Which Characters Appear In The Fall Of Numenor Book?

Question

Spoiler-free please! New to 'The Fall of Númenor' collection and wondering who besides Elendil and the kings shows up from Second Age lore.

amy · Answer

This book is a collection of J.R.R. Tolkien’s notes and stories from the Second Age of wrintings, edited by his son Christopher. It doesn’t have any original characters, but rather features the legendary figures such as Sauron, the rulers of the Numenorean Kings such as Ar-Pharazôn, and the Elves such as Gil-galad. For a story with defined characters set in a fallen kingdom, ‘Claimed by the Fallen King’ is a good choice, a fantasy romance where a human scholar is forced to be transported to a long abandoned kingdom, and her relationship with the brooding, immortal King of the place becomes the core of the story as she tries to survive in the hostile environment while navigating the complex politics of the kingdom.

Genesis Boniita Velasquez · Answer

Actually, the unknown millions of farmers, of sailors, of artists would have been the most interesting, for they were led by their kings down the dark path of worship of the Falling Star. The book focuses on the kings and the powerful, of course. But these individuals are all members of the Faithful (as opposed to the Servants of the Dark). The only people in the book who appear to care whether any but their own family and followers are saved are the members of The Faithful.

There’s also something more terrible: in leading his own pride and conceit to destroy himself and his people Ar-Pharazôn brought about their spiritual and physical downfall. Sauron’s corruption was not of a single court but of an entire culture, and the tragedy of the downfall of the kings was not just their own demise but the destruction of an entire world. These are the ‘characters’ of the history of Númenor, the people who brought about an apocalypse, and even the dry genealogies of the kings have behind them the fate of millions of nameless others, each king plunging deeper into the abyss with every step.

José Luis Mendoza · Answer

I actually found the compilation of various drafts by the author more interesting than the ‘ultimate’ version of his characters. Sometimes, when he was playing around with various names for characters, he would throw in a completely different personality for one of the kings of Numenor, for example, Elendil. You can clearly see how each character played various roles in the tragedy that occurred. I found all these ‘phantom characters’ as fascinating as the actual characters in the end. They come from his various discarded ideas about how he could have developed characters in his foundational story.

However, in terms of establishing the plot for the singular, fixed narrative, five characters suffice as the pillar of the story. A proud king, a deceiver, a faithful lord, a tragic queen, and two surviving sons make up a perfect dramatic pentagon. Their actions and interactions are few and very world-changing: a king listens to a deceiver over the advice of the faithful; a king brings about the doom of a queen through his actions; two sons escape to continue the line of their father, bearing the hope for the future of their people. This is a very simple and very powerful story structure that has influenced scores of other fantasy stories.

Hannah · Answer

A fabulous collection of characters, famous and less so, to explore one of the most dramatic periods in the Second Age of the world of Tolkien – ‘The Fall of Númenor’. This edition features the Númenórean rulers, the rulers of the land of Gifted Men before they were corrupted by Sauron and led into revolt against the Valar. We meet Tar-Palantir, the wise, fairefully crowned king who ruled for over 200 years and attempted to restore the Faith in the Valar among his people before his death. We also meet his daughter, Tar-Míriel who is nice and can be very sad as she never returns to Númenor. We also learn about the role of Ar-Pharazôn, King of Númenor and how he mistakenly conquered Sauron in order to become the King of Kings. It shows how Sauron disguised himself as an advisor and was secretly pulling the strings in order to destroy them.

On the side of the Faithful are Elendil, the noble leader of the exiles, and his two sons, Isildur and Anárion. Gil-galad the elf-lord is also mentioned, fighting against Sauron in the War of the Last Alliance with Elendil. It is also nice to read about lesser-known characters such as Amandil, the last Lord of Andúnië, and his son Elendil. As always the book contains lots of references to the other Valar: Manwë and Ulmo for example, play a part in the events that unfold leading to the catastrophic end of Númenor.

I note that this particular volume also includes some of the figures from the earlier stages of the Númenoreans, such as the mariner Voronwë of the unfinished Dolly Wanderkid’s People Aboard Ship story. He, along with the others, completes the convolutions of Tolkien’s completed and mythological world in favor of his characters.

Zachary · Answer

'The Fall of Númenor' is a wonderful collection of stories from the Second Age. There are many fantastic characters included in the book. Gil-galad, the great elf-lord, is included in the story as he tries to rally the peoples of Middle-earth against the dark lord Sauron. The story of the last king of Númenor, Ar-Pharazôn, and how his pride brought down the island is heart-wrenching. Also included are Elendil and his two sons, Isildur and Anárion, who escaped from the destruction of Númenor and went on to found the kingdoms of Arnor and Gondor. Sauron is, of course, the main antagonist of the story, manipulating the Númenóreans into worshiping the long-lost Lord of Darkness, Morgoth. The book also includes many lesser-known characters, such as the rightful queen Tar-Míriel who was usurped by Ar-Pharazôn and Elendil's father, Amandil, who tried to warn his people of the danger that Sauron posed. Each of the characters brings their own story to the fall of Númenor and it is a rich tapestry of tales.

Ririn Yani · Answer

The cast of the special people in this story goes on and on. To even try to explain this would require a huge diagram to show all the relationships between all the characters, but we can start with the top. There is Eru Ilúvatar (God) and the Valar (angel-like “powers” to help Ilúvatar). They set up the rules for the Numenoreans: don’t sail to the Undying Lands. The story follows the history of the Numenoreans, a special people who were given long life. They are told through the history of their kings and queens, some more developed than others. First, there was Elros, founder of the special people, a half-elf. Then there was Tar-Minyatur, same character, just with a different title. Most of the rest of the kings fall into the “medium development” category, and most of them progressively turned away from theTrue King as the story went on. Some of the late middle kings and queens are Tar-Atanamir who openly rebelled against the Ban of the Undying Lands, Ar-Gimilzôr who was intensely persecutory of the Faithful, and his opposite, Ar-Pharazôn who invaded the Undying Lands challenging Ilúvatar himself.

Tar-Míriel is the rival/queen to Ar-Pharazôn. However, the great and heroic Lords of Andúnië make very good counterpoints, especially as they are the hereditary rulers of the Faithful. First of these Lords is Valandil, then Amandil and his son Elendil. Later heroes are Isildur and Anárion, Elendil’s sons, who saved the White Tree sapling from destruction. And of course the great antagonist, Sauron, who corrupted the Numenorean kings to his own ends. (The mysterious and山volt Nazgûl, though, are described in the Númenorean annals as if they had been kings of Men long prior, but in fact they were corrupted in this same period as the others.)

Tyler · Answer

This book is full of Tolkien’s wonderful characters, and the principal characters in The Fall of Númenor are all of great interest. Chief among them is Ar-Pharazôn, the powerful King of Númenor, who, because he is afraid of dying, rebels against the Valar and attempts to take the Ring for himself. He is opposed by Sauron, who arrives in Númenor as a prisoner, but quickly becomes the powerful dark lord behind Ar-Pharazôn’s back. He is opposed by Elendil and his two sons, Isildur and Anárion, who escape from the island as it sinks into the depths of the sea in the third act of the book.

Another figure featured in the book is the rightful Queen of Númenor, Tar-Míriel, who attempts to return to Aman on Tol Eressëa in a heart-wrenching attempt to return to the Holy Land. Also featured is the High King of the Elves, Gil-galad, who in the actual book joins forces with Elendil to battle Sauron. This book further highlights the travail of less featured characters such as Amandil who sails to the West in a last desperate attempt to persuade the Valar to save his people from themselves. Even the Valar themselves make an appearance at the End, refashioning the world after the tragic Downfall of Númenor in The Fall of Númenor.

Vanessa Alaniz · Answer

As this is a back-story to Aragorn’s heritage I will try to keep the characters straight. Elendil, the tall wise king, and his two sons, Isildur and Anárion, escape the sinking of Numenor and travel to Middle-earth where they establish kingdoms and Elendil sets up Arnor in the north. Isildur is famous for cutting the One Ring from Sauron’s finger but failing to destroy it. Anárion establishes Gondor in the south and is killed defending the city in the War of the Last Alliance.

The ancestors of these Kings and Queens were the Lords of Andúnië, part of the Faithful in NUMENOR, fighting against Sauron who corrupted King Ar-Pharazôn. Thus “The Fall of Numenor” is the origin story of the bloodline that leads to Aragorn and at the same time tells the story of the noble Men of the West and of their decline. The other Kings and Queens of Numenor just tell the history of how they sank into unrighteousness, which was then expelled by Elendil and his followers. This history leads in a direct line to the characters of the Lord of the Rings.

mdys09 · Answer

A curious point regarding the names of kings is that the “good” kings of the early dynasties all have names beginning with Tar- (e.g. Tar-Minyatur). Their “corrupt” successors all have names beginning with Ar- (e.g. Ar-Pharazôn). One might almost say that the early kings of Númenor had “Elvish” names, Quenya-influenced, while the later kings of Númenor had “Adûnaic” or purely human names. The characters’ names are part of the story, and even the king list gives a clear impression of moral decline as one moves from the lofty, Elvish-sounding Tar-Elendil to the harsh, proud Ar-Pharazôn.

This is particularly clear with the Lords of Andúnië, the Faithful. They are the men of the old blood, and they are named in the old fashion: Elendil the Elf-friend (Star-lover), Isilmír with his Quenya name, and the others as well. Thus we see that the King’s Men and the Faithful are two distinct groups, two distinct cultures, and the difference is even seen in their naming: it is a banner by which they can be identified. Of course Sauron has many names, but I can well imagine him to be referred to in Numenor by his fair form and a complimentary title or two.

Jonathan Villagomez · Answer

Honestly, my first attempt to read the 'Akallabeth' was not very successful as I got hopelessly confused between all the Tar- and Ar- names (a family tree or appendix would have helped much here). So in the end I settled for the following people: Elros (the starting point of the story), Tar-Atanamir (the turning point), Ar-Gimilzôr (the increased persecution), Ar-Pharazôn (the end). Then there is the line of the Faithful: Silmariën (important for the line of Andúnië but not involved in the fall itself) and the Lords of Andúnië leading up to Amandil and Elendil. Elendil's two sons Isildur and Anárion founded Gondor and Arnor.

Sauron is the nasty character in the late stages of Numenor. Tar-Míriel is the tragic queen of the Dúnedain. The rest are either an antecedent king who has little to do with the slide into sin of the king and his men or groups of characters such as the King’s Men, the Faithful, the Valar, etc and the various groups of colonists from Numenor. It is a very dense read but the climax with Ar-Pharazôn’s great armada, Sauron’s behind-the-scenes manipulation, the calling down of Eru to make the world round and the subsequent fall of the kingdom is very powerful. The characters, though not greatly psychologically developed are very memorable icons in this landscape.

Maria Edlyn Tolentino Hernandez · Answer

And then there is “Aldarion and Erendis”, another early story by Tolkien, often included in volumes related to Numenor. This takes place long before the Numenor of “The Akallabeth” and features entirely different characters: Aldarion, a prince of Numenor who loves the sea; his wife Erendis; their daughter Ancalimë, who becomes the first Ruling Queen of Númenor; and her grandfather Tar-Meneldur, king of Numenor when Aldarion was a young man. The story is a domestic drama, and in fact a tragic one, but it offers a unique glimpse into the lives of the Numenoreans before the Shadow fell, and how the conflict between the lovers reflects a growing conflict between those who wish to go to sea and explore and those who wish to stay on the island.

The two groups of characters are separated by centuries. The early, somewhat novelistic characters of ‘Aldarion and Erendis’ are brought face to face with the mythic-historical figures of the ‘Akallabeth’, who witnessed the fall of their nation to an all-consuming single-mindedness. The contrast is wonderful, and brings home the tragedy of Numenor’s downfall all the more.

Pinky FranciscoRey · Answer

That’s a whole lot of heavy stuff for a simple fantasy story about hobbits, even kings and their drownings and the nature of God to reshape the world. I want to go back to a simple story about hobbits and have a second breakfast and go for a walk in the Shire to recover from all this heavy reading.

Which Characters Appear In The Fall Of Numenor Book?

12 Answers

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