#tolkien #fantasy #middleearth
Q: How Many Númenórean Colonies Were There in Middle-earth?
ANSWER: To the best of my knowledge, J.R.R. Tolkien never attempted to provide a list of Númenórean colonies in Middle-earth. I received the following list of questions from a reader in August 2022:
Michael, There were Númenórean colonies in Middle-earth before the fall of Númenór. Were all of those colonies considered Númenórean? By that I mean did Umbar and points south consider themselves heirs of Númenór as did Arnor and Gondor? What did Númenórean settlement both North and South look like before the fall of Númenór? I’m wondering if there were kingdoms like Gondor or Arnor to the distant south that were simply too far to be part of the stories. Did any Númenóreans make their way further east, did they build great cities or leave monuments like Orthanc? Since they were the greatest sailors in the world and I thought I read they travelled far and wide in Middle-earth before the fall I am curious as to whether there was anything written about them. BTW if the stories are Mythology for Britain, are Arnor and Gondor supposed to invoke anything particularly ‘English’?
The only official names for Númenórean colonies of which I am aware are the following:
- Umbar
- Pelargir
- Lond Daer Ened
- Tharbad
These were all at one time or another cities but they may not have been cities during Númenór’s years of engagement with Middle-earth (roughly Second Age 600 through 3319). The City of the Corsairs that is often referred to by the name Umbar may only have been founded after Ar-Pharazôn landed there. “Akallabêth” doesn’t say there was a city there or even a garrison:
And men saw his sails coming up out of the sunset, dyed as with scarlet and gleaming with red and gold, and fear fell upon the dwellers by the coasts, and they fled far away. But the fleet came at last to that place that was called Umbar, where was the mighty haven of the Númenóreans that no hand had wrought. Empty and silent were all the lands about when the King of the Sea marched upon Middle-earth…
The story doesn’t require that kind of detail.
The “Tale of Years” in The Lord of the Rings has this entry for Second Age year 2280: “Umbar is made into a great fortress of Númenór.” So there was a fortress at one time there. Pelargir was established 70 years later.
Presumably Ar-Pharazôn disembarked near or at the fortress at Umbar (or its ruins), but such a detail wasn’t meaningful to Tolkien’s narrative. Maybe if he had lived long enough and found a need, he would have written a story About the Arrival of Ar-Pharazôn and the Númenóreans at Umbar which would have described what Ar-Pharazôn saw. But such a tale must now be relegated to fan fiction.
Lond Daer Ened began as a temporary haven constructed by Aldarion. Tharbad may have been an empty crossing point with only a name, or it could have been an Elvish outpost, or something else. It eventually became a pair of fortresses and supporting communities maintained by Arnor and Gondor. However, during the Second Age and leading up the War of the Elves and Sauron, the Númenóreans established forts along the Gwathló river at least as far inland as Tharbad.
Of these locations, the only one for which we can be certain there was a city of Númenóreans was Pelargir (which Tolkien translated as “garth of royal ships”). The initial element pel- implies there was a wall around the haven or its fortress or the city and fortress, etc. This would be an example of how Tolkien redefined a historical term (garth – which usually refers to an enclosed piece of land, obviously an impossible location for ships unless you imagine the harbor inside the walls). The name might have been inspired by Asgard, which literally means “Aes(ir) garden” but is generally translated as “home of the [Aesir] gods” or “land of the [Aesir] gods”.
When Elendil and his sons arrived in Middle-earth, they found many Númenóreans, friendly peoples, and peoples of mixed descent living along the southern Anduin river, in Belfalas, and in the Anfalas (for what became Gondor) and along the Gwathló and Baranduin rivers for what became Arnor.
Elendil was cast up by the waves in the land of Lindon, and he was befriended by Gil-galad. Thence he passed up the River Lhûn, and beyond Ered Luin he established his realm, and his people dwelt in many places in Eriador about the courses of the Lhûn and the Baranduin; but his chief city was at Annúminas beside the water of Lake Nenuial. At Fornost upon the North Downs also the Númenóreans dwelt, and in Cardolan, and in the hills of Rhudaur; and towers they raised upon Emyn Beraid and upon Amon S˚l; and there remain many barrows and ruined works in those places, but the towers of Emyn Beraid still look towards the sea.
Isildur and Anárion were borne away southwards, and at the last they brought their ships up the Great River Anduin, that flows out of Rhovanion into the western sea in the Bay of Belfalas; and they established a realm in those lands that were after called Gondor, whereas the Northern Kingdom was named Arnor. Long before in the days of their power the mariners of Númenór had established a haven and strong places about the mouths of Anduin, in despite of Sauron in the Black Land that lay nigh upon the east. In the later days to this haven came only the Faithful of Númenór, and many therefore of the folk of the coastlands in that region were in whole or in part akin to the Elf-friends and the people of Elendil, and they welcomed his sons. The chief city of this southern realm was Osgiliath, through the midst of which the Great River flowed; and the N˙menÛreans built there a great bridge, upon which there were towers and houses of stone wonderful to behold, and tall ships came up out of the sea to the quays of the city. Other strong places they built also upon either hand: Minas Ithil, the Tower of the Rising Moon, eastward upon a shoulder of the Mountains of Shadow as a threat to Mordor; and to the westward Minas Anor, the Tower of the Setting Sun, at the feet of Mount Mindolluin, as a shield against the wild men of the dales. In Minas Ithil was the house of Isildur, and in Minas Anor the house of Anárion, but they shared the realm between them and their thrones were set side by side in the Great Hall of Osgiliath. These were the chief dwellings of the Númenóreans in Gondor, but other works marvellous and strong they built in the land in the days of their power, at the Argonath, and at Aglarond, and at Erech; and in the circle of Angrenost, which Men called Isengard, they made the Pinnacle of Orthanc of unbreakable stone.
Tolkien doesn’t say that these cities were built by Elendil and his sons, but their histories only begin with Elendil and his sons. Hence, I have used the working assumption that Elendil, Isildur, and Anárion established the cities that became the chief communities of Arnor and Gondor. Everything I can find about the earliest periods in Arnorian and Gondorian history seems to imply these cities only existed because of Elendil and his followers.
Now let me address your specific questions:
Were all of those colonies considered Númenórean?
We have no reason to believe either way. But assuming Tolkien would have followed some kind of historical precedent, he probably would have imagined many of the “colonies” consisting of native settlements warded by small Númenórean garrisons. I get the impression, although Tolkien doesn’t say so explicitly in any text I’ve read, there were a mix of official and unofficial colonies along the coast. “Royal” colonies like Pelargir would have been official. But it seems almost any adventurer with enough men to follow him could have conquered a small strip of coastland and built a fortress to rule over the natives.
That was often the way human colonies were established around the world for thousands of years. Yes, sometimes colonists would be sent out to break new lands, build new cities, etc. But they usually did so for strategic or economic reasons. On the other hand, we have many examples of warlords establishing themselves as the new “petty kings” among local peoples. I think Tolkien might have imagined a similar pattern or distribution for his dark (unnamed) Númenórean colonies.
Many of the remnants of the Númenórean empire quickly lost their Númenórean influence in the Third Age because there were too few Númenóreans in them to maintain any substantial culture. So I think it would be reasonable to imagine towns and cities further south from Umbar and deeper inland where the populations (and languages) were generally not Númenórean but were at one time under Númenórean control.
Did Umbar and points south consider themselves heirs of Númenór as did Arnor and Gondor?
The Umbarians probably did, at least when they were known in Gondor as Black Númenóreans (and they were not the only enclave to be so designated).
And we have this passage from “Of the Rings of Power and the Third Age” to refer to:
Now Sauron prepared war against the Eldar and the Men of Westernesse, and the fires of the Mountain were wakened again. Wherefore seeing the smoke of Orodruin from afar, and perceiving that Sauron had returned, the Númenóreans named that mountain anew Amon Amarth, which is Mount Doom. And Sauron gathered to him great strength of his servants out of the east and the south; and among them were not a few of the high race of Númenór. For in the days of the sojourn of Sauron in that land the hearts of well nigh all its people had been turned towards darkness. Therefore many of those who sailed east in that time and made fortresses and dwellings upon the coasts were already bent to his will, and they served him still gladly in Middle-earth. But because of the power of Gil-galad these renegades, lords both mighty and evil, for the most part took up their abodes in the southlands far away; yet two there were, Herumor and Fuinur, who rose to power among the Haradrim, a great and cruel people that dwelt in the wide lands south of Mordor beyond the mouths of Anduin.
So it seems that the first generation of survivors, at least, still considered themselves to be Númenóreans. Why else would the Gondorians call them Black Númenóreans?
What did Númenórean settlement both North and South look like before the fall of Númenór?
“I’m wondering if there were kingdoms like Gondor or Arnor to the distant south that were simply too far to be part of the stories.”
Tolkien doesn’t say much about them. The first mention of Black Númenóreans is in “The Black Gate Opens”:
…The rider was robed all in black, and black was his lofty helm; yet this was no Ringwraith but a living man. The Lieutenant of the Tower of Barad-dûr he was, and his name is remembered in no tale; for he himself had forgotten it, and he said: ‘I am the Mouth of Sauron.’ But it is told that he was a renegade, who came of the race of those that are named the Black Númenóreans; for they established their dwellings in Middle-earth during the years of Sauron’s domination, and they worshipped him, being enamoured of evil knowledge. And he entered the service of the Dark Tower when it first rose again, and because of his cunning he grew ever higher in the Lord’s favour; and he learned great sorcery, and knew much of the mind of Sauron; and he was more cruel than any orc.
This passage could be used together with the passage from “Akallabêth” above to argue that Umbar was settled by survivors after the Downfall. But I don’t think it’s necessary to argue one way or another. Most people probably assume Umbar was continuously inhabited from S.A. 2280 onward.
Christopher Tolkien shared a few details of her story in Unfinished Tales of Númenór and Middle-earth. And although he only discussed her in an interview with a fanzine, J.R.R. Tolkien did provide some additional details about Queen Berúthiel (wife of Tarannon Falastur) to a fan in 1966, Daphne Castell. Tolkien just sort of made things up as he talked about the background and development of The Lord of the Rings:
“The choice of the ring as a link with the older stuff was inevitable. Most of the allusions to older legends scattered about the tale, or summarized in Appendix A are to things which really have an existence of some kind in the history of which The Lord of the Rings is part.
“There’s one exception that puzzles me – Berúthiel. I really don’t know anything of her – you remember Aragorn’s allusion in Book I to the cats of Queen Berúthiel, that could find their way home on a blind night? She just popped up, and obviously called for attention, but I don’t really know anything certain about her; though, oddly enough, I have a notion that she was the wife of one of the ship-kings of Pelargir. She loathed the smell of the sea, and fish, and the gulls. Rather like Skadi, the giantess, who came to the gods in Valhalla, demanding a recompense for the accidental death of her father. She wanted a husband. The gods all lined up behind a curtain, and she selected the pair of feet that appealed to her most. She thought she’d got Baldur, the beautiful god, but it turned out to be Njord, the sea-god, and after she’d married him, she got absolutely fed up with the seaside life, and the gulls kept her awake, and finally she went back to live in Jotunheim.
“Well, Berúthiel went back to live in the inland city, and went to the bad (or returned to it — she was a black Númenórean in origin, I guess). She was one of these people who loathe cats, but cats will jump on them and follow them about — you know how sometimes they pursue people who hate them? I have a friend like that. I’m afraid she took to torturing them for amusement, but she kept some and used them — trained them to go on evil errands by night, to spy on her enemies or terrify them.”
According to Christopher Tolkien, the “inland city” his father referred to was Osgiliath. I suspect he wrote down the brief tale soon after giving this interview.
Did any Númenóreans make their way further east, did they build great cities or leave monuments like Orthanc?
I know of no specific anecdotes or references from either J.R.R. Tolkien or Christopher Tolkien. But some people have speculated that the Variags of Khand could be Black Númenóreans.
The story of Berúthiel does seem to imply there must have been inland settlements of Black Númenóreans.
Are Arnor and Gondor supposed to invoke anything particularly ‘English’?
J.R.R. Tolkien did not specifically tie them to anything concerning Great Britain or England. Of course, he denied such connections and then scholars like Tom Shippey have proceeded to explain such connections in great detail.
That said, J.R.R. Tolkien once compared Arnor and Gondor to Upper and Lower Egypt (Letter No. 211):
The Númenóreans of Gondor were proud, peculiar, and archaic, and I think are best pictured in (say) Egyptian terms. In many ways they resembled ‘Egyptians’ – the love of, and power to construct, the gigantic and massive. And in their great interest in ancestry and in tombs. (But not of course in ‘theology’: in which respect they were Hebraic and even more puritan – but this would take long to set out: to explain indeed why there is practically no oven ‘religion’, or rather religious acts or places or ceremonies among the ‘good’ or anti-Sauron peoples in The Lord of the Rings.) I think the crown of Gondor (the S. Kingdom) was very tall, like that of Egypt, but with wings attached, not set straight back but at an angle.
[An illustration you can view at Tolkien Gateway]
The N. Kingdom had only a diadem (III 323). Cf. the difference between the N. and S. kingdoms of Egypt.
Nonetheless, if you want to see some arguments in favor of other comparisons, then check out Tolkien and the Study of His Sources: Critical Essays, Edited by Jason Fisher for some alternative thoughts.
And THAT said, I suppose you could argue for a comparison to the North-South divide in England. Osgiliath bears some resemblance to London, especially with respect to the way both cities straddle a great river and both cities had an ancient bridge that once supported many buildings. London is the seat of power in England (and later Great Britain) and Osgiliath was the seat of power in Gondor.
I’ve read about other differences between North and South England that sometimes remind me of the divisions of Arnor and Gondor. But whether those similarities were intentional on Tolkien’s part, subconscious, or merely coincidental, I don’t know. Remember, nearly every town in England seems to claim that Tolkien slept there – so he presumably got around the landscape enough to note cultural and linguistic differences between northern and southern England.
THAT said, Tolkien also once wrote (in Letter No. 168) “Thank you very much for your letter…. It came while I was away, in Gondor (sc. Venice), as a change from the North Kingdom, or I would have answered before.” And I must say that on the basis of this remark much good ink and many brave trees have surrendered themselves to the musings of fans who compare Arnor and Gondor to the (western) Roman Empire and Constantinople (Byzantine empire). Tolkien compared Gondor to Byzantium in Letter No. 131, for what it’s worth. Interestingly, he never referred to the city as either Constantinople or Istambul.
Conclusion
As I comb through my archive of as-yet unanswered questions, I find a growing number of inquiries that consist of these strings of questions. I don’t mind receiving these kinds of request in the least, but they are difficult to answer as they require consierable research. And it’s hard to summarize a group of questions with a meaningful article title.
Nonetheless, I must weigh carefully which submissions I respond to as my time for research is somewhat limited (at least for the foreseeable future). I may split up some of these multi-question submissions for future articles.
See also
Were There Any Cultural Differences between Arnor and Gondor?
Where Did the People of Arnor Come from?
How Many Pre-Númenórean Peoples Joined Arnor and Gondor?
Did Any Black Númenóreans Fight against Arnor?
Where Did the Second Age Númenóreans Live in Eriador?
Were the Corsairs of Umbar Númenóreans?
Could Anyone Start A Kingdom in Middle-earth?
Who Were the Variags of Khand?
Why Did Gondorian Civilization Remain Stagnant?
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Have you read our other Tolkien and Middle-earth Questions and Answers articles?
“Are Arnor and Gondor supposed to invoke anything particularly ‘English’?”
I found your answer thoughtful. I think that while Tolkien’s creation is, broadly speaking, an act of “northern imagination,” the Numenoreans have always struck me as belonging culturally more to the Mediterranean world – borrowing in various respects from Egypt, from Rome, and doubtless other civilizational sources of that region, too. And I have always thought that Letter 168 suggests that Tolkien thought so too, on some level. And Numenor, at least as developed for the Lord of the Rings, was a relatively late addition to Tolkien’s legendarium…
And the Numenoreans ruled and dwelt in Eriador, too, just as the Romans once ruled and dwelt in Britain, with Annuminas and Fornost being more stand-ins for London or Trier, if the Roman Empire had somehow broken in half on North-South rather than East-West lines. But like the Romans, they fell into strife and eventually to plague and foreign conquest, leaving behind only terrible ruins (it being a secret that a true remnant still endured, in hiding). Left behind, too, were the Hobbits, the most English like society in Middle Earth.
For all the nitpicks I have of Jackon’s LOTR, I thought that one of his genuine thematic insights was to imagine Minas Tirith as Byzantine in look, or at least Byzantine as it existed in Late Antiquity, rather than, say, gothic. I read somewhere that he asked Alan Lee and Grant Major to design it as “Constantinople in the morning.” I can’t be entirely sure what Tolkien would have thought of that, but I wager he’d sense it was a lot closer to what was in his mind than anything John Howe ever came up with.
So while things are unclear, as usual, one thing is certain there MUST have been more settlements of the Numenoreans other than those named ones as you say, I like the idea of the ‘royal’ official colonies and unofficial ones, where the migrating people just set up in the conventien place to them establishing their own town harbours and fortresses eventaully. In the timeline we know that the first PERMANENT settlements arose around the years 1200s of Second Age (with the Vinyalonde, the later Lond Daer Ened, being founded earliest but only as temporary harbour in times of Aldarion the years between 750-800) by the time of the 1200s there would be already many forts and I guess settlements of permanence with garrisons and workers, people staying, other places along the coast could have been settled, the Belfalas definitely was so as we read, and in one version of the origin of the line of princes of Dol Amroth/Belfalas there was a family of the Faithful and some number of their followers who settled there before Elendil’s flight, one can also imagine many lesser settlements port towns and villages be it on the coast of Minhiriath, Anfalas, Harondor, and Near Harad even before the ‘official’ settlement of the Pelargir and Umbar. I mean by the timeline of events in appendicesL
“1200
Sauron endeavours to seduce the Eldar. Gil-galad refuses to treat with him; but
the smiths of Eregion are won over. The Númenoreans begin to make permanent
havens.
…
c. 1800
From about this time onward the Númenoreans begin to establish dominions on the
coasts. Sauron extends his power eastwards. The shadow falls on Númenor.”
So in years of 1800’s after War fo the Elves and Sauron intervention when the Numenoreans truly tasted the power in Middle-earth they started to establish ‘dominions’ which would seem like colonial proto-kingdoms or regions governed by the numenorean rulers/lords,…and it is said that at least the three of the Nazgul were great lords of Numenor so it would make sense these were the ambitious and greedy colonial lords. These dominions would require not only a governor of sorts but also a number of people to keep the native populace also ‘enslaved’ or under the new jurisdiction of new rulers. Numenor also was becoming more and more populated and people sought more room so a wave of settlers and numenorean colonists would en masse go to the controlled areas of the coast. So there MUST have been many more unnamed now or forgotten settlements and fortresses can usually be the seats of power. The ‘castle by the sea’ of the princes of Dol Amroth it may be such a fortress established on Belfalas coast and around it a town or a city and series of settlements would be gathered….we do talk here about a VAST area of land, there. Then also the migrations of the Fatithful escaping persecution can be added….so who knows maybe the shores of Middle-earth are (at the time of Lotr taking place) dotted with ancient ruins of long lost and forgotten numenorean settlements.
The southern colonies along the shores of both Harondor the ‘South Gondor’ and the Near Harad to use these terms as distinction of geography would gradually fall into control of the locals. The Black Numenorean lords and their entire dynasties could still survive as small elite here and there. The example of the Black Numenorean lords like Herumor and Fuinur, gives possibility of the realms ruled by the Numenorean aristocracy of sorts or rather the line of elite dynasties who gradually would also lose their numenorean heritage. The lords of Umbar were driven away by the Gondorians when they took the city in Third Age and they set up their power basis further away from the coast among the native Haradrim and these came again to reclaim the Umbar so it coudl also mean a small element of the numenorean groups there, the Unfinished Tales also speak of the settlements south of Umbar becoming merged with the locals:
“Harad “South” is thus a vague term, and although before its downfall Men of Númenor had explored the coasts of Middle-earth far southward, their settlements beyond Umbar had been absorbed, or being made by men already in Númenor corrupted by Sauron had become hostile and parts of Sauron’s dominions. But the southern regions in touch with Gondor (and called by men of Gondor simply Harad “South”, Near or Far) were probably both more convertible to the “Resistance,” and also places where Sauron was most busy in the Third Age, since it was a source to him of man-power most readily used against Gondor. Into these regions Gandalf may well have journeyed in the earlier days of his labours.”
Maybe some elements of the Numenorean culture and ethnicity remained there, but these would be firmly the Black Numenoreans and so worshipers of Sauron and his servants.
Interesting question! I think there must have been many colonies established in the second age also. I wish more had been written about them. I imagine many exotic cities and fortresses in jungles, deserts ️ on the coasts of distant lands.