Unfinished Tales - J. R. R. Tolkien [137]
In this account, only Elros was granted a peculiar longevity, and it is said here that he and his brother Elrond were not differently endowed in the physical potential of life, but that since Elros elected to remain among the kindred of Men he retained the chief characteristic of Men as opposed to the Quendi: the ‘seeking elsewhither’, as the Eldar called it, the ‘weariness’ or desire to depart from the world. It is further expounded that the increase in the Númenórean span was brought about by assimilation of their mode of life to that of the Eldar: though they were expressly warned that they had not become Eldar, but remained mortal Men, and had been granted only an extension of the period of their vigour of mind and body. Thus (as the Eldar) they grew at much the same rate as other Men, but when they had achieved ‘full-growth’ they then aged, or ‘wore out’, very much more slowly. The first approach of ‘world-weariness’ was indeed for them a sign that their period of vigour was nearing its end. When it came to an end, if they persisted in living, then decay would proceed, as growth had done, no more slowly than among other Men. Thus a Númenórean would pass quickly, in ten years maybe, from health and vigour of mind to decrepitude and senility. In the earlier generations they did not ‘cling to life’, but resigned it voluntarily. ‘Clinging to life’, and so in the end dying perforce and involuntarily, was one of the changes brought about by the Shadow and the rebellion of the Númenóreans; it was also accompanied by a shrinking of their natural life-span.
2 See p. 280, note 26.
3 The figure of 148 (rather than 147) must represent the years of Tar-Amandil’s actual rule, and not take the notional year of Vardamir’s reign into account.
4 There is no question but that Silmarien was the eldest child of Tar-Elendil; and her birth-date is several times given as Second Age 521, while that of her brother Tar-Meneldur is fixed at 543. In the Tale of Years (Appendix B to The Lord of the Rings), however, Silmarien’s birth is given in the annal entry 548; a date that goes back to the first drafts of that text. I think it very likely that this should have been revised but escaped notice.
5 This is not in agreement with the account of the earlier and later laws of succession given on pp. 268 – 9, according to which Soronto only became Ancalimë’s heir (if she died childless) by virtue of the new law, for he was a descendant in the female line. – ‘His elder sister’ undoubtedly means ‘the elder of his two sisters’.
6 See p. 271.
7 See p. 273 and note 28 on p. 280.
8 It is curious that the sceptre passed to Tar-Telperien when Tar-Súrion had a son, Isilmo. It may well be that the succession here depends on the formulation of the new law given in The Lord of the Rings, i.e. simple primogeniture irrespective of sex (see p. 268), rather than inheritance by a daughter only if the Ruler had no son.
9 The date 1731 here given for the end of the rule of Tar-Telperien and the accession of Tar-Minastir is strangely at variance with the dating, fixed by many references, of the first war against Sauron; for the great Númenórean fleet sent by Tar-Minastir reached Middle-earth in the year 1700. I cannot in any way account for the discrepancy.
10 In the Tale of Years (Appendix B to The Lord of the Rings) occurs the entry: ‘2251 Tar-Atanamir takes the sceptre. Rebellion and division of the Númenoreans begins.’ This is altogether discrepant with the present text, according to which Tar-Atanamir died in 2221. This date 2221 is, however, itself an emendation from 2251; and his death is given elsewhere as 2251. Thus the same year appears in different texts as both the date of his accession and the date of his death; and the whole