Seeking the Wayward Children of Numenor - Page 5
© Michael Martinez
Of course, for many centuries Pelargir must have been able to depend upon support from Umbar and other Numenorean fortresses farther south. If the constant influx of peoples wasn't enough to help keep the region securely in Numenorean hands reinforcements were close by. So Pelargir must also have taken on the status of a frontier province or provincial capitol. Its importance wasn't just strategic but also political and economic. The city must have been the source of many goods which the colonists couldn't make for themselves. It should also have become a trading hub.
Emigration from Numenor need not have beeb very heavy. In fact, only a few hundred colonists need have arrived in Pelargir or Eriador a year. After many centuries the populations of both regions would have been considerably increased by Numenorean families. The half-caste families are hard to explain. Were they the descendants of concubines of conquering Numenorean warriors or powerful Numenorean lords, or were they the product of adventurers who, advancing beyond the frontiers of Numenorean colonization, took wives from among the native peoples? It seems unlikely many Numenorean women would have wandered out into the wilderness to find husbands, so the majority of the mixed families must have been started by Numenorean men.
Who were these men? Why couldn't or wouldn't they find wives among their own people? The answer must lie in part in the story of Aldarion and Erendis. He was an archetype among his people, an adventurer who couldn't quite let go of Numenor but who loved the sea and Middle-earth. Aldarion's adventures caused the failure of his marriage, and Erendis' bitterness was inherited in part by their daughter Ancalime. She put off marrying for as long as possible, until forced to make a choice by the Council of Numenor, and even then her marriage despite its fairy-tale beginnings ended in grief. And Ancalime abandoned the policies of her father, turning her back on Middle-earth.
Although Ancalime was still reigning Queen when the Numenoreans began to colonize Middle-earth, she gave up the scepter in 1280. The colonizations may have been undertaken without her blessing, and perhaps her son Anarion was a man of different mind and mood. But one possible implication of Ancalime's indifference toward or dislike of Middle-earth may be that her father's Guild of Venturers became so ill-favored they started wandering away from Numenor. The division of the Numenoreans into the Faithful and the Kings Men may have been preceded by a more subtle division into the Wanderers and the Stay-at-homes.
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