Númenóreans

In the Third Age, their survivors were the people known in Rohan as the Dunlendings.

So what happened that made these people, once related to one of the three houses of the Edain that would eventually become the Numenoreans, turn on the men of the West? Well, from their perspective, it was a long series of injustices, and it began with the actions of Numenor.

We've talked in other episodes how the Numenoreans began their relationship with the men of Middle-earth during the Second Age as benevolent, with the Silmarillion telling us, "...and coming among them the Numenoreans taught them many things.

Corn and wine they brought, and they instructed men in the sowing of seed and the grinding of grain, in the hewing of wood and the shaping of stone, and in the ordering of their life, such as it might be in the lands of swift death and little bliss." Then the men of Middle-earth were comforted, and here and there upon the western shores the houseless woods drew back, and men shook off the yoke of the offspring of Morgoth and unlearned their terror of the dark.

And they revered the memory of the tall sea-kings, and when they had departed they called them gods, hoping for their return.

We read this in the Unfinished Tales.

The native people of Minhyrioth were fairly numerous and warlike, but they were forest dwellers, scattered communities without central leadership.

They were in awe of the Numenoreans, but they did not become hostile until the tree-felling became devastating.

Centuries, 1 to 300 years, this is the near-term vision, what many think of when imagining extended human life.

It's the lifespan of your Numenoreans from Tolkien or your Vulcans from Star Trek, or the Landsdramat Nobility from Dune.

People might pursue multiple careers, families, or even identities over their extended lifespan.

Retirement becomes optional or cyclical, as individuals return to work in new fields after decades off.

And his skin is dark like yours, and you can see that there is some maybe passing resemblance.

It could be that you're both Númenóreans from, you know, in your, your origin.

But you definitely see your eyes in his face.

Are you serious? This is all I had to do in the first place?

Second Age started after the War of Wrath, defined by the rise and fall of Numenor, which is the ancestral kingdom to Gondor and stuff.

So Isildur is, I think they're called Numenorians.

Okay.

Numenor.

And indeed, Ar-Adunacor began to persecute the faithful and punished those who used the Elven tongues openly, and the Eldar came no more to Numenor.

The power and wealth of the Numenoreans nonetheless continued to increase, but their years lessened as their fear of death grew and their joy departed.

Tar-Palantir attempted to amend the evil, but it was too late, and there was rebellion and strife in Numenor.

When he died, his nephew, leader of the rebellion, seized the scepter and became King Ar-Pharazon.

Our Farazon the Golden was the proudest and most powerful of all the kings, and no less than the kingship of the world was his desire.

He resolved to challenge Sauron the Great for the supremacy in Middle-earth, and at length he himself set sail with a great navy, and he landed at Umbar.

So great was the might and splendor of the Numenoreans that Sauron's own servants deserted him, and Sauron humbled himself, doing homage and craving pardon.

Then Ar-Pharazôn, in the folly of his pride, carried him back as a prisoner to Numenor.