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A History of the Last Alliance of Elves and Men, Part 3 - Page 2

© Michael Martinez

The Silmarillion, p. 267. "Yet Sauron was ever guileful, and it is said that three were great lords of Numenorean race." Since Sauron did not visit Numenor prior to his "imprisonment" there, he would have had to seduce the three Numenoreans in Middle-earth. It is interesting that he was able to do this relatively soon after the War of the Elves and Sauron. Perhaps they were already quite old for their race when they accepted the Rings. Unfinished Tales (p. 221) indicates that the Shadow first fell on Numenor in the days of Tar-Atanamir, but his father Tar-Ciryatan was the first "willful" king, and his entry in "The Line Of Elros" suggests the Shadow may have fallen on Numenor in his time. So, it may be that the Numenoreans were becoming uncomfortable with their mortality by the time of the War of the Elves and Sauron, and so three aging Numenorean lords could be easily seduced by Sauron.

The Silmarillion., pp. 269-70. "...For Pharazon son of Gimilkhad...had fared often abroad, as a leader in the wars that the Numenoreans made then in the coastlands of Middle-earth...For he had learned in Middle-earth of the strength of the realm of Sauron, and of his hatred of Westernesse. And now there came to him the masters of ships and captains returning out of the East, and they reported that Sauron was putting forth his might, since Ar-Pharazon had gone back from Middle-earth, and he was pressing down upon the cities by the coasts...."

Ibid., p. 290. "...There [Sauron] found that the power of Gil-galad had grown great in the years of his absence, and it was spread now over wide regions of the north and west, and had passed beyond the Misty Mountains and the Great River even to the borders of Greenwood the Great, and was drawing nigh to the strong places where once he had dwelt secure."

Unfinished Tales, p. 264. "...Later [the Glanduin], with the Gwathlo formed by its confluence with the Mitheithel, formed the southern boundary of the North Kingdom."

The Silmarillion says that Elendil's "people dwelt in many places in Eriador about the courses of the Lhun and the Baranduin; but his chief city was at Annuminas beside the water of Lake Nenuial. At Fornost upon the North Downs also the Numenoreans dwelt, and in Cardolan, and in the hills of Rhudaur..." (pp. 290-1).

Unfinished Tales, p. 264. "...Before the decay of the North Kingdom...both kingdoms shared an interest in [Enedwaith], and together built and maintained the Bridge of Tharbad and the long causeways that carried the road to it on either side of the Gwathlo and Mitheithel across the fens in the plains of Minhiriath and Enedwaith...."

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