The Complete Tolkien Companion (73 page)

After the fall of Arthedain (in 1974 Third Age), the road fell into disrepair and much of it became known as the Greenway, from the grass and weeds which sprang up between the stones. In the latter part of the Age, Bree-dwellers feared to follow the Greenway very far north, for it led to Deadmen's Dike, a haunted hill of mounds and old ruins of stone, where only robbers would venture. These ruins were all that remained of Fornost Erain, the fortified capital of Arthedain.

North Tooks
– A Northfarthing branch of the Took clan of the Shire, founded by the illustrious Bandobras ‘the Bullroarer' Took. The descendants of this huge and valiant Hobbit dwelled in Long Cleeve, near the scene of their forefather's greatest moment: his defeat of the Orcs, led by Golfimbul of Mount Gram, who invaded the Shire in 2747 Third Age (1147 Shire Reckoning). From this cadet branch of the Tooks was descended Mistress Diamond, who wedded Peregrin son of Paladin, one of the Shire heroes in the War of the Ring.

Norui
–
See
NARIË
.

Nulukkizdin
(Khuz.) – The name given by the early Dwarves of Beleriand (the Noegyth Nibin) to the caves delved in the gorge of the swift river Narog, in West Beleriand. This complex of natural and dolven halls was afterwards occupied (and extended) by Elves, and called Nargothrond.

Númen
– The Quenya word for ‘west'; also the title of Tengwa number 17, which represented the value of the sound
n
– apart from the weaker, ‘semi-vocalic'
n
sounds such as
ng
and
nw,
for which there were other appropriate letters (nos. 19 and 20;
see
N
[
G
]
OLDO; NWALME
). The most common use for
númen
was to denote directional West (customarily shown at the top of maps made in the Westlands of Middle-earth).

Númendil
– The seventeenth lord of Andúnië in Númenor and cousin of Tar-Palantír.

Númenor
(Q., from the older
Númenórë,
‘People-of-the-West') – Westernesse: the greatest realm of the world in the Second Age, apart from the Undying Lands. Founded by the Edain, at the very beginning of the Age, for three thousand years this land continued to grow in both power and splendour until ultimately, the vaulting ambitions of the Númenoreans caused them to commit the most appalling act of sacrilege. As a punishment, the island-realm was thrown down and buried under the waves, with only a chosen few of the Faithful surviving to start afresh in Middle-earth.

At the end of the First Age the Valar, the Guardians of the World, desired to reward the Edain for the losses they had suffered by joining the Elves in their long and hopeless wars against Morgoth the Enemy. The Edain had previously dwelt among the Elves of Beleriand in the far north-west, but that land was drowned at the end of the Age in the catastrophe which the Valar brought down upon Morgoth. Therefore, so that the Edain, like the Eldar, might sail west over Sea to a land far removed from the turmoils of Middle-earth, the Valar gave them the great Isle of Elenna, the Land of the Star.

At the beginning of the Second Age, most of the Edain set sail into the Western seas and, following Eärendil's beacon-star, eventually reached the distant island. Establishing their realm of Númenor in this most westerly of Mortal Lands, they then became known to the Elves as
Dúnedain
(‘Edain-of-the-West'). Elros Tar-Minyatur, son of Eärendil the Mariner and the brother of Elrond, was chosen as their first King, and under his rule and that of his immediate descendants, the Númenoreans long continued to grow in wisdom and happiness as well as in power.

The island was shaped like a star or pentangle with five great capes or promontories projecting approximately N, E, SE, S and NW, and a ‘middle-land' (
Mittalmar
) whose central point was the mighty mountain of the Meneltarma. The realm was divided into provinces corresponding with these natural subdivisions:
Forostar
(Northlands),
Andustar
(Westlands);
Hyarnustar
(Southwestlands),
Hyarrostar
(Southeastlands),
Orrostar
(Eastlands) and Mittalmar. Of the latter province a small region – the Arandar or Kings'-land – was set aside; it contained the Meneltarma – on whose summit was the holiest hallow in all Númenor – the royal capital of Armenelos, and, where it touched the eastern seaboard, the haven of Rómenna.
4

From the beginning a mighty prohibition had been laid upon them: the ‘Ban of the Valar', which forbade the Númenoreans to sail anywhere near the Undying Lands, which lay tantalisingly close, just over the horizon to the West. These lands included Valinor, the home of the Valar themselves, as well as Eldamar and Eressëa, where dwelt those Elves who had forsaken Middle-earth. But while the Dúnedain were forbidden to go there, the Eldar of these lands were free to sail wherever they wished, and many of them paid visits to Númenor. During these visits the Elves freely gave much of their knowledge to the Dúnedain.

After some time, however, the Númenoreans grew resentful of the Ban and jealous of the Elves, and eventually they became obsessed with envy of the Elves' immortality. For the natural restlessness and ambition of mortal Men, when combined with the long life span which the Dúnedain had been given – and the power and knowledge which they rapidly acquired – led to a great yearning in them for the unattainable. Nonetheless, for much of the Age, the more restless Númenoreans were able to avoid the forbidden waters of the West by turning eastwards instead. Within six hundred years of the founding of their realm, they were again sailing to Middle-earth and exploring its coasts. And they appeared in even greater numbers after the middle of the Age, following the reign of Tar-Minastir, who sent a military expedition there, to aid the Elves beleaguered by Sauron. But in the arrogance of their power over the ‘lesser' Men of Middle-earth, a number of Númenorean mariners eventually began to seize their coastlands and harbours (
see
BLACK NÚMENOREANS
). So Númenor entered its last, imperial and aggressive, phase.

As the years passed and their life span (once thrice that of other Men) began to lessen, the Númenorean Kings increasingly begrudged their mortality, the Doom of Men, and sought for life everlasting, in order to savour the mighty accomplishments and great splendour of their race. In 2899 Second Age, after the death of Tar-Calmacil, eighteenth King, the new ruler took his royal name in the Adûnaic tongue, calling himself
Ar-Adûnakhôr,
‘Lord-of-the-West'. In itself an affront to the Valar, this title also introduced a return to the use of Adûnaic: an ancient tongue of the Edain and the vernacular speech of the Númenoreans, who had always hitherto used Elvish tongues when dealing with high matters. This new nationalistic use of Adûnaic became so widespread that soon the old Eldarin tongues and traditions were preserved only by the Faithful, who dwelt in Andúnië, in the far west of the island. All the later kings followed the lead of Adûnakhôr; and although the penultimate King repented and changed his name from the (Adûnaic)
Ar-Inziladûn
to the (Eldarin)
Tar-Palantír,
this gesture only led to civil war. After his death the Sceptre was usurped by his nephew, the most powerful, the most ambitious, and the last of all Númenorean Kings: Ar-Pharazôn the Golden.

Pharazôn was able to fulfil his first military ambition with surprising ease when, in the year 3261, he landed at Umbar in Middle-earth, together with a fleet of incomparable power and majesty. Sauron the Great, Ruler of Middle-earth unchallenged throughout most of the Age, surrendered to him; and the King, satisfied of his victory, sailed away with the former Master of Middle-earth as his prisoner. However, Sauron soon gained his confidence and became the King's counsellor, eventually devising a scheme whereby his greatest enemies, both old and new, might be set against each other to the profit of neither. By degrees he lured the Númenoreans into great wickedness; and when the time was ripe he urged Pharazôn to renounce the Ban of the Valar and assault the Blessed Lands, forcibly taking his rights like all great Kings. In his overweening pride and unreasoning fear of approaching death, Ar-Pharazôn then spent nine years building the Great Armament and, in 3319 Second Age, finally broke the Ban of the Valar, attempting ‘to wrest everlasting life' from them by force. But as soon as he reached their shores,

the Valar laid down their Guardianship and called upon the One, and the world was changed. Númenor was thrown down and swallowed in the Sea, and the Undying Lands were removed for ever from the circles of the world. So ended the glory of Númenor.
5

However a number of the Faithful escaped this Downfall and, led by Elendil the Tall, sailed to Middle-earth to found the Númenorean realms-in-exile: Arnor and Gondor. Among the treasures of the realm which were rescued by them and brought away in their nine ships were: a seedling of Nimloth, the White Tree which had grown in the Court of the King and which was a descendant of the Eldest of Trees; the Sword of Andúnië (Narsil); and the seven
palantíri,
the Seeing-stones made long before by the Master Craftsman of the Elves, Fëanor. The Ring of Barahir, a token of the great comradeship between the Elves and the Edain, dating from the First Age, was salvaged and became a chief heirloom of the northern Kingdom-in-exile. The lineage of Elros, traced through Silmariën, eldest child and daughter of Tar-Elendil (fourth King) and founder of the House of Andúnië, was also saved from the wreck and brought to Middle-earth.

The Realms in Exile, although less imperial and magnificent than ancient Númenor, were thus no whit less royal; for many years both North- and South-kingdoms flourished in Middle-earth, before they were gradually diminished in various ways. Yet even at the end of the Third Age much still survived in Middle-earth of the last remnant of Númenor, originally founded – with the full blessing of the Valar – nearly two full Ages before.

Númerrámar
‘West-wings' (Q.) – The great ship of
VËANTUR
the Mariner.

Nunduinë
– A river of western Númenor; it flowed west to reach the sea at Eldalondë.

Núneth
– The mother of
ERENDIS
of Númenor.

Nurn, Nurnen
– The name given to the greater part of the land of Mordor, comprising that region south of the central mountains and north of the lower range of the Mountains of Shadow. It was a dreary country, filled with endless acres of regimented fields which were worked by Sauron's slaves to feed his numerous armies. In the centre of this drab plain lay a great inland sea,
Nurnen
(‘Lake-of-Nurn'), whose waters were bitter and undrinkable.

Nurtalë Valinóreva
‘The Concealment of Valinor' (Q.) – The poetic (Elvish) title given to the period of time immediately following the death of the Two Trees and the rebellion of the Noldor, when the Valar, determining to protect Valinor from the ravages of war in Middle-earth – and also to prevent any return of those exiled or banished – refortified their land, weaving webs of shadow and enchantment in the Western seas. This labour was for the most part undertaken by Varda (Elbereth).

Nwalmë
– The Quenya or High-elven word for ‘torment' (its older form was
Ywalmë
); also the title of Tengwa number 20, used for the sound
nw
- (or
yw
-) in those languages which required it.