Seeking the Wayward Children of Numenor - Page 3
© Michael Martinez
Numenoreans had been settling in Middle-earth for nearly 500 years by this time. Although it's conceivable (perhaps even probable) that most of those settlements had occurred neared the Elvish lands the Numenoreans must have been devastated in the war. It would not be long (circa 1800) before Numenorean colonists became Numenorean conquerors, establishing great fortresses along the coastlines and carving out dominions.
Pelargir was founded in 2350, about 100 years after Tar-Ancalimon became King of Numenor (Tar-Atanamir took the scepter in 2251 according to the Tale of Years in LOTR, Tar-Ancalimon took it in 2221 according to the Line of Elros in -- in The Peoples of Middle-earth Christopher Tolkien shows that the LOTR entry is in error). It was in his time that the Numenoreans became divided into the Faithful and the Kings Men.
It was also in Tar-Ancalimon's time (2221-2386) that Numenor began to establish the great fortress-havens along the coasts and to extract tribute from the men of Middle-earth. The fortress of Umbar was built in the year 2280. The Nazgul had already appeared in Middle-earth in some undescribed fashion, most likely as the leaders of Sauron's armies or his emissaries.
The initial differences between the Faithful and the Kings Men must have been philosophical, differences of intellectual discourse, rather than violent. All the Numenoreans were still loyal to their king. So the establishment of Pelargir as a royal haven doesn't necessarily preclude the possibility that it was always a refuge for the Faithful. Imagine a lord of Numenor who would be sent to Pelargir to defend the Anduin and extend Numenor's protection to Edhellond. How likely was he to be one of the Kings Men, jealous and envious of the Eldar, or one of the Faithful, reverent toward the Eldar and the Valar?
The public appointment of a commander sympathetic toward the Faithful and Eldar could have sparked immediate and long-term interest in Pelargir among the Faithful. Tolkien never explains why Numenoreans would want to leave Numenor as early as the year 1200 (when they began establishing permanent colonies) but the Faithful may have wanted to get away from the bickering and gradual estrangement of the Dunedain from the Eldar.
And yet, Lond Daer Ened and Tharbad were closer to the Elves of Lindon and Imladris. If the Faithful wanted to live close to the Eldar, why didn't most of them go farther north? The answer must be that there was less room for settlement in the north. The implication of the gradual drift of the Faithful toward Pelargir is that the peoples of Eriador made a relatively swift recovery from the devastations of the War of the Elves and Sauron. Unfinished Tales indicates that Sauron overran Eriador, slaying or "driving off" most of its people. A lot of those people must have been driven across the Lhun, or into Imladris with Elrond (who is said to have gathered many Elves and Men there).
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