Q: When Was Annúminas Abandoned by the Dunedain of Arnor?
ANSWER: Opinions are divided on when Annúminas was abandoned, but in “The Council of Elrond” Elrond himself says:
In the North after the war and the slaughter of the Gladden Fields the Men of Westernesse were diminished, and their city of Annúminas beside Lake Evendim fell into ruin; and the heirs of Valandil removed and dwelt at Fornost on the high North Downs, and that now too is desolate. Men call it Deadmen’s Dike, and they fear to tread there. For the folk of Arnor dwindled, and their foes devoured them, and their lordship passed, leaving only green mounds in the grassy hills.
On this basis of this passage, some people have argued that Annúminas must have been abandoned (at least by the High Kings of Arnor) after Valandil’s death.
On the other hand, an earlier version of the “Tale of Years” — published in The Peoples of Middle-earth — says that Annúminas was not abandoned until Arnor was divided into three lesser realms. On that occasion, it would seem, the people of the city itself seem to have been divided, with those loyal to Amlaith accompanying him to his new seat at Fornost Erain.
Tolkien notes in several texts that the population of Arnor was diminished due to the heavy losses Elendil’s forces suffered in the War of the Last Alliance. Despite these assertions from J.R.R. Tolkien some people express doubt of the idea that Arnor might never have recovered from the losses suffered in war. However, the Men of Arnor (of whom only a part were of Numenorean descent) were away from their wives for at least ten years. Approximately half a generation of children would have been skipped among shorter-lived men at the very least.
Annúminas, being the royal city of Elendil, overlooked Lake Evendim. Tolkien does not say why Elendil chose to build a city there, but in Letter No. 131 Tolkien wrote (describing the Shire Hobbits):
Their chief settlement, where all the inhabitants are hobbits, and where an ordered, civilised, if simple and rural life is maintained, is the Shire, originally the farmlands and forests of the royal demesne of Arnor, granted as a fief….
It would seem that Elendil had taken the lands between Baranduin and Lhun — closest to the Elvish civilization in Lindon — as his personal “fief”. There is no indication that Arnor was divided according to a feudal arrangement among lesser nobles, although there are references to two, possibly three princely families living in Arnor and Gondor that could not claim direct descent from Elendil.
On the other hand, Tolkien clearly establishes that Elendil built the city of Fornost, which is not always referred to as Fornost Erain (usually translated as “Norbury of the Kings”). For example, in “Of the Rings of Power and the Third Age” Tolkien writes
Elendil was cast up by the waves in the and 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 Sûl; and there remain many barrows and ruined works in those places, but the towers of Emyn Beraid still look towards the sea.
An “ost” is a fortified city or dwelling. One doesn’t normally fortify a city unless there is a risk of being attacked. The index in The Silmarillion translates “Fornost” as “Northern Fortress”. The placement of a tower on Amon Sûl is also a bit odd. Why would Elendil put the chief palantir of the north in a tower in the center of his realm?
We know that when the Witch-king established the Realm of Angmar in the northeastern corner of Eriador some 1400 years after Elendil arrived in Middle-earth that the realm was populated by Men, Orcs, Trolls, and other creatures. Where did the Men come from? Were they already living there, perhaps descendants of Easterlings from the First Age who had served Morgoth? If we assume that there were peoples hostiles to the Numenoreans and other Men of Eriador who gave their loyalty to Elendil, then it makes sense that he would not want to dwell at Fornost and that perhaps Fornost was not yet Fornost Erain but rather simply Fornost.
And yet, is that sufficient reason for Elendil to build a city essentially in the middle of nowhere? For regardless of whether it was defending western lands from the encroachments of wild men, Fornost itself stood at the northern end of the great causeway that united Arnor and Gondor. A road would have to run from Fornost westward to Annúminas in order for Elendil and his immediate subjects to be able to reach Bree easily (although Tolkien does not say if the Baranduin was in any way navigable north of the Stonebow Bridge — perhaps boats plied the river north and south).
Likewise Elendil would need to forge some pathway or route westward from Annúminas in order to be able to commune with the Elves of Mithlond and Lindon. So why did he build a city on the shores of Lake Evendim? It seems to offer no strategic advantage and certainly did not compel Valandil’s heirs to remain in that location. There seems only one probable reason which might be peculiar to Elendil. Simply looking at the map one can easily infer that the lake may have been deep enough to support a small amount of shipping. According to “Akallabeth”, Elendil like Amandil his father had been a great ship-captain in Numenor. Arnor had no great shipping port, unless Lond Daer Ened should serve as one (but the fact that Tolkien describes the seaward route between Gondor and Arnor terminating at Tharbad suggests that Lond Daer Ened may no longer have been in use).
Hence, suppose Elendil was not satisfied to live near the mouths of Baranduin and Gwathlo? What if he wanted to live in a pleasant land (and the Shire of three thousand years later seems a pleasant land), safely defended by a strong fortress, relatively close to his Elvish friends, and in a place where he could still — if he wished — set sail upon the waters without traveling too far from the duties of his kingdom? The palantir of Annúminas would have allowed Elendil to maintain contact with Amon Sûl, which in turn would have maintained contact with Gondor. From Amon Sûl Elendil’s messengers could ride east to Rhudaur, south to Tharbad, and west toward Lindon.
If sailing was Elendil’s pleasure because he had been a great captain in Numenor, it follows that his grandson Valandil — raised in Imladris — would have had little opportunity to become a great captain himself. Arnor unlike Gondor never developed a navy, nor cultivated any tradition of “ship-kings”. Hence, if Lake Evendim was Elendil’s private sailing refuge his descendants may have lost interest in the passtime.
There is one more curious thing to consider. Of all eight High Kings after Isildur, Valandur the 7th High King (5th after Isildur, Valandil’s great-great-grandson) died a violent death in Third Age year 652. There is no entry in the “Tale of Years” to explain the dagger annotation by Valandur’s name, but the dagger is placed there in the earlier list of High Kings published in The Peoples of Middle-earth. Despite the fact that Tolkien does not mention any wars between Arnor and other peoples after the War of the Last Alliance, the dagger annotation is only used for deaths occurring in battle for other kings in the Lines of Isildur and Anarion.
If Fornost were attacked in 652, and Valandur died leading the city’s defense, that would make sense. Of course, it’s only fair to point out that Valandur could have died in several other violent ways: he could have been waylaid by Orcs or Trolls while traveling; he could have fallen in battle with Gwathuirim in Enedwaith; he could have gone to the aid of Turambar of Gondor, who avenged his father’s death in battle by Easterlings (Third Age year 541); he could have been assassinated in a plot foreshadowing the dissensions of his great-grandsons.
Unfortunately, unless some obscure note or essay surfaces where Tolkien developed further the history of Annúminas, Elendil, or Valandur we will never know why Elendil settled in Annúminas, when the Numenoreans abandoned Annúminas completely, and what happened to Valandur. But it’s fun to wonder.
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