The Fall of Númenor, page 14
1280 – KINGS AND QUEENS OF NÚMENOR VIII:
Tar-Anárion
Born: SA 1003; Died: SA 1404 (age 401)
Rule: SA 1280-1394 (114 years)
Tar-Anárion had two daughters whose names are not recorded and a son, Súrion, who acceded to the throne when his sisters refused the sceptre.
1394 – KINGS AND QUEENS OF NÚMENOR IX:
Tar-Súrion
Born: SA 1174; Died: SA 1574 (age 400)
Rule: SA 1394-1556 (162 years)
Tar-Súrion had two children: a daughter, Telperien, and a son, Isilmo.
c. 1500 – THE ELVEN-SMITHS INSTRUCTED BY SAURON REACH THE HEIGHT OF THEIR SKILL. THEY BEGIN THE FORGING OF THE RINGS OF POWER.
But elsewhere the Elves [of Eregion] received [Sauron] gladly, and few among them hearkened to the messengers from Lindon bidding them beware; for Sauron took to himself the name of Annatar, the Lord of Gifts, and they had at first much profit from his friendship. And he said to them [speaking of his rejection by the Elves of Lindon]: ‘Alas, for the weakness of the great! For a mighty king is Gil-galad, and wise in all lore is Master Elrond, and yet they will not aid me in my labours. Can it be that they do not desire to see other lands become as blissful as their own? But wherefore should Middle-earth remain for ever desolate and dark, whereas the Elves could make it as fair as Eressëa, nay even as Valinor? And since you have not returned thither, as you might, I perceive that you love this Middle-earth, as do I. Is it not then our task to labour together for its enrichment, and for the raising of all the Elven-kindreds that wander here untaught to the height of that power and knowledge which those have who are beyond the Sea?’1
It was in Eregion that the counsels of Sauron were most gladly received, for in that land the Noldor desired ever to increase the skill and subtlety of their works. Moreover they were not at peace in their hearts, since they had refused to return into the West, and they desired both to stay in Middle-earth, which indeed they loved, and yet to enjoy the bliss of those that had departed. Therefore they hearkened to Sauron, and they learned of him many things, for his knowledge was great. In those days the smiths of Ost-in-Edhil surpassed all that they had contrived before; and they took thought, and they made Rings of Power. But Sauron guided their labours, and he was aware of all that they did; for his desire was to set a bond upon the Elves and to bring them under his vigilance.2
Sauron used all his arts upon Celebrimbor and his fellow-smiths, who had formed a society or brotherhood, very powerful in Eregion, the Gwaith-i-Mírdain; but he worked in secret, unknown to Galadriel and Celeborn. Before long Sauron had the Gwaith-i-Mírdain under his influence, for at first they had great profit from his instruction in secret matters of their craft.3
In his letter to Milton Waldman, Tolkien wrote: ‘Sauron found their weak point in suggesting that, helping one another, they could make Western Middle-earth as beautiful as Valinor. It was really a veiled attack on the gods, an incitement to try and make a separate independent paradise. Gil-galad repulsed all such overtures, as also did Elrond. But at Eregion great work began – and the Elves came their nearest to falling to ‘magic’ and machinery. With the aid of Sauron’s lore they made Rings of Power (‘power’ is an ominous and sinister word in all these tales, except as applied to the gods).
The chief power (of all the rings alike) was the prevention or slowing of decay (i.e. ‘change’ viewed as a regrettable thing), the preservation of what is desired or loved, or its semblance – this is more or less an Elvish motive. But also they enhanced the natural powers of a possessor – thus approaching ‘magic’, a motive easily corruptible into evil, a lust for domination. And finally they had other powers, more directly derived from Sauron (‘the Necromancer’: so he is called as he casts a fleeting shadow and presage on the pages of The Hobbit): such as rendering invisible the material body, and making things of the invisible world visible.’
1556 – KINGS AND QUEENS OF NÚMENOR X:
Tar-Telperien
Born: SA 1320; Died: SA 1731 (age 411)
Rule: SA 1556-1731 (175 years)
She was the second Ruling Queen of Númenor. She was long-lived (for the women of the Númenóreans had the longer life, or laid down their lives less easily), and she would wed with no man.
During the reign of Tar-Telperien momentous events were to unfold in Middle-earth.
c 1590 – THE THREE RINGS ARE COMPLETED IN EREGION.
In conversation with Frodo Baggins about Bilbo’s Ring in the spring of Year 3018 of the Third Age, Gandalf the Grey succinctly summarized the history of the forging of the Rings of Power: ‘In Eregion long ago many Elven-rings were made, magic rings as you call them, and they were, of course, of various kinds: some more potent and some less. The lesser rings were only essays in the craft before it was full-grown, and to the Elven-smiths they were but trifles – yet still to my mind dangerous for mortals. But the Great Rings, the Rings of Power, they were perilous.’1
Of the time when those Rings of Power were forged, ‘The History of Galadriel and Celeborn’ recounts:
[In the days of the Second Age when Sauron had withdrawn to Mordor and before the time that he began to send emissaries to Eregion2] the power of Galadriel and Celeborn had grown, and Galadriel, assisted in this by her friendship with the Dwarves of Moria, had come into contact with the Nandorin realm of Lórinand [afterwards called ‘Lórien’ and ‘Lothlórien’] on the other side of the Misty Mountains.3 This was peopled by those Elves who forsook the Great Journey of the Eldar from Cuiviénen4 and settled in the woods of the Vale of Anduin;5 and it extended into the forests on both sides of the Great River, including the region where afterwards was Dol Guldur. These Elves had no princes or rulers, and led their lives free of care while all Morgoth’s power was concentrated in the North-west of Middle-earth;6 Galadriel, striving to counteract the machinations of Sauron, was successful in Lórinand; while in Lindon Gil-galad [had] shut out Sauron’s emissaries and even Sauron himself. But Sauron had better fortune with the Noldor of Eregion and especially with Celebrimbor, who desired in his heart to rival the skill and fame of Feanor.7
In Eregion Sauron posed as an emissary of the Valar, sent by them to Middle-earth (‘thus anticipating the Istari’) or ordered by them to remain there to give aid to the Elves. He perceived at once that Galadriel would be his chief adversary and obstacle, and he endeavoured therefore to placate her, bearing her scorn with outward patience and courtesy8… So great became his hold on the [Gwaith-i-Mírdain] that at length he persuaded them to revolt against Galadriel and Celeborn and to seize power in Eregion; and that was at some time between 1350 and 1400 of the Second Age. Galadriel thereupon left Eregion and passed through Khazad-dûm to Lórinand taking with her Amroth and Celebrían, but Celeborn would not enter the mansions of the Dwarves, and he remained behind in Eregion, disregarded by Celebrimbor. In Lórinand Galadriel took up rule, and defence against Sauron.9
Sauron himself had departed from Eregion about the year 1500, after the [Gwaith-i-Mírdain] had begun the making of the Rings of Power.10
c. 1600 – SAURON FORGES THE ONE RING IN ORODRUIN. HE COMPLETES THE BARAD-DÛR. CELEBRIMBOR PERCEIVES THE DESIGNS OF SAURON.
Now the Elves made many rings; but secretly Sauron made One Ring to rule all the others, and their power was bound up with it, to be subject wholly to it and to last only so long as it too should last. And much of the strength and will of Sauron passed into that One Ring; for the power of the Elven-rings was very great, and that which should govern them must be a thing of surpassing potency; and Sauron forged it in the Mountain of Fire in the Land of Shadow. And while he wore the One Ring he could perceive all the things that were done by means of the lesser rings, and he could see and govern the very thoughts of those that wore them.1
In writing to Milton Waldman, Tolkien addresses the source and effect of the One Ring’s power:
‘[Sauron] rules a growing empire from the great dark tower of Barad-dûr in Mordor, near to the Mountain of Fire, wielding the One Ring.
‘But to achieve this he had been obliged to let a great part of his own inherent power (a frequent and very significant motive in myth and fairy-story) pass into the One Ring. While he wore it, his power on earth was actually enhanced. But even if he did not wear it, that power existed and was in “rapport” with himself: he was not “diminished”. Unless some other seized it and became possessed of it. If that happened, the new possessor could (if sufficiently strong and heroic by nature) challenge Sauron, become master of all that he had learned or done since the making of the One Ring, and so overthrow him and usurp his place. This was the essential weakness he had introduced into his situation in his effort (largely unsuccessful) to enslave the Elves, and in his desire to establish a control over the minds and wills of his servants. There was another weakness: if the One Ring was actually unmade, annihilated, then its power would be dissolved, Sauron’s own being would be diminished to vanishing point, and he would be reduced to a shadow, a mere memory of malicious will. But that he never contemplated nor feared. The Ring was unbreakable by any smithcraft less than his own. It was indissoluble in any fire, save the undying subterranean fire where it was made – and that was unapproachable, in Mordor. Also so great was the Ring’s power of lust, that anyone who used it became mastered by it; it was beyond the strength of any will (even his own) to injure it, cast it away, or neglect it. So he thought. It was in any case on his finger.’
Although only revealed when subjected to fire, the One Ring bore an inscription.2 The letters were of Elvish, ‘of an ancient mode’, but the language was that of Mordor, which, rendered in the ‘Common Tongue’ read:
One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them,
One Ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them.
This rhyme was ‘only two lines of a verse long known in Elven-lore’:
Three Rings for the Elven-kings under the sky,
Seven for the Dwarf-lords in their halls of stone,
Nine for Mortal Men doomed to die,
One for the Dark Lord on his dark throne
In the Land of Mordor where the Shadows lie.
One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them,
One Ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them
In the Land of Mordor where the Shadows lie.
And this very Ring, towards the close of the Third Age, would be the subject of an alarming revelation made by Gandalf in Bag End: ‘This is the Master-ring, the One Ring to rule them all. This is the One Ring that he lost many ages ago, to the great weakening of his power. He greatly desires it – but he must not get it.’
Six months later in Rivendell, Master Elrond Half-Elven speaks of the Ring to those representatives of the Free People gathered in Council, telling ‘of the Elven-smiths of Eregion and their friendship with Moria, and their eagerness for knowledge, by which Sauron ensnared them. For in that time he was not yet evil to behold, and they received his aid and grew mighty in craft, whereas he learned all their secrets, and betrayed them, and forged secretly in the Mountain of Fire the One Ring to be their master.’3 But, as is recorded in ‘Of the Rings of Power and the Third Age’ and ‘The History of Galadriel and Celeborn’, Sauron underestimated the Elves of Eregion.
But the Elves were not so lightly to be caught. As soon as Sauron set the One Ring upon his finger they were aware of him; and they knew him, and perceived that he would be master of them, and of all that they wrought. Then in anger and fear they took off their rings.4
Now Celebrimbor was not corrupted in heart or faith, but had accepted Sauron as what he posed to be; and when at length he discovered the existence of the One Ring he revolted against Sauron, and went to Lórinand to take counsel once more with Galadriel. They should have destroyed all the Rings of Power at this time, ‘but they failed to find the strength’. Galadriel counselled him that the Three Rings of the Elves should be hidden, never used, and dispersed, far from Eregion where Sauron believed them to be. It was at that time that she received Nenya, the White Ring, from Celebrimbor, and by its power the realm of Lórinand was strengthened and made beautiful; but its power upon her was great also and unforeseen, for it increased her latent desire for the Sea and for return into the West, so that her joy in Middle-earth was diminished. Celebrimbor followed [Galadriel’s] counsel that the Ring of Air and the Ring of Fire should be sent out of Eregion; and he entrusted them to Gil-galad in Lindon.5
At this time, after six centuries of labour by those creatures held in Sauron’s thrall – and aided by the power of the One Ring – the mighty structure of Barad-dûr reached completion, being the mightiest fortress to be built in Middle-earth since the Fall of Angband, the Iron Prison (or ‘Hell of Iron’) in the depths of the Iron Mountains that, in the First Age, had served as the fortress of Melkor.6 Later, in the Third Age, shortly before the breaking of the Fellowship of the Ring, Frodo sitting on the Seat of Seeing on Amon Hen, and wearing the One Ring, saw a vision of the terrible magnificence of Barad-dûr: ‘…his gaze was held: wall upon wall, battlement upon battlement, black, immeasurably strong, mountain of iron, gate of steel, tower of adamant, he saw it: Barad-dûr, Fortress of Sauron. All hope left him.’7
It may be asked why, in the Second Age, Sauron was not assaulted by an alliance of the Elves and the Men of the West as soon as he was divined as assembling and empowering his forces, as opposed to waiting for him to finally instigate war. It is a question Tolkien would later address, in January 1970, in a text headed:
NOTE ON THE DELAY OF GIL-GALAD AND THE NÚMENÓREANS IN ATTACKING SAURON, BEFORE HE COULD GATHER HIS FORCES.8
It is now vain, and indeed unjust, to judge them foolish not to do, as in the end they were obliged to do, to have quickly gathered their forces and assailed Sauron. (See the Debate of the Loremasters upon the Ban of Manwë and his conduct as the Lord of Arda.) They could not have any certain knowledge of Sauron’s intentions, or his power, and it was one of the successes of his cunning and deceits that they were unaware of his actual weakness, and his need for a long time in which to gather armies sufficient to assail an alliance of the Elves and Western Men. His occupation of Mordor he no doubt would have kept secret if he could, and it would appear from later events that he had secured the allegiance of Men that dwelt in lands adjacent, even those west of Anduin, in those regions where afterwards was Gondor in the Ered Nimrais and Calenardhon. But the Númenóreans occupying the Mouths of Anduin and the shorelands of Lebennin had discovered his devices, and revealed them to Gil-galad. But until [S.A.] 1600 he was still using the disguise of beneficent friend, and often journeyed at will in Eriador with few attendants, and so could not risk any rumour that he was gathering armies. At this time he perforce neglected the East (where Morgoth’s ancient power had been) and though his emissaries were busy among the multiplying tribes of eastern Men, he dared not permit any of them to come within sight of the Númenóreans, or of Western Men.*
The Orcs of various kind (creatures of Morgoth) were to prove the most numerous and terrible of his soldiers and servants; but great hosts of them had been destroyed in the war against Morgoth, and in the destruction of Beleriand. Some remnant had escaped to hidings in the northern parts of the Misty Mountains and the Grey Mountains, and were now multiplying again. But further East there were more and stronger kinds, descendants of Morgoth’s kingship, but long masterless during his occupation of Thangorodrim, they were yet wild and ungovernable, preying upon one another and upon Men (whether good or evil). But not until Mordor and the Barad-dûr were ready could he allow them to come out of hiding, while the Eastern Orcs, who had not experienced the power and terror of the Eldar, or the valour of the Edain, were not subservient to Sauron – while he was obliged for the cozening of Western Men and Elves to wear as fair a form and countenance as he could, they despised him and laughed at him. Thus it was that though, as soon as his disguise was pierced and he was recognized as an enemy, he exerted all his time and strength to gathering and training armies, it took some ninety years before he felt ready to open war. And he misjudged this, as we see in his final defeat, when the great host of Minastir from Númenor landed in Middle-earth. His gathering of armies had not been unopposed, and his success had been much less than his hope…
1693 – WAR OF THE ELVES AND SAURON BEGINS. THE THREE RINGS ARE HIDDEN.
But [Sauron], finding that he was betrayed and that the Elves were not deceived, was filled with wrath; and he came against them with open war, demanding that all the rings should be delivered to him, since the Elven-smiths could not have attained to their making without his lore and counsel. But the Elves fled from him; and three of their rings they saved, and bore them away, and hid them.
Now these were the Three that had last been made, and they possessed the greatest powers. Narya, Nenya, and Vilya, they were named, the Rings of Fire, and of Water, and of Air, set with ruby and adamant and sapphire; and of all the Elven-rings Sauron most desired to possess them, for those who had them in their keeping could ward off the decays of time and postpone the weariness of the world. But Sauron could not discover [the Three], for they were given into the hands of the Wise, who concealed them and never again used them openly while Sauron kept the Ruling Ring. Therefore the Three remained unsullied, for they were forged by Celebrimbor alone, and the hand of Sauron had never touched them; yet they also were subject to the One.
