Numenor and the British Empire
 

Tolkien lived through the height of the British Empire right through to its fall. I was just thinking that do you think, or is there any evidence in any of his letters that this may have influenced his idea of Numenor, a mighty empire that had fallen by the time of LotR.
I have searched the forums for any past posts but they all seem to concern WW2 or Gandalf as Jesus. But if any of you have any info on this topic i would be most grateful

The story of Númenor and its fall are inspired, at least in part, by the legend of Atlantis. To the best of my knowledge Tolkien intended no reference to the British empire, although his opinions about imperialism in general are clear from this extract from one of his letters, written not long after the German surrender in 1945:

(at the time Christopher Tolkien was serving in the Royal Air Force).

In another letter he said
In this case at least the great island nation that founds an empire owes more to Plato than twentieth-century geopolitics.

This will no doubt be answered more completely by someone else, but Tolkien intended originally that Britain be represented in a physical sense by the island Tol Eressea (see BoLT2). In later years, as I understand it, The Shire of the Hobbits came to represent England culturally as Tolkien fleshed out his mythology.

If ME is intended to represent Europe, that analogy cannot be- Britain hever conquered much of Europe, while Numenor settled all over the coasts of ME.

On a side note, I'm now a Wight.

Good point, while i dont think Numenor was a direct representation of the British Empire it could well be that an island kingdom that ruled 1/4 of the world may have influenced the creation of an island kingdom that ruled a large part of m/e in his fiction.

Hmm that's an interesting and thought-provoking comparison.

No it couldn't. Tolkien didn't like the British empire. He based Númenor on the vast island kingdom of Atlantis, as described in two of Plato's dialogues, Timaeus and Criteas. Atlantis was an island continent that ruled territory on both sides of the ocean that bears its name. If nothing else, the manner of Númenor's fall in the Akallabêth is an obvious reference to the earlier myth. The only similarity with Britain is the establishment of a maritime empire, but this is clearly a coincidence.

Not only is Númenor more like Atlantis than Britain, but also Tolkien specifically cites the myth as his inspiration. He refers to Anadûnê as "the great 'Atlantis' isle" and "Númenor-Atlantis" in letter #131, and in letter #154 he says: Númenor is not even remotely based on the British empire, being a version of the Atlantis myth. Tolkien says so. End of discussion.

Just as compelling is the fact that in the Akallabeth, one of the names ascribed to Numenor is 'Atalante'.