#tarannon

[the-quiet-fire-of-defiance]

Somehow, the childlessness of Tarannon was associated with the Cats of Queen Berúthiel, though the way in which the cats had affected Tarannon was unknown.

we really skip over this as a fandom but i love the potential implications here. ‘the way in which in the cats affected tarannon was unknown’ yeah buddy if i became infertile due to feline violence i would also make sure no-one ever knew the details

[remusjohnslupin]

TOLKIEN LADIES: Berúthiel

Berúthiel lived in the King's House in Osgiliath, hating the sounds and smells of the sea and the house that Tarannon built below Pelargir "upon arches whose feet stood deep in the wide waters of Ethir Anduin;" she hated all making, all colours and elaborate adornment, wearing only black and silver and living in bare chambers, and the gardens of the house in Osgiliath were filled with tormented sculptures beneath cypresses and yews. She had nine black cats and one white, her slaves, with whom she conversed, or read their memories, setting them to discover all the dark secrets of Gondor, so that she knew those things "that men wish most to keep hidden," setting the white cat to spy upon the black, and tormenting them. No man in Gondor dared touch them; all were afraid of them, and cursed when they saw them pass.

[edennill-archived]

topics of contention among historians of Gondor:

whether Ar-Pharazon or Tar-Miriel should be considered the last ruler of Númenor. Pharazon is traditionally named as such, but once in a blue moon you have someone point out that he was an usurper and these aren't supposed to count. the refutations tend to come in the form of (a) but we're reluctant to make changes in the books (b) that it's definitely Pharazon's actions that are what comes to mind when you think about the last years of Númenor and Miriel shouldn't be linked with them

the rohirrim (not) being descended from the house of Hador. this is a story someone had more or less made up wholesale based on very little evidence, but calling them close relations makes people feel better about Gondor having given up a third of it's territory in their favour. every once in a while some young scholar realises this, tries to make his case, and is promptly shut down.

a slight lost-cause-ism problem regarding the kinstrife in some circles, for that matter, though thankfully it's a rather niche view (or at least one mostly kept silent about)

whether assorted first age figures were villains or tragic heroes. kind of like this fandom, tbh, though with way fewer uncritical fëanor stans and a lot more you do realise he would have hated you, right? (no morgoth fans though, because first of all, what the heck, and also that would be a very hard position to defend when his most important servant is actively trying to genocide you)

whether the ship-kings' conquests were that needful or advantageous, actually, and just how much historical reason the peoples of harad might have to not like gondorians

do. not. cite. the legend of beruthiel. as. a. historical. source, please! (seven stars! she hated gondor, gondor hated her, she was suspected of nefarious doings and tarannon had her sent back home. that's IT. she MIGHT have had cats, and the rest is common fancy)

who actually raised the first king of númenor after his parents, um, entered the realm of legend. yes, I know what the most fanciful story says, but it has to be just story, right? it would be so weird and ironic and our legendary progenitor can't have been raised by murderers...

surprisingly fierce battles over very obscure first age edain with legends attached. you can't imagine how much shouting can get involved.

[magicalmanhattanproject]

The Falasturiel Conspiracy

Okay, this is gonna be a grimmer one, but hear me out. I think I'm onto something.

So on my last Appendices diving post, I talked about Fíriel Ondoheriel, wife of Arvedui and how Arvedui tried to claim Gondor's throne by claiming that Fíriel had a right to the throne according to the Númenorean laws of succession. Last time I was mostly focused on Fíriel and how that deals with her, but there's something else weird about it.

How has this not come up before? Ondoher is the thirty-first king of Gondor. The Council of Gondor don't reply to Arvedui's claim. There's no "Yeah we already figured out that particular issue of succession like two dozen generations ago" message.

Somehow, in thirty-one generations, Gondor has never had an only or even an eldest daughter. Compare that to three ruling queens and three more generations of women that could have been queen but weren't (Silmarië, Tar-Súrion's sisters, and Tar-Míriel) in 25 rulers of Númenor. That... seems implausible.

Now, the Doylist explanation is simple: Tolkien forgot women exist again. But, if we want a Watsonian explanation, let's turn our attention to one of the very few women who does get mentioned in Gondor's history: Berúthiel.

Berúthiel is infamous in Gondorian history. She's a Black Númenorean from Umbar. She's evil, she's wicked, she's "nefarious, solitary, and loveless", she hates the Sea, she spies on the men of Gondor, and she's exiled and stricken from the Book of Kings but still lives on in reputation. She is also the wife of Tarannon Falastur, the 12th king of Gondor and the first who had no heirs.

So, like. Let's lay it all out.

It Just So Happens that there aren't any women who could possibly inherit the throne until Ondoher and all his sons are killed. Just So Happens. By Sheer Coincidence.

The first king of Gondor who dies without an heir has a foreign wife who may not be familiar or comfortable with Gondorian norms or political necessities.

The wife of that king really fucking hates her husband and refuses to live in the same city as him and spies on any man that has anything to do with her.

Are y'all picking up what I'm putting down?

[ruiniel]

A @tolkienrsb​ fic by @aprilertuileviresse /Aprilertuile on AO3, with art by @ruiniel

Artwork Rating: G | Fic rating: G | Warnings: No archive warnings apply, arranged marriage with all that implies nothing graphically described though | Relationship: Berúthiel/Maglor | Characters: Maglor, Berúthiel, Tarannon Falastur | Word count: 13k 

SUMMARY:

Beruthiel is set to wed the king of Gondor in an arranged marriage to ensure the safety of her people. Unhappy and alone in the city of her husband, she meets Maglor, also exiled from his own people. 

READ ON AO3: He taught me to love the sea

VIEW THE ART on Tumblr

[warrioreowynofrohan]

Favourite Female Tolkien Character Poll - Round 1, Match 28

There are three polls today, all featuring women of Gondor and Arnor!

Berúthiel

A queen of Gondor remembered for her cats. From a note in Unfinished Tales:

She was the nefarious, solitary, and loveless wife of Tarannon, twelfth King of Gondor and first of the ‘ship-kings,’ who took the crown in the name of Falastur (‘Lord of the Coasts’), and was the first childless king. Berúthiel lived in the King’s House in Osgiliath, hating the sounds and smells of the sea and the house that Tarannon built below Pelargir ‘upon arches whose feet stood deep in the wide waters of Ethir Anduin’; she hated all making, all colours and elaborate adornment, wearing only black and silver and living in bare chambers, and the gardens of the house in Osgiliath were filled with tormented sculptures beneath cypresses and yews.

She had nine black cats and one white [my note: sonehow this feels like a metaphor/imagery for Sauron and the Ringwraiths], her slaves, with whom she conversed, or read their memories, setting them to discover all the dark secrets of Gondor, so that she knew those things ‘that men wish most to keep hidden’, setting the white cat to spy on the black, and tormenting them. No man in Gondor dared to touch them; all were afraid of them, and cursed when they saw them pass.

…her name was erased from the Book of the Kings…and King Tarannon had her set on a ship alone with her cats and set adrift on the sea before a north wind. The ship was last seen flying past Umbar under a sickle moon, with a cat at the masthead and another as a figure-head on the prow.

Vidumavi

She married Valacar prince of Gondor and their son was Eldacar (if you followed the Obscure Tolkien Blorbo poll tournament, you may have heard of him).

Gondor had sought good relations with the Northmen, who lived the plains surrounding the south of Greenwood the Great. King Rómendacil II of Gondor sent his son Valacar to live for a while with Vidugavia, the king or chieftain of lands east of southern Greenwood. Valacar went further than he expected in marrying Vidugavia’s daughter Vidumavi. People in Gondor did not like this, regarding the Northmen as lesser than them, and fearing that intermarriage would make their descendents shorter-lived. After Vidumavi’s death, when Eldacar became king, there was a rebellion and civil war called the Kin-strife, in which Eldacar was ultimately victorious.

[hobbitwrangler]

For the WIP ask game, I can’t be the only one interested in Queen of Cats! I assume this is Beruthiel, which would be amazing because the little bit that I know about her is so intriguing. But even if it’s not Beruthiel, that would be equally amazing because then it’s a total blank slate! Either way, I’m very interested to find out more!

Yess @from-the-coffee-shop-in-edoras you are correct! (Also thank you to @glorf1ndel for your ask about this as well!)

This fic is set years after Tarannon's death when Hyarmendecil I is king. It follows one of Gondor's spies as he enters Umbar and comes across a strange woman with a lot of cats (totally not Berúthiel *wink wink*) who offers him shelter. A+ decision-making, I'm sure he'll be fine.

Probably the thing holding me back most in this fic is figuring out how to portray Berúthiel physically/stylistically which unfortunately involves me working out what Black Numenóreans and people of Umbar are like when it comes to their culture, which is a level of effort my brain just runs away from at the moment.

“Have you not realised who I am?” Farnon frowned slightly, unease growing in his throat. She looked at him, an oddly quizzical expression on her face, as if were a rabbit who had not jumped through the hoop as expected. There was something disconcerting about her eyes. They stared straight ahead, not directly at him. Yet the tilt of her head, the quirk of her lips, made it seem as if she could read the growing fear on his face.  Even as he watched, one of the cats leapt up onto her lap. It stretched, opening wide its red mouth to reveal sharp white teeth. The old woman reached long, sharp-nailed hands to scratch behind the creature’s ears and it arched its back, purring thunderously. Something rubbed against his leg and Farnon jumped, realising that it was another one of the cats slinking past him to curl up at its mistress’s feet.  “I …” Another black shape gazed at him from across the room, its eyes glinting yellow in the firelight. They are all black. He did not know how, but he was suddenly overcome by the feeling that he was being watched. Of course you are being watched. And yet he felt as though she was looking at him, not across the fire, but from above. His eyes rose, slowly, heavy with dread, and he saw it. On the rafters above them, sat another cat, its tale switching as it stared at him out of gold-green eyes. Its fur was luxuriously thick and white as bone. 

wip title ask game

[sweetearthandnorthernsky]

tarannon falastur

[valinorbr]

Berúthiel foi uma rainha de Gondor, conhecida por ser nefasta e solitária. Detestava gatos, mas os escravizou 10 deles (um branco e 9 pretos) para espionar e torturar inimigos. Após causar temor em Gondor, foi exilada pelo rei Tarannon Falastur, sendo seu nome apagado dos registros. Berúthiel voltou para sua cidade natal, mas a memória dela e de seus gatos perdurou.

[twilightcitadel]

Brynndor:

God(s): Zephyrus, Seraphina.

Capital City: Twilight Citadel

Ruler: The Arcane Sovereign Guild

Native Race: Eirwynar

Description: Brynndor is geographically divided into two distinct halves. The lower half is characterised by its lower altitude, featuring green, rolling hills and expansive meadows. This region is filled with large green spaces and dense woodland areas, all infused with the essence of Seraphina. The upper half of Brynndor is defined by a high-altitude mountain range, where clouds and thunder are prevalent. The mountains vary in height, gradually reaching their highest near the border of the Snowdrift Dominion (north). This part of Brynndor has the essence of Zephyrus. Brynndor has 5 separate regions, Stormspear, Tarannon, Derwenholt, Elderwood, and Greenbriar.

Read More

[warrioreowynofrohan]

Quotes on both characters, because they’re intriguing and I didn’t remember them well!

Pearl Took (from Letters of JRR Tolkien, letter 214; fair warning, pretty fatphobic in tone)

Lalia the Great (or less couteously the Fat) …ruled the Tooks and the Great Smials for 22 years, a grand and memorable, if not universally beloved, ‘matriarch’. She was not at the famous Party [Bilbo’s 111th birthday], but was prevented from attending rather by her great size and immobility than by her age. Her son, Ferumbras, had no wife, being unable (it was alleged) to find anyone willing to occupy apartments in the Great Smials, under the rule of Lalia. Lalia, in her last and fattest years, had the custom of being wheeled to the Great Door, to take the air on a fine morning. In the spring of Shire Year 1402 [the year after Bilbo’s party] her clumsy attendant let the heavy chair run over the threshold and tipped Lalia down the flight of steps into the garden. So ended a reign and life that might well have rivalled that of the Great Took.

It was widely rumoured that the attendant was Pearl (Pippin’s sister), though the Tooks tried to keep the matter within the family. At the celebration of Ferumbras’ accession the displeasure and regret of the family was formally expressed by the exclusion of Pearl from the ceremony and feast; but it did not escape notice that later (after a decent interval) she appeared in a splendid necklace of name-jewels that had long lain in the hoard of the Thains.

To me this doesn’t suggest intent, just that Lalia wasn’t particularly mourned; but definitely a fine source of hobbit gossip!

Queen Berúthiel

In the main text of LOTR, the only mention of her is a reference to her cats. This is elaborated on in the notes to “The Istari” chapter of Unfinished Tales (summary by Christopher Tolkien):

Berúthiel was the nefarious, solitary, and loveless wife of Tarannon, twelfth king of Gondor (T.A. 830-913) and first of the ‘Ship-kings’, who took the crown in the name of Falastur ‘Lord of the Coasts’, and was the first childless king [of Gondor]. Berúthiel lived in the King’s House in Osgiliath, hating the sounds and smells of the sea and the house that Tarannon built below Pelargir ‘upon arches whose feet stood deep in the wide water of Ethir Anduin’; she hated all making, all colours and elaborate adornment, wearing only black and silver and living in bare chambers, and the gardens of the house in Osgiliath were filled with tormented scupltures beneath cypresses and yews. She had nine black cats and one white, her slaves, with whom she conversed, or read their memories, setting them to discover all the dark secrets of Gondor, so that she knew the things ‘that men most wish to keep hidden’, setting the white cat to spy upon the black, and tormenting them. No man in Gondor dared touch them; all were afraid of them, and cursed them when they saw them pass. What follows is almost illegible in the unique manuscript, except for the ending, which states that her name was erased from the Book of the Kings (‘but the memory of men is not wholly shut in books, and the cats of Queen Berúthiel never passed wholly out of men’s speech’), and that King Tarannon had her set on a ship alone with her cats and set adrift on the sea before a north wind. The ship was last seen flying past Umbar under a sickle moon, with a cat at the masthead and another as a figure-head on the prow.

RIP Berúthiel but I’m different, I would love a house on stilts in the ocean. Nonetheless, a literal goth queen, and I want fanart of that last scene.

Obscure Tolkien Blorbo: Round 2

Berúthiel vs Pearl Took

Berúthiel:

A Queen of Gondor noted for her unhappy marriage and her cats.

An evil sorceress who is also a cat lady. Need I say more

Pearl Took:

The eldest sister of Pippin Took.

Ok but can you IMAGINE being Pippin Took's eldest sister. This girl DEFINITELY has eldest daughter syndrome. She dealt with it by casually murdering an elderly relative :)

Round 2 masterpost

[bretwalda-lamnguin]

I definitely think cultural prejudice factored against Berúthiel in Gondor, but I've been having thoughts about what an interesting situation her marriage is. I think there's a lot more to it than prejudice and a few cats...

Berúthiel was a Númenorian, but one descended from the Kings Men, as opposed to the Faithful ancestors of the Gondorians. Both sides of Númenor still exist in middle earth, but for the most part the Gondorians seem to want to claim sole right to Númenor's legacy, certainly after Arnor's collapse, and deny the existence and legitimacy of other groups of Númenorians (either by ignoring them or claiming them to be of “impure blood”). Umbar, other Númenorian colonies and Númenorians in the service of Sauron (e.g the Mouth of Sauron) obviously fly in the face of this. Gondor has at all times its own dark inversion to face. Umbar exists as an aspect of Gondor's dark shadow, reflecting the aspects of their culture and history that they are most uncomfortable with, but that still (to a lesser degree) exist within themselves. We see it most in Castamir the Usurper, a Númenorian blood-purist whose descendants do end up ruling Umbar. This makes Tarannon's marriage to Berúthiel interesting. Rather than deny the existence of the King's Men in middle earth, this seems more an attempt to reconcile the two, and re-unify the two halves of Númenor. There would have likely been some elements in Gondor all for this, Númenorian blood-supremecists who were King's Men in all but name, Castamir didn't come from nowhere. But this involves legitimising their political enemy in an attempt to reconcile them, by marrying Berúthiel Tarannon was acknowledging her to be a Númenorian, this was before the Kin-Strife. It cannot be an easy thing to walk back. Tarannon and Berúthiel did not love each other, this must have been an arranged marriage, and Berúthiel a prominent princess, likely growing up steeped in the local forms of Númenorian King's Men culture. So, with so much riding on it, why did it fail? I think there are two possible answers. The Gondorians were either repulsed by how similar the King's Men were to themselves, or by how different.

For the first, perhaps Berúthiel often talks in ways which are less veiled than the Gondorians, openly talking of Númenorian superiority, that other Men exist only to serve them, mocking those of "lesser bloodlines". This makes those who would consider themselves Faithful uncomfortable, she represents an unmasked version of Gondor, with all its rhetoric and justification swept aside and the horrible truth of Númenorian imperialism laid bare.

Alternatively, many in Gondor may have hoped that the years in exile may have set the descendants of the King's Men right, they can't surely still hold slaves and carry out human sacrifice by immolation, can they? Only for Berúthiel herself to dash this. Treating Tarannon's servants as slaves, calling for enslavement of defeated foes and burning of political enemies.

Perhaps it was some of both, to different people. Either way I think this is an interesting moment in Gondorian history, we never hear about any more attempts at reconciliation before or since, and the Gondorians post Kin-Strife (and especially from Mardil onward according to Faramir) take a different path. There are still dark elements there, but Gondor definitely becomes less like the King's Men, not more. Though this only seems to increase their resolve to deny them, and their right to claim Númenor's legacy. This would also explain why Tarannon was so keen to have her existence forgotten, this wasn’t just a failed marriage, it was failed geopolitics and diplomacy. Something that would potentially hurt Gondor for decades, even centuries.

[arofili]

the line of elros ♚ royalty of gondor ♚ headcanon disclaimer

          Siriondil was the son of Atanatar I and the eleventh king of Gondor. He led in a time of peace established after his grandfather King Turambar defeated invaders from the East and conquered the land of Rhûn. He wed Ilvanya, the sibling of one of his chief counselors. They bore their husband two sons, Tarannon and Círyan, both mariners.           Tarannon was the Captain of the Hosts during his father’s reign, and upon his own ascension to the throne, he was crowned King Falastur, first of the Ship-kings of Gondor. He spent his youth marauding the coasts, and as king he turned his focus to the growing threat of rebellion in Harad. To appease his conquered subjects, Falastur married a princess of one of the south-kingdoms that was itself occupied by Black Númenóreans, those King’s Men who had come to Middle-earth during the reign of Ar-Pharazôn to oppress its people and sacrifice them to the Cult of Melkor.           This princess, Zâinazimril, was the descendant of the lord Herumor who had fought alongside Sauron in the War of the Last Alliance. She was betrothed by her father to Falastur against her will, and after their wedding he brought her to his house by the mouths of Anduin. But Zâinazimril hated the sea, especially the smells of salt and fish and gulls, and insisted on dwelling in the King’s House in Osgiliath instead.           The people of Gondor feared and hated their new queen, naming her Berúthiel for her bitter temper. As Falastur was often away at sea, she had the King’s House to herself, decorating the courtyard with sculptures from her homeland that disturbed her Gondorian servants.           Though she loathed cats, as her father’s house had been full of them, many cats of Osgiliath became fixated upon her and followed her around. Eventually, Berúthiel accepted her entourage, setting them as spies upon the suspicious Gondorians who stalked her every path. In this way she discovered many dark secrets of the realm, for she followed the tradition of sorcery taught to her ancestors by the Lord Zigûr and could speak with animals and read their memories. The people of Gondor feared and hated Berúthiel and her cats, nine black and one white, cursing whenever they walked by.           Eventually, Falastur heard of his wife’s intimidation of his counselors and returned to Osgiliath to see the truth for himself. He declared the union unsuccessful, as no children had been born between them and Harad continued to simmer with resentment against Gondor, and exiled Berúthiel from Gondor, erasing her name from the Book of the Kings.           Zâinazimril was set on a ship with only her cats for company and cast out into the sea she despised. She attempted to sail to Umbar, a haven of her people, and travel home from there, but she was no mariner and was last seen flying past the city with a cat at the masthead and another as a figurehead on the prow. Thus she passed into legend as the Stolen Princess of Harad and the Black Queen of Gondor, her final fate unknown.

[magicalmanhattanproject]

Man, okay, listen. The way women are treated in general in Gondor's history is wildly egregious even compared to the rest of the Legendarium to the point that I have to start making some less than pleasant watsonian theories to explain it.

Because like the thing that sticks in my mind about Fíriel and Arvedui's claim to the throne of Gondor is that Arvedui bothering with this claim at all suggests that the issue of a woman inheriting the throne has not yet been formally litigated. Like, it could also be that Arvedui is just a moron who doesn't know the inheritance laws very well, that's perfectly supported by the text, but like there's nothing in the text to suggest that it ever has been formally litigated either.

And, like, Ondoher is the thirty-first king of Gondor. That's an improbably long time to go without any eldest daughters.

So, Ar-Pharazôn was the 25th king of Númenor. Of 25 rulers, 3 were women and 4 were solid claimants for 6 generations of female claim (Silmarië, Tar-Míriel, and both of Tar-Súrion's unnamed sisters counted as a single generation. Side note: I do not buy Tar-Súrion's sisters turning down the throne of Númenor bc grandma scawy). This is obviously not equitable, but since there's obviously going to be a ton of political pressure on women to not take the throne if there are alternatives available, it strikes me as a decently plausible ratio.

Oropher was the 31st king of Gondor. Of 31 rulers, none were women and no claims to the throne by women are recorded. This despite Gondor's historical obsession with maintaining Númenorean customs, which included women being able to inherit the throne. There are a grand total of 4 women recorded in Gondor's history (counting history as any time before the writers of the Red Book of the Westmarch could have asked about them so eg Finduilas doesn't count): these are Fíriel, Hild, Vidumavi, and Berúthiel. (Hild is counted bc Rohan doesn't keep written records so their written history is necessarily filtered through a Gondorian lens)

Fíriel, Hild, and Vidumavi are all recorded because they are all necessary to understanding succession crises.

Berúthiel is the really interesting exception here. Because her husband Tarannon does die without an heir, but it's not particularly a succession crisis and either way, Gondor's historians make it Pretty Clear they won't use women to establish legitimacy if they don't have to. (Steward Húrin of Emyn Arnen is a kinsman of King Minardil but presumably not his father Hyermandacil II. This suggests a relationship on the maternal line, but clearly no women needs to be mentioned to establish kinship with the king)

Instead, the most important thing history remembers about Berúthiel is that she was totally evil. Just so so evil. Really really mean and evil and horrible. She stayed as far away from her husband as possible and so they didn't have any heirs and also she was so so evil you guys I promise she was evil.

I'll just let you put the pieces together how you see fit but like. If you take the Appendices as history instead of objective fact, there's some pretty gaping holes where the women should be.

Felt like a Tolkien poll:

[ncfan-1]

A hostage comes north to be a bride. 

Written for the April 24th general prompt, ‘Not Wholly Shut in Books.’

[warrioreowynofrohan]

Favourite Female Tolkien Character Poll - Round 2, Match 13

Berúthiel

A queen of Gondor remembered for her cats. From a note in Unfinished Tales:

She was the nefarious, solitary, and loveless wife of Tarannon, twelfth King of Gondor and first of the ‘ship-kings,’ who took the crown in the name of Falastur (‘Lord of the Coasts’), and was the first childless king. Berúthiel lived in the King’s House in Osgiliath, hating the sounds and smells of the sea and the house that Tarannon built below Pelargir ‘upon arches whose feet stood deep in the wide waters of Ethir Anduin’; she hated all making, all colours and elaborate adornment, wearing only black and silver and living in bare chambers, and the gardens of the house in Osgiliath were filled with tormented sculptures beneath cypresses and yews.

She had nine black cats and one white [my note: sonehow this feels like a metaphor/imagery for Sauron and the Ringwraiths], her slaves, with whom she conversed, or read their memories, setting them to discover all the dark secrets of Gondor, so that she knew those things ‘that men wish most to keep hidden’, setting the white cat to spy on the black, and tormenting them. No man in Gondor dared to touch them; all were afraid of them, and cursed when they saw them pass.

…her name was erased from the Book of the Kings…and King Tarannon had her set on a ship alone with her cats and set adrift on the sea before a north wind. The ship was last seen flying past Umbar under a sickle moon, with a cat at the masthead and another as a figure-head on the prow.

Fíriel of Gondor

The last surviving child of King Ondoher of Gondor, under Númenorean law she would have been the heir to the throne. She married Arvedui Last-king of Arnor, and he sought to claim the throne of Gondor in her name. He was refused, and the line of kings of Gondor ended two generations later, while the kingdom of Arnor ended with Arvedui.

Apparently no one argued that Fíriel herself rather than her husband should inherit the throne.