Middle Earth Notes

What are the physical features of a Númenorean?

The Númenóreans were tall. Adult males were normally around 6′4″ or so (2 rangar in Númenórean linear
measure), but some individuals were taller. Elendil the Tall was supposedly 2–1/2 rangar, or 7′11″ tall.
Númenor was a prosperous realm with advanced health care, so I assume that most Númenóreans were well
grown and healthy.

The Númenóreans were descended from the three houses of the Edain. While people of Númenórean
descent in LotR are described as dark haired with grey eyes and pale skin, the population of Númenor itself
included blue-eyed blonds as well, descendants of the House of Hador (e.g., Tar-Aldarion was blond). The
populace also included descendants of the House of Haleth, so there may have been some people with
browner skin and eye coloring. The original population of Númenor also included some Drúedain, called
Woses in the Third Age. (Ghân-buri-Ghân in LotR was one of the Woses.) The Drúedain living in Númenor
started to emigrate from the island around the reign of Tar-Aldarion and were all gone by the time of the
Downfall.

The people of Númenor were long lived. At the beginning of the Second Age the lifespan of an ordinary
Númenórean seems to have been around 210-240 years; they enjoyed a period of vigor three times that of
the Men of Middle-earth. Erendis wife of Tar-Aldarion had felt the approach of old age before her death by
drowning at age 214. Members of the royal house lived to around 400, more or less, at least to the reign of
Tar-Telemmaitë (2136–2526), who died at age 390. After his reign the distinctions between royalty and
ordinary people, in lifespan as well as other attributes, began to grow less. Tar-Ardamin (SA 2816–2899) was
the first ruler to die before age 300. Tar-Palantir, the last Númenórean ruler to die of natural causes, lived to
age 220.

How could a relatively small island as Numenor support a population with an army able to defeat Sauron?

First of all, i assume that you refer to Ar-Pharazon’s army, that Sauron surrendered to.

At this point Numenor was very advanced. Don’t quote me on this, but i remember to have read somewhere
that they were on the verge of discovering gunpowder. And that they already had steelships?

In any case, we know that they were very advanced, which means that the population that they could
support has to be very big.
Numenor was a fertile island, of roughly 435.000 sq kM.

How many people could live there then? I have found a very detailed estimate landing them at around a
staggering 12 million on the island. In medieval times, sedimentary nation could at the most mobilize around
4% of their population into their armies. Which leaves us with approximately 480.000 men from the island
itself. Now, it could very well be that the island could mobilize even more, since the men living there could
live around 3 times the lifespan of a “middle man”. If we are generous and amp it up to even 8% we are left
with a little less than a million men already. That is a HUGE army.

But the Numenorean population base wasn’t just the island, but also the colonies. The same guy that
composed those numbers said estimated that there was around another 6 million numenoreans in the
nothern and southern colonies in middle earth. If they were drafted as well, that gives us another
6.000.000*0,08=480.000

So the Army Ar-Pharazon could muster is anywhere between 1.444.000;720.000 men.

Now, the strenght in the numenorean army wasn’t their numbers, but their quality. Don’t get me wrong, they
certainly had a bigger army than whatever was in the 3rd age.

But, the numenorean men were very well equipped. They had hollow steelbows, they had an amazing ranged
and volocity, for example. Their equipment was proberbly the best in middle earth, with the exception of the
remaining noldor.

I know that i have taken a very metaphysical approach to this question, and that isn’t really what Tolkein’s
universe is about. I just enjoy going about that way, cause is its fun :)

The real answer isn’t size of the numenorean army or their equipment or huge fleet. It’s that it is
numenoreans. They are a very powerful people, and far superior to any orc or troll Sauron could muster.
Taller, stronger, and more nobel than any middle-man, or non-numenorean human.

Tolkein is a horse breeder. He places a lot of importance on how noble a character is and it’s descent, it’s
family tree. That’s why Aragorn is so powerful, it’s because he is a pure numenorean and everyone else isn’t.
It means everything in Tolkein’s legendarium.
So the answer to why such a small island could defeat Sauron, is because they were numenoreans. They were
the epitome of humanity in Tolkein’s eyes.

Edit:

Forgot to add my sources:

Populations of Middle Earth - The Isle of Numenor (through the 2nd Age)

http://www.stephenwigmore.com/2016/09/the-population-of-numenor-through-2nd.html

(1) Who says Númenor was a small island? It was more like an island-continent (or mini-continent). I
assume the map below is pretty accurate; it shows that Númenor was even bigger than Gondor and
Rohan combined, and definitely bigger than Mordor.
(2) By the time Ar-Pharazôn decided to counter Sauron, Númenor possessed extensive colonies and
dependencies in Middle-earth. Harad was under their control, and Umbar was their most important
port in the area. This means they had thousands, if not millions of people under their thumb, as well
as great quantities of supply. Some Númenóreans had moved—permanently or temporarily—there
as lords and colonists.
(3) Númenor was very rich and could sustain a very large population even by itself. It literally had the
blessings of the Valar.
(4) Númenóreans were a blessed people. They were taller, smarter, more powerful, more impressive,
and far longer-lived (~350 years) than any Orc or Man of Middle-earth. They could also most
probably defeat any Elf or Dwarf. The average Númenórean was taller than 6′4″ or 1.93 m.
Remember Denethor’s words to Pippin: “And how did you escape, and yet he did not, so mighty a
man as he was, and only Orcs to withstand him?” He thought his son could easily defeat any Orc,
even a group of them. Given that Boromir was probably no match for a skilled Númenórean warrior,
it’s obvious that an army of 10,000 Númenóreans would take more than 200,000–400,000 Orcs to
defeat them.
(5) Númenóreans had learned the art of forging various weapons from the Noldor themselves. The
arrows of their bows resembled dark clouds falling upon their enemies.

Colonies and tribute.

The truth is, I don’t think Tolkien thought much about military logistics, but he did leave enough information
that we can come up with a credible explanation.

It is stated that the Numenoreans were great sailors, and that their ships started returning to Middle-earth
during the reign of Tar-Elendil in the year SA 600. They soon began to establish colonies as well as
relationships with the Men of Middle-earth. These relationships at first benefited these lesser Men, but later
became oppressive. Of their colonies, Umbar is the best known. IIRC, Pelargir was established as a haven of
the Faithful.

So the Numenoreans probably obtained many resources—timber, food, labor—from their colonies. We are
told that they demanded tribute from the local rulers. They might also have used locals in their armies either
as troops (think Gurkhas) and almost certainly as support personnel. We also know that the Numenoreans in
their late moral decline used slaves; Ar-Pharazon’s ships are rowed by “many strong slaves.”

I think there must have been a substantial number of Numenoreans who were not born on Numenor and
may never have lived there, rather like Roman or British subjects born in colonies or remote territories.
That’s the explanation I use in my headcanon for why Elendil, with only seven (albeit large) ships’ worth of
people and goods, was able to establish not one but two kingdoms in a very short span of time.

If you were tasked to write the official sequel to The Lord of The Ring series, how would the story go?

I have given a lot of thought to this over the decades, and have several directions I think it could go. For the
most part, I want to flesh out the many blanks in LOTR, justify the persistence of magic in our world despite
the withdrawal of the Elves, and point the way toward the world we know now.

Tolkien was, in the broadest sense, attempting to give Great Britain a “legendarium,” or more-or-less
cohesive set of myths and legends equivalent to the myths of other parts of Northern Europe, notably the
Nordic peoples. A sequel to LOTR should be another step along that path.

Hence, we cannot allow magic to have departed from the world; mystery and epiphany are essential to
Man’s ongoing story. Elven magic has departed, so we must establish the basis for another kind of magic,
based in the experiences of Men.

Next, in my opinion, there is far too little governance, and far too few cities and towns, in Tolkien’s Middle-
Earth. What of the nobility, apart from the ruling lines of Rohan and Gondor, the stewards of Gondor, and the
barely mentioned “Prince of dol Amroth,” south of the White Mountains?
A sequel must segue from this sparseness to a more natural-seeming world of men, with more cities, towns,
and colonies, more great families and titled nobility on the road to feudalism; and speaking of roads, more
infrastructure! Is there really next to no commerce in Middle-Earth? No roads other than in the Shire?

Is there naught in Rohan but Edoras and Helm’s Deep? No wonder Theoden sputtered to a halt when he said
“Where was Gondor when the Westfold fell? Where was Gondor when… **sputter** “ He had run out of
Rohan - one city, one fortress, and one (burnt) province?

For that matter, where were Eomer and his troop headed when they left Edoras headed north? There’s
nothing there on the map, no road, nothing but plains of grass (and, in the movies, lots of rocks.)

I intend to make a believable country out of this one-horse town called Rohan.

Middle-Earth is fabulously rich in languages thanks to the skills of Tolkien; but a world can’t function with
only half a dozen cities and nothing in between. :)

Oh, and we have seen that in thousands of years, there has been no technical progress at all in Middle-Earth.
I blame the Elves and their beatific vision of stars and swords. The entire gestalt of Men is shaped by the
Elves’ steady-state world view; now that the Elves are gone, the Men must grow. The sequel must show the
birth of progress and innovation.

Here’s one of many possible thoughts for a plotline.

The Blue Wizards ride into Osgiliath with dire news for the aged King Eldarion. They want his aid in recovering
a sacred Lantern that preserved the light of the Silmarils for a folk living underground long ages ago. The time
is fast approaching, they say, when Elven magic will fade entirely from Middle-Earth, and Man must light his
own torch; the Lantern must be recovered and hung in the tallest tower in the land. Minas Tirith, the Tower
of the Guard, must once again become Minas Anor, Tower of the Sun.

The Lantern is nowhere else but the long-drowned Secret City of Gondolin. Eldarion’s teen-aged grandson
will go with one of the Wizards for an underwater adventure.
But the Lantern requires two other things to function, and these will be the objects of parallel quests within
the sequel (a trilogy, naturally): the true light of the Silmarils, and the Crystal that was taken from it at the
Fall of Gondolin, necessary to turn it into a beacon to shine forth from a Minas Anor reborn.

Remember Galadriel’s seeing-bowl that contained some light of the Silmarils? As it happens, the water was
preserved by none other than The Old Took and the Master of Buckland, who shortly before their deaths, had
made a final ride together to Lothlorien, found the bowl still there, immovable, and on impulse brought some
of the water back to the Shire in an old kettle.

The Kettle was borrowed long ago by a knight of King Elessar; the knight hoped it would light his way in the
dread kingdom of Angmar, but he never returned. So Eomer’s own grandson, serving by custom in Gondor,
rides with the second Wizard to retrieve the water. Their journey past the Shire will reveal the existence of a
winged dragon, friendly and free from Sauron’s vile influence, living in the Old Forest and looked after,
traditionally, by a Took and a Brandybuck (we need live dragons to go on the flag of Wales, and in many
European folk tales!)

This dragon will carry the man, the wizard, and the two hobbit dragon-tenders on their own adventure. The
party must recover the Kettle!

Our third quest takes place in a renamed and reborn Mordor (Bragol Ninniach, ‘Sudden Rainbow’), now a
land of rain showers and rich, black volcanic soil around the majestic but quiescent mountain formerly named
Doom, now named Hope (Amon Estel). Radagast the Brown presided over the transformation of this land,
before becoming mortal by choice and taking a wife. Radagast having died only a fortnight before the story
begins, his daughter Estel (for whom he always insisted the mountain was named), the only one of his
children to learn his magical arts, is summoned to Osgiliath.

Is Radagast’s wife the last of the bear-to-human shapeshifters? Did his daughter inherit this eccentric yet
useful gift? Let’s flip a coin. Oh, speaking of coins! What about an economy? Gondor will have an exchequer
and a mint, run by Dwarves from the new colony in the White Mountains, Berengaith (‘Caverns of the
Brave’), where ghosts once dwelt.
So, what is Estel’s quest? Why, the Crystal that goes into the lantern, of course. This complex Elven lens was
secreted in the caverns and former orc-holes in the only remaining tall range of the old Mountains of
Mordor. This range and its caverns are intact only because of the presence of the Crystal - the rest of the
mountains gradually subsided into natural mountains with foothills.

When the quests are successful and all return with their treasures, they find that the Wizards’ power has
gone completely, and they are at a loss as to how to re-energise the Lantern. Only Radagast’s daughter
retains her powers. The Wizards guess correctly that she is drawing from natural Earth magic, of which
Mount Hope is a natural font (Sauron did not make it magical, he only subverted it for a time). They travel to
the Mountain and there, by the Earth Energy of the mountain, Radagast’s daughter lights the Lantern.

The power of the Silmarils, present in the Earth, Water, and Air (sky), combine with the mountain’s Fire, and
magic is reborn into the world through the Four Elements, which will now be the basis of magic. The Lantern
is hung in the highest Tower and King Eldarion declares the City once again Minas Anor.

In the denouement, the Blue Wizards, powers restored by the Elements, decide to change their names and
missions. The one fancies the North and takes the name Odun (‘ice’ in the Dwarvish dialect of the Far East);
the other fancies the southern forests and takes the name Merilin (‘nightingale’ in Sindarin).

As for the heir of Radagast, she declares that she will set forth to seek the forest of Entwives the Blue Wizards
noted in the Far East; but first, she must return home and care for a new tree she found growing from her
father’s grave, a tree with beans of an extraordinary flavour that she decides to name “cocoa.”

Two thousand years after the downfall of Sauron, the Fourth Age draws to a close. The Reunited kingdom,
led by Ondoher IV, descendant of Eldarion, son of Aragorn and Arwen, rules with strength, justice and pride.
Men flourish, having all but forgotten their ancient friends the Elves, who have long since disappeared from
the world. They have become little more than legends, stories passed down through the generations,
fragments of ancient times. Most doubt if the elves ever even existed. The citadels of the Dwarves have been
shut off with their kind retreating underground, the great works they left behind shrouded in mystery and
superstition. Some say that a race of giants built them, others say that the Dwarves and Elves were one and
the same. Only the royal scholars of Ondoher retain pieces of the truth of the old days, preserved in the
scrolls and books of Annúminas. The armies of Men keep their skills sharp with practice against the Men of
the East and South, who still trouble Middle Earth despite the Reunited Kingdom expanding into their lands.
There are yet lands that remain empty - Lindon is abandoned. Rivendell and Lothlorien are lost, abandoned,
like the halls of Thranduil. Even there men will not tread.
Prince Eärnil VI, son of Erestor and heir to the lands of Dol Amroth, is a captain in the navy of Gondor based
out of Dol Amroth. He has sailed far and wide, roamed the lands of Middle Earth, Harad and Rhûn. But his
greatest journey is yet to begin - a journey far south, farther than any mariner has gone before him. An
ancient map from before even the great War that marked the start of their age shows a land beyond Harad,
discovered by Mariners of a long forgotten empire. Eärnil intends to find these lands in the name of his king.

After a year of sailing and many adventures young Eärnil lands in the lands he sought, his journey finally at an
end. A rich landscape stands before him. His men follow their captain as he explores inland, daunted by the
sheer wildness of this land that they have found. But they soon discover strange things. Structures of carved
stone depicting ancient battles, strange creatures watching them in the dark. A fear creeps over them as they
discover a fortress of dark stone towering over them. Just as they are about to turn back Eärnil approaches,
his curiosity outweighing his judgement, an unseen force driving him forward. The place is clearly ancient
beyond reckoning. As Eärnil reaches to smite upon the door, it opens of its own accord and a man steps out.
He is tall, and pale, and clad in armour of black steel. He speaks to them. “Why have you ventured to my
home, young ones?”. A man replies from the crowd of men. “Young? I'm 187”. The man smirks. “You are a
man, are you not? The younger children. You will always be the younger children”. Eärnil speaks up. “What
are you talking about? Children of who?”. “Ah”, days the stranger. “I see you men have lost much of your
ancient knowledge. This bodes well. I have been waiting for this day - the ambition of men has always been
their greatest downfall. I knew that you would come. I knew that you wouldn't resist the call of adventure,
the tantalising glimpse of new lands on an old map. It is time. I, Vanamil of the Úmaiar, shall return”.

With that the stranger laughed, and the ground began to shake, the creatures that watched the men in the
dark stepped forward. They looked like men, but deformed and crooked. The men drew their swords, but
Vanamil raised his hand and spoke. “You have done me a favour, Prince, by waking me from my long sleep.
Since the fall of my master at the hands of a Mariner much like yourself, who sailed with a star in his brow
through the skies, I have lain dormant, gathering my power. My brother returned too soon. He was too
ambitious, and he was destroyed by the first of your line of Kings. But I will not make the same mistake. I
have grown beyond even his power. For your help I will release you with your life, and your men, but be
watchful. For we will meet again”.

Two years passed after Eärnil returned home. His thirtieth birthday came and went, still a young man by the
reckoning of the high men of Gondor. Rumours reached the southern kingdom of an mighty warlord risen in
the east, who arrived in the south of Harad in black ships, with soldiers who were more beast than man. They
crushed the Jungle Kingdoms of the South with no resistance. It is said that their leader is a demon of the
ancient world returned to wreak havoc on men. They say he conquers quickly and journeys ever further
north to the ultimate prize - Middle Earth. The men of Gondor laugh. They say the southrons are too
superstitious. They say that this warlord is a man like any other. They have no fear. Eärnil knows better. He
did not tell anyone of what happened in the South and his men swore to secrecy.

The next week, the kingdom is in uproar. Someone arrived in Annúminas, someone who defies everything
the Men of the Reunited kingdom know. They say he sailed into the ruins of the ancient harbour in Lindon
and journeyed with his two companions straight to Annúminas to speak with the King. He claims to be a
herald of the old gods of the West sent to warn the men of Middle Earth of the return of an ancient evil. And
King Ondoher just about believes him, for his name is Legolas Greenleaf, and with him are Elladan and
Elrohir, sons of Elrond. Their names are mentioned only in the oldest of tomes and scrolls and legends, said
to have been companions of the first king of the Reunited Kingdom.

When Eärnil journeys to tell his story before the King, a shadow glazes over the eyes of Elladan. His father
Elrond once told him a story of this Vanamil, how he was a general of Morgoth alongside Sauron in the first
age. How he fled south after the war of wrath, driven away by Maglor the Singer. These names mean nothing
to Eärnil and the King - Morgoth? Sauron? Maglor? But to Elladan, Elrohir and Legolas they mean darkness
and death. Together with Eärnil they journey south to rally the armies of Gondor and prepare the defence of
the Kingdom.

(As an aside, I do have a theory that the first Dragons were what you got when Morgoth rehoused the spirits
of fallen Balrogs (themselves too weak to regain corporeal form) in massive mutated lizards - thus the
description of “the fell spirit” behind Glaurung’s eyes. Thus he could breed an intelligent and sentient race of
Dragons, despite being unable to create life of his own - by using the lives of his servant Umaiar. Lesser
spirits, Umaiar too weak to be classed as Balrogs (such as “Boldogs” - super Orc-like beings) could be the
source of many Orcs as well).