Numenor, Westward Movement, and Lust for Immortality

[Aiwendil]

There are two ways to discuss the issue of west versus east: intra-Legendarium and extra-Legendarium.

Within the Legendarium, the reason for the special significance of the west is simple: it was in the west that the Valar chose to make their home after the destruction of the Lamps and Almaren. One could, I suppose, try to find some special reason for their choice of the west - but the texts give the impression that it was chosen not for some deeply significant reason. Perhaps they could just as easily have settled in the east, but needing to choose one place they chose the west. Or perhaps it so happened that the breaking of the lands that occurred during their wars with Melkor left a more suitable continent in the west.

After this, west quite naturally becomes the holy or sacred direction and east of course becomes the domain of Melkor. The Elves travelled west with the goal of reaching Valinor, and the various sunderings of the Elves therefore reflect their decisicions concerning how Valinor; some are willing to suffer whatever hardships are necessary to reach it, some will stay behind only for the sake of their beloved king, some have little or no desire to undertake the journey at all. It also happens (quite naturally) that the further west the Elves go the more contact they have with the Valar - and thus the more 'cultured' they become. A similar thing happens with Men. The Edain are the ones that chose to reject Morgoth (if you consider the Tale of Adanel) and follow the sun. Of course, the sun travels from east to west because the Valar dwell in the west. The men that come into Beleriand encounter the Noldor and Sindar, and their culture is enhanced. And it is these same western men that are given the island of Numenor, between Middle-earth and the land of the Valar.

It's quite another thing to ask why Tolkien chose west. I can offer no hard evidence here, but I have always thought it had to do with the sea. Tolkien clearly loved the sea - that much comes through very strongly in the Legendarium. And from a European perspective, west is naturally associated with the sea (just as to someone like me, who lives on the east coast of the U.S., east is the direction of the sea). If the sea is in the west (as it must be, for the familiar areas of Middle-earth are supposed to be ancient Europe) then one must associate the sea-longing that is such a powerful theme in the mythology with the west.

[Sophia the Thunder Mistress]

Well this has brought up many things already that I hadn't thought about.

davem , who is certainly not being a pest , I never connected the direction of the sun, although I don't know why. It seems so obvious now that it has been brought up. Child 's point about where the sun comes from and yours about where it goes are both interesting considerations.

Turin :

The Numenoreans were a different kettle of fish all together. They had been granted a "reward" for their part in the overthrow of Morgoth, which included a peaceful, isolated dwelling AND long life.

Part of the lure of that reward was that they would be permitted to dwell closer to Aman than any mortals before or since. I'm not 100% sure of the accuracy of this map but it does show pretty vividly how close Numenor really was to Aman. Closer even than to Beleriand.

Aiwendil, I like the idea of Tolkien's personal sea longing as partial motivation for his choice of West. I too live on the East Coast of the US (although I'm currently and temporarily stranded in the Midwest) and now that it's pointed out East is the direction I think of when I think of the sea.

I guess I'm just enamoured of the idea of pepople with a half hidden longing for Aman sailing around the world westard and never reaching it.

Sophia

[drigel]

Interesting thread. I wonder if the original motivation towards the west was:

Was the west so great, or perhaps it was just that the east (or mid-east) was not so very great?

Concerning Europe / migration: If you partake of the radiation theory out of Africa, once one clears the meditteranian/black sea, consider the joy one would feel, contemplating the west and the open opportunity (neanderthals aside) that the vistas of the west would present...

[davem]

Originally Posted by Child

But then why did Tolkien place Aman there? Just a practical thing, a convenient space to fill on the map across the ocean, or something more? Is there anything about "east" and "west" in the land of faerie, or the old Northern legends?

There is the land of Hy Brasil in Celtic myth: http://www.fionabroome.com/history/hybrasil.htm & http://www.islomania.com/brazil/

Of course, the east is the place of the arising of the light, but the west is the place of its death & subsequent passage into the Underworld.

I suspect what we're dealing with is Tolkien's original intent to create a myth for England. In North western mythology 'paradise' has always been in the West, because its the place the sun goes to 'die'. The east is the direction of the birth of the Light - well, of its re-birth, its 'resurrection'. As Child says East is the direction light comes from, but West is the place it goes to, its destination, its home.

I can think of no other reason for Tolkien to choose the West originally, when he could have placed his Earthly Paradise anywhere. He was attempting to recreate what had been all but lost. Some traditions did survive, & one was that Paradise was to be found in the far West, the Land of the Setting Sun. Certainly we find at the beginning of Beowulf the funeral of Scyld - sent off across the sea (into the West, obviously) - who had appeared out of the West as a child :

Still hale on the day ordained for his journey,
Scyld went to dwell with the World's Warder.
His liegemen bore his bier to the beach:
so he had willed while wielding his words
as lord of the land, beloved by all.
With frost on its fittings, a lordly longboat
rode in the harbor, ring-bowed and ready.
They placed their prince, the gold-giver,
the famous man at the foot of the mast,
in the hollow hull heaped with treasures
from far-off lands. I have not heard another
ship ever sailed more splendidly stocked
with war-weapons, arms and armor.
About his breast the booty was strewn,
keepsakes soon to be claimed by the sea.
So he'd been sent as a child chosen
to drift on the deep. The Danes now returned
treasures no less than those they had taken,
and last they hoisted high overhead
a golden banner as they gave the great one
back to the Baltic with heavy hearts
and mournful minds. Though clever in council
or strong under sky, men cannot say
or know for certain who landed that shipload.

In other words, Tolkien seems to have chosen the West for the location of paradise because that's where Tradition placed it....

[littlemanpoet]

Tolkien was enamored of the tale of St. Brendan, which is wrapped up in the Hy Brasil myth, as davem points out.

There is also Tolkien's Atlantis "nightmare", dream, what have you - the green wave - from which derives his Numenor mythology.

Both these legends have to do with western seas.

It is interesting to me that the one exception (in the First Age) is the coming of the Noldor, Eastwards, out of the West. The Numenoreans are the second instance (though not an exception, having arrived from the West to establish empire in the 2nd age, not the 1st).

Historically, the oldest civilizations are in the Far East. Population growth has been enormous there compared to the west (such as Europe) for thousands of years. Since before the Roman Empire, there has been pressure on barbaric tribes to push westwards. Why Europe never developed Empire until after the medieval era, may have much to do with the land being good and the people being relatively stable (if not content) with their lot.

[Sophia the Thunder Mistress]

I never thought of the return of the Noldor or the flight of the Numenoreans as contrary to the pattern of the highest races moving westward. The Noldor and the Numenoreans are both in mid-fall, one might even say at their lowest points (after the Kinslaying and the Rebellion of Ar-Pharazon) when they head Eastward. And after their Eastward journey both races go into a decline and never reachieve their former glory.

Did I misunderstand you, though, LMP?

Sophia

[Encaitare]

Just a small thought pertaining to something davem said earlier, about ancient cultures seeing the path of the sun as a life cycle:

The ancient Egyptians viewed the sun's path as such; they believed that the sun god Ra was born every morning and died every night. Therefore, they viewed west as the direction of the dead, and so they built all their pyramids and tombs on the west bank of the Nile. But, they also believed that they would never truly die since they were going to have this wonderful afterlife... perhaps their very own "version" of the Undying Lands?