Unfinished Tales - J. R. R. Tolkien [133]
27 It is said elsewhere that this rule of ‘royal marriage’ was never a matter of law, but it became a custom of pride: ‘a symptom of the growth of the Shadow, since it only became rigid when the distinction between the Line of Elros and other families, in life-span, vigour, or ability, had diminished or altogether disappeared.’
28 This is strange, because Anárion was the Heir in Ancalimë’s life-time. In ‘The Line of Elros’ (p. 284) it is said only that Anárion’s daughters ‘refused the sceptre’.
III
THE LINE OF ELROS: KINGS OF NÚMENOR
from the Founding of the City of Armenelos to the Downfall
The Realm of Númenor is held to have begun in the thirty-second year of the Second Age, when Elros son of Ea¨rendil ascended the throne in the City of Armenelos, being then ninety years of age. Thereafter he was known in the Scroll of the Kings by the name of Tar-Minyatur; for it was the custom of the Kings to take their titles in the forms of the Quenya or High-elven tongue, that being the noblest tongue of the world, and this custom endured until the days of Ar-Adûnakhôr (Tar-Herunúmen). Elros Tar-Minyatur ruled the Númenóreans for four hundred years and ten. For to the Númenóreans long life had been granted, and they remained unwearied for thrice the span of mortal Men in Middle-earth; but to Ea¨rendil’s son the longest life of any Man was given, and to his descendants a lesser span, and yet one greater than to others even of the Númenóreans; and so it was until the coming of the Shadow, when the years of the Númenóreans began to wane. 1
I Elros Tar-Minyatur
He was born fifty-eight years before the Second Age began: he remained unwearied until he was five hundred years old and then laid down his life, in the year 442, having ruled for 410 years.
II Vardamir Nólimon
He was born in the year 61 of the Second Age and died in 471. He was called Nólimon for his chief love was for ancientlore, which he gathered from Elves and Men. Upon the departure of Elros, being then 381 years of age, he did not ascend the throne, but gave the sceptre to his son. He is nonetheless accounted the second of the Kings, and is deemed to have reigned one year. 2 It remained the custom thereafter until the days of Tar-Atanamir that the King should yield the sceptre to his successor before he died; and the Kings died of free will while yet in vigour of mind.
III Tar-Amandil
He was the son of Vardamir Nólimon, and he was born in the year 192. He ruled for 148 years, 3 and surrendered the sceptre in 590; he died in 603.
IV Tar-Elendil
He was the son of Tar-Amandil, and he was born in the year 350. He ruled for 150 years, and surrendered the sceptre in 740; he died in 751. He was also called Parmaitë, for with his own hand he made many books and legends of the lore gathered by his grandfather. He married late in his life, and his eldest child was a daughter, Silmarien, born in the year 521, 4 whose son was Valandil. Of Valandil came the Lords of Andúnië, of whom the last was Amandil father of Elendil the Tall, who came to Middle-earth after the Downfall. In Tar-Elendil’s reign the ships of the Númenóreans first came back to Middle-earth.
V Tar-Meneldur
He was the only son and third child of Tar-Elendil, and he was born in the year 543. He ruled for 143 years, and surrendered the sceptre in 883; he died in 942. His ‘right name’ wasÍrimon; he took his title Meneldur from his love of star-lore. He married Almarian daughter of Vëantur, Captain of Ships under Tar-Elendil. He was wise, but gentle and patient. He resigned to his son, suddenly and long before due time, as a stroke of policy, in troubles that arose, owing to the disquiet of Gil-galad in Lindon, when he first became aware that an evil spirit, hostile to Eldar and Dúnedain, was stirring in Middle-earth.
VI Tar-Aldarion
He was the eldest child and only