So, honestly, I don’t really know what they were thinking. Yeah, it’s another of those things I’ve wondered for, like, a few millenia now. Because it seemed obvious to me at the time that the whole Númenor business was just a disaster waiting to happen.

I gather that the theory was for us to reconcile with neglected mortalkind by bringing some part of the population into the family, so to speak, like a sort of mortal Tol Eressëa, but it quite inevitably came off as patronizing Man as the child of a lesser God (when in fact the opposite is supposed to be true, they are the direct charge of Eru). I mean, beauty, wealth, and immortality apparently within sight of the Meneltarma or, for that matter, any tower built high enough. We might as well have painted a giant pony sign saying “NOT YOURS” and a picture of an unhappy child in the corner.

If I had my druthers, we Vala would have built Númenor on the other side of Middle-Earth. It would at least have delayed the whole cataclysm for a few centuries. Or better yet, just actually paid attention to Middle Earth after the expulsion of Morgoth. Hear that Manwë? Yeah, I said it.

(pic courtesy of The Thain’s Book)