Lord of the Rings: The Animated Musical | Appendix A, I The Númenórean Kings, (ii) The Realms in Exile

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A black, white, and dark blue striped header image with the text Lord of the Rings: The Animated Musical | Appendix A, I The Númenórean Kings, (ii) The Realms in Exile

In this week’s installment of my mini-series on the Appendixes of The Lord of the Rings, I focus on Appendix A (ii), which is divided into two sections — “The Northern Line: Heirs of Isildur”, and “The Southern Line: Heirs of Anárion”. This section reads similar to a genealogy, last discussed during my overview of Appendix A, but instead of moving from father to son, the lists move between kings, and later to chieftains or stewards. The many names and dates become overwhelming, even to a seasoned reader, so I am selecting a few notable kings in the lists and drawing comparisons between their fictional stories and those in real world history.

Founding an Empire

Both lists begin with Elendil, discussed last week in my essay on Appendix A (i) as a flood survivor character, similar to Noah in Genesis 6 or Utnapishtim in The Epic of Gilgamesh. Upon arriving in Middle-earth, Elendil took a different role: the founder of an empire. History is filled with famous first kings. Saul son of Kish was famous as the first king of Israel, although his successor David son of Jesse founded a dynasty. Cyrus the Great founded the Achaemenid Persian Empire, which conquered Israel, while Alexander the Great founded the Macedonian Empire, which conquered Persia, and Julius Caesar founded the Roman Empire, which conquered Persia, although his adopted son Augustus structured the empire for long-term success.

Plenty of famous first kings existed outside of the Mediterranean and Middle East. Chandragupta founded the Maurya Empire to unify India and repel the Macedonian Empire, while Gaozu founded the Han Dynasty in China, a time during which the Silk Road first opened. In northwest Africa, Sundiata Keita legendarily overcame childhood disability to found the Mali Empire. I first learned a mythologized version of his story from watching the French-language film from Burkina Faso, Keïta! L'héritage du griot. Across the water in South America, the oral history of the Inka described sibling-spouses Manco Capac and Mama Ocllo as founders of Cusco and the Inka Road, the capital and highway system of the empire.

Unfortunately, back in Middle-earth, the Númenórean kingdom did not remain united for long. Elendil’s younger son Anárion died in battle against Sauron in Second Age (S.A.) 3440, while Elendil died the following year in S.A. 3441. From then on, the empire divided between the northern country of Arnor, ruled by older son Isildur, and the southern country of Gondor, ruled by Meneldil, son of Anárion. Since I am not a native speaker of Númenórean Sindarin, I decided to look up the meanings of the two country names. Arnor means “lord-land”, essentially the same as kingdom, and Gondor means “stone-land”, likely referring to its many stone cities. As a side note, the best source I could find was Thain’s Book Minas Tirith, a website last updated in 2011 with an internet address from the Czech Republic. I felt like I had discovered the Book of Mazarbul in Moria, but under much happier circumstances.

Divided Countries

Sovereign nations being torn in two is nothing new. When attempting to search “divided kingdom” during preliminary research for this post, the Kingdoms of Israel and Judah took up most of the results. Told in 1 Kings 12, the country divided after the death of King Solomon when his son, Rehoboam, heavily taxed and worked the people, prompting the general Jeroboam to take the northern ten of the twelve tribes and leave. Kingdom collapse did not always happen so abruptly. The division between the Eastern and Western Roman Empire occurred over decades. On the eastern side, “barbarians” like the Goths and Vandals attacked from the northwest, only to be subdued by the Franks led by Charlemagne. The Moors, a historical term for Berber and Arab Muslims who settled in southern Europe, took the Iberian Peninsula, modern day Spain and Portugal. The western half became the Byzantine Empire, founded by Christian emperor Constantine I.

At the time Tolkien wrote The Lord of the Rings, countries were split by international treaty and war. In 1945, after World War II, Germany was divided into East and West. The eastern half joined the U.S.S.R., while the western half was further divided between the United States, England, and France. In the same year, Korea divided into North and South along the 38th parallel north latitude. The two factions fought from 1950 to 1953 in the Korean War, with the Soviet Union, China, and other communist countries supporting the North, while the United Nations — especially the United States and United Kingdom — supported the South. After nearly four years of fighting, the border ended up in about the same place as set by the initial treaty. A rough estimate of deaths, both military and civilian, was 5 million people or more, yet it pales in comparison to World War II, estimated between 70 and 85 million when including military and civilian casualties during combat, prisons and concentration camps, and starvation due to disrupted food supply across the globe. This is the level of destruction imagined for Middle-earth, not the lush mountains of New Zealand.

The Northern Line: Heirs of Isildur

Isildur famously cut the One Ring from Sauron’s hand and kept it despite knowing its evil power, a choice that led to his early death. His descendants ruled without dispute until Third Age (T.A.) 861, when the country splintered into smaller kingdoms between brothers. Amlaith became king of Arthedain and made Fornost his capital. At some point during this kingdom, Harfoot Hobbits moved into the area, followed by Stoor Hobbits, and finally Fallohide Hobbits many years later (Prologue, 4). Around the same time, Sauron returned ugly and mad as the Necromancer near Mount Doom. Argeleb II granted the Shire as a colony to Fallohide brothers Marcho and Blanco (Prologue, 5), who built an efficient road system in the region for the messengers of the kings with no apparent input from the native Hobbits. Arvedui Last-King was the final king at Fornost before the country collapsed upon his death in T.A. 1975. When the somewhat integrated Hobbits of the Shire spoke of wicked people as those who “had not heard of the king” even a thousand years later (Prologue, 11), this was the figure they referenced, although they no longer knew his name.

Much of the dialogue portion of the story takes place in Shire Reckoning (S.R.) 1418 and 1419, equivalent to T.A. 3018 and 3019. That is 1,043 years between the disappearance of the king and the reappearance of Aragorn II as a direct descendant of Isildur. If an heir to the throne appeared today in the real-world, his ancestors would have disappeared in A.D. 981. Around this time, northern Europe was undergoing a drastic transformation. Harald “Bluetooth” Gormsson, for whom Bluetooth technology is named, was king of Norway and Denmark. After a long rivalry with Otto II the Red, ruler of the Holy Roman Empire, Bluetooth converted to Christianity and ordered his subjects to do the same. The Vikings were not so sure about this. Erik the Red had been banished from the colony of Iceland for committing murder, and while sailing during his three year term of banishment, ran into Greenland. His son, Leif Erikson, would later run into Newfoundland, Canada, which the Vikings called Vinland, making this group the first Europeans to contact North America.

To the south, Abu Amir al-Mansur, often simply called Almanzor, ruled the Islamic country of Al-Andalusi on the Iberian peninsula. To the east, the Northern Song Dynasty in China was prosperous due to trade along the Silk Road, not yet utilized by Europeans. To its south, India was fragmented into many smaller dynasties. Across the water in modern day Mexico, the Maya Empire had collapsed and entered a postclassic period. While their elaborate writing system remained in place, as discussed during my essay on “Note on the Shire Record”, large cities were abandoned, since no government existed for taxation and upkeep, not unlike Detroit in the 1990s.

The Southern Line: Heirs of Anárion

More commentary on the condition of Gondor exists than the condition of Arnor, likely because this country never fell. During T.A. 1100s and 1200s, the country reached the height of its power under the ship-kings, a description signifying maritime trade. Many other countries in the real-world took advantage of similar technology. In the 17th century, the Netherlands ruled the seas through its combined forces of Koninklijke Marine [Royal Netherlands Navy] and the Verenigde Oostindische Compangie (VOC) or the Dutch East India Company, as previously discussed in “Races: Hobbits” and “Perspectives on the Sea”. Following them in the 18th and 19th century was the British Royal Navy in combination with the British East India Company, a major factor in the Opium Wars discussed in “Prologue, 2 Concerning Pipe-weed”.

Other interesting events in the line of Gondorian kings included the temporary deposition of Eldacar by Castamir the Usurper during “the Kin-strife”; the death of Ondoher and his two sons in battle, leading to the crown being passed to their second cousin, Eärnil the general; and Eanur, the last king of Gondor, dying prematurely in T.A. 2050. From then on, Stewards controlled Gondor, although Arvedui Last-King of Arnor tried to claim the throne right before his own country collapsed.

For his “translation”, Tolkien selected the Middle English word steward, meaning an official who controls a household or estate. He likely chose this word in place of its slightly more accurate synonym, seneschal, meaning the “principal officer in a royal household”, since steward is entirely Proto-Germanic in origin, while seneschal has Latin influence. Another influence may have been the House of Stuart, once spelled Stewart, a royal house from Scotland and later England that began as stewards to noble families, with each generation working their way up until Sir Walter Steward married Princess Marjory Bruce, daughter of King Robert I the Bruce, making their son King Robert II, first Stewart king of Scotland.

While the kings of Arnor tended to append Ar- to the front of their names — hence Aragorn son of Arathorn — the kings and stewards of Gondor tended to borrow names from legends of Men and Elves. Eärendil, the fourth king of Gondor, was named for his ancestor Eärendil the Mariner, the father of Elrond and Elros. This borrowing of names happened more frequently among the Stewards, possibly because these non-royal leaders need to prove they were worthy of the position. The Stewards were from the House of Húrin, who shared the same name as a great warrior of legend. The name Húrin reappeared twice in the Steward line, along with Túrin I and II, named after the son of the original Húrin. Beren appears once, after the mortal warrior who married the half-Maiar, half-elven princess Lúthien, and another Steward is named Dior after their son. Denethor I and II were named for an elven king who befriended Thingol, father of Lúthien, while Echthelion I and II were named for another elf warrior. Turgon was named for the grandfather of Eärendil the Mariner, while Boromir was a name first given to a chieftain in the First Age. Even Faramir, the first steward under the returned king has a borrowed name: the younger son of Ondoher who died in battle.

Finally, while Aragorn son of Arathorn was an appropriate name for a king of Arnor, it would not work in Gondor. Aragorn instead took the royal name Elassar Telcontar; despite his love of nicknames, he was not particularly creative. Elessar was the name of the elf-stone given to him by Galadriel, which was long ago worn by Eärendil the Mariner, and Telcontar means Strider in Quenya, based on his nickname while a Ranger in Bree, and what his hobbit friends insisted on calling him.

My final commentary comes from a bizarre footnote about cows. The Kine of Araw dwelled by the Sea of Rhûn and were hunted by Vorondil, the second Steward of Gondor. Kine was a Middle English word for cow, and Araw was a Valar, the only one who ever managed to visit Middle-earth in the Eldar days, apparently because he enjoyed hunting cows so much. Hunter gods are common enough in mythology, including the Germanic god Odin, the Greek goddess Artemis, also known as the Roman goddess Diana; and the Welsh god Arawn, whose name matches the Valar and must have been the direct inspiration. I do not know why Tolkien bothered with this footnote, unless he believed this added to the realism of the document, or he thought it was funny.

Conclusion

While this section of Appendix A only lasts for two pages, it is densely packed with information, creating a reference point so readers understand the next section of the appendix along with making parallels to historical events in the real-world. While many readers would not find the lists of names and years as interesting as the emotionally charged dialogue portion of the books, and I cannot blame them for that, the context provided by this type of appendix makes the exchanges between characters more meaningful to me.

But how am I going to include this information in the hypothetical animated musical? As mentioned in my post on “Introduction to the Appendixes”, I could possibly turn some of the list of kings into a song. A good opener for a song sequence would be an attempt by the Fellowship to determine how Aragorn and Boromir are related. The logic among the Fellowship could be that two Men from the same place must in some way be related, but in fact, the Stewards are not known descendants of Elendil and may not even be descendants of Elros. However, I feel that the choice to not directly include this section in the musical would be accepted even by the purest of Tolkien purists. Stories of these men appear in the next section and would make much better additions to a musical than a dry list.


Read past installments of Lord of the Rings: The Animated Musical