies at the root of the histories of Gondor and Arnor, for it was Numenorean exiles, led by Isildur and his father Elendil, who founded those realms after the island's destruction. The legacy of Numenor, its blood, its grandeur, and its tragedy, runs through The Lord of the Rings.

Geography

Numenor was a great star-shaped island in the Sea, west of Middle-earth and east of the Undying Lands, set apart so that the Numenoreans dwelt within sight of neither shore but nearer the blessed West than any other mortals. At its center rose the holy mountain Meneltarma, the Pillar of Heaven, sacred to Eru, the One. The chief city and haven was Armenelos, and the great port of Rómenna lay on the eastern coast, facing Middle-earth. A ban was laid upon the Numenoreans that they might not sail west out of sight of their own shores toward the Undying Lands.

History

The Numenoreans flourished for long ages, becoming great mariners and builders who sailed to the coasts of Middle-earth, where the lesser Men revered them. But as their power grew, so did their fear of death and their envy of the immortal Elves and Valar. The later kings turned against the ban and against the Elves, and fell under the corrupting counsel of Sauron, whom they had taken captive but who became the master of their king Ar-Pharazôn. At Sauron's urging, Ar-Pharazôn led a great armada west to assail the Undying Lands and seize immortality by force. In answer Eru drowned Numenor beneath the sea, swallowing the island and its people, and the world was made round so that the Undying Lands were removed from it.

Only the Faithful, the Numenoreans who had kept faith with the Valar and the Elves, were saved: Elendil and his sons Isildur and Anárion escaped with their ships and founded the realms of Gondor and Arnor in Middle-earth.

Legacy

From the survivors of Numenor descend the Dúnedain of the North and South, and through them the line of kings that culminates in Aragorn. The grandeur, the long lives, and the works of stone of Gondor are the inheritance of drowned Numenor, the memory of a glory lost through pride.