UT Discussion - The Line of Elros

[Alcuin]

Some thoughts on Ruling Queens among the Dúnedain.

One of the ideas behind Tar-Aldarion’s change in the law of succession so that the eldest child, male or female, took the throne is that there was nothing essentially wrong with it. Consider the following.

• Silmariën, eldest child of Tar-Elendil, fourth king of Númenor, would have inherited the throne had the law already been in place. The House of Valandil of Andúnië would have inherited the throne instead of Meneldur, Elendil’s eldest son. Since the Elendil the Tall, heir of the last Lord of Andúnië, became High King of the exiled Númenóreans at the end of the Second Age, in hindsight, it looks as if Silmariën might have been a better choice as ruler; in any case, her line eventually inherited the throne, though it took 2,579 years and cost the Númenóreans their home.
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• Telperiën, the second Ruling Queen, might have been less shrewish than Ancalimë, her great-grandmother. Their lives did not overlap (Telperiën was born 35 years after Ancalimë died), but the damage Ancalimë did to the people around her left wounds in her father, grandfather, the courtiers and nobility. Telperiën’s refusal to marry in some ways mirrors Elizabeth I’s decision to remain unmarried. Elizabeth’s decision was first a diplomatic plot to maneuver amongst Spain, France, and the Protestant princes of Europe (the Anglican via media, or “middle wayâ€�), but also to maintain her absolute freedom of action in domestic politics; she was succeeded by her cousin, James VI of Scotland.
  
  Telperiën had no foreign policy that argued for her unmarried state, but perhaps she was also seeking complete independence in Númenórean rule. However, a careful count of the years of her rule demonstrates that the Númenóreans intervened in the War of the Elves and Sauron in the seventeenth century of the Second Age 30 or 40 years before the end of her reign. Minastir, her heir and nephew, is accounting the king of Númenor who sent an expeditionary force to Middle-earth to the succor of Gil-galad, turning the tide of the war and routing Sauron and his army so thoroughly that the Lord of the Rings barely returned to Mordor. I think the best explanation is that Telperiën made Minastir co-regent to deal with this issue. As Ruling Queen, the Council of Númenor would probably have opposed her traveling to Middle-earth, but Minastir could. Minastir was probably co-regent from at least 1690 or 1693, giving the Númenóreans 7-10 years to prepare for war, either from the time the Elves became aware that Sauron had betrayed them, or from the outbreak of war in 1693. That would explain why Telperiën did not resign the throne and retire before her death, too: the transition to Minastir was smooth.
  
  If that’s the case, then Telperiën should be seen as an insightful ruler, retaining control of rule in Númenor, handing control of the Númenor’s foreign and military policy to her more vigorous nephew, while ensuring another smooth transition of Númenórean government. All that takes considerable humility and self-denial.
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• In his claim to the throne of Gondor, Arvedui of Fornost noted that in Middle-earth, the Dúnedain had followed a succession of eldest sons because of the necessity of war (the First and Third Houses of the Edain had followed this rule, too, but not the Second House, which took its cognomen “House of Halethâ€� from a woman chosen as chieftain after her father and brothers died; like Telperiën, Haleth never married), but that this had not always been the law of the Númenor. Arvedui’s claim was based upon the senior kingship of Isildur in Gondor, and on the fact that his wife FÃ*riel was the daughter and only surviving child of Ondoher, the previous king.

Ancalimë seems to have been miserable and intent on making other people miserable.

I’m inclined to look at Telperiën’s reign in a positive light.

Vanimeldë’s reign might have been pregnant with disaster: her husband Anducal (who was also her second cousin) ruled in her name while she lived, then usurped the throne from their son Alcarin for 20 years after she died. It might be significant that Ardamin, Anducal’s son and heir, was the first king of Númenor called by his Adûnaic name, Ar-Abattârik, was 41 when Anducal died and his grandfather Alcarin was finally able to succeed to the throne; and Ardamin’s son, Ar-Adûnakhôr, was 28 when Alcarin died. Bitterness is something people tend to inherit undiminished.

FÃ*riel, like Silmariën her foremother, should have inherited the throne but did not. However, eventually her descendent Aragorn Elessar, like Silmariën’s descendent Elendil the Tall, was proclaimed King of the Númenóreans. It only took Aragorn 1,075 years and sixteen generations; it took Elendil the Tall 2,579 years and nineteen generations.

By the way, the Kings of Númenor did not refer to themselves as the “House of Elros�. They called themselves the “House of Eärendil�, father of Elros (and Elrond), who when presented with an irrevocable choice by Mandos, preferred to be numbered among Men, but chose to remain with his wife Elwing, who wanted to be numbered among Elves. Elros died and left Arda. Eärendil could not, though he wanted to. If you think about it, that’s a miserable existence. It was that unhappy longevity, which they mistook for immortality, that the later Kings of Númenor and their followers coveted to their ruin.

[Snowdog]

Originally Posted by Alcuin

Kings of Númenor did not refer to themselves as the “House of Elros�. They called themselves the “House of Eärendil�, father of Elros (and Elrond), who when presented with an irrevocable choice by Mandos, preferred to be numbered among Men, but chose to remain with his wife Elwing, who wanted to be numbered among Elves. Elros died and left Arda. Eärendil could not, though he wanted to. If you think about it, that’s a miserable existence. It was that unhappy longevity, which they mistook for immortality, that the later Kings of Númenor and their followers coveted to their ruin.

It is interesting that the choice that needed to be made at the time had such lasting effects on the lines from that time onward.

A good analysis of the women rulers as well.

When it came to Arvedui wanting to become king, I always found it a bit of a power play by the stewards to bring in the lines of Isildur vs the lines of Anorien in to play.