![]() |
|
|
|
Visit The *EVEN NEWER* Barrow-Downs Photo Page |
|
|
#14 | ||
|
Ghost Prince of Cardolan
Join Date: Aug 2012
Posts: 785
![]() ![]() |
Quote:
Quote:
As you point out WCH, the Ringwraiths appeared in 2251, thirty years into the reign of Tar-Ancalimon (2221-2386). The shadow first fell on Númenor apparently during the reign of his grandfather Tar-Ciryatan (1869-2029). The One Ring was forged c. 1600, and Sauron acquired the Nine during the War of the Elves and Sauron (1693-1701). If Sauron seized and dispensed the Nine prior to or during the reign of Tar-Ciryatan then between the War and Ciryatan's death there is a healthy time frame of 168-328 years. Perhaps the Númenórean Ringbearers might have had some influence in the descent of the shadow upon Westernesse. If I think about it, Númenóreans would in some respects be ideal people to provide with Rings: they already had abundant resources and power to turn to their advantage, and being an already longeval people, any Ring-granted longevity would be unremarkable and no cause for suspicion. That being said, Tar-Ciryatan's corruption might also have been observed by Sauron as an opportunity to put the Rings to work, rather than the Rings sowing the seeds of corruption. Indeed personally I am more inclined to support the notion that the corruption came before the Rings, as in my opinion it is more thematically effective if Sauron is the exacerbator, rather than the originator, of the darkening of Númenor. If I might touch upon the Mouth of Sauron, incidentally, I don't think it's necessarily implausible for us to imagine enclaves of Black Númenóreans surviving in certain places, deep in Harad and elsewhere. This is pure speculation. I simply don't think the Mouth of Sauron could have been both a) extremely ancient, and b) not a wraith.
__________________
"Since the evening of that day we have journeyed from the shadow of Tol Brandir." "On foot?" cried Éomer. |
||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|