Downfall of Númenor

The Downfall of Númenor, also known in Elvish lore as the Akallabêth, stands as the central catastrophe of the Second Age, a world-altering event that erased the greatest kingdom of Men and reshaped the very geography of the world. It was the direct consequence of the Númenóreans' long rebellion against the Ban of the Valar, a rebellion that reached its climax under the proudest and most powerful of their kings, Ar-Pharazôn the Golden.

Causes and Background

The Númenóreans, granted the island realm of Elenna as a reward for their aid against Morgoth in the First Age, were a people of long life and great power, but they were forbidden by the Valar to sail west out of sight of their own shores or to set foot on the Undying Lands. As their power grew, so did their envy of the immortality of the Eldar, and they began to murmur against the Ban. This shadow deepened over centuries, dividing the people into the King's Men, who grew estranged from the Valar, and the Faithful, who remained loyal. The final crisis came when Ar-Pharazôn, in his pride, resolved to challenge Sauron for supremacy in Middle-earth. He landed at Umbar with a great navy, and Sauron, seeing the might of Númenor, humbled himself and was taken as a prisoner back to the island. There, Sauron quickly bewitched the King and became master of his counsel, turning the hearts of all but the remnant of the Faithful towards darkness. He lied to the King, declaring that everlasting life would be his who possessed the Undying Lands, and that the Ban was imposed only to prevent the Kings of Men from surpassing the Valar. 'But great Kings take what is their right,' he said.

The Cataclysm

Ar-Pharazôn, besotted by the fear of Death, listened to this counsel and prepared the greatest armament the world had ever seen. When all was ready, he sounded his trumpets and set sail, breaking the Ban of the Valar and going up with war to wrest everlasting life from the Lords of the West. But when Ar-Pharazôn set foot upon the shores of Aman the Blessed, 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. The Downfall was not merely the destruction of an island; it was a cosmic reordering. The shape of all lands was changed, and the seas were bent, so that mortal mariners could no longer find the Straight Road to the West.

The Escape of the Faithful and the Consequences

In the midst of the ruin, the last leaders of the Faithful, Elendil the Tall and his sons Isildur and Anárion, escaped with nine ships, bearing a seedling of the White Tree Nimloth and the Seven Seeing-stones, gifts of the Eldar to their House. They were borne on the wind of a great storm and cast upon the shores of Middle-earth, where they established the Númenórean realms in exile: Arnor in the North and Gondor in the South. Elendil became the High King, dwelling at Annúminas, while the rule in the South was committed to his sons. They founded Osgiliath, between Minas Ithil and Minas Anor, not far from the confines of Mordor. For this good at least they believed had come out of ruin, that Sauron also had perished. But it was not so. Sauron was indeed caught in the wreck of Númenor, so that the bodily form in which he long had walked perished; but he fled back to Middle-earth, a spirit of hatred borne upon a dark wind. He was unable ever again to assume a form that seemed fair to men, but became black and hideous, and his power thereafter was through terror alone. He re-entered Mordor and hid there for a time in silence, but his anger was great when he learned that Elendil, whom he most hated, had escaped him and was now ordering a realm upon his borders. The Downfall thus set the stage for the long war of the Third Age, the Last Alliance, and the eventual forging of the One Ring's fate. The memory of Númenor, its glory and its fall, haunted the Dúnedain ever after, a warning against pride and a source of both sorrow and enduring hope.