The Peoples of Middle-earth (38 page)

'The Third Age ended with the departure of Elrond in 3022' was presumably a mere slip, since the date of Aragorn's death is given immediately above as 3121 = Fourth Age 100, which assumes the beginning of that Age in 3022. Later in C, when Aragorn appears at the end of the roll of the kings of the Southern Line (p. 202), the departure of Elrond is given as 3021, the Fourth Age is said to have begun in 3022, and 3121 is again equated with Fourth Age 100.

The Southern Line of Gondor.

The earliest extant list of the rulers of Gondor is the manuscript A briefly described on p. 188. This has precisely the same form as the two later texts of The Heirs of Elendil, with the dates of birth and death (and the manner of death) of each king, and the length of his life.

There is only one difference of name in A, that of the fourteenth king (p. 197), who was first called Kiryahir but subsequently renamed Kiryandil (at the same time Kiryahir entered as the original name of Hyamendakil I). There are only two differences in the succession, the first being in that following the sixteenth king Atanatar II (p. 198), which in A as first written went:

16. Atanatar II 977 - 1226

17. Alkarin 1049-1294

18. Narmakil I.

It was evidently at this point that my father stopped, moved 'Alkarin'

to stand beside Atanatar II with the words 'also named', and changed Narmakil I from 18 to 17, entering as his dates those previously given to 'Alkarin'. The next king, Kalmakil, was then entered as 18. I have no doubt whatever that this was a mere slip, Alkarin being an honorific name; and this is significant, for it shows that my father was copying from an existing text, or existing notes. There is no trace now of anything of the sort, and it must be concluded that the written origin of the history of the rulers of Gondor is lost.

The other difference in the succession occurs after the thirtieth king Kalimehtar (p. 200), where A has:

31. Ostohir II 1787-1985, lived 198 years

32. Ondohir 1837 - 1944 (slain), lived 107 years.

Earnil II and Earnur the last king are numbered 33 and 34. The death of Ostohir II is thus placed 41 years after that of his successor Ondohir. How this peculiar anomaly arose can only be surmised: the likeliest explanation is that there were variant and contradictory conceptions in the text that my father was using, and that he failed to observe it. It was not corrected in A, and indeed the same succession survived into B, with Earnur numbered the thirty-fourth king. When he did observe it he resolved it by simply striking out Ostohir II and giving his birth-date of 1787 to Ondohir, so that he lived for 157 and not 107 years.

A also differed from the final chronology in the dates of the kings from Anarion to Anardil (see p. 197), which were:

Anarion S.A. 3209-3440

Meneldil S.A.3299 - T.A.139

Kemendur S.A.3389-T.A.228

Earendil T.A.40-316

Anardil T.A.132-407

The dates of these five kings remained in B as they were in A, but were then corrected to those found in C; after correction the life-span of each king remained the same as before, with the exception of Anarion, since he became the younger son of Elendil while the date of his death was fixed. All other dates in A were retained into the final chronology.

The notes in A were brief and scanty until Valakar the twentieth king (and those to Romendakil I and Hyarmendakil I were subsequent additions):

7. Ostohir I Rebuilt and enlarged Minas Anor.

8. Romendakil I At this time Easterlings assailed kingdom.

13. Earnil I Began rebuilding the neglected navy. Lost at sea in a storm.

15. Hyarmendakil I Defeated Harad and made them subject.

16. Atanatar II In his day Gondor reached its widest extent owing to the vigour of the 'line of Earnil'. But he loved life of ease and began to neglect the guards in the East. Waning of Gondor began.

There are also some notes on the nature of the succession: Falastur had no son, and his successor Earnil I was the son of Falastur's brother Tarkiryan; Narmakil I had no children, and his successor Kalmakil was his brother.

It seems plain that a firm structure at least in outline had already arisen: that my father had in his mind a clear picture of the chronology, the major events, the triumphs and vicissitudes of the history of Gondor, whether or not it was committed to writing now lost.

From Valakar the notes in the A text as written become more frequent and some of them much fuller, a pattern still reflected in the entries in the greatly expanded C text. Some of these entries are given in the commentary on the Southern Line in C that now follows.

Ostohir (p. 197). In all three texts Ostohir is the first of that name, but the figure I was struck out in C: see p. 212. On the change of the name to Ostonir see p. 210, Araphant.

Romendakil 1 (p. 197). In Appendix A Romendakil is translated

'East-victor', but in texts B and C 'East-slayer'; so also in the case of Hyarmendakil, translated 'South-slayer' in B and C.

Falastur (p. 197). This king's former name Tarannon first appears in C, though the reason for Falastur is recorded in B.

Kiryandil (p. 197). B has only 'Continued to increase fleets, but fell in a sea-battle against the Kings of Harad'. The alterations to C under Earnil I and Kiryandil bring the history to its form in Appendix A, where it was Earnil who captured Umbar.

Valakar (p. 198). As the first extant account of the Kin-strife in Gondor I give here the entry in A, where the whole history of the civil war is placed in the note following Valakar:

In 1432 broke out the Kin-strife. Valakar had wedded as wife a daughter of the King of Rhovannion, not of Dunedain blood. The succession of his son Eldakar was contested by other descendants of Kalmakil and Romendakil II. In the end Eldakar was driven into exile and Kastamir, great-grandson of Kalmakil's second son Kalimehtar, became king. But Eldakar drove him out again, and after that time the blood of the kingly house became more mixed, for Eldakar had the assistance of the Northmen of the Upper Anduin his mother's kin, and they were favoured by the kingly house afterwards, and many of them served in the armies of Gondor and became great in the land.

Thus nothing was told of the political and military circumstances that led to the marriage of Valakar to the daughter of the (as yet unnamed) King of Rhovannion. In B something is said of this: Since the days of Atanatar II the Northmen of Mirkwood and upper Anduin had been increasing greatly in numbers and power, and in Romendakil's time hardly acknowledged the overlordship of Gondor. Romendakil having enough to do with Easterlings sought to attach the Northmen more closely to their allegiance, and arranged that his son Valakar should wed the daughter of the King of Rovannion (Wilderland).

B then follows A in placing the whole history of the Kin-strife in the note following Valakar, and makes only the additional statements that such a marriage was unheard of, and that Valakar's son bore before his accession the alien name Vinthanarya. In both texts it is said that Kastamir was slain by Eldakar in 1447, but there is no mention in either of the flight to Umbar by his defeated adherents and the arising there of an independent pirate realm (see below under Minardil).

Aldamir (p. 199). In A it is said that 'his elder son Ornendil was slain with him in battle with rebels of Harad'; B is the same as C, making Ornendil the brother of Aldamir who had been slain in the Kin-strife, but without the reference to 'the rebels of Umbar' (see under Minardil).

Vinyarion (p. 199). The victory of Vinyarion in Harad in vengeance for his father, mentioned in almost the same words in all three texts, is not referred to in the account in Appendix A, and thus the reason for his taking the name Hyarmendakil II is not given; but the event is recorded in the Tale of Years, Third Age 1551.

Minardil (p. 199). In A the story of the founding of the hostile lordship of the Corsairs of Umbar by the followers of Kastamir does not appear and had probably not yet arisen: this is suggested by the fact that in B it first enters long after the event in the note on Minardil: The sons of Kastamir and others of his kin, having fled from Gondor in 1447, set up a small kingdom in Umbar, and there made a fortified haven. They never ceased to make war upon Gondor, attacking its ships and coasts when they had opportunity. But they married women of the Harad and had in three generations lost most of their Numenorean blood; but they did not forget their feud with the house of Eldakar.

The entry in B then continues with the account (much fuller than that in Appendix A) of the slaying of Minardil at Pelargir, which was repeated almost exactly in C.

The names Angomaite and Sangahyanda were changed to Angamaite and Sangahyando in the Second Edition.

Telemnar, Tarondor, Telumehtar (p. 200). In B the text of these entries closely approached those in C; but most of the entry concerning Tarondor, including the account of the desertion of Osgiliath and the removal of the king's house to Minas Anor, was a later addition.

Narmakil II (p. 200). The note in A read: 'Battle with the Ringwraiths who seized Mordor. Osgiliath ceases to be the chief seat of the kings'. In B this was somewhat developed:

At this time the Ulairi (or Ringwraiths) who had seized Mordor long before began to assail Ithilien. Narmakil was slain by the Sorcerer-king. Osgiliath ceased to be the seat of the kings.

This was roughly rewritten to read:

In his time it is said that the Ulairi (or Ringwraiths) arose again and re-entered Mordor secretly. There they prepared in the darkness for the return of their Dark Lord. Men out of the East, a fierce people riding in great wains, came against Gondor, doubtless stirred up by Sauron and Ulairi. Narmakil slain in battle.

This was the first appearance of the Wainriders.

Kalimehtar (p. 200). The note in A recorded only that Kalimehtar

'built the White Tower of Minas Anor and removed his court thither'.

B repeated this, and continued: 'Minas Anor becomes called Minas Tirith, since Minas Ithil is lost and becomes a stronghold of the Ulairi, and is called Minas Morgul.' This was struck out immediately, and the fall of Minas Ithil postponed to the time of King Ondohir; subsequently the entry was replaced by the following:

Built the White Tower of Minas Anor. Continued war against the Wainriders, and defeated them before the Morannon.

The building of the White Tower by Kalimehtar is not referred to in Appendix A, but is recorded in the Tale of Years, Third Age 1900. -

For Ostohir II who followed Kalimehtar in A and (before correction) in B see p. 212.

Ondohir (pp. 200-1). A has here a more substantial entry, though very largely concerned with the claim of Arvedui:

His sons Faramir and Artamir were both slain in the war with Mordor. Minas Ithil fell and became Minas Morgul. In 1940 his daughter (third child), born 1896, wedded Arvedui (son of Araphant) last king of the North. Arvedui in 1944 claimed the Southern crown, but this was refused. There was a time without a king and the steward Pelendur governed. The claim of Arvedui lapsed with his death in battle in 1974, but though too weak ever to press their claim the descendants of Arvedui and Firiel daughter of Ondohir, chieftains of the Dunedain of the North, continued to claim the Southern crown; though in fact it passed after an interregnum to Earnil II, a descendant (great-grandson) of Narmakil II's second son Kalimmakil.

The omission in the note of the death of Ondohir was a mere oversight in rapid writing: he is marked as 'slain' in 1944. Ondohir's daughter is here named Firiel, as in B and C; the name Ilmare in the rejected page of B in the section on the Northern Line (p. 210, Araphant) can then only be explained as a passing change of name. The fact that the Northern kings Araphant and Arvedui are named in A (and the date of Arvedui's death given) shows that work on the history of the Northern Line existed before the writing of B, the earliest extant text for that part (see p. 188).

In B the entry for Ondohir, as first written, began thus: War continued with the Ulairi. Minas Ithil fell and became a stronghold of the enemy, and was renamed Minas Morgul. Minas Anor became Minas Tirith.

This followed the original entry in B under Narmakil II, in which the assault of the Ulairi on Ithilien was recorded (before the entry into the history of the Wainriders). The fall of Minas Ithil and the renaming of the two cities was now moved on from its placing in the reign of Kalimehtar (and thus returns to the text of A, given above).

The opening of B was subsequently struck out, apart from the first sentence, which was corrected to 'War continued with the Wainriders', as in C. The rest of the original entry in B records the fall of Ondohir and his sons 'in battle in Ithilien' (which as written referred to battle with the Ringwraiths, but which was subsequently extended to read 'in battle in Ithilien against an alliance of the Wainriders and the Harad that assailed eastern Gondor from north and south'), and then recounts the claim of Arvedui, closely following A. The statements in A that

'there was a time without a king' when the Steward Pelendur governed, and that the crown passed to Earnil after an 'interregnum', were retained but then struck out (see below under Earnil II). There is thus no mention in B of the great victory of Earnil in South Ithilien followed by his rout of the Wainriders, which led to his accession as king.