Unfinished Tales - Part Two - I - A Description of the Island of Númenor

[Estelyn Telcontar]

This brief chapter begins with a typically Tolkienish explanation, as if the documents were actual historical objects. A description follows, which explains the map on the first page in some detail.

The description of the mountain Meneltarma includes some fascinating (because rare) bits of information on Númenorean worship. Some of the following information concerns the nature of the land and its use, and a long paragraph is devoted to trees. Of the animals mentioned, birds are most important, though horses were also present, mostly for transportation.

Metal-working was apparently the most important of the crafts. And as to be expected of an insular people, the love of the Númenoreans for the Sea is told in the final paragraph.

One of the aspects of this chapter that I noticed in particular was the abundance of beautiful names for places, objects and persons.

What strikes you as the most interesting reason for reading this chapter? Or do you skip it and move on to more fascinating stories? Would you have enjoyed visiting the island or even living there?

[Inziladun]

I personally find this chapter essential for a better understanding and enrichment of all the Númenor-based stories.

The mention of the customs involving the worship rituals on the Meneltarma is what I find most interesting; it serves as a contrast for the later Sauron-cult practiced by the King's Men, and illustrates the fall of the Dúnedain that much more clearly.

It's also fascinating to note that mallorns were found in Númenor, and were given in gift to Gil-galad, who in turn gave them to Galadriel. I wonder if that was in Galadriel's mind when she later showed such favour later to Aragorn, Elendil's Heir.

The Númenóreans were fond of fish and seafood, a matter on which I would entirely agree.

Overall Númenor, from its settlement until the coming of the Shadow, seems to have been a pretty desirable place to live.

[Galin]

As an aside: I actually tried to work out the concept of mallorn-trees not growing in Lindon, as it might be applied to the fuller history of Nerwende Artanis (somewhat vague as it is).

I found it somewhat problematic

[Galadriel55]

What I've always wondered about is why make Numenor specifically in the shape of a star? From the POV of the characters (the Valar), the "rules" of ME, and the author? Does anyone have some information or elaboration on this bit of symbolism?

[Inziladun]

Originally Posted by Galadriel55

What I've always wondered about is why make Numenor specifically in the shape of a star? From the POV of the characters (the Valar), the "rules" of ME, and the author? Does anyone have some information or elaboration on this bit of symbolism?

Well, the island was raised from the ocean bottom by Ossë. The fact that the Edain were guided to it by the Star of Eärendil could certainly have been a factor in the basic shape of the land; maybe a deliberate effort to symbolize the faith that had gotten them there in the hopes they would not forget it.

[Dilettante]

I also found the subject of the worship of the Numenoreans most interesting. What specifically struck me was that there were no images, temples, or even standing stones on Meneltarma, save where the Eagles of Manwe perched. At least, as it says, "until the coming of Sauron." That hints that, in turning away the Numenoreans from the Eru and the Valar, Sauron brought idolatry to Numenor.

Speaking of beautiful names, what impressed me most was the names of the trees listed. Especially Yavannamire, which must have had beautiful fruit. I had forgotten, since it has been a nearly eight years since I last read this, that the Mallorn of Lorien were a gift from Numenor. I had always had it stuck in my head they were in Lorien first.

Also of interest was the fact that horses of Numenor were trained to hear and answer calls at a great distance, and where there was great love between men and women and their favorite steeds they could be summoned by thought.

Would I have enjoyed visiting or living there? From the descriptions, if I happened upon Numenor, I don't think I would ever want to leave! It almost seems like the Valar gave the men of Numenor the closest thing to paradise they could make for mortals.

[Galadriel55]

Originally Posted by Dilettante

I also found the subject of the worship of the Numenoreans most interesting.

Personally, I didn't find it so. It was nice to know the customs of the Numenorians, but I really don't like religion and Tolkien being mixed together. I'm not talking about allegories; this is direct mention. I never liked the passages that get into theology and/or worship. I still like the Ainulindale at the beginning of The Sil for other reasons, but it bothers me because of "exess of god".

[Galin]

Originally Posted by Dilettante

(...) I had forgotten, since it has been a nearly eight years since I last read this, that the Mallorn of Lorien were a gift from Numenor. I had always had it stuck in my head they were in Lorien first.

It was Tolkien's original idea that the Mallorn-trees were in Lothlorien from very early on. And one of the 'problems' I find with the new idea is that, in the later history of Galadriel and Celeborn, they do not take up permanent abode in Lorien until after Amroth's death...

... but Cerin Amroth had mallorn-trees. While the matter isn't inexplicable it does make one wonder just when and why Galadriel introduced the Mallorn-trees in Lothlorien -- and yet not in other places (including where her grand-nephew, the High King, had tried to get them to grow originally).

[Formendacil]

Despite its brevity and the fact that it isn't properly a tale at all, I think that "A Description of the Island of Númenor" is one of the absolutely key pieces in Unfinished Tales. In terms of factual information, it gives us more information about the culture and geography of Númenor than any other, with the exception of "Aldarion and Erendis," which I think can justifiably be called its companion piece.

The basic story of Númenor is one that we get rather fully in the Appendices--by contrast to anything from the First Age which had to wait until after Tolkien's death to be fleshed out for the fans--and then we get another, slightly fuller, treatment in the Akallabêth. As a major tragedy in Middle-earth's history, the fall of Númenor is perhaps the most important tale in setting up the world of The Lord of the Rings, even more so perhaps than the untold tale of the Last Alliance of Elves and Men. Nonetheless, Númenóreans can come off quite proud and unlikable from the other sources that focus chiefly on the fall and on the role that royalty played therein. At best, we imagine the Númenóreans as proto-Aragorns, but more distantly, without the closeness of Strider-in-Bree. It's easy to think that maybe Middle-earth was better off by forcing these wannabe Elves to have to hobnob in Bree.

I say "we," but maybe that's just "me." In any case, if you can see the temptation to see the Númenóreans that way, then "A Description" is an absolutely important piece for showing just what it is that the Númenóreans fell from, this description, chiefly showing Númenor in its early days before the Fall, does that well. With descriptions of forests, agriculture, shepherding fields, and simple, pre-templar worship, the early Númenóreans feel a lot more "real" to me, and a lot closer to "Bree" than before, which is presumably as it should be: Númenor was a gift to the most noble of Men, where they were supposed to enjoy as close a situation to paradise as those under the Gift of the Death can. We aren't supposed to just feel that Ar-Pharazôn got what he deserved and that the Dúnedain are better off with Hobbits in their lives; we're also supposed to feel the longing for something wondrous that was lost that the Exiled Dúnedain feel.

On another topic completely, I rather disagree with Galadriel55 about mixing religion and Tolkien, but I almost certainly come from a different "real world" paradigm. Nonetheless, insofar as religion has played an important role in the life of most (real) human cultures, it makes Númenor feel real to have it and it's understated enough that it doesn't seem (to me) incongruent with its silence in The Lord of the Rings; certainly, it's no "Athrabeth."

[Dilettante]

Most people I know would pass over this chapter thinking "That's not very interesting, who cares what Numenor looks like?" It is certainly their loss if they do. This chapter adds so much to the rest of the story that it is almost essential. Case in point the Numenorians themselves, they can't seem to get over the fact that they are exiles and were once so much more than they are. Aragorn lived some 4,000 years after the Downfall yet they still refer to themselves as Numenoreans, Dunedain, rather than just regular men. There is no chance that they will ever, ever go back but they still consider themselves exiles. That is quite pointless until you get a sense, as seen in this chapter, of what they left behind really was. Essentially, they had paradise on earth and were the greatest men that ever would live, so certainly hundreds of generations later their descendants who never saw Numenor would claim to be from it.

I too like the idea of religion in Middle-earth. Most people in the world are religious in some form or another, and to have an idea of a structured religion (rather than just the occasional passing reference to the sky gods) makes imaginary worlds and lands seem all that more real.

Speaking of gifts to the most noble of men, this may be a topic for a later chapter discussion but I will risk mentioning it here. There is a passing mention of the king's sword and the footnote mentions Aranruth, which is the sword of Thingol, the Ring of Barahir, and several other relics of the past that belonged to the elder days. I find it interesting that practically all of these relics, though some belonged to elves and others to men, ended up being inherited by the Numenoreans, the Edain rather than the Eldar. Common sense would state the things of such high value would be in the hands of the Elder ones rather than the Younger.

[Faramir Jones]

Although the 'Description' is short, nine pages long in my edition of Unfinished Tales if one also includes the map and footnotes, I think it's the key to understanding everything written about Númenor. All I had about that island at first were the few pages in Appendix A of The Lord of the Rings. Then there was the 'Akallabêth' from The Silmarillion, which filled in that very brief story. However, I still had no proper idea about what that island kingdom looked and sounded like, until I read the 'Description', and used it as a key, not just to what I'd read before, but also to the other relevant tales in Unfinished Tales: 'Aldarion and Erendis' and 'The Line of Elros'.

I could now imagine where all these events happened, as well as their context, something important (and previously lacking) because of Tolkien's emphasis on places and names in his works.

The 'Description' is tantalising but oh so brief, giving the reader a glimpse of so much that was lost in the Downfall. If it is added to all the other pieces on Númenor I already mentioned, the total would still be very small for such a large and influential civilisation that lasted for 3287 years. A good comparison would be if that same small amount of information was all that survived of the history of the Roman state, from its founding in 753 BC to the Fall of Constantinople in AD 1453, a period of 2206 years.

The preface of the work sets this tone of loss, saying that the survivors of the Downfall in Middle-earth and their descendants 'never even after long ages ceased to regard themselves as in measure exiles'. There are references to the many works about the island that perished, the 'Description' being presumably the compilation of the surviving fragments.

We have a map and a physical description of the island, with the names of places, the most important being the Meneltarma, 'sacred' to the worship of Eru, where the King spoke 3 times a year. Tolkien was seemingly influenced by Judaism in this portrayal of Númenorean religion. In a letter of 4th November 1954 to Father Robert Murray S.J., he said that the Númenoreans were 'like the Jews (only more so) with only one physical centre of 'worship''. (Letters, Letter 156, p. 204) He later said to Rhona Beare in a letter of 14th October 1958 that the later Númenoreans of Gondor were in their theology 'Hebraic and even more puritan'. (Ibid., Letter 211, p. 281)

Between two of the roots of the Meneltarma was the 'Valley of the Tombs', where the Kings and Queens of Númenor were buried. When I read this, I thought of the Valley of the Kings in ancient Egypt. This was correct; because Tolkien in his already mentioned letter to Rhona Beare said that the Númenoreans of Gondor were 'best pictured in (say) Egyptian terms. In many ways they resembled 'Egyptians' - the love of, and power to construct. And their great interest in tombs'. (Ibid., p. 281) This would seem to have also been the case for their ancestors.

I loved the descriptions of and names for the trees, including malinornë, and the same for the birds. Also the fact that such was the love of some men and women for their horses that they could summon the latter by thought alone.

The mention of the royal heirlooms was interesting, with the sad mention that only one survived the Downfall.

As Dilettante correctly says, it was obviously the nearest thing to an ideal place for humans to live in its early days, though, as 'Aldarion and Erendis' shows, the basic human emotions remained the same. Tolkien, commenting on that story, in relation to childbirth, said this:

And though childbirth had less of ills and peril, Númenor was not an 'earthly paradise', and the weariness of labour or of all making was not taken away. (Unfinished Tales, 'Aldarion and Erendis', p. 207)

I also agree with Dilettante that the 'Description' explains why the Númenoreans, millennia after the Downfall, still harked back to that place and time as a kind of 'golden age'.

When I read this piece, I keep thinking of William Wordsworth's 1802 'Ode on the Extinction of the Venetian Republic', about the great Italian maritime republic, which went into a long decline, and was ended by Napoleon in 1797.

ONCE did she hold the gorgeous East in fee;
And was the safeguard of the West: the worth
Of Venice did not fall below her birth,
Venice, the eldest Child of Liberty.
She was a maiden City, bright and free; 5
No guile seduced, no force could violate;
And, when she took unto herself a mate,
She must espouse the everlasting Sea.
And what if she had seen those glories fade,
Those titles vanish, and that strength decay; 10
Yet shall some tribute of regret be paid
When her long life hath reach'd its final day:
Men are we, and must grieve when even the Shade
Of that which once was great is pass'd away.

Obviously, Númenor and the Venetian Republic had significant differences, the former ever rising in power, though most of its people and kings had turned to evil, before being ended by divine wrath, while the latter went into a long decline, before its ending by a mortal conqueror.

However, I think that lines 1-3 at the beginning, and lines 11-14 at the end can evoke Númenor, the first part its earthly power, which even the Faithful admired, the second the sadness at its passing felt by the survivors and those who knew them.

[Guinevere]

I haven't much to add to what everybody else already mentioned.
I love maps and descriptions and so of course didn't pass over this chapter. Like Esty wrote I was also struck by the abundance of all the invented beautiful names of places and especially trees and even birds, so typical for Tolkien the Philologist and lover of trees and nature. ( I have the same interest and so I have learned many names of plants and trees in English while reading LotR. I know people that pass over those, but I looked them all up in the dictionary!!)

Concerning the interesting story of how the Mallorn trees came to Lorien, I now wonder at Haldir's words to the Fellowship in the LotR:

"It would be a poor life in a land where no mallorn grew. But if there are mallorn-trees beyond the Great Sea, none have reported it."

As an island "raised from the Sea" it seems logical to me that Númenor must be of volcanic origin, and Meneltarma with its flattened and depressed top an extinct volcano.(Though the island is much larger than any volcanic islands I can think of.) If I remember rightly, in the Akallabeth it is mentioned that smoke and fire emerged from the Meneltarma right before the downfall, so apparently it was only slumbering and not extinct!

I personally wasn't put off by the description of the Númenorean worship of Eru, but found it fascinating. The quotes from Tolkien's letters that Faramir Jones gave are very enlightening!

[Galin]

Originally Posted by Guinevere

Concerning the interesting story of how the Mallorn trees came to Lorien, I now wonder at Haldir's words to the Fellowship in the LotR:

Part of the reason I say that Tolkien's original idea was that the Mallorn-trees existed in Lothlorien, and did not begin to flourish there only under Galadriel's influence.

Although it's strange, Robert Foster, for example (Guide to Middle-earth) noted that there also seemed to be mallorn-trees in Eldamar -- which appears, considering his choice of term here, to be based on Galadriel's song in The Lord of the Rings, which references a golden tree.

Foster's updated guide (updated after the Silmarillion was published) retained the possibility, while altering Eldamar to Aman.

[Thinlómien]

When I reread the UT two years ago, this chapter caught my attention. How come I never paid attention to it before? It was like all new for me, even though I've read the UT several times. I love it - what an amazing place Númenór must have been! For me, it is the paradise on Arda, not Valinor (too otherwordly) or The Shire (too countryside-ish and bourgeois). The sea (ah! the sea!), the forests and gardens, even the mountains, all of it must have been so beautiful. (Great, I'm talking like it really existed. )

[Guinevere]

Originally Posted by Thinlómien

Great, I'm talking like it really existed.

That is exactly the effect Tolkien's detailed description has on me too!

[Thinlómien]

Originally Posted by Guinevere

That is exactly the effect Tolkien's detailed description has on me too!

I think it's also because he so convincingly manages to sound like ancient and medieval historians when he is writing about the history of his world.

[Snowdog]

The fact this expanded on Numenor made it interesting to me when I first read Unfinished Tales. There is a lot to take in over these pages, and I found myself studying it back in the mid 80's for use in a Dungeons & Dragons game I was GM'ng at the time.