Númenor
It was the kingdom occupying a large island to the west of Middle-earth, the main setting of Tolkien's writings, and was the greatest civilization of Men.
The tale forms part of the theme of decline and fall in Middle-earth that runs throughout Tolkien's legendarium, ancient Númenor representing a now-mythical age of greatness.
Tolkien chose to make the names of its months reflect those of the French Republican calendar, translated into his Elvish languages.
[1] Númenor had six main regions: the five promontories, named Andustar, Hyarnustar, Hyarrostar, Orrostar, and Forostar; and the central area, Mittalmar, which contained the capital city Armenelos.
During the reign of the last King, the proud Ar-Pharazôn, a giant circular temple to Morgoth was built in the city, over five hundred feet in diameter and as much in height to its cornice line, with a silver dome above that.
[T 12][T 6] When the friendship with the Elves was broken, usage of Sindarin and Quenya lessened, until King Ar-Adûnakhôr forbade their teaching, and knowledge of the elven tongues was only preserved by the Faithful.
Among these were the setting a bough of the fragrant oiolairë upon the prow of a departing ship,[T 6] the ceremonies concerned with the passing of the Sceptre, and laying down one's life.
[T 14] Early in the Second Age, most Edain who had survived the wars left Middle-earth for Númenor, sailing in ships provided and steered by the Elves.
From the earliest times in its history, fish from the sea were a significant part of Númenórean diet; those providing this food were Númenor's first sea-farers.
[T 16] Númenóreans had established good relations with Gil-galad, the king of the High Elves of the northwest of Middle-earth, whose ships sailed from the Grey Havens.
The Númenóreans made Umbar, the harbour city in the south of Middle-earth, into a great fortress and expanded Pelargir, a landing in Gondor near the Mouths of the Anduin.
Those who remained loyal to the Valar and friendly to the Elves (and using Elvish languages) were the "Faithful" or "Elf-friends" (Elendili); they were led by the Lords of Andúnië.
He was brought back to Númenor as a prisoner, but soon seduced the king and many other Númenóreans, promising them eternal life if they worshipped his master Melkor.
[T 3] Prompted by Sauron and fearing old age and death, Ar-Pharazôn built a great armada and sailed into the West to make war upon the Valar, intending to seize the Undying Lands of Valinor and achieve immortality.
He fled back to Middle-earth as a monstrous spirit of hatred that "passed as a shadow and a black wind over the sea",[T 3] and returned to Mordor.
Númenor first appears in The Lord of the Rings, as the vague land of "Westernesse", an advanced civilisation which had existed long ago, far to the west over the Sea, and the ancestral home of the Dúnedain.
Tolkien chose the name for its resonance with "Lyonesse", a faraway land that sank into the sea in the Middle English romance King Horn.
'island of Atlas') is a fictional island mentioned within an allegory on the hubris (excessive pride leading to a downfall) of nations in the ancient Greek philosopher Plato's works Timaeus and Critias.
[7] Tolkien's history of the Downfall of Númenor therefore remained faithful to Plato's story of Atlantis,[8] and exhibits significant influences from Timaeus and Critias.
[7][8] Similarly to how Plato invented a tradition through which the story of Atlantis was allegedly handed down from Egyptian priests to Solon and members of the family of Critias, Tolkien created one in the form of the figure of Ælfwine who met the Elves who had preserved ancient lost knowledge.
[8] Tolkien had his character Lowdham in The Notion Club Papers describe Númenor's name Atalante as an "Avallonian," that is Elvish, word.
[8] Similarly to how Plato internally claimed in his text that his account of Atlantis represented the truth behind the confused words of the Egyptian priests, Tolkien himself also described his story of Númenor as being the truth behind Plato's own account, and he had Lowdham in The Notion Club Papers claim that if Atlantis referred to Atlas, then it would connect the story with a "mountain regarded as the Pillar of Heaven," that is Mount Atlas, which would in turn refer to Mount Meneltarma in Númenor.
'the Downfallen';[T 3][a] Tolkien described his invention of this additional allusion to Atlantis as a happy accident when he realized that the Quenya root talat- "to fall" could be incorporated into a name for Númenor.
[T 1] The commentator Charles Delattre has noted that Númenor matches the myth of Atlantis, the only drowned island in surviving ancient literature, in multiple details:[9] Tolkien, a devout Roman Catholic,[11] stated that The Downfall of Númenor (Akallabêth) was effectively a second fall of man, with "its central theme .. (inevitably, I think, in a story of Men) a Ban, or Prohibition".
Shippey notes that in Númenor, the myth would have been still stronger, as being an Elf-friend, one of the hated Elendili, marked a person out to the King's Men faction as a target for human sacrifice to Morgoth.
[9] Marjorie Burns writes that the feeling of "inevitable disintegration"[16] is borrowed from the Nordic world view, which emphasises that all may be lost at any moment.
[16] She writes that in Norse mythology, this began during the creation: in the realm of fire, Muspell, the jötunn Surt was even then awaiting the end of the world.
Kullmann and Siepmann comment that the tsunami must have resonated with Tolkien's recurring "Atlantis complex" dream, ascribed also to the Tolkien-figure of Faramir, of a great wave that rushes in over the treetops.
[23] Nesbit's 1908 The House of Arden has as its central device a brother and sister named Edred ("Bliss-counsel") and Elfrida ("Elf-strength") who visit several earlier times, always meeting a similar pair of characters.
[30] The production designer Ramsey Avery based Númenor's "looming marble structures" on Ancient Greece and Venice, while he used the colour blue to reflect the culture's emphasis on water and sailing.
