The Black Númenóreans of Middle-earth

[Music] and sauron gathered to him great strength of his servants out of the east and the south and among them were not a few of the high race of numenor for in the days of the sojourn of sauron in that land the hearts of well nigh all its people had been turned towards darkness therefore many of those who sailed east in that time and made fortresses and dwellings upon the coasts were already bent to his will and they served him still gladly in middle-earth greetings and well-met my fellow dynadine and people of western s yoyston here and i hope you all are doing well wherever you are in middle-earth today we will be looking at the men who fell from the high grace of numenor under the corruption of sauron and became the black numenoreans men of evil powers who served the dark lord i'll of course link some related articles and videos that helped with today's video so please check those out for more information tolkien gateway especially aided me today as it helped me gather more information and sources my friends thank you all for joining me today let's begin our tale we begin in numenor during the second age originally the men of western s were kind-hearted having been the descendants of the edine who fought against morgoth during the first age their ancestors had been given long life and other gifts such as the island of numenor for their valor in the elder days and such gifts passed to their descendants however even though the men of western s had long life the fear of death would begin to weigh on the minds of the numenoreans who could ask for nothing more some felt this dread more than others as the population began to split between the faithful those such as the lords of andunier who would produce the house of elendil and the king's men who supported the later kings of numenor these two factions formed after 2221 of the second age when tar and kalaman's reign caused a political and social split in the numenorean people and he himself was of the king's men faction the smaller group the faithful held tradition such as befriending elves and revering the valar and eru himself even though they were not a majority of the population by the downfall of numenor now the other larger party the king's men are who we are more concerned with in this video they supported the later kings of numenor who broke from tradition and opposed the ban of the valor and those who had immortality something they themselves sought they supported men like gemielkad and his son arfarazan all of whom would contribute in bringing about the further darkening and eventual downfall of numenor two driving ideological forces behind this faction of numenoreans were the fear of death and the embrace of tyrannical and evil supremacy over others these qualities made them susceptible to sauron and his service in their names and words they used and idolized the language of adunaik the numenorean language they used that language over quenya or sandaran or even common speech the king's men would establish realms in the south of middle-earth such as umbar and beyond to escape the powers of high king gil galad three of the nazgul were numenoreans and their rings came to them during the darkening of numenor i would imagine that they were kingsmen who were beguiled into taking these rings and since he is the strongest of the nine ringwraiths i would imagine that the witch king was one of these men with his servants and strength sauron would begin assaulting the settlements of the numenoreans and middle-earth now the kingsmen that survived transitioned into the black numenoreans after the downfall of numenor the island was brought to its end by those who captured sauron only to be enthralled by him and so the king's men supported our farazan in breaking the ban of the valar to attempt to take immortality from the lands of amman and the valar who dwelt therein furthermore the king's men and their followers had made human sacrifices to morgoth and numenor as time had gone on and numenor had darkened those very men who feared death most actually found shortcuts to it as their lifespans were not as great as their forebears and in breaking the ban of the valar our pharazon and those with him found their ends in the undying lands during the reshaping of the world and so after the fall of the island in 3319 of the second age the only kings meant to survive were those who had already gone to places such as umbar in the south of middle-earth el nendil and his faithful men had survived of course and they flew from the destruction of numenor on their ships and came to middle-earth establishing arnor in the north and gondor in the south the black numenoreans dwelt thusly in umbar and in other places south and east continuing their allegiance to the shadow and worship of it and the practice of dark arts as well as their hatred of the faithful and their new realms in the late second age two black numenorean lords hiromor and fuinor would rise to power among the haradrim who dwelt near to umbar and they would dominate in power now a few hundred years after the downfall of numenor the war of the last alliance took place and the strength of the black numenoreans that remained aided sauron and since the black numenoreans still had long life spans in comparison to typical human lifespans it is likely that the children or grandchildren of those who lived in the south during the downfall were those who aided sauron during the war assuming of course that they were black numenoreans but of course they were defeated in that war and the black numenoreans and their servants would retain control of umbar for a time where once our pharazon and his king's men had landed in middle-earth to capture sauron the blood of the black numenoreans just as it would be in gondor and arnor with the blood of the faithful numenoreans would eventually become mixed with the blood of the men of middle earth as time went on the black numenoreans would become lazy and idle and would even squabble amongst themselves for power as it so often is for those who seek power and domination with ill intent fatomir discusses this in the two towers claiming that these numenoreans would fight each other until in their weakness they were conquered by wild men thus enmities of an age past would still be present in the third age even as the blood of both the faithful men in gondor and that of the king's men in the south and east eventually waned it does seem however the black numenoreans would continue to have power and positions with power being mighty themselves queen beruthil of gondor who married the gondorian king taran phallistor the first of the ship kings of gondor was one such black numenorean she would use her cats to spy on her own folk and would eventually be put on a ship with her cats and exiled from gondor back to her homeland in the south it is likely that in the many battles and wars between gondor and the southern regions the black numenoreans were lords and commanders during such strife in 933 of the third age during the war between king arnill the first second of the ship kings of gondor and he who repaired polar gear gondor and their forces captured umbar but 82 years later the same lords who were driven out of umbar returned with forces from harad and slew the next king of gondor kirandil the third ship king and retook umbar since those lords who retook umbar were the very same ones who lost it it is most likely that they were black numenoreans whose longer lives allowed them to do this later on in the history of gondor during the civil war called the kinstrafe from 1432 through 1447 the gondorian blood of numenor would wane further when king roman dekkel ii married a woman from the kingdom of rovanion making the future king their son eldecar lesser in the blood of numenor castemir the usurper who was also descended from an aryan was himself a descendant of the faithful numenoreans but he would cause a war for the gondorian throne eventually he was defeated and slain by eldecar who took the throne of gondor but castimere's sons and forces would join with the people of umbar becoming the corsairs of umbar while they themselves were not black numenoreans castimere's forces joined the black numenoreans giving more numenorean blood to that enemy of gondor while gondor itself had lost much during the war and the line of kings became further joined with the blood of middle men of course that isn't a bad thing for those with the blood of numenor still committed great atrocities with their powers and gifts and could be evil men such as those who had it in umbar and middlemen who had no numenorean blood could also accomplish great things and were sometimes themselves heroes such as the men in the kingdom of romanian now to continue forward it's possible that during the battle of the pelinor fields the black serpent who led the haradrum and was slain by theoden king was himself a black numenorean but that's conjecture on my part indeed gothmog of the battle of the pelinor fields who was the lieutenant of morgul may himself have also been a black numenorean just as the lieutenant of baradur the mouth of sauron was also a black numenorean finally in our conversation about the black numenoreans we must also mention the mouth of sauron who himself had entered into the service of paradur when it rose again around 2951 of the third age he had grown ever higher in the chain of command learning his lord's mind and fell sorceries from him and he had become more cruel than any orc it was this black new minorian who showed the captains of the west the tokens of the hobbits from kirathongle the mithril coat the elvish cloak and sam's barrow blade and he tried to goad the captains into surrender he spoke also of the terms of sauron that if accepted would have indubitably led to the dark lord's tyranny over the west when the terms were utterly rejected and the west would not surrender the mouth of sauron loosed the armies of mordor upon the host of the west beginning the battle of the black gate although it is unclear what happened to him and any other black numenoreans still in the service of sauron but it is clear that whether they surrendered or ran from the power of gondor under king elisar they could not escape death like their ancestors had always wanted even if their lives were drawn out either by their numenorean heritage or some dark art by sauron they would eventually die for the doom of the gift of men was one of the strongest destinies in arda thus while the blood of faithful numenor would live on in the descendants of those such as aragorn and pharamir possibly continuing to fade over time it is likely that the blood of darkened numenor that of the king's men would either be ended through war or would also fade away in time being the legacy of men that used that blood and long lifespan for evil thus we come to the end of our tale about the black numenoreans of middle earth from the tale of the black numenoreans we see a very talkinian theme that the fear of something such as death must not drive us for if it does we often will find a quick and destructive road to meet that fear thank you all so much for watching i really appreciate it if you enjoyed please hit that like button and share this with a friend what are your thoughts questions additions and corrections about the black numenoreans let me know in the comments below for me the black numenoreans are an interesting faction and foil to the descendants of numenor for they show how the gifts of long life and power can be used for evil and selfish purposes rather than for good as the men of the west tried to use them i do wish we knew more about them though please check out our music channel facebook twitter merchant patreon links are in the description below there's a new podcast episode about the two towers movie up on patreon along with many many other episodes so please consider 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Channel: Men of the West

Views: 76,098

Rating: 4.9789472 out of 5

Keywords: Yoystan, Men of the West, Harad, Middle-earth, Numenor, Second Age, Third Age, Gondor, Aragorn, Corsair, Sauron, Umbar, Castamir, Eldacar

Id: HwS4_f10NRI

Length: 12min 30sec (750 seconds)

Published: Sun Aug 02 2020