Q: Do We Know the Size of the Armies of Númenór?
ANSWER: A curious reader asked about “armies Númenór size”. J.R.R. Tolkien appears to have never provided any detailed information about the strength of forces Númenór put into the field at any time in its history. He gives the reader a sense of a gradual increase in the population of Númenór, as well as in the populations of Númenór’s colonies in Middle-earth.
From some of the texts that Christopher Tolkien has published we gather that after Númenór began seizing control of land in Middle-earth it supplemented its armies with forces drawn from local peoples of Middle-earth. This custom mirrored the armies of great antiquity, which assembled forces from different peoples and regions, often where each individual force brought special skills to the greater army.
The various notes and narratives indicate that Númenór’s army was probably quite small to begin with. By the middle of the Second Age Númenór was able to help fortify the Gwathlo and Baranduin rivers. These forces were insufficient to help Gil-galad’s armies block Sauron’s invasion of Eriador in Second Age year 1697. But in 1700 a large fleet of Númenórean ships brought enough reinforcements to defeat Sauron’s armies in Eriador.
One must conclude that Tolkien envisioned armies numbering in the thousands, perhaps tens of thousands for this time frame. But the Númenórean forces don’t act together again in the published histories for more than a thousand years. Only when Ar-Pharazôn sails to Middle-earth to challenge Sauron does Númenór once again demonstrate its might.
Based on the vague descriptions Tolkien provides for the forces arrayed in various battles of Middle-earth, we can infer that Ar-Pharazôn’s “Umbar army” was smaller than the combined armies of the Last Alliance of Elves and Men which defeated Sauron; and we have to conclude that the “Umbar army” was smaller than the final armada Ar-Pharazôn assembled for his invasion of Aman.
There is no comparative statement by J.R.R. Tolkien that allows us to say which army was greater, that of the Last Alliance or Ar-Pharazôn’s final armada. It would seem, however, that a large portion of the Númenórean population was left in Middle-earth, but that Elendil’s Faithful Númenóreans of Arnor and Gondor may have outnumbered the forces of the Kings’ Men who fought for Sauron against the Last Alliance.
If you are writing fan fiction or developing role-playing games, here are some rules of thumb that may help you determine sizes for Númenórean armies.
Pre-invasion forces of Baranduin & Gwathlo < Tar-Ciryatan's reinforcements of 1700-1701 Tar-Ciryatan's reinforcements < Ar-Pharazôn's "Umbar army" Ar-Pharazôn's "Umbar army" < Ar-Pharazôn's final armada Ar-Pharazôn's "Umbar army" < Forces of the Last Alliance of Elves and Men (Arnor & Gondor) Elendil's forces (Arnor & Gondor) > any Arnorian or Gondorian armies in the Third Age
This last comparison may be incorrect. Gondor’s power increased (as did its borders) in the Third Age, whereas Arnor declined. Tolkien wrote that Arnor originally had the greater population but that changed in the Third Age. Perhaps Gondor at the height of its power was able to field as many men (or more) as Elendil had been able to field from Arnor alone.
It is tempting to suggest that the largest of these forces may have numbered in the hundreds of thousands, but there are no numbers we can use to rationalize such estimates.
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