#Arnor

[iamnotshazam]

Aragorn and Arwen have their son Eldarion twenty years after their wedding, and at least two or more daughters. That's the extent of canon info about their family after LotR. If we're going by what Tolkien's ghost would think is canonical pseudo-medieval gender roles, that's twenty years where the Reunited Kingdom has no heir.

Which is fine for Peredhel-turned-mortal Arwen, when elves can go centuries between having kids, and Dúnadan Aragorn, who knows he's got another 80-100 years in the tank before he *coughs politely* can't empty the tank. The Arnor Dúnedain, who for generations as an entire people have been crashing on Elrond's couch while larping at still having a kingdom, would understand this intuitively. But the people of Gondor (only a small percentage of which I think are Dúnedain?) may not quiiiiite understand this, not completely internalized it.

So they are hovering around Arwen, this beautiful alien creature that just landed in their backyard and snapped up the most available bachelor before he even came on the market, and she sometimes says outrageous things like "oh, I remember King Eärendur's wife liked this cookie recipe" and the servants and guests at tea cannot help but share a Look because that was 2160+ years ago, and does someone have to ask her if . . . if she knows what sex is?

In a pseudo medieval society it is the queen's duty to bear an heir, but like, she was raised an elf. Can we pressure her like we do our own kind into having grandbabies ASAP, or will she turn us into frogs? It's possible there are women who go through their entire reproductive years in between when Arwen has these kids. If Eldarion is her first then gossip in Minas Tirith for those twenty years must have been insane, waiting for an heir. Do elves even breed like we do? Did Beren and Lúthien spawn Dior Eluchíl in a pond? Did Tuor have to carry Eärendil like a seahorse? Do we have to catch a stork in the cabbage patch? Is Aragorn gonna have to lay eggs? What's the hold up?

[thekingofwinterblog]

Tolkien's crowns.

You know something that really annoys me about the Tolkien movie adaptions?

Crowns.

Like a lot of things Jackson did, he basically crafted something completely new out of the bare bones we get from some descriptions, for better or worse, but the Crowns are another matter, because not only did Tolkien give very clear descriptions, and even drew the two most notable ones(the crowns of the dwarves and gondor)that appeared over the course of Lotr and the Hobbit, both had very, very clear cut meanings and symbolism behind them, that tied them to their real life origins.

The crowns of the dwarves of Erebor and Moria look like someone took their helmets and filed down the sides so only the skeleton remained, to varying degrees of success.

But you know what tolkien used?

In the books, Tolkien's dwarves uses crowns speciffically modeled after the crown of the Austrian-Hungarian Empire.

Why?

Well if you know anything about said empire, and the actual inspiration for Tolkien's dwarves, the picture is a bit clearer.

See Tolkien specifically modeled his dwarfs, their history of losing a homeland, desire for a new one, and their proud, industrious culture of craftsmen and skills of making money on a mixture between the Norse mythical dwarves, and the Jews in the long centuries after the Romans kicked them out of their original homeland.

Now with this in mind, Tolkien choosing to model the Dwarves crown on the Austrian one is him specifficaly choosing a real, Germanic crown as the inspiration... As well as a nod to the fact that the Austria-Hungarian empire was legendary for his time(The time Tolkien grew up in) as a progressive haven for jews, probably the best in Europe.

An empire, that was also destroyed by fires of war, just Moria and Erebor.

In other words, there is so much symbolism here that is completely and totally stripped away by the helmet crowns the movies gave them.

Hell, even the original hobbit animated movie got this right, while Jackson did not, as they basically just made the crown the austrian one, just a bit more exagerated.

Meanwhile, there is the crown of gondor, which completely missed absolutely everything tolkien tried to do with the Gondor crown.

It's a crown that fits perfectly with the rest of the city, this is truly a crown of the Gondor that the movies portrayed.

Meanwhile, Tolkiens Winged silver crown... Does not.

Even within the context of the fact that the books gondor is an early medieval(as it does not have plate armor at all) styled kingdom in terms of armor and clothing design, the crown does NOT fit in the slightest.

And that's the point.

The original crown of Gondor was a simple war Helm of the day that Elendil wore, and the later one that Aragorn wore was a more fancy replica of that helmet.

It is outdated by thousands of years, a relic of an elder time that was long lost even when Gondor's lost it's Kings in the first place. It's not supposed to fit in.

Also the fact that Elendil wore this, and it was considered just fine, tells us a lot about Gondor's fashion and style of arms during the closing days of the second age.

However, then we get into the deeper meaning behind the crown and where it was inspired from.

Gondor's winged crown was very deliberately inspired and based on the crowns of ancienct egypt, which was one of the main inspirations for Gondor and(to a lesser extent) arnor.

Just like Egyot there were two kingdom, an upper and a lower one, though in middle earth it was instead called the northern and southern ones.

Just like egypt, Gondor's entire socity and political and economic strength was based around their massive river that ran through the realm.

Just like Egypt, one of the biggest problems the gondorian elites had was their obsession with grand mousoleums and graves for their elites, focusing far more on the dead rather than their living children, and wasting who knows how much coin, manpower, energy and resources on such rather than just burying them in thr ground.

Basically the same problem egypt had building stupidly expensive superstructures for their dead in the form of pyramids, rather than something actually useful.

Then there is the fact that just like how lower and upper egypt combined their regalia together(as in they fused the two crowns into one, bigger one), Aragorn very deliberately made the royal regalia of the reunited Kingship BOTH his ancient and out of place winged crown, and the Silver scepter of Annuminas, the royal symbol of Arnor, combining the two of them together into one office.

[edennill]

I keep wondering whether Gondor/Arnor have a martyrological tradition of some sort. Because usually — when a people has that level of persecution in their historical background, it should be impossible for them not to have one, but at the same time, the precise manner of this oppression, this concept of human sacrifice (and to whom), the very thoroughness of the mockery of their native religious customs is significantly more horrible, I think, than anything that ever happened irl on a similar scale (and I'm not denying that a lot of events that did occur in history were already utterly nauseating). So, I find it difficult to imagine that they could look back at this with anything but horror, even though these were heroes, these were people who died for a cause, the Cause, even, ones who chose death rather than to submit to evil.

And in any other culture they would be venerated. But I'm not sure if the circumstances allow the kingdoms-in-exile for that.

[softlysilverfountainsfall]

All I'm saying is that "the hands of the king are the hands of a healer" can't have come out of nowhere, and I bet it goes back to Elros Tar-Minyatur and Numenor because there's no reason for Elros not to be a healer too, and the idea/phrase just traveled all the way down to Arnor and Gondor through the Third Age.

[arofili]

lord of the rings ladies week day four | women of the south | ellanel meldatári | @lotrladiessource

Ellanel was the daughter of Evrindil, daughter of Elessar and Undómiel. She was dear to her uncle King Eldarion, and when he advancing in years had no children of his own, he named her his heir in the tradition of Númenor. Thus upon his deathbed, Eldarion surrendered the scepter to his niece, and she was named Ellanel Meldatári, First Ruling Queen of the Dúnedain in Middle-earth and Third High Monarch of the Reunited Kingdom. In her first years as Queen, she faced an attempted coup in the form of the Cult of the Dark Tree, but with the aid of her younger brothers Prince Tondir the Just and Prince Malfinor the Wise, she subdued the rebellion and prevented the rise of a New Shadow like unto the one vanquished by her grandfather King Elessar. Queen Meldatári ruled wisely and justly for nearly a century, much beloved by her people, and traveled far and wide, treating with her neighbors in their own lands and strengthening many alliances that would hold for generations after her reign.

[Ellanel is a Sindarin name altered from Ellonel, a rejected name for Arwen. Strictly it translates as “elf-daughter,” but I’ve chosen to interpret it as a compound of elda (“elf”) and aranel, meaning alternately “elf king” (as in Dior Aranel) and “princess” (as in Emerwen Aranel), which would give the translation “elf princess.” Meldatári is a Quenya name meaning “beloved queen.”]

[velvet4510]

If you say no, tell me why not!

(I am aware I misspelled; I meant primogeniture)

[warrioreowynofrohan]

Favourite Chapter of The Lord of the Rings - Poll 7 of 8

The winners of previous rounds are:

The Fellowship of the Ring: “Strider” and “The Council of Elrond”

The Two Towers: “Treebeard” and “The Window on the West”

The Return of the King: “The Battle of the Pelennor Fields” and “The Steward and the King”

Now, a round for the appendices and other supplementary material!

[theworldsoftolkein]

Evendim

[geekashgaming]

My Rhudaur/Angmar 400pt force

[cat-in-a-frogsuit]

“Kings made tombs more splendid than houses of the living, and counted old names in the rolls of their descent dearer than the names of sons. Childless lords sat in aged halls musing on heraldry; in secret chambers withered men compounded strong elixirs, or in high cold towers asked questions of the stars. And the last king of the line of Anárion had no heir.”

“For so we reckon Men in our lore, calling them the High, or Men of the West, which were Númenóreans; and the Middle Peoples, Men of the Twilight, such as are the Rohirrim and their kin that dwell still far in the North; and the Wild, the Men of Darkness.”

Ugh. So re-reading LOTR as an adult, passages like these really piss me off. How dare you rank people like that? Effing Númenórean supremacy.

In this viewpoint, the failing of the line of Anárion is not tragic, because the arrogance of the Gondorian Kings is deplorable. It is portrayed as tragic that Eärnur went and died horrifically without prioritizing to preserve the oh so important Númenórean BLOODLINE.

The bloodline that gives the Gondorians and Arnorians the right to govern “lesser” men. The right to give the fields of Calenardhon to their allies, the Rohirrim, without care for the “Wild Men” who already live there.

And that Faramir just subscribes to this hierarchization makes me angry and takes a lot away from my appreciation of him.

What became of “for were you ten times as wise you would have no right to rule me and mine for your own profit as you desired” when applied to the Númenóreans, Tolkien?

[thetempleofthemasaigoddess]

RINGS OF POWER HEADCANON

After the foundation of Arnor, Raumos, the former Sail Master, becomes the commander of the kingdom's naval force, as well as King Elendil's most trusted advisor.

(I just love this guy and his friendship with Elendil so much.)

[thekingofwinterblog]

Why Arnor Failed as a State

So in lord of the rings, Aragorn, the titular returning king of the Third book/film, is the last descendant of Elendil, the first High King of Arnor and Gondor.

The entire plot is about how the royal family finaly, after all these years comes home to Gondor in the south from the cold, hard north, where the other realm of the Dunedain failed.

That said we are never really given a particularily detailed breakdown of why Arnor ultimately failed beyond the obvious military one(It was defeated by the rising power of Angmar before that too crashed and burned), the geographics one(the population never really managed to reach the level it could have, and that was before the plague), and the political one(the realm split into 3 lesser realms that squabbled).

On paper these seems easy enough reasons for why the northern realm crashed and burned, but once you actually start digging into it, it becomes pretty obvious that unlike Gondor, Arnor had some very serious fundamental problems that it never really managed to fix, which brought it down in the end.

1. It mishandled it's amazing geopgraphy

Looking at Arnor from above, it seems to have ALL the advantages. It has mazsive, open fertile plains, 2 great rivers, mild climate except for the far borth, clear, easy to defend natural boundaries, with the only open pathway into the realm being the hard to pass through corridor feom forodwaith.

Politically apeaking it was also set for success as the realm had managed to unify all the local peoples within it's borders underneath its banner, which they were content with for a very long time.

So with all of this in mind, where did Arnor go wrong?

It failed to harness it's rivers, that's how.

When choosing the place for capital for the new realm, one would expect it to be on one of the rivers, either at the mouth, or at an important spot.

The Dunedain chose to build the capital Annuminas at the great lake from whoch the Baranfuin/brandywine river originates from.

This isnt a... A terrible choice for a capital.

It allows the royal family to dominate the trade flowing up and down the river by controlling the spot where you can build ships, and have a massive riverrine fleet stationed in case of conflict.

So whats the problem?

The Dunedain never dredged either of their rivers, thats the problem.

Rather than wideding the bottom, to allow bigger, more usefull ships to pass up and down the river for transport of food, trade goods, and troops, Arnor instead did the exact opposite, and not only let natural fords stand, but built bridges that would prevent any trading river network from flourishing.

As far as i can tell, Arnor didnt have any particular noteworthy ocean navy, but even if Arnor was never going to invest into one such, the fact that they never did the work to make their rivers into a fountain of wealth, trade was one of the major reasons for their big decline.

But if they didn't invest into making their rivers more navigable, at the very least they would invest in horse power, in order for their people to travel quickly across the plain, allowing a caravan based trade netowork to do what rivers did not, right?

Well, no, and that leads me into my next point.

2. They Failed to turn into a cavalry based military, economic force, or political one

When the last king of Gondor(then prince) before Aragorns coming near a millennia later, came to destroy Angmar with a truly stunningly large relief force at the end of Angmar's power, he noted to his surprise just how perfect Arnor's plains would be for his cavalry in the task ahead of him.

And he was right. While it was the overhwelming numbers that won the day, it was the cavalry that was the main star, and allowed the army of the west to sweep over Angmar and end it forever with such ease.

With this in mind, it brings the question of why didnt the Arnorian Dunedain switch over to a completely horse based army, or at the very least make knights the shocktroops of the military the way Gondor did?

The reason seems simple enough.

Gondor was forced to fight endless wars against all of its neighbors and had to constantly adapt and change and improved, while Arnor was at peace for the better part of a millenium before it broke.

When the successor state of Arthedain had to adopt to new warfare, it always found itself outnumbered, and from the accounts of it's wars with Angmar, what they ended up doing was simply rely on powerful fortifications to fight defensive wara, and it's alliance networks to rally addiational troops.

Not strategies withouth merrit, but it's clear that Arthedain never managed to become a particularily great military powerhouse... But it could have if it had changed over to cavalry as the main feature of the army.

Instead they relied on what the numenoreans of old did. Arrow, sword and shield.

They no doubt had mounted troops of some sort, but it was clearly not their speciality just looking at how their successors, the rangers of the north prefer fighting.

But the fact is, Arnor should have had Cavalry centered armies from the very start, leaving behind the old Numenorean way of fighting the moment they realised all their future fighting would be on open plains.

However, this lack of focus on horses had another side effect. One that along with their squandering their rivers would contribute to another problem.

3. A lack of integration of the kingdom's ethnicities.

When Arnor broke off into 3 different realms, while the impetous was 3 sons fighting for control, when you look at the bigger picture, its clear that what actually happened here is that the 3 realms broke off very neatly along the kingdoms 3 main ethnicities, who each backed their own prefered candidate.

Arthedain, the biggest and strongest, centered around the heartland was populated by mostly ethnic dunedain, along with breemen as a smaller ethnicity.

Cardolan was ruled by a dunedain elite, but the ethnicity that dominated was the natice, pre numenorean population who were centered around the barrow tombs they would later be buried in(and would be corrupted by the witch king).

And finally Rhudar was also ruled by a dunedain elite, but the real power behind their revolt against the capital was the natice hillmen, who, being dissatiafied with Dunedain rule, and fueled by ambition decided to ally with Angmar in a bid for supremacy(only to later be exterminated by angmar once they no longer served their purpose).

What we see here is a very clear breakdown of the kingdoms, caused by a failed integration policy.

Clearly Annumias and later Fornost failed to bring these minorities into the fold successfully the way Gondor did eith its minorities, who became proud gondorians.

And we can in large part blame this on the capitals inability to project a sense of unity across the land. Which would have been easy to do if they had successfully tamed and harnessed their rivers, making all 3 corners part of a connected riverrine network, or had used horse based travel and trade as a matter of course to ensure everyone was connected into one economic and political policy.

Its very telling that the only people the Dunedain successfully integrated into their realm were the two minorities who lived right by the capital of Fornost(The hobbits and Breemen). Because these were the people who lived close enough that you could actually get there by foot at a reasonable time.

So with all of this in mind, there is a question to be raised. Why did Arnor squander all of it's natural advantages so badly?

Well i've gone over the military one. A stupily long amount of peace made the realm unprepared for innovation that allowed Gondor to become a powerhouse.

But no the real reason why the Arnorians would have seen no need to make changes to bolster trade, in and outside the kingdom, is due to a factor i have not gone over yet.

4. Trade mistakes.

Arnor and Arthedain both sit on an ancienct road used by the dwarves, both from across the misty mountains in the direction of rivendel, but also from gondor, and far more importantly for this dissection, during both Arnor and Arthedain's lifetimes, this road systwm would have been used by Khazad-Dum, Moria, at it's height.

All 3 directions heading to the Dwarves mines in the blue mountains and the great harbors of the Elven realm of Lindon.

It would in short, be one of the most lucrative trade routes of the age.

But, and this is critical, it was not a network Arnor actually had to do some work to take a advantage of.

They did not need to make caravans, or build trade fleets, ocean or riverrine. Hell, they didn't even need dedicated traders of their own.

They were middle men, who by virtue of sitting right on this route got to toll and harness the wealth this route generated withouth hacing to do any real work.

And that, ultimately was the problem. They didnt need to innovate. They didnt need to adapt and improve and put their land to full use, because all the wealth they could possibly use was there withouth work.

And that sucks, because clearly Arnor had A LOT of products they could have sold abroad. We can tell that just by looking at it's most prosperous successor state(the shire) and looking at what sort of technology they inherited from their original overlords.

The hobbits of the shire has paper mills, clockmakers, dye industry, matches, bound books, door knobs, integrated locks and latches, and on and on. Compare it to rohan, and they are centuries ahead in tech by our standards.

It's often easy to forget(give tolkien was clear that hobbits just did not move past a certain point in techonology) that by the standards of the day, the Hobbits are very technologically advanced compared to most... And ALL of that is things they inherited from their overlords.

Wheter Arthedain and by extension Arnor invented all of these technologies themselves(as there are a number of things clearly not found in gondor it cant all have been inherited from numenor), or they adapted it through Trade with Khazad Dum or Lindon, improved upon such foreign concepts, or kore likely a mixture of all of these, it's clear that Arnor had the capacity to make these, and by extension the fact they are still around after the kingdom fell, in the form of the hobbits being self sufficcient(otger than presumably the raw metal materials they trade for with the dwarves) means this was not some exceptional level of tech for the kingdom.

It was the kingdom's standard, and if they had been interested in actually exporting these things abroad, Arnor would probably have been more wealthy than Gondor by a far margin.

But they didnt. Because they didnt see any need to innovate their trade capacity in such a manner. Which in turn led to them not harnessing their lands capacity for cheap, easy transportations, which in turn led to them not integrating their people the way gondor(who's people are all connected through the sea and Anduin, and what comes with them), which led to them being far more divided than they should have been.

And while their long period of peace allowed them to overtake Gondor in so many things, when it came to military advancements, they were not only voefully behind, but when it came time to innovate, they lacked both the resources, and the spark to truly overhaul their military and tactics, instead relying on the same old classics until it brought the kingdom crashing down.

[edennill]

People complaining that hobbits having potatoes is inaccurate because that's not an European food will never stop being funny to me, because not only do things in Middle-Earth not need to work exactly like they do irl, but also: the people of Gondor and Arnor did discover this world's version of the Americas -- they just quickly turned away in disgust that it's more normal, boring, mortal lands and that, by implication, Valinor and Númenor are truly gone.

[softlysilverfountainsfall]

Arvedui's death by drowning in Forochel is actually very unfair because he follows all the Tolkien Fantasy Rules(TM) and then dies because, nope! This time, real-life rules applied!

Arvedui, king of Arthedain (part of Arnor), was a Man, and he listened to the elves, which is generally a good idea in Tolkien's world! What's more, he listened to Cirdan('s people), which is literally always a good idea in Tolkien's world except for this one time.

Yes, the Lossoth locals warn him about sailing in such dangerous, icy conditions, but these are Cirdan's highly experienced elven mariners on elven ships who, after all, arrived here safely. And Arvedui is urgently needed back with his people to fight the Witch-king of (quite literally at this point) Angmar.

But no! Fantasy rules are out for five minutes and real-life rules are in, and Arvedui drowns (along other people and two palantiri), the last king of Arthedain.