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Would Sandra Bullock be a good Mrs. Isildur? - Page 5

© Michael Martinez

I suspect she must have been a very fore-sighted woman. If she was still having babies after the age of 200 she was probably an Elrosian, a descendant of Elros Tar-Minyatur. Although all Numenoreans were long-lived, the desendants of Elros were especially gifted, apparently living as much as 100 years longer than their countrymen. The age of 200 was pretty late in life for a non-Elrosian. And if Mrs. Isildur was an Elrosian, she probably possessed some of the foresight that ran in the royal family. She may very well have been a strong-willed woman quite capable of persuading her sons to defer marrying until some nameless time of peril had passed. Events turned out well for Isildur and his sons as far as the war went. They all survived it, though Elendil and Gil-galad were slain by Sauron at the very end. One can imagine Isildur writing home each year as the siege of Barad-dur dragged on, and Mrs. Isildur gratefully accepting the news that both husband and sons were still alive. Anarion died a year before the end of the war, and his portion of Gondor's throne passed into the hands of Meneldil. How tragic, then, must have come the news 2 or 3 years after the defeat of Sauron, when Isildur and his sons were long overdue, of the disaster of the Gladden Fields, where a small army of Orcs had overwhelmed Isildur's small guard. All those years of waiting proved fruitless after all. But now Mrs. Isildur had a son left to her, Valandil, who became High King of Arnor at the age of 20 in the year 10 of the Third Age, 8 years after his father was slain in the Vales of Anduin. Mrs. Isildur would have provided the strongest influence on her son, but one cannot help wondering if there were contentions between her and Mrs. Elendil (assuming the elder lady had survived). Elendil's wife would have been nearing the end of her life anyway, assuming she was an Elrosian. If she were not an Elrosian then she would probably have passed away before the war. Mrs. Isildur would have been one of the last true Numenoreans, then, perhaps the last, except for Meneldil. Imagine her looking upon her son as he accepted the sceptre and diadem of his grandfather and taking up rule in Annuminas. He would have been embarking upon a long and peaceful reign, full of hope, and Mrs. Isildur would have been standing in the twilight of her life. Her task, to ensure the survival of the Elrosian line, would have been complete.

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