Akallabêth
Encyclopedia
Akallabêth is the fourth part of the fantasy
work The Silmarillion
by J. R. R. Tolkien
. It is relatively short, consisting of about thirty pages.
; Quenya
is Atalantë) is the story of the destruction of the Kingdom of Númenor
, written by Elendil
. After the downfall of the Dark Lord Morgoth
at the end of the First Age
(which is described in the Quenta Silmarillion
) the Edain
, those Men
who had aided the Elves
in their war against Melkor
were given Númenor, a new small continent of their own, free from the evil and sadness of Middle-earth
. It was located in the middle of the Great Ocean, between the western shores of Middle-earth, and the eastern shores of Aman
, where the Valar
dwelt.
As they entered Númenor, Men were forbidden to set sail towards Aman. For 2500 years Númenor grew in might. Númenórean ships sailed the seas and established remote colonies in Middle-earth. During that time, the Elves of Middle-earth were engaged in a bitter fight with Morgoth's former servant Sauron
, who had become the second Dark Lord. The Men of Númenor aided the Elves under Gil-galad
yet remaining in Middle-earth. But as time went on, Men became evil and rebelled against the Valar and the Elves, over the course of one and a half thousand years, desiring immortality. Tar-Palantir, the penultimate King, repented of the evil of his fathers, but it was too late.
The last king, Ar-Pharazôn, hearing that Sauron was striving for the domination of Men and threatening to destroy Númenor, came with a great host to Middle-earth. Sauron's forces became afraid of the might of Númenor, and fled from the service of their master. Perceiving that he could not overthrow Númenor by strength of arms, Sauron humbled himself before the Númenórean King. Ar-Pharazôn was not convinced and had Sauron taken as a prisoner to Númenor. Soon he became the king's advisor, and corrupted the greater part of Númenor to the worship of Morgoth, offering human sacrifices and cutting down Nimloth
, the White Tree. During this time, Númenor grew even more powerful thanks to Sauron's counsel, even as its people's joy and span of years lessened.
Sauron convinced Ar-Pharazôn to assail Aman and wrest immortality from the Valar, saying that great kings take what rightfully belongs to them. Sauron's desire was to destroy the Númenóreans and their proud king with the wrath of the Valar (though not to destroy their kingdom), although he underestimated their power. When the Great Armament set foot on Aman, however, the Valar laid down their guardianship and called on Ilúvatar, who broke and remade the world. Eru destroyed Ar-Pharazôn and his Númenórean host, burying them under falling hills until the Dagor Dagorath
. To Sauron's dismay, Ilúvatar also had Númenor sunk into the Belegaer
, and Aman he removed forever from the circles of the world. The world that had been flat was now spherical, and Aman was only open to Elves, who could still find the Straight Road.
Nine ships carrying men of Númenórean royal blood, descendants of the Lords of Andúnië, of the House of Elros, were carried by the storm of the Downfall to the shores of Middle-earth. They were led by Elendil the Tall, and his two sons: Isildur
and Anárion
, bringing with them a seedling of the White Tree and the palantíri. These and the Númenóreans already living in Middle-earth carried the title of "The Faithful", signifying their continued devotion to the Valar and Eldar. They allied themselves with Gil-galad and marched in the War of the Last Alliance, in which Isildur cut the One Ring
from Sauron's hand.
The followers of Elendil established two Númenórean realms in exile: Arnor
, the high kingdom, in the North, and Gondor
in the south. Some of the King's Men, enemies of Elendil, established other realms in exile to the south; of these Umbar
was the chief. The culture of Númenor became the dominant culture of Middle-earth (thus, Westron
, a descendant of the Adûnaic language of Númenor became the lingua franca
). The sadness and the shock from the loss of a whole continent lived ever after in the hearts of kings of Númenórean descent. Arda
was made spherical, and Aman was put beyond it, out of the reach of mortal men. Sauron, although bereft of the shape in which he had wrought so great an evil that he could never appear fair in the eyes of men again, escaped from Númenor and returned to Middle-earth once more, taking up the one ring once again.
in the Middle-earth cadre. "Atalantë" is Quenya for "Downfallen". This has led some to jest that Akallabêth is one very long setup for what Tolkien would have considered a delightful pun, but Tolkien described it as merely a happy coincidence. Notes Tolkien in a letter in July 1964:
In any case, the resemblance of the names fits in with Tolkien's legendarium
as a history lost to myth and legend. The destruction of Númenor might appear to be an allegory of the flood of Noah, recorded in the Bible, in which the earth is purged of corrupted man by a worldwide flood. However, Tolkien frequently disliked the idea that his works were allegorical, saying in the foreword to the 2nd edition of The Lord of the Rings, "But I cordially dislike allegory in all its manifestations..." and "I think that many confuse 'applicability' with 'allegory'; but the one resides in the freedom of the reader, and the other in the purposed domination of the author."
Fantasy
Fantasy is a genre of fiction that commonly uses magic and other supernatural phenomena as a primary element of plot, theme, or setting. Many works within the genre take place in imaginary worlds where magic is common...
work The Silmarillion
The Silmarillion
The Silmarillion is a collection of J. R. R. Tolkien's mythopoeic works, edited and published posthumously by his son Christopher Tolkien in 1977, with assistance from Guy Gavriel Kay, who later became a noted fantasy writer. The Silmarillion, along with J. R. R...
by J. R. R. Tolkien
J. R. R. Tolkien
John Ronald Reuel Tolkien, CBE was an English writer, poet, philologist, and university professor, best known as the author of the classic high fantasy works The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, and The Silmarillion.Tolkien was Rawlinson and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon at Pembroke College,...
. It is relatively short, consisting of about thirty pages.
Synopsis
Akallabêth (The Downfallen in AdûnaicAdûnaic
Adûnaic is a fictional language in the fantasy works of J. R. R. Tolkien.One of the languages of Arda in Tolkien's Middle-earth legendarium, it was spoken by the Men of Númenor during the Second Age.-Fictional history:...
; Quenya
Quenya
Quenya is a fictional language devised by J. R. R. Tolkien, and used in his Secondary world, often called Middle-earth.Quenya is one of the many Elvish languages spoken by the immortal Elves, called Quendi in Quenya. The tongue actually called Quenya was in origin the speech of two clans of Elves...
is Atalantë) is the story of the destruction of the Kingdom of Númenor
Númenor
Númenor is a fictional place in J. R. R. Tolkien's writings. It was a huge island located in the Sundering Seas to the west of Middle-earth, the main setting of Tolkien's writings, and was known to be the greatest realm of Men...
, written by Elendil
Elendil
Elendil is a fictional character in J. R. R. Tolkien's legendarium. He appears in The Lord of the Rings, The Silmarillion and Unfinished Tales....
. After the downfall of the Dark Lord Morgoth
Morgoth
Morgoth Bauglir is a fictional character from J. R. R. Tolkien’s Middle-earth legendarium. He is the main antagonist of The Silmarillion, figures in The Children of Húrin, and is mentioned briefly in The Lord of the Rings.Melkor was the most powerful of the Ainur, but turned to darkness and became...
at the end of the First Age
First Age
In the fiction of J. R. R. Tolkien, the First Age, or First Age of the Children of Ilúvatar is the heroic period in which most of Tolkien's early legends are set...
(which is described in the Quenta Silmarillion
Quenta Silmarillion
Quenta Silmarillion is a collection of fictional legends written by the high fantasy writer J. R. R. Tolkien. It was published after the author's death in The Silmarillion together with four shorter stories...
) the Edain
Edain
In the fiction of J. R. R. Tolkien, the Edain were men who made their way into Beleriand in the First Age, and were friendly to the Elves....
, those Men
Man (Middle-earth)
The race of Men in J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth books, such as The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, refers to humanity and does not denote gender...
who had aided the Elves
Elf (Middle-earth)
In J. R. R. Tolkien's legendarium, Elves are one of the races that inhabit a fictional Earth, often called Middle-earth, and set in the remote past. They appear in The Hobbit and in The Lord of the Rings, but their complex history is described more fully in The Silmarillion...
in their war against Melkor
Morgoth
Morgoth Bauglir is a fictional character from J. R. R. Tolkien’s Middle-earth legendarium. He is the main antagonist of The Silmarillion, figures in The Children of Húrin, and is mentioned briefly in The Lord of the Rings.Melkor was the most powerful of the Ainur, but turned to darkness and became...
were given Númenor, a new small continent of their own, free from the evil and sadness of Middle-earth
Middle-earth
Middle-earth is the fictional setting of the majority of author J. R. R. Tolkien's fantasy writings. The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings take place entirely in Middle-earth, as does much of The Silmarillion and Unfinished Tales....
. It was located in the middle of the Great Ocean, between the western shores of Middle-earth, and the eastern shores of Aman
Aman
-External links:*...
, where the Valar
Vala (Middle-earth)
The Valar are fictional characters in J. R. R. Tolkien's legendarium. They are first mentioned in The Lord of the Rings, but The Silmarillion develops them into the Powers of Arda or the Powers of the World...
dwelt.
As they entered Númenor, Men were forbidden to set sail towards Aman. For 2500 years Númenor grew in might. Númenórean ships sailed the seas and established remote colonies in Middle-earth. During that time, the Elves of Middle-earth were engaged in a bitter fight with Morgoth's former servant Sauron
Sauron
Sauron is the primary antagonist and titular character of the epic fantasy novel The Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien.In the same work, he is revealed to be the same character as "the Necromancer" from Tolkien's earlier novel The Hobbit...
, who had become the second Dark Lord. The Men of Númenor aided the Elves under Gil-galad
Gil-galad
Ereinion Gil-galad is a fictional character in J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth legendarium. He is mentioned in The Lord of the Rings, and featured in The Silmarillion.- Character overview :...
yet remaining in Middle-earth. But as time went on, Men became evil and rebelled against the Valar and the Elves, over the course of one and a half thousand years, desiring immortality. Tar-Palantir, the penultimate King, repented of the evil of his fathers, but it was too late.
The last king, Ar-Pharazôn, hearing that Sauron was striving for the domination of Men and threatening to destroy Númenor, came with a great host to Middle-earth. Sauron's forces became afraid of the might of Númenor, and fled from the service of their master. Perceiving that he could not overthrow Númenor by strength of arms, Sauron humbled himself before the Númenórean King. Ar-Pharazôn was not convinced and had Sauron taken as a prisoner to Númenor. Soon he became the king's advisor, and corrupted the greater part of Númenor to the worship of Morgoth, offering human sacrifices and cutting down Nimloth
Nimloth
In the fantasy world of J. R. R. Tolkien, Nimloth, Sindarin for "white blossom", was the name of the White Tree of Númenor. Nimloth was a seedling of Celeborn, which was a seedling of Galathilion, which was created by Yavanna in the image of Telperion, one of the Two Trees of Valinor.When the...
, the White Tree. During this time, Númenor grew even more powerful thanks to Sauron's counsel, even as its people's joy and span of years lessened.
Sauron convinced Ar-Pharazôn to assail Aman and wrest immortality from the Valar, saying that great kings take what rightfully belongs to them. Sauron's desire was to destroy the Númenóreans and their proud king with the wrath of the Valar (though not to destroy their kingdom), although he underestimated their power. When the Great Armament set foot on Aman, however, the Valar laid down their guardianship and called on Ilúvatar, who broke and remade the world. Eru destroyed Ar-Pharazôn and his Númenórean host, burying them under falling hills until the Dagor Dagorath
Dagor Dagorath
The Dagor Dagorath is a fictional battle described in the legendarium of J. R. R. Tolkien. As Tolkien's works were conceived as a fictional "forgotten history" of the world, the Dagor Dagorath represents the coming End of the World, and is often referred to as simply "The End"...
. To Sauron's dismay, Ilúvatar also had Númenor sunk into the Belegaer
Belegaer
In the fiction of J. R. R. Tolkien, Belegaer, the Great Sea or the Sundering Seas, is the sea of Arda that is west of Middle-earth....
, and Aman he removed forever from the circles of the world. The world that had been flat was now spherical, and Aman was only open to Elves, who could still find the Straight Road.
Nine ships carrying men of Númenórean royal blood, descendants of the Lords of Andúnië, of the House of Elros, were carried by the storm of the Downfall to the shores of Middle-earth. They were led by Elendil the Tall, and his two sons: Isildur
Isildur
Isildur is a fictional character in J. R. R. Tolkien's legendarium. He appears in the author's books The Lord of the Rings, The Silmarillion, and Unfinished Tales....
and Anárion
Anárion
Anárion is a fictional character in J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth legendarium. His name is derived from Anar, which means "Sun" in Tolkien's invented language of Quenya...
, bringing with them a seedling of the White Tree and the palantíri. These and the Númenóreans already living in Middle-earth carried the title of "The Faithful", signifying their continued devotion to the Valar and Eldar. They allied themselves with Gil-galad and marched in the War of the Last Alliance, in which Isildur cut the One Ring
One Ring
The One Ring is a fictional artifact that appears as the central plot element in J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth fantasy novels. It is described in an earlier story, The Hobbit , as a magic ring of invisibility. The sequel The Lord of the Rings describes its powers as being more encompassing than...
from Sauron's hand.
The followers of Elendil established two Númenórean realms in exile: Arnor
Arnor
Arnor is a fictional kingdom in J. R. R. Tolkien's writings. Arnor, or the Northern Kingdom, was a kingdom of the Dúnedain in the land of Eriador in Middle-earth. The name probably means "Land of the King", from Sindarin Ara- + dor...
, the high kingdom, in the North, and Gondor
Gondor
Gondor is a fictional kingdom in J. R. R. Tolkien's writings, described as the greatest realm of Men in the west of Middle-earth by the end of the Third Age. The third volume of The Lord of the Rings, The Return of the King, is concerned with the events in Gondor during the War of the Ring and with...
in the south. Some of the King's Men, enemies of Elendil, established other realms in exile to the south; of these Umbar
Umbar
Umbar is a fictional place in J. R. R. Tolkien's legendarium. It was a great haven and seaport to the far south of Gondor in Middle-earth.'Umbar' was a name—of unknown meaning—given to the area by its original inhabitants...
was the chief. The culture of Númenor became the dominant culture of Middle-earth (thus, Westron
Westron
Westron, or the Common Speech, is a fictional language in the fantasy works of J. R. R. Tolkien.Westron is the closest thing to a lingua franca in Middle-earth, at least at the time during which The Lord of the Rings is set. "Westron" is an invented English word, derived from West...
, a descendant of the Adûnaic language of Númenor became the lingua franca
Lingua franca
A lingua franca is a language systematically used to make communication possible between people not sharing a mother tongue, in particular when it is a third language, distinct from both mother tongues.-Characteristics:"Lingua franca" is a functionally defined term, independent of the linguistic...
). The sadness and the shock from the loss of a whole continent lived ever after in the hearts of kings of Númenórean descent. Arda
Arda
In J. R. R. Tolkien's legendarium, Arda is the name given to the Earth in a period of prehistory, wherein the places mentioned in The Lord of the Rings and related material once existed...
was made spherical, and Aman was put beyond it, out of the reach of mortal men. Sauron, although bereft of the shape in which he had wrought so great an evil that he could never appear fair in the eyes of men again, escaped from Númenor and returned to Middle-earth once more, taking up the one ring once again.
Interpretation
As the Quenya name makes obvious, this is a retelling of the story of AtlantisAtlantis
Atlantis is a legendary island first mentioned in Plato's dialogues Timaeus and Critias, written about 360 BC....
in the Middle-earth cadre. "Atalantë" is Quenya for "Downfallen". This has led some to jest that Akallabêth is one very long setup for what Tolkien would have considered a delightful pun, but Tolkien described it as merely a happy coincidence. Notes Tolkien in a letter in July 1964:
In any case, the resemblance of the names fits in with Tolkien's legendarium
Legendarium
Legendary may refer to:*A hagiography, or study of the lives of saints and other religious figures**The South English Legendary, a Middle English legendary*A legend-Entertainment:*Legendary, an album by Kaysha*Legendary...
as a history lost to myth and legend. The destruction of Númenor might appear to be an allegory of the flood of Noah, recorded in the Bible, in which the earth is purged of corrupted man by a worldwide flood. However, Tolkien frequently disliked the idea that his works were allegorical, saying in the foreword to the 2nd edition of The Lord of the Rings, "But I cordially dislike allegory in all its manifestations..." and "I think that many confuse 'applicability' with 'allegory'; but the one resides in the freedom of the reader, and the other in the purposed domination of the author."