October 20, 2025 • 41 mins
In this episode, we continue our journey through The Fall of Númenor as we explore “The Life of Númenoreans.” In this section, we’ll learn about the every day life of the men and women of the Star-Land, according to Tolkien! Join us!
And as a reminder: I’ve got a brand-new book on the way, Tolkien’s Tragedy: Concerning Númenor, The Rings of Power, and the Second Age. It’s the culmination of years of study, and I believe it’ll change the way you look at Tolkien’s legendarium.
If you’re enjoying this series, make sure you head over to tolkienroad.substack.com and subscribe.
Read Tolkien's Tragedy: https://tolkienroad.substack.com/
That’s where you’ll get early chapters of Tolkien’s Tragedy and all the behind-the-scenes insights I only share with my readers.
Episode Link: https://www.tolkienroad.com/e0332/
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Buy Tolkien Road merch @ True Myths Press
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-tolkien-road--5222755/support.
And as a reminder: I’ve got a brand-new book on the way, Tolkien’s Tragedy: Concerning Númenor, The Rings of Power, and the Second Age. It’s the culmination of years of study, and I believe it’ll change the way you look at Tolkien’s legendarium.
If you’re enjoying this series, make sure you head over to tolkienroad.substack.com and subscribe.
Read Tolkien's Tragedy: https://tolkienroad.substack.com/
That’s where you’ll get early chapters of Tolkien’s Tragedy and all the behind-the-scenes insights I only share with my readers.
Episode Link: https://www.tolkienroad.com/e0332/
To support our work here, please visit Patreon.com/TolkienRoad.
OTHER LINKS:
Video of this episode: https://youtu.be/sfW8U3uLXOg
Watch AD-FREE: https://www.patreon.com/posts/141510058
Listen AD-FREE: https://www.patreon.com/posts/80895842
Buy Tolkien Road merch @ True Myths Press
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-tolkien-road--5222755/support.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey there, fellowship, Welcome to the Tolkien Road. In this episode,
we continue our journey through the Fall of Numenor as
we explore the life of Neumenorians. In this section, we'll
learn about the everyday life of the men and women
of the Starland according to Tolkien. Join us, and as
a reminder, I've got a brand new book on the way,
Tolkien's Tragedy concerning Numenor, the Rings of Power, and the
Second Age. It's the culmination of years of study, and
(00:21):
I believe it'll change the way you look at Tolkien's legendarium.
If you're enjoying this series, make sure you head over
to tolkienrooad dot substack dot com and subscribe. That's why
you'll get early chapters of Tolkien's Tragedy and all the
behind the scenes insights I only share with my readers.
All right, let's dive in. Hey there, fellow travelers, Welcome
to the Tolkien Road, Episode three thirty two. In this episode,
(00:44):
we'll be continuing our journey through the Fall of Numenor
as we explore the section titled the Life of Newminorians.
In this section, we'll learn about the mundane realities.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
Of life and the land of gift.
Speaker 1 (00:56):
Before I get started, I'd like to give a double
up bear five to our amazing fellowshipp Get those hands up, everybody,
three two one OOPSHT.
Speaker 2 (01:06):
Very nice, very nice.
Speaker 1 (01:08):
Special thanks to this episode's executive producers John R. Caitlin
of T with Tolkien, Jacob lockhom John H and Aeru
twenty seven. Also a shout out to those celebrating their
fellowship anniversary in April of twenty twenty three. Jonathan D.
Julia and Katie P. Thank you all so much for
sticking with us over the last year. Join the Fellowship
(01:29):
of the Road by visiting patreon dot com slash Tolkien Road.
When you join the Fellowship of the Road, it helps
us to keep on everring on and land you some
cool perks along the way. Learn more at patreon dot
com slash Tolkien Road. Hey YouTube, hit that like button,
don't forget to subscribe and let us know what's on
your mind and the comments below. Before I get into
(01:51):
the episode, I want to give another shout out. I
did this on the last episode. Another shout out to
a couple of recent interviews I've done on other podcasts.
The first is to the Mythic Mind with Andrew Snyder.
You can check that out by going over to tolkienrooad
dot com slash Mythic Mind. Andrews doing some interesting work
diving into the Tales from the Perilous Realm as of late,
so you definitely want to check that out. We talked
(02:11):
about on fairy stories, as well as some of the
other other tales from the Periless Realm miscellaneous writings from Tolkien.
Also Window on the West from the Wondering dot Com.
Tolkienoad dot com slash window will take you to that interview.
They're having a lot of fun going through the Silmarillion
and doing some interviews with other folks, other Tolkien peeps,
(02:32):
if you will right now, so you'll definitely want to
check out at least my interview, and probably a whole
lot more. All right, So, what was it like to
be an everyday Newmanorian? How did it feel to be
one of the blessed number who were able to enjoy
a much longer lifespan in an island paradise. While these
details may not seem of particular importance in advancing the
story of Numenor's downfall, they do help us to better
(02:54):
grasp the significance of being New Minorian and to juxtapose
life and the Land of Gift with our day lives.
Perhaps through these details we can arrive at a better
characterization of Numenorian culture so that we can more deeply
understand the root causes of her downfall. So this section
is pretty long, and the sources it pulls from are
(03:15):
Unfinished Tales, really a description of Numenor that that section
from the Second Age portion of Unfinished Tales, and then
the nature of Middle Earth, and then there's excerpts from letters,
the letters of jer R. Tolkien as well as a Kalabath.
And I think that about covers everything. There may be
one or two tiny other references in there, but that
about covers everything. But there's a lot in this chapter,
so you know, and it's just kind of organized to
(03:38):
give glimpses, like kind of encyclopedic, give glimpses of what
life was like, you know, in different aspects for Newmonorians.
It starts off with telling us some about the cities
of Numenor, and really this section is pretty short. It
just tells us about a couple of cities, right, the
first being on Dounia, and Dounia was the chief city
(03:59):
in haven face west, so this was facing towards the
Blessed Realm. It was on the west coast of Numanor.
It also mentions Arminelos, the capital, which was on a
hill near Middle Tarma. It's actually like on the southeastern
southeastern portion of Numanor, in the just at the foot
of the mintal Tarma right there. There's two other cities
(04:22):
though that this section does not mention, but or mentioned
later in the chapter. So I'll go ahead and bring
those up now. The first one is Romana, which is
the chief port in the east, and then and then Ondosto,
which is the city in the northland. So there's four
cities of Numanor that we really know about on Dunie, Arminelos, Romana,
and Ondosto. Ondunier the port in the west, Romana the
(04:46):
port in the east, Armenelos the capital right in the
center really in the center of almost in the center
of the island of Numnor. And then Ondosto. The other
just interesting little nugget from this particular portion is about
al Roast and it says that he was appointed by
the Valor to be king, and I just thought it
was important to highlight this because you know, when we
(05:08):
think of kings, typically in this day and age, we
think of like kind of historical processes that brought people
to be kings. You know, we don't have this view
of like, you know, kings, you know, even even the
kings that do remain in the world of being somehow
like you know, like divinely appointed or something like that.
Speaker 2 (05:25):
Right, it's just not that's just not something.
Speaker 1 (05:27):
We attribute most people, I would say attribute at least
in the cultures that I'm a you know, that I'm
familiar with and a part of. Certainly in America, we
have no kings. And even with our president, you know,
we we you know, it's like he's elected. He's just
an elected official, right, and he has he has a
certain time period.
Speaker 2 (05:43):
That he's going to be ruling for.
Speaker 1 (05:47):
But with l Ros, he was appointed by the Valor
to be king. And the valor are of course the
appointed powers of Arda right, the great powers of Arda Manwei,
almo yvanna.
Speaker 2 (06:00):
A Varda Aula right, these and many others.
Speaker 1 (06:04):
These were the powers appointed by Aluvatar himself, the the
god of gods, right, uh, the the first and all
powerful one. So so you know l Ros, there really
was this sense of you know, this divine right of kings,
right that he was appointed by the valor to be king.
Now whether that was you know, bounded in any way, right,
(06:27):
it was you know, to say, like, well, if you
don't behave yourself, then you're not going to be king.
You know, we don't really need any picture of that
until much later in the history. Maybe we could argue,
but there's no like sense of any constitutional you know,
limits upon l Ros. It was just like rule justly,
rule justly, all right. So continuing on, you know, with
this idea of divine appointment, right, first, first of all,
(06:50):
going to the Valar and then up upwards to Airu,
we have this section that deals with the belief and
worship of numan Or. First of all, it speaks about
the mental tarma, right, the middle tarma, which is the
pillar of heaven. It was sacred to the worship of Alubatar.
This is this is the big mountains. So if you're
looking at this chapter in your book, right, if you're
looking at this chapter in your beautiful copy of the
(07:14):
Fall of Numenor, then there's a pencil sketch right here,
and it shows a city with a mountain in the background. Now,
most likely this is a view of Armaelos with the
Mental Tarma in the background. In fact, I think is
it actually named that, Yes, I believe it's called it's
(07:35):
called Armanelos. So that's the mental Tarma in the background
that you see in that picture. The mental Tarma was
the center point, and we talked about this in the
geography section a few episodes ago. It's the center point
of the island of Numenor, and it was upon the
mental Tarma. And you can kind of see in this
picture too, it's like flat at the top.
Speaker 2 (07:55):
Right.
Speaker 1 (07:55):
It was upon the mental Tarma that the Numinorians would
go and kind of do a little pilgrimage up to
the top three times a year for this corporate worship
of Illubatar, right, the three prayers is what it's referred
to as. So it was sacred to the worship of Allubatar.
(08:15):
There were no buildings on that summit, right, It was
only a flat pat place to gather the people of
Numenor for that three times a year worship. But it
was guarded by three eagles of Manway, by the way,
in the nature of Middle Earth, there's this really interesting
little passage detail where it says that the great eagles
were in fact Mayar. Okay, so when you talk about
these eagles, now it's not saying necessarily.
Speaker 2 (08:36):
Like just normal eagles were Mayar.
Speaker 1 (08:37):
But you know, when we think of the eagles that
like play a big part in the Hobbit and Lord
of the Rings as well as the eagles of Manway,
you know they're probably Mayar, right, they're probably these lesser gods,
these servants of Manway. And I would say it's almost definite.
In the case of the three eagles that guard the
mental Tarma, they're almost like looking over its sacredness, for
(08:59):
this on behalf of Manwey there. And there's a couple
of interesting footnotes in this particular portion as well. I
want to read footnote three, which is actually or at
least a portion of it, and this is from the
letters of jer R. Tolkien, but I'll give a little
bit of the background that's in this footnote as well.
For Tolkien, the spiritual significance of the religious faith and
(09:21):
observances of the Neumonorians was not only ideologically central to
the Lord of the Rings and more broadly to his
entire legendarium, but also had an applicability to the writer's
own world, and a note intended as a personal comment
on W. H. Auden's review of the Return of the
King in the New York Times Book Review of twenty
two January nineteen fifty six, Tolkien wrote, in The Lord
(09:42):
of the Rings, the conflict is not basically about freedom,
though that is naturally involved. It is about God and
his sole right to divine honor. The Eldar and the
Numinorians believed in the One, the True God, and held
worship of any other person in abomination. Salon desired to
be a god king, and was held to held to
be this by his servants. If he had been victorious,
(10:03):
he would have demanded divine honor from all rational creatures
and absolute temporal power over the whole world. So even
if in desperation the West had bred or hired hordes
of works and had cruelly ravaged the lands of other
men as allies of Sauron, or merely to prevent them
from aiding him, their cause would have remained indefeasibly right,
(10:23):
as does the cause of those who oppose now the
state God and martial this or that as its high priest,
even if it is true as it unfortunately is that
many of their deeds are wrong, even if it were true,
as it is not, that the inhabitants of the West,
except for a minority of wealthy bosses, live in fear
and squalor, while the worshippers of the State God live
in peace and abundance and in mutual esteem and trust. Yeah,
(10:47):
so there's a lot in there. But the kind of
the basic thing to take away from that is that,
in Tolkien's view, the whole sweep of Middle Earth history
is about God and his soul right to divine honor.
Speaker 2 (10:58):
Right.
Speaker 1 (10:59):
That is the major theme. And so it's interesting when
we hear that to see that the mental Tarma, this
system of worship is central to Neumonorian culture here right,
and this lasts all the way to the end. Okay,
And shortly after we see this footnote, we see this
notion that the Newmonorians thus began a great new Good.
(11:20):
I'll read this portion the new Minorians thus began a
great new good, and as monotheists, but with only one
physical center of worship, the summit of the mountain mental Tarma,
pillar of heaven. Literally, for they did not conceive of
the sky as a divided residence, as a divine residence
in the center of Numanor, but it had no building
and no temple. All of such things had evil associations.
(11:41):
So this was not about the Newminorians constructing their own religion.
This was the notion that they had been taught that
they were to worship a louvitar right, that this is
the actual worship that he wanted. It kind of harkens
to that whole idea right from the Old Testament, where
you know, David's like, I want to build a house,
I want to build a temple, and God basically tells
(12:02):
David through Nathan the prophet. He says, you know you're
I don't want you to write it's your son that's
going to build a temple, right, it's your son that's
going to build a true temple for me. I don't
want I don't want you to And we get something
of that idea here, right that that Airu Aluvatar is
not interested in this sort of like this sort of
(12:22):
worship where it's like, well, we're going to construct our
system of worship. It's so simple with the Neumanorians. You
go up to the top of the middle Tarma, and
you pray three times a year. There's no like sacrifices
or anything like that are written about. It's just these
three prayers at different times of the year. One would
think simply to praise and give thanks to God.
Speaker 2 (12:40):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (12:42):
So it's it's interesting how simple this is. And it's
interesting that Tolkien calls this a great new good, right,
this this monotheistic system of worship being a great new good,
and that it's one of the first things established, one
of the first things we learned about the Numanorian culture, right,
that they're this people, these men that are brought over here.
(13:02):
And I think there's a lot that actually can be
read into this and made of this, But I'm going
to save all of that for another time because there's
still a lot more to get to in this chapter.
I've talked about it in a lot of other episodes
and plan on, you know, I'm sure I'll continue to
unpack that on the Tolkien Road as time goes on.
All Right, So of language, So there are really three
languages to think about when it comes to when it
(13:25):
comes to Numanor. The first is the language of the West.
The Adunayak. Right, this is derived from the speech of
the house of Hodor. Right, this is one of the
three houses of men that are the you know, really
the people that become the Newmonorians. Then the houses of
men that aided the elves of Balarion and their struggle
against Morgoth in the first age. So Adunayak is like
(13:47):
their language, right, It's it's almost like their sort of
common tongue, if you will. But the truth is that many,
many men had already adopted the language of the Baleriond
elves Sindarin, right, So Sindarin was the Elvish of belariond okay,
it was the Elvish language of Balerion, and many men
had started speaking that. So there's there's these two languages
(14:07):
that are sort of the common speech of numanor Adu Nayak,
which is the language that's native to men, and then Sindaran,
which is the tongue they learned from the elves of BELLERIOND.
And Sindarin, it it seems, was really the daily tongue.
Speaker 2 (14:24):
Right.
Speaker 1 (14:24):
So some spoke Audunayak, but over time it kind of
became Sindarn was really the main tongue that people you know,
people spoken in an everyday language.
Speaker 2 (14:34):
And then Quinya was the official and royal language of Numnor.
Speaker 1 (14:38):
All right, So Quinya is kind of this high Elvish tongue.
It's the tongue of the the elves of the blessed realm.
So this is what they named places, names, important records.
They were all kept in Quinyan. The names of the kings,
the kind of the official names of the rulers of Numnor.
We're gonna find or all Quinyan up to a certain
point and U and then they change over to Adonaik.
(15:00):
And that's all part of this narrative of the downfall
of Neumnora that we'll.
Speaker 2 (15:04):
Get to.
Speaker 1 (15:06):
Appearance in health. So what did the Newminorians look like?
You know, what was their you know, what were their
physical characteristics in general? On read this quote, the people
tall and strong, were agile and extremely aware. That is,
they were in control of their bodily actions and of
any tool or material they handled, and seldom made absent
(15:28):
minded or blundering movements. And they were very difficult to
take off their guard. Accidents were thus unlikely to occur
to them, if any did. They had a power of
recovery and self healing, which, if inferior to that of
the Elder, was much greater than that of the men
of Middle Earth. Also among the matters of lore that
they especially studied was ro angolme or, the lore of
(15:49):
the body and the arts of healing. Sicknesses or other
bodily disorders were very rare in Numonor until the latter years.
This was due both to the special grace of health
and strength given to the race as a whole, but
especially due to the blessing of the land itself, and
also in some measure no doubt, to its situation far
out in the Great Sea. Animals were also mostly free
(16:10):
from disease, all right, And then you know, so some
interesting things to glean from that. They were tall and strong, right,
and we you know, later we'll learn about of course
Ellen Dill, who you may already be familiar with. He was,
you know, became much later in Neumanor's history. But he
was very very tall, right, especially you know by our standards,
you know, NBA player tall.
Speaker 2 (16:32):
Right.
Speaker 1 (16:32):
So they were tall, strong, agile, extremely aware. You know,
these are the these are the kind of the one
percent physical specimens. It would seem that would be like
professional athletes to us today, right, you know, playing playing
professional football, professional basketball, professional baseball.
Speaker 2 (16:49):
Right.
Speaker 1 (16:49):
You know that these people when you go to see
these sports and you're just like, wow, they're standing next
to each other, you might not realize how big they are.
But then if they get closer, if they're standing next
to you know, an average.
Speaker 2 (16:57):
Group of people, you're like, wow, those people they're bit right.
Speaker 1 (17:00):
For the most of them, they're pretty big. So that's
you know, that's kind of what we're what you envision
when you're envisioning Newminorians elsewhere. The indication is that Newmnorians
were probably like the average New Minorian was probably like
six four six five, right, so pretty tall, right, And
they just had a lot of like bodily awareness too, right,
you know, so these like top notch athletic sort of qualities, right,
(17:25):
just command presence. But they also had, you know, they
also had strong and sharp minds. Right, they were very
they were very clear witted, clear minded, and they were
able to you know, to learn much. And in the
next section on aging and longevity, it actually says that
that's the reason they asked for the lifespan, right. They
wanted to they wanted to learn more, right, they wanted
(17:49):
to be able to live longer in order to learn more,
which is I think an interesting note.
Speaker 2 (17:54):
But Tolkien attributes you.
Speaker 1 (17:57):
Know, the the notion that they're even their early death
was uncommon, right, so not many, you know, they they
lived longer in the first place, and then not many
even died early from any other causes like sickness or
accidents or anything like that. And Tolkn attributes that to
the grace of the Valar. So in terms of their
aging and longevity, they asked for long life and peace
(18:18):
and they were granted it. They actually, and I thought
this was really interesting, they ask for the life span
of old which would indicate that maybe going back a
long ways, men were originally supposed to live much longer.
You know, again, if you're familiar with the Old Testament,
you see this idea. You go back to like you know,
the first men in the Bible, and you know they're
(18:39):
living like eight hundred nine hundred years, right, and then
over time, you know, their life spans get lower and
lower until you get to Abraham, where it's like a
couple hundred years and or maybe it's a little longer.
But anyway, it's not the eight hundred nine hundred years.
Speaker 2 (18:54):
And then you get to then you get to.
Speaker 1 (18:59):
Like you know, Moses, right, and it's you know, maybe
a little over one hundred years at that point, right.
So you see in the Old Testament these lifespans waning
like that, and it would seem that that's reflected in
this text as well.
Speaker 2 (19:13):
Okay that maybe at some point in the past.
Speaker 1 (19:16):
And you know, we talk about when we when I
eventually do get to talking about author bath Fenrada Andre,
there are some really interesting allusions to this that seemed
to indicate that this was indeed part of the mythology
that Tolkien had incorporated, some of these ideas of like
this this ancient history that of men that was mysterious
and that was really unknown, really not recorded by them.
(19:38):
It was just a distant memory, but they knew that
they had it. In the beginning, their lives were much better,
much more like the Newmnorians, maybe until Melcor's influence came
among them and started to ruin things for them. So
it says also that they they did they helped them
to live longer by assimilating their life mode to that
(19:59):
of the elder and I think I think what's meant.
Speaker 2 (20:02):
By that is this notion of how they aged.
Speaker 1 (20:06):
There is you know, there is some really interesting stuff
if you go into the nature of Middle Earth about
the way they age, like you know, they're aging tables
and it's actually if you look at footnote eight in
or in note eight in this particular section, go all
the way to the back, it's going to show you,
you know, kind of how to think about the lifespan
(20:28):
of newm Andorians and what life was like for them
at a particular age. Right, so from zero to twenty,
they developed physically at about the same.
Speaker 2 (20:37):
Rate as a normal man.
Speaker 1 (20:39):
Right, so you know, you think about I assume most
of you watching this you know, or probably you know,
at least twenty. I'm sure there's some people that are
younger than twenty. But you know, you're getting there, and
you know, you develop at that rate, you're not really
fully mature, you know, even physically, until like you know,
seventeen eighteen. Even then you probably got some more some
more growing to do, just some kind of more adult adulting,
(21:01):
if you will. I don't know if that's a good
term to use, but just like you're you know, not
looking so much like a kid anymore, even though you
may be bigger and everything like that. But just sira
to twenty was kind of normal, right, it was normal
for them. And then it says beyond that add to
this twenty the remainder divided by five. Thus a Newminorian
man or woman of years so at so a new
(21:24):
Minorian at the age. So for example, a right, so,
the age of thirty one for a normal person would
be equivalent to the age of seventy five.
Speaker 2 (21:32):
For a new Minorian.
Speaker 1 (21:33):
All right, the age of forty six for a normal
person would be equivalent to the age of one fifty,
one hundred and fifty years old. Okay, so you see
this if you kind of think about the prime years
being from you know, roughly you're twenty years old. We'll
just say twenty twenty to forty because people always say
(21:53):
forties over the hill. I'm over forty, So don't anybody
take offense at that. I can and I can attest
to for the hill thing, twenty to forty maybe being
the prime years, right, you know, the years when you're
really in like best, the best physical condition, maybe you're ever.
Speaker 2 (22:10):
Going to be.
Speaker 1 (22:11):
Hopefully maybe that's not the case, but let's just assume
that for sake of argument, twenty to forty that's really
going to be like twenty five to one hundred and
twenty five, So that twenty year span is more like
one hundred years span for a Newmanorian. That's pretty awesome, right,
Imagine having that, right, Imagine having that sort of life span,
(22:33):
that sort of vigor, you know, being in those those
prime years for much longer. And you can even make
the argument, you know, if you want to extend it
all the way out to sixty. Okay, so just say,
like you know, when you're starting to maybe you approach
retirement age in your sixties, that's like two hundred years, right,
So zero to twenty are all the same, and then
beyond twenty you multiply by five, right for the new
(22:56):
Minorian equivalent age.
Speaker 2 (22:57):
Right, So it's all.
Speaker 1 (23:00):
There in the EndNote for you to go over, and
that's how to understand it.
Speaker 2 (23:06):
It talks also about like world weariness.
Speaker 1 (23:08):
So you know, for the Newmonorians, they like they would
know that it was maybe time to depart this world
because a sort of world weariness would set in. They
would be like, you know, I'm ready to go, I'm
ready to move beyond this world, okay. And I think
this is going to become something that we revisit this concept,
which I won't I won't get into it again too
much right now, because it comes up a lot later
(23:30):
on in the story of Numanor, because there's a change
in the mindset of the people of Numanor from like, Okay,
I can accept.
Speaker 2 (23:38):
That my death is you know, is going to be soon.
Speaker 1 (23:40):
I'm getting I'm getting old, I'm getting weary of this world,
and I'm ready to move on. Whereas as people become
they actually turn away from a louvatar and the worship
of a Luvatar and they're seduced by Saluron into evil ways,
and they start to become afraid of death right. They
start to be like, oh, I want to resist death right.
Speaker 2 (23:59):
I don't. I don't want to I right, you know,
even like the natural death. Okay.
Speaker 1 (24:05):
So that theme of world weariness is going to come
up again, and how the Newminorians viewed that phenomenon setting
into them, Their mental capacity was greater and developed quicker,
So you know, even though maybe physically they developed at
the same rate up to twenty like a seven year
old Newmnorian would have been much more mentally advanced than
a seven year old normal normal person, and they spent
(24:29):
a lot of their time in grossed in lower crafts
and intellectual or artistic pursuits. In the first half of life,
all right, marriage and child raising. Marriage was regarded as
natural for all and once entered into was permanent, so
divorce wasn't really a thing. Amongst the Newmnorians, women married
typically from the ages of twenty to forty five, in
forty five being twenty five equivalents.
Speaker 2 (24:50):
So think of it in terms of our twenty.
Speaker 1 (24:52):
To twenty five was the was the normal like the
prime sort of marrying age for women.
Speaker 2 (24:58):
They didn't they didn't marry any.
Speaker 1 (24:59):
Younger than that, really, right, That was that was actually
looked down like very almost like explicitly forbidden for the
Newmonorians for a woman to marry before that age. And
then but they could marry. Women could marry up to
ninety five, which is the equivalent age thirty five in
this case, right, So twenty to forty five was the
(25:20):
normal range, So there's actually a twenty five year span
in there that was a normal age for range for
a New Minorian women to marry, and then up to
ninety five is sort of possible, which you know for
most of us being like, wow, ninety five year old
woman getting married. You don't hear about that every day.
But in this case, we're talking about a thirty five
year old woman equivalent, right, remember that one hundred and
(25:44):
fifty years being sort of like, okay, now you're kind
of over the hill, right, that's when you're reaching that
over the hill point. Men married from the age of
forty five to one and twenty and that's the normal
man equivalent twenty five to forty all right. They were monogamous,
so there was no polygamy, there was no divorce, and
(26:07):
really four children was kind of the max for Huminorians,
up to four children in a period of fifty to
seventy five years. So they spaced their children quite a bit.
You know, fifty to seventy five year range would be
about twelve to eighteen year range in normal human terms.
So if you think about that, that's like three to
four years per child. So you know, that's a good
bit of a good bit of spacing right there. Just
(26:29):
that in three to four years in normal human terms,
you're talking about four children. Like, so if you know
let's just say sixty years, right, that's every fifteen years
is a child, and that's four children is the max. Right,
Like the most Huminorians would have. So if you just
were two or three children family, it.
Speaker 2 (26:45):
Could be like twenty year, you know. Span So.
Speaker 1 (26:49):
In the beginning and still more in the bearing of
a child, far more of their vigor, both of.
Speaker 2 (26:52):
Mind and body, was expended. Right.
Speaker 1 (26:54):
So this was like the elves, right. So the elves
also didn't have a lot of children, typically because they
fan or maybe being the exception, but in the beginning,
in the bearing of children, they they gave a lot
of themselves, right, They gave a lot of themselves. And
you know, this is something we don't always think of
(27:16):
in our own terms, but I think it's a I
think it's a great insight from Tolkien that he incorporates
this whole idea into his mythology, because he incorporates it
not only when it comes to to the beginning and
bearing of children, but also when it comes to the
creation of art. Right, that we expend something of ourselves
when we create, when we create our art, right, which
is something we've talked about a good bit on this
(27:37):
podcast in the past. And he says they were steadfast lovers,
not lustful. Right, So they were not lustful, but you know,
once they once they chose their mate, right, they were steadfast.
They were steadfast in that marriage. They were steadfast to
that love. So, you know, so a lot, a lot
to commend about the New Menorians and all these descriptions
(27:58):
of appetites and behaviors. They had a conscious detestation of lust, greed, hate,
and cruelty and tyranny. You know, these were very much
against them, and they were they were. Though they were
mostly virtuous folk, there were some wicked among them. So
some bad folks did kind of creep in initially and
maybe more over time. Not all of them, you know,
(28:19):
were perfect. We're perfect angels necessarily, but for the most
part they were. Ah, they were a good and virtuous people.
And you know, they had they had certain values that
we would probably you know, very much agree with. And
the you know, detesting lust, greed, hate, cruelty, tyranny, all
these things.
Speaker 2 (28:37):
All right of.
Speaker 1 (28:39):
Skills and crafts. So, uh, this was and this was
a word I was not familiar. Well, I think I
probably heard it before, but I didn't know what it meant. Initially, uh,
it's it says metals aroused in them cupidity. So cupidity
is greed for money or possessions.
Speaker 2 (28:53):
So, uh, maybe it's.
Speaker 1 (28:55):
A little bit of what's going on with Gollum in
terms of my precious and wanting to possess, you know,
the one ring an extreme amount of cupidity on his part.
But they didn't have a lot of metals. They didn't
bring a lot of metals with them. There weren't a
lot of metals for them in Numenor. And it was
metals that ended up being contributing to initially to kind
(29:16):
of their initial decline when they came back to Middle Earth,
because they found these things, and they found them precious,
and it aroused in them greed.
Speaker 2 (29:25):
Okay, it roused in them greed.
Speaker 1 (29:29):
As far as weapons go, Numenor was a land of
peace initially, I'll read this passage thus, for long there
were practically no weapons of warlike intent made in Numenor.
Many things made could, could, of course, be so used,
axes and spears and bows. The bowyers were a great craft.
They made bows of many kinds, long bows, smaller bows,
especially those used for shooting from horseback, and they also
(29:52):
devised crossbows at first used mainly against predatory birds. Shooting
with bows was one of the greatest sports and pastimes
of men, and one in which young women also took part.
So uh, you know, they didn't have a lot of
weapons at first. It was only over time and as
war sort of came to them that that weapons became
(30:13):
more of a necessity. But they did have a lot
of They did have a lot of bow makers and
and the you know, uh archery, I guess you could
say was was one of their great pastimes, right. Uh,
men and women alike, Men and women alike. Speaking of
sports and pastimes, there's a lot to say in this area.
(30:34):
So there was no war though. They were descended for
men of wars, so their energies need to be direct,
needed to be directed to peaceful occupations such as the
making of crafts as well as games and physical sports.
So you know, they they came from this, these great warriors, right,
the people of Numenal were descended from these great warriors,
And we already described that they were they were physically
(30:55):
impressive specimens, right, They were physically impressive specimens. So all
of that energy needed to be directed somewhere and if
they weren't of war like people, if if Numaner was
not a land of war. All of those energies needed
to be expended in some way. So the things they
were very fond of, hiking, of climbing cliffs, they took
their greatest delight in the sea. Right, so especially men,
(31:18):
they taught themselves shipbuilding.
Speaker 2 (31:19):
Uh you know uh.
Speaker 1 (31:21):
Initially they they had they had very limited knowledge, but
over time they taught themselves shipbuilding to be able to
go back eventually to Middle Earth, although they did a
lot of transit just around the island too. Women were
known for their love of dancing and horses uh and
their disdain for the sea. So they loved women, loved
horses and dancing, and they hated the sea. We'll see
(31:42):
this when we come to the story of al Darian
and norendezuh, the mariner's wife. There was a main road
from Romana to Armenelos or remember Romana being the uh,
the easternmost port, and then to Arminelos. Right, there was
a There was a main road, and eventually they extended
that to on Dosto in the northlands and Onnier in
(32:06):
the west lands. Okay, so there was this road that
that traversed the island from east to west. They were
not so much in they loved their horses. They were
not so much into horse racing. But it was kind
of a thing to be able to train your horse
so that to know their master's voice. So they were
they were, you know, loved the handling of horses, right,
(32:29):
but they were not into like the sport of horse racing.
I guess you could say, and I don't know, maybe
horse racing itself is kind of viewed, uh you know,
maybe traditionally it was viewed negatively. I can I can
understand that, you know, of course, it's it's associated with
gambling a lot of days and a lot of cases today.
But but there are other things to do with horses
(32:51):
as far as sport goes. So yeah, maybe go check
out go check out Yellowstone if you want to see
some of those things, the rodeo and all that. I
don't know if that's what they were doing, but the
horses knew their master's voices, and that was kind of
the thing is developing the relationship between the men and
their horse.
Speaker 2 (33:09):
Right.
Speaker 1 (33:10):
Newmonorians also loved their dogs. Women love that the Numenorian
men love the dogs, and then women love birds, beasts,
and squirrels. We talked about the love of squirrels in
the previous chapter. Women really loved the squirrels of Newmenor.
And there were a lot of them in Numenor. And
it says their knowledge and arts reached an almost elvish height. Okay,
(33:32):
and they had they did have, you know, they did
have what's the right word. They kept company with the
elves of Versea, right, the elves of the Lonely Island,
just one stop away from the blessed Realm. And this
was I suppose where they gained a lot of their
you know, their knowledge and arts initially is from these
(33:54):
elves of Versea.
Speaker 2 (33:56):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (33:57):
They it says they brought. The elves of Versea brought
to numen Or many gifts, and the most important, perhaps
was the tree Nimloth, the seedling of Caliborn, which was
a seedling of Galathelion, the image of Telperion. So this
is the whole White Tree of Numenor idea. And I've
actually made a video devoted just to the White Tree
of Numenor, an episode devoted just to that from a
(34:17):
while back. If you want to go check that out
to understand how that all works. And of course the
White Tree of Numenor leads into the White Tree of Gondor.
But nim Looth was the name of this white tree,
and it existed for most of the history of Numenor,
and it plays a very important role. It's kind of
a symbol of Numenor's status and its friendship with the
(34:40):
elves and the Blessed Realm. For those of you who
don't under who don't know what Telperion is, and kind
of this descent of nim Loth from Telperion. Well it's
not directly descended, but Telperion was one of the two
trees of Valinor, which were these you know, great great
trees that are before the First Age and they're a
huge part of the story of the Summer. Well, there
(35:03):
was a seed there was an image of Gala of Telperion,
not a descent, not a natural descent, but an image
of it that was made by Yvanna called Galathelion, and
this was given to the elves of the Blessed Realm.
And then Kelliborne was a seedling of Galathelion, and nim
Loth as a seedling of Keliborne. Now I don't get
Kelibor in the Tree confused with Kellibor and the husband
(35:24):
of Galadriel, all right, So obviously two completely different things,
although it's interesting that they share a name. So that's
the story. That's where the White Tree of Numenor came from.
And of course we'll come back to the White Tree
of Numenor in later parts of.
Speaker 2 (35:41):
This series, all right.
Speaker 1 (35:43):
And then we have this idea of the Bliss of
Numenor being the first two thousand years of its history.
So you know, we've kind of learned over these last
several episodes about what Numenor was like early on, when
it was really this blessed place, right this this land
of bliss, and we understand that it last, that this
bliss lasted for roughly two thousand years. And I love
the last line here, or maybe it's the last line.
(36:06):
Let's see, make sure that's the last line. I just
posted this to my Twitter feed. Oh yes, Victory was
the herald of their downfall. The context here is simply
that they had all of this piece for about two
thousand years, but it says though the first hints of
the later shadows appeared before that indeed, it was their
(36:27):
very arming to take part in the defense of the
Eldar and men of the west of Middle Earth against
the wielder of the Shadow. At length revealed is Saluran
the Great that brought about the end of their peace
and content. Victory was the herald of their downfall. Right,
so they are forced to become a people warlike and
that comes back to them.
Speaker 2 (36:47):
Right.
Speaker 1 (36:49):
It's so interesting to think about that too in the
context of our own history, right, thinking about how World
War II being this pivotal event that you know, Tolkien
lived through and he was conceiving a lot of the
legendarium during that time, you know. And you can even
think of World War One and World War II as
kind of being like part of the same continuous conflict
in a way. You think of that great conflict of
(37:13):
world wars during the first and middle part of the
twentieth century, and you know all the things, all the
tyrannies and those sort of things that were overcome during
that period, all the great bloodshed, the victories for you know,
freedom and those and those sorts of ideas democracy, those
sorts of ideals, and then you see so much you
(37:37):
think of the victory well, it's victory, but then it
leads to all of these other problems, right And you know,
I won't get into the politics of what all that
looks like, but you know, there's there's no doubt that
like in some ways the relative piece of the post
World War two era is seems to be coming apart
in a lot of ways right now. That may you
(38:00):
may say, well, that all depends on your viewpoint, fair enough,
but I think for Tolkien he probably would have had
that viewpoint right that in the victory that he would
have applauded in World War Two, we see some we
see seed sown that are going to lead to bigger
problems further down the road, even for the victors. So
maybe that's the poetic aspect, the poetic flourish that we
(38:22):
can end this particular section with of mundane realities, but
with all things Tolkien, they really have deeper truths that
are reflected in them. So that's the beauty of this section.
We already talked about the illustration of Arminelo's the pencil
Sketch at the beginning. There's one other illustration in here
that's titled looking West from Ondunier and Dunier again. Being
(38:43):
that city on the western coast of newman Or where
the elves of Versea usually came to visit. And in
this color this paint is color painting by Alan Lee,
we see something of what this might have looked like
a vision of what this might have looked like, this
(39:03):
bright light looking into the west towards the blessed Realm.
All right, So, yeah, that's that's it for this particular section.
You know, a lot of really interesting details in here.
Speaker 2 (39:18):
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (39:18):
If there's anything that I didn't cover that you guys
would be interested in talking more about, please feel free
to do so in the comments below or hit me up.
Just send me a note to Tolkien Roadpodcast at gmail
dot com or hit me up on Twitter. But yeah,
you know again, these topics might not seem like the
most important, but they help us to characterize and understand
(39:38):
what Numanor was like on an everyday basis, so that
the stories that are going to follow from here really
make a lot more sense and hit a little deeper.
Speaker 2 (39:47):
Right, all right, Well, Hey.
Speaker 1 (39:50):
If you liked this episode, and if you like The
Tolkien Road, please subscribe, rate, and review us on iTunes
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Speaker 2 (39:55):
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Speaker 1 (39:56):
Fan of The Tolkien Road, you can really help us
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When you do that, it helps get the word out
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Speaker 2 (40:06):
Helps us to keep on everring on.
Speaker 1 (40:09):
All Right, well, we did it pretty long one this week,
so I'm not going to hit any correspondence, but on
the next couple of episodes dealing with the Fall of
the Fall of Newmanor, I probably will hit some correspondence
because they're shorter sections, so look forward to those. Keep
the correspondence coming. Thank you to our amazing patrons, especially
the following John R. Caitlin F T With Tolkien, Jacob Lockham,
(40:29):
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Speaker 2 (40:54):
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Speaker 1 (40:56):
All Right, thank you all. Thank you to our amazing patrons,
we really appreciate you. And thanks to everybody for watching
and or listening. We will talk at you next time.
Bye bye
Hey there, fellowship, Welcome to the Tolkien Road. In this episode,
we continue our journey through the Fall of Numenor as
we explore the life of Neumenorians. In this section, we'll
learn about the everyday life of the men and women
of the Starland according to Tolkien. Join us, and as
a reminder, I've got a brand new book on the way,
Tolkien's Tragedy concerning Numenor, the Rings of Power, and the
Second Age. It's the culmination of years of study, and
(00:21):
I believe it'll change the way you look at Tolkien's legendarium.
If you're enjoying this series, make sure you head over
to tolkienrooad dot substack dot com and subscribe. That's why
you'll get early chapters of Tolkien's Tragedy and all the
behind the scenes insights I only share with my readers.
All right, let's dive in. Hey there, fellow travelers, Welcome
to the Tolkien Road, Episode three thirty two. In this episode,
(00:44):
we'll be continuing our journey through the Fall of Numenor
as we explore the section titled the Life of Newminorians.
In this section, we'll learn about the mundane realities.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
Of life and the land of gift.
Speaker 1 (00:56):
Before I get started, I'd like to give a double
up bear five to our amazing fellowshipp Get those hands up, everybody,
three two one OOPSHT.
Speaker 2 (01:06):
Very nice, very nice.
Speaker 1 (01:08):
Special thanks to this episode's executive producers John R. Caitlin
of T with Tolkien, Jacob lockhom John H and Aeru
twenty seven. Also a shout out to those celebrating their
fellowship anniversary in April of twenty twenty three. Jonathan D.
Julia and Katie P. Thank you all so much for
sticking with us over the last year. Join the Fellowship
(01:29):
of the Road by visiting patreon dot com slash Tolkien Road.
When you join the Fellowship of the Road, it helps
us to keep on everring on and land you some
cool perks along the way. Learn more at patreon dot
com slash Tolkien Road. Hey YouTube, hit that like button,
don't forget to subscribe and let us know what's on
your mind and the comments below. Before I get into
(01:51):
the episode, I want to give another shout out. I
did this on the last episode. Another shout out to
a couple of recent interviews I've done on other podcasts.
The first is to the Mythic Mind with Andrew Snyder.
You can check that out by going over to tolkienrooad
dot com slash Mythic Mind. Andrews doing some interesting work
diving into the Tales from the Perilous Realm as of late,
so you definitely want to check that out. We talked
(02:11):
about on fairy stories, as well as some of the
other other tales from the Periless Realm miscellaneous writings from Tolkien.
Also Window on the West from the Wondering dot Com.
Tolkienoad dot com slash window will take you to that interview.
They're having a lot of fun going through the Silmarillion
and doing some interviews with other folks, other Tolkien peeps,
(02:32):
if you will right now, so you'll definitely want to
check out at least my interview, and probably a whole
lot more. All right, So, what was it like to
be an everyday Newmanorian? How did it feel to be
one of the blessed number who were able to enjoy
a much longer lifespan in an island paradise. While these
details may not seem of particular importance in advancing the
story of Numenor's downfall, they do help us to better
(02:54):
grasp the significance of being New Minorian and to juxtapose
life and the Land of Gift with our day lives.
Perhaps through these details we can arrive at a better
characterization of Numenorian culture so that we can more deeply
understand the root causes of her downfall. So this section
is pretty long, and the sources it pulls from are
(03:15):
Unfinished Tales, really a description of Numenor that that section
from the Second Age portion of Unfinished Tales, and then
the nature of Middle Earth, and then there's excerpts from letters,
the letters of jer R. Tolkien as well as a Kalabath.
And I think that about covers everything. There may be
one or two tiny other references in there, but that
about covers everything. But there's a lot in this chapter,
so you know, and it's just kind of organized to
(03:38):
give glimpses, like kind of encyclopedic, give glimpses of what
life was like, you know, in different aspects for Newmonorians.
It starts off with telling us some about the cities
of Numenor, and really this section is pretty short. It
just tells us about a couple of cities, right, the
first being on Dounia, and Dounia was the chief city
(03:59):
in haven face west, so this was facing towards the
Blessed Realm. It was on the west coast of Numanor.
It also mentions Arminelos, the capital, which was on a
hill near Middle Tarma. It's actually like on the southeastern
southeastern portion of Numanor, in the just at the foot
of the mintal Tarma right there. There's two other cities
(04:22):
though that this section does not mention, but or mentioned
later in the chapter. So I'll go ahead and bring
those up now. The first one is Romana, which is
the chief port in the east, and then and then Ondosto,
which is the city in the northland. So there's four
cities of Numanor that we really know about on Dunie, Arminelos, Romana,
and Ondosto. Ondunier the port in the west, Romana the
(04:46):
port in the east, Armenelos the capital right in the
center really in the center of almost in the center
of the island of Numnor. And then Ondosto. The other
just interesting little nugget from this particular portion is about
al Roast and it says that he was appointed by
the Valor to be king, and I just thought it
was important to highlight this because you know, when we
(05:08):
think of kings, typically in this day and age, we
think of like kind of historical processes that brought people
to be kings. You know, we don't have this view
of like, you know, kings, you know, even even the
kings that do remain in the world of being somehow
like you know, like divinely appointed or something like that.
Speaker 2 (05:25):
Right, it's just not that's just not something.
Speaker 1 (05:27):
We attribute most people, I would say attribute at least
in the cultures that I'm a you know, that I'm
familiar with and a part of. Certainly in America, we
have no kings. And even with our president, you know,
we we you know, it's like he's elected. He's just
an elected official, right, and he has he has a
certain time period.
Speaker 2 (05:43):
That he's going to be ruling for.
Speaker 1 (05:47):
But with l Ros, he was appointed by the Valor
to be king. And the valor are of course the
appointed powers of Arda right, the great powers of Arda Manwei,
almo yvanna.
Speaker 2 (06:00):
A Varda Aula right, these and many others.
Speaker 1 (06:04):
These were the powers appointed by Aluvatar himself, the the
god of gods, right, uh, the the first and all
powerful one. So so you know l Ros, there really
was this sense of you know, this divine right of kings,
right that he was appointed by the valor to be king.
Now whether that was you know, bounded in any way, right,
(06:27):
it was you know, to say, like, well, if you
don't behave yourself, then you're not going to be king.
You know, we don't really need any picture of that
until much later in the history. Maybe we could argue,
but there's no like sense of any constitutional you know,
limits upon l Ros. It was just like rule justly,
rule justly, all right. So continuing on, you know, with
this idea of divine appointment, right, first, first of all,
(06:50):
going to the Valar and then up upwards to Airu,
we have this section that deals with the belief and
worship of numan Or. First of all, it speaks about
the mental tarma, right, the middle tarma, which is the
pillar of heaven. It was sacred to the worship of Alubatar.
This is this is the big mountains. So if you're
looking at this chapter in your book, right, if you're
looking at this chapter in your beautiful copy of the
(07:14):
Fall of Numenor, then there's a pencil sketch right here,
and it shows a city with a mountain in the background. Now,
most likely this is a view of Armaelos with the
Mental Tarma in the background. In fact, I think is
it actually named that, Yes, I believe it's called it's
(07:35):
called Armanelos. So that's the mental Tarma in the background
that you see in that picture. The mental Tarma was
the center point, and we talked about this in the
geography section a few episodes ago. It's the center point
of the island of Numenor, and it was upon the
mental Tarma. And you can kind of see in this
picture too, it's like flat at the top.
Speaker 2 (07:55):
Right.
Speaker 1 (07:55):
It was upon the mental Tarma that the Numinorians would
go and kind of do a little pilgrimage up to
the top three times a year for this corporate worship
of Illubatar, right, the three prayers is what it's referred
to as. So it was sacred to the worship of Allubatar.
(08:15):
There were no buildings on that summit, right, It was
only a flat pat place to gather the people of
Numenor for that three times a year worship. But it
was guarded by three eagles of Manway, by the way,
in the nature of Middle Earth, there's this really interesting
little passage detail where it says that the great eagles
were in fact Mayar. Okay, so when you talk about
these eagles, now it's not saying necessarily.
Speaker 2 (08:36):
Like just normal eagles were Mayar.
Speaker 1 (08:37):
But you know, when we think of the eagles that
like play a big part in the Hobbit and Lord
of the Rings as well as the eagles of Manway,
you know they're probably Mayar, right, they're probably these lesser gods,
these servants of Manway. And I would say it's almost definite.
In the case of the three eagles that guard the
mental Tarma, they're almost like looking over its sacredness, for
(08:59):
this on behalf of Manwey there. And there's a couple
of interesting footnotes in this particular portion as well. I
want to read footnote three, which is actually or at
least a portion of it, and this is from the
letters of jer R. Tolkien, but I'll give a little
bit of the background that's in this footnote as well.
For Tolkien, the spiritual significance of the religious faith and
(09:21):
observances of the Neumonorians was not only ideologically central to
the Lord of the Rings and more broadly to his
entire legendarium, but also had an applicability to the writer's
own world, and a note intended as a personal comment
on W. H. Auden's review of the Return of the
King in the New York Times Book Review of twenty
two January nineteen fifty six, Tolkien wrote, in The Lord
(09:42):
of the Rings, the conflict is not basically about freedom,
though that is naturally involved. It is about God and
his sole right to divine honor. The Eldar and the
Numinorians believed in the One, the True God, and held
worship of any other person in abomination. Salon desired to
be a god king, and was held to held to
be this by his servants. If he had been victorious,
(10:03):
he would have demanded divine honor from all rational creatures
and absolute temporal power over the whole world. So even
if in desperation the West had bred or hired hordes
of works and had cruelly ravaged the lands of other
men as allies of Sauron, or merely to prevent them
from aiding him, their cause would have remained indefeasibly right,
(10:23):
as does the cause of those who oppose now the
state God and martial this or that as its high priest,
even if it is true as it unfortunately is that
many of their deeds are wrong, even if it were true,
as it is not, that the inhabitants of the West,
except for a minority of wealthy bosses, live in fear
and squalor, while the worshippers of the State God live
in peace and abundance and in mutual esteem and trust. Yeah,
(10:47):
so there's a lot in there. But the kind of
the basic thing to take away from that is that,
in Tolkien's view, the whole sweep of Middle Earth history
is about God and his soul right to divine honor.
Speaker 2 (10:58):
Right.
Speaker 1 (10:59):
That is the major theme. And so it's interesting when
we hear that to see that the mental Tarma, this
system of worship is central to Neumonorian culture here right,
and this lasts all the way to the end. Okay,
And shortly after we see this footnote, we see this
notion that the Newmonorians thus began a great new Good.
(11:20):
I'll read this portion the new Minorians thus began a
great new good, and as monotheists, but with only one
physical center of worship, the summit of the mountain mental Tarma,
pillar of heaven. Literally, for they did not conceive of
the sky as a divided residence, as a divine residence
in the center of Numanor, but it had no building
and no temple. All of such things had evil associations.
(11:41):
So this was not about the Newminorians constructing their own religion.
This was the notion that they had been taught that
they were to worship a louvitar right, that this is
the actual worship that he wanted. It kind of harkens
to that whole idea right from the Old Testament, where
you know, David's like, I want to build a house,
I want to build a temple, and God basically tells
(12:02):
David through Nathan the prophet. He says, you know you're
I don't want you to write it's your son that's
going to build a temple, right, it's your son that's
going to build a true temple for me. I don't
want I don't want you to And we get something
of that idea here, right that that Airu Aluvatar is
not interested in this sort of like this sort of
(12:22):
worship where it's like, well, we're going to construct our
system of worship. It's so simple with the Neumanorians. You
go up to the top of the middle Tarma, and
you pray three times a year. There's no like sacrifices
or anything like that are written about. It's just these
three prayers at different times of the year. One would
think simply to praise and give thanks to God.
Speaker 2 (12:40):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (12:42):
So it's it's interesting how simple this is. And it's
interesting that Tolkien calls this a great new good, right,
this this monotheistic system of worship being a great new good,
and that it's one of the first things established, one
of the first things we learned about the Numanorian culture, right,
that they're this people, these men that are brought over here.
(13:02):
And I think there's a lot that actually can be
read into this and made of this, But I'm going
to save all of that for another time because there's
still a lot more to get to in this chapter.
I've talked about it in a lot of other episodes
and plan on, you know, I'm sure I'll continue to
unpack that on the Tolkien Road as time goes on.
All Right, So of language, So there are really three
languages to think about when it comes to when it
(13:25):
comes to Numanor. The first is the language of the West.
The Adunayak. Right, this is derived from the speech of
the house of Hodor. Right, this is one of the
three houses of men that are the you know, really
the people that become the Newmonorians. Then the houses of
men that aided the elves of Balarion and their struggle
against Morgoth in the first age. So Adunayak is like
(13:47):
their language, right, It's it's almost like their sort of
common tongue, if you will. But the truth is that many,
many men had already adopted the language of the Baleriond
elves Sindarin, right, So Sindarin was the Elvish of belariond okay,
it was the Elvish language of Balerion, and many men
had started speaking that. So there's there's these two languages
(14:07):
that are sort of the common speech of numanor Adu Nayak,
which is the language that's native to men, and then Sindaran,
which is the tongue they learned from the elves of BELLERIOND.
And Sindarin, it it seems, was really the daily tongue.
Speaker 2 (14:24):
Right.
Speaker 1 (14:24):
So some spoke Audunayak, but over time it kind of
became Sindarn was really the main tongue that people you know,
people spoken in an everyday language.
Speaker 2 (14:34):
And then Quinya was the official and royal language of Numnor.
Speaker 1 (14:38):
All right, So Quinya is kind of this high Elvish tongue.
It's the tongue of the the elves of the blessed realm.
So this is what they named places, names, important records.
They were all kept in Quinyan. The names of the kings,
the kind of the official names of the rulers of Numnor.
We're gonna find or all Quinyan up to a certain
point and U and then they change over to Adonaik.
(15:00):
And that's all part of this narrative of the downfall
of Neumnora that we'll.
Speaker 2 (15:04):
Get to.
Speaker 1 (15:06):
Appearance in health. So what did the Newminorians look like?
You know, what was their you know, what were their
physical characteristics in general? On read this quote, the people
tall and strong, were agile and extremely aware. That is,
they were in control of their bodily actions and of
any tool or material they handled, and seldom made absent
(15:28):
minded or blundering movements. And they were very difficult to
take off their guard. Accidents were thus unlikely to occur
to them, if any did. They had a power of
recovery and self healing, which, if inferior to that of
the Elder, was much greater than that of the men
of Middle Earth. Also among the matters of lore that
they especially studied was ro angolme or, the lore of
(15:49):
the body and the arts of healing. Sicknesses or other
bodily disorders were very rare in Numonor until the latter years.
This was due both to the special grace of health
and strength given to the race as a whole, but
especially due to the blessing of the land itself, and
also in some measure no doubt, to its situation far
out in the Great Sea. Animals were also mostly free
(16:10):
from disease, all right, And then you know, so some
interesting things to glean from that. They were tall and strong, right,
and we you know, later we'll learn about of course
Ellen Dill, who you may already be familiar with. He was,
you know, became much later in Neumanor's history. But he
was very very tall, right, especially you know by our standards,
you know, NBA player tall.
Speaker 2 (16:32):
Right.
Speaker 1 (16:32):
So they were tall, strong, agile, extremely aware. You know,
these are the these are the kind of the one
percent physical specimens. It would seem that would be like
professional athletes to us today, right, you know, playing playing
professional football, professional basketball, professional baseball.
Speaker 2 (16:49):
Right.
Speaker 1 (16:49):
You know that these people when you go to see
these sports and you're just like, wow, they're standing next
to each other, you might not realize how big they are.
But then if they get closer, if they're standing next
to you know, an average.
Speaker 2 (16:57):
Group of people, you're like, wow, those people they're bit right.
Speaker 1 (17:00):
For the most of them, they're pretty big. So that's
you know, that's kind of what we're what you envision
when you're envisioning Newminorians elsewhere. The indication is that Newmnorians
were probably like the average New Minorian was probably like
six four six five, right, so pretty tall, right, And
they just had a lot of like bodily awareness too, right,
you know, so these like top notch athletic sort of qualities, right,
(17:25):
just command presence. But they also had, you know, they
also had strong and sharp minds. Right, they were very
they were very clear witted, clear minded, and they were
able to you know, to learn much. And in the
next section on aging and longevity, it actually says that
that's the reason they asked for the lifespan, right. They
wanted to they wanted to learn more, right, they wanted
(17:49):
to be able to live longer in order to learn more,
which is I think an interesting note.
Speaker 2 (17:54):
But Tolkien attributes you.
Speaker 1 (17:57):
Know, the the notion that they're even their early death
was uncommon, right, so not many, you know, they they
lived longer in the first place, and then not many
even died early from any other causes like sickness or
accidents or anything like that. And Tolkn attributes that to
the grace of the Valar. So in terms of their
aging and longevity, they asked for long life and peace
(18:18):
and they were granted it. They actually, and I thought
this was really interesting, they ask for the life span
of old which would indicate that maybe going back a
long ways, men were originally supposed to live much longer.
You know, again, if you're familiar with the Old Testament,
you see this idea. You go back to like you know,
the first men in the Bible, and you know they're
(18:39):
living like eight hundred nine hundred years, right, and then
over time, you know, their life spans get lower and
lower until you get to Abraham, where it's like a
couple hundred years and or maybe it's a little longer.
But anyway, it's not the eight hundred nine hundred years.
Speaker 2 (18:54):
And then you get to then you get to.
Speaker 1 (18:59):
Like you know, Moses, right, and it's you know, maybe
a little over one hundred years at that point, right.
So you see in the Old Testament these lifespans waning
like that, and it would seem that that's reflected in
this text as well.
Speaker 2 (19:13):
Okay that maybe at some point in the past.
Speaker 1 (19:16):
And you know, we talk about when we when I
eventually do get to talking about author bath Fenrada Andre,
there are some really interesting allusions to this that seemed
to indicate that this was indeed part of the mythology
that Tolkien had incorporated, some of these ideas of like
this this ancient history that of men that was mysterious
and that was really unknown, really not recorded by them.
(19:38):
It was just a distant memory, but they knew that
they had it. In the beginning, their lives were much better,
much more like the Newmnorians, maybe until Melcor's influence came
among them and started to ruin things for them. So
it says also that they they did they helped them
to live longer by assimilating their life mode to that
(19:59):
of the elder and I think I think what's meant.
Speaker 2 (20:02):
By that is this notion of how they aged.
Speaker 1 (20:06):
There is you know, there is some really interesting stuff
if you go into the nature of Middle Earth about
the way they age, like you know, they're aging tables
and it's actually if you look at footnote eight in
or in note eight in this particular section, go all
the way to the back, it's going to show you,
you know, kind of how to think about the lifespan
(20:28):
of newm Andorians and what life was like for them
at a particular age. Right, so from zero to twenty,
they developed physically at about the same.
Speaker 2 (20:37):
Rate as a normal man.
Speaker 1 (20:39):
Right, so you know, you think about I assume most
of you watching this you know, or probably you know,
at least twenty. I'm sure there's some people that are
younger than twenty. But you know, you're getting there, and
you know, you develop at that rate, you're not really
fully mature, you know, even physically, until like you know,
seventeen eighteen. Even then you probably got some more some
more growing to do, just some kind of more adult adulting,
(21:01):
if you will. I don't know if that's a good
term to use, but just like you're you know, not
looking so much like a kid anymore, even though you
may be bigger and everything like that. But just sira
to twenty was kind of normal, right, it was normal
for them. And then it says beyond that add to
this twenty the remainder divided by five. Thus a Newminorian
man or woman of years so at so a new
(21:24):
Minorian at the age. So for example, a right, so,
the age of thirty one for a normal person would
be equivalent to the age of seventy five.
Speaker 2 (21:32):
For a new Minorian.
Speaker 1 (21:33):
All right, the age of forty six for a normal
person would be equivalent to the age of one fifty,
one hundred and fifty years old. Okay, so you see
this if you kind of think about the prime years
being from you know, roughly you're twenty years old. We'll
just say twenty twenty to forty because people always say
(21:53):
forties over the hill. I'm over forty, So don't anybody
take offense at that. I can and I can attest
to for the hill thing, twenty to forty maybe being
the prime years, right, you know, the years when you're
really in like best, the best physical condition, maybe you're ever.
Speaker 2 (22:10):
Going to be.
Speaker 1 (22:11):
Hopefully maybe that's not the case, but let's just assume
that for sake of argument, twenty to forty that's really
going to be like twenty five to one hundred and
twenty five, So that twenty year span is more like
one hundred years span for a Newmanorian. That's pretty awesome, right,
Imagine having that, right, Imagine having that sort of life span,
(22:33):
that sort of vigor, you know, being in those those
prime years for much longer. And you can even make
the argument, you know, if you want to extend it
all the way out to sixty. Okay, so just say,
like you know, when you're starting to maybe you approach
retirement age in your sixties, that's like two hundred years, right,
So zero to twenty are all the same, and then
beyond twenty you multiply by five, right for the new
(22:56):
Minorian equivalent age.
Speaker 2 (22:57):
Right, So it's all.
Speaker 1 (23:00):
There in the EndNote for you to go over, and
that's how to understand it.
Speaker 2 (23:06):
It talks also about like world weariness.
Speaker 1 (23:08):
So you know, for the Newmonorians, they like they would
know that it was maybe time to depart this world
because a sort of world weariness would set in. They
would be like, you know, I'm ready to go, I'm
ready to move beyond this world, okay. And I think
this is going to become something that we revisit this concept,
which I won't I won't get into it again too
much right now, because it comes up a lot later
(23:30):
on in the story of Numanor, because there's a change
in the mindset of the people of Numanor from like, Okay,
I can accept.
Speaker 2 (23:38):
That my death is you know, is going to be soon.
Speaker 1 (23:40):
I'm getting I'm getting old, I'm getting weary of this world,
and I'm ready to move on. Whereas as people become
they actually turn away from a louvatar and the worship
of a Luvatar and they're seduced by Saluron into evil ways,
and they start to become afraid of death right. They
start to be like, oh, I want to resist death right.
Speaker 2 (23:59):
I don't. I don't want to I right, you know,
even like the natural death. Okay.
Speaker 1 (24:05):
So that theme of world weariness is going to come
up again, and how the Newminorians viewed that phenomenon setting
into them, Their mental capacity was greater and developed quicker,
So you know, even though maybe physically they developed at
the same rate up to twenty like a seven year
old Newmnorian would have been much more mentally advanced than
a seven year old normal normal person, and they spent
(24:29):
a lot of their time in grossed in lower crafts
and intellectual or artistic pursuits. In the first half of life,
all right, marriage and child raising. Marriage was regarded as
natural for all and once entered into was permanent, so
divorce wasn't really a thing. Amongst the Newmnorians, women married
typically from the ages of twenty to forty five, in
forty five being twenty five equivalents.
Speaker 2 (24:50):
So think of it in terms of our twenty.
Speaker 1 (24:52):
To twenty five was the was the normal like the
prime sort of marrying age for women.
Speaker 2 (24:58):
They didn't they didn't marry any.
Speaker 1 (24:59):
Younger than that, really, right, That was that was actually
looked down like very almost like explicitly forbidden for the
Newmonorians for a woman to marry before that age. And
then but they could marry. Women could marry up to
ninety five, which is the equivalent age thirty five in
this case, right, So twenty to forty five was the
(25:20):
normal range, So there's actually a twenty five year span
in there that was a normal age for range for
a New Minorian women to marry, and then up to
ninety five is sort of possible, which you know for
most of us being like, wow, ninety five year old
woman getting married. You don't hear about that every day.
But in this case, we're talking about a thirty five
year old woman equivalent, right, remember that one hundred and
(25:44):
fifty years being sort of like, okay, now you're kind
of over the hill, right, that's when you're reaching that
over the hill point. Men married from the age of
forty five to one and twenty and that's the normal
man equivalent twenty five to forty all right. They were monogamous,
so there was no polygamy, there was no divorce, and
(26:07):
really four children was kind of the max for Huminorians,
up to four children in a period of fifty to
seventy five years. So they spaced their children quite a bit.
You know, fifty to seventy five year range would be
about twelve to eighteen year range in normal human terms.
So if you think about that, that's like three to
four years per child. So you know, that's a good
bit of a good bit of spacing right there. Just
(26:29):
that in three to four years in normal human terms,
you're talking about four children. Like, so if you know
let's just say sixty years, right, that's every fifteen years
is a child, and that's four children is the max. Right,
Like the most Huminorians would have. So if you just
were two or three children family, it.
Speaker 2 (26:45):
Could be like twenty year, you know. Span So.
Speaker 1 (26:49):
In the beginning and still more in the bearing of
a child, far more of their vigor, both of.
Speaker 2 (26:52):
Mind and body, was expended. Right.
Speaker 1 (26:54):
So this was like the elves, right. So the elves
also didn't have a lot of children, typically because they
fan or maybe being the exception, but in the beginning,
in the bearing of children, they they gave a lot
of themselves, right, They gave a lot of themselves. And
you know, this is something we don't always think of
(27:16):
in our own terms, but I think it's a I
think it's a great insight from Tolkien that he incorporates
this whole idea into his mythology, because he incorporates it
not only when it comes to to the beginning and
bearing of children, but also when it comes to the
creation of art. Right, that we expend something of ourselves
when we create, when we create our art, right, which
is something we've talked about a good bit on this
(27:37):
podcast in the past. And he says they were steadfast lovers,
not lustful. Right, So they were not lustful, but you know,
once they once they chose their mate, right, they were steadfast.
They were steadfast in that marriage. They were steadfast to
that love. So, you know, so a lot, a lot
to commend about the New Menorians and all these descriptions
(27:58):
of appetites and behaviors. They had a conscious detestation of lust, greed, hate,
and cruelty and tyranny. You know, these were very much
against them, and they were they were. Though they were
mostly virtuous folk, there were some wicked among them. So
some bad folks did kind of creep in initially and
maybe more over time. Not all of them, you know,
(28:19):
were perfect. We're perfect angels necessarily, but for the most
part they were. Ah, they were a good and virtuous people.
And you know, they had they had certain values that
we would probably you know, very much agree with. And
the you know, detesting lust, greed, hate, cruelty, tyranny, all
these things.
Speaker 2 (28:37):
All right of.
Speaker 1 (28:39):
Skills and crafts. So, uh, this was and this was
a word I was not familiar. Well, I think I
probably heard it before, but I didn't know what it meant. Initially, uh,
it's it says metals aroused in them cupidity. So cupidity
is greed for money or possessions.
Speaker 2 (28:53):
So, uh, maybe it's.
Speaker 1 (28:55):
A little bit of what's going on with Gollum in
terms of my precious and wanting to possess, you know,
the one ring an extreme amount of cupidity on his part.
But they didn't have a lot of metals. They didn't
bring a lot of metals with them. There weren't a
lot of metals for them in Numenor. And it was
metals that ended up being contributing to initially to kind
(29:16):
of their initial decline when they came back to Middle Earth,
because they found these things, and they found them precious,
and it aroused in them greed.
Speaker 2 (29:25):
Okay, it roused in them greed.
Speaker 1 (29:29):
As far as weapons go, Numenor was a land of
peace initially, I'll read this passage thus, for long there
were practically no weapons of warlike intent made in Numenor.
Many things made could, could, of course, be so used,
axes and spears and bows. The bowyers were a great craft.
They made bows of many kinds, long bows, smaller bows,
especially those used for shooting from horseback, and they also
(29:52):
devised crossbows at first used mainly against predatory birds. Shooting
with bows was one of the greatest sports and pastimes
of men, and one in which young women also took part.
So uh, you know, they didn't have a lot of
weapons at first. It was only over time and as
war sort of came to them that that weapons became
(30:13):
more of a necessity. But they did have a lot
of They did have a lot of bow makers and
and the you know, uh archery, I guess you could
say was was one of their great pastimes, right. Uh,
men and women alike, Men and women alike. Speaking of
sports and pastimes, there's a lot to say in this area.
(30:34):
So there was no war though. They were descended for
men of wars, so their energies need to be direct,
needed to be directed to peaceful occupations such as the
making of crafts as well as games and physical sports.
So you know, they they came from this, these great warriors, right,
the people of Numenal were descended from these great warriors,
And we already described that they were they were physically
(30:55):
impressive specimens, right, They were physically impressive specimens. So all
of that energy needed to be directed somewhere and if
they weren't of war like people, if if Numaner was
not a land of war. All of those energies needed
to be expended in some way. So the things they
were very fond of, hiking, of climbing cliffs, they took
their greatest delight in the sea. Right, so especially men,
(31:18):
they taught themselves shipbuilding.
Speaker 2 (31:19):
Uh you know uh.
Speaker 1 (31:21):
Initially they they had they had very limited knowledge, but
over time they taught themselves shipbuilding to be able to
go back eventually to Middle Earth, although they did a
lot of transit just around the island too. Women were
known for their love of dancing and horses uh and
their disdain for the sea. So they loved women, loved
horses and dancing, and they hated the sea. We'll see
(31:42):
this when we come to the story of al Darian
and norendezuh, the mariner's wife. There was a main road
from Romana to Armenelos or remember Romana being the uh,
the easternmost port, and then to Arminelos. Right, there was
a There was a main road, and eventually they extended
that to on Dosto in the northlands and Onnier in
(32:06):
the west lands. Okay, so there was this road that
that traversed the island from east to west. They were
not so much in they loved their horses. They were
not so much into horse racing. But it was kind
of a thing to be able to train your horse
so that to know their master's voice. So they were
they were, you know, loved the handling of horses, right,
(32:29):
but they were not into like the sport of horse racing.
I guess you could say, and I don't know, maybe
horse racing itself is kind of viewed, uh you know,
maybe traditionally it was viewed negatively. I can I can
understand that, you know, of course, it's it's associated with
gambling a lot of days and a lot of cases today.
But but there are other things to do with horses
(32:51):
as far as sport goes. So yeah, maybe go check
out go check out Yellowstone if you want to see
some of those things, the rodeo and all that. I
don't know if that's what they were doing, but the
horses knew their master's voices, and that was kind of
the thing is developing the relationship between the men and
their horse.
Speaker 2 (33:09):
Right.
Speaker 1 (33:10):
Newmonorians also loved their dogs. Women love that the Numenorian
men love the dogs, and then women love birds, beasts,
and squirrels. We talked about the love of squirrels in
the previous chapter. Women really loved the squirrels of Newmenor.
And there were a lot of them in Numenor. And
it says their knowledge and arts reached an almost elvish height. Okay,
(33:32):
and they had they did have, you know, they did
have what's the right word. They kept company with the
elves of Versea, right, the elves of the Lonely Island,
just one stop away from the blessed Realm. And this
was I suppose where they gained a lot of their
you know, their knowledge and arts initially is from these
(33:54):
elves of Versea.
Speaker 2 (33:56):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (33:57):
They it says they brought. The elves of Versea brought
to numen Or many gifts, and the most important, perhaps
was the tree Nimloth, the seedling of Caliborn, which was
a seedling of Galathelion, the image of Telperion. So this
is the whole White Tree of Numenor idea. And I've
actually made a video devoted just to the White Tree
of Numenor, an episode devoted just to that from a
(34:17):
while back. If you want to go check that out
to understand how that all works. And of course the
White Tree of Numenor leads into the White Tree of Gondor.
But nim Looth was the name of this white tree,
and it existed for most of the history of Numenor,
and it plays a very important role. It's kind of
a symbol of Numenor's status and its friendship with the
(34:40):
elves and the Blessed Realm. For those of you who
don't under who don't know what Telperion is, and kind
of this descent of nim Loth from Telperion. Well it's
not directly descended, but Telperion was one of the two
trees of Valinor, which were these you know, great great
trees that are before the First Age and they're a
huge part of the story of the Summer. Well, there
(35:03):
was a seed there was an image of Gala of Telperion,
not a descent, not a natural descent, but an image
of it that was made by Yvanna called Galathelion, and
this was given to the elves of the Blessed Realm.
And then Kelliborne was a seedling of Galathelion, and nim
Loth as a seedling of Keliborne. Now I don't get
Kelibor in the Tree confused with Kellibor and the husband
(35:24):
of Galadriel, all right, So obviously two completely different things,
although it's interesting that they share a name. So that's
the story. That's where the White Tree of Numenor came from.
And of course we'll come back to the White Tree
of Numenor in later parts of.
Speaker 2 (35:41):
This series, all right.
Speaker 1 (35:43):
And then we have this idea of the Bliss of
Numenor being the first two thousand years of its history.
So you know, we've kind of learned over these last
several episodes about what Numenor was like early on, when
it was really this blessed place, right this this land
of bliss, and we understand that it last, that this
bliss lasted for roughly two thousand years. And I love
the last line here, or maybe it's the last line.
(36:06):
Let's see, make sure that's the last line. I just
posted this to my Twitter feed. Oh yes, Victory was
the herald of their downfall. The context here is simply
that they had all of this piece for about two
thousand years, but it says though the first hints of
the later shadows appeared before that indeed, it was their
(36:27):
very arming to take part in the defense of the
Eldar and men of the west of Middle Earth against
the wielder of the Shadow. At length revealed is Saluran
the Great that brought about the end of their peace
and content. Victory was the herald of their downfall. Right,
so they are forced to become a people warlike and
that comes back to them.
Speaker 2 (36:47):
Right.
Speaker 1 (36:49):
It's so interesting to think about that too in the
context of our own history, right, thinking about how World
War II being this pivotal event that you know, Tolkien
lived through and he was conceiving a lot of the
legendarium during that time, you know. And you can even
think of World War One and World War II as
kind of being like part of the same continuous conflict
in a way. You think of that great conflict of
(37:13):
world wars during the first and middle part of the
twentieth century, and you know all the things, all the
tyrannies and those sort of things that were overcome during
that period, all the great bloodshed, the victories for you know,
freedom and those and those sorts of ideas democracy, those
sorts of ideals, and then you see so much you
(37:37):
think of the victory well, it's victory, but then it
leads to all of these other problems, right And you know,
I won't get into the politics of what all that
looks like, but you know, there's there's no doubt that
like in some ways the relative piece of the post
World War two era is seems to be coming apart
in a lot of ways right now. That may you
(38:00):
may say, well, that all depends on your viewpoint, fair enough,
but I think for Tolkien he probably would have had
that viewpoint right that in the victory that he would
have applauded in World War Two, we see some we
see seed sown that are going to lead to bigger
problems further down the road, even for the victors. So
maybe that's the poetic aspect, the poetic flourish that we
(38:22):
can end this particular section with of mundane realities, but
with all things Tolkien, they really have deeper truths that
are reflected in them. So that's the beauty of this section.
We already talked about the illustration of Arminelo's the pencil
Sketch at the beginning. There's one other illustration in here
that's titled looking West from Ondunier and Dunier again. Being
(38:43):
that city on the western coast of newman Or where
the elves of Versea usually came to visit. And in
this color this paint is color painting by Alan Lee,
we see something of what this might have looked like
a vision of what this might have looked like, this
(39:03):
bright light looking into the west towards the blessed Realm.
All right, So, yeah, that's that's it for this particular section.
You know, a lot of really interesting details in here.
Speaker 2 (39:18):
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (39:18):
If there's anything that I didn't cover that you guys
would be interested in talking more about, please feel free
to do so in the comments below or hit me up.
Just send me a note to Tolkien Roadpodcast at gmail
dot com or hit me up on Twitter. But yeah,
you know again, these topics might not seem like the
most important, but they help us to characterize and understand
(39:38):
what Numanor was like on an everyday basis, so that
the stories that are going to follow from here really
make a lot more sense and hit a little deeper.
Speaker 2 (39:47):
Right, all right, Well, Hey.
Speaker 1 (39:50):
If you liked this episode, and if you like The
Tolkien Road, please subscribe, rate, and review us on iTunes
or the platform of your choice.
Speaker 2 (39:55):
If you are a five star.
Speaker 1 (39:56):
Fan of The Tolkien Road, you can really help us
out by heading over to it Tunes are your preferred
source for the show and dropping us a rating end review.
When you do that, it helps get the word out
about The Tolkien Road, which.
Speaker 2 (40:06):
Helps us to keep on everring on.
Speaker 1 (40:09):
All Right, well, we did it pretty long one this week,
so I'm not going to hit any correspondence, but on
the next couple of episodes dealing with the Fall of
the Fall of Newmanor, I probably will hit some correspondence
because they're shorter sections, so look forward to those. Keep
the correspondence coming. Thank you to our amazing patrons, especially
the following John R. Caitlin F T With Tolkien, Jacob Lockham,
(40:29):
John H. AREW twenty seven, Emilio P, Jonathan D, Mike M,
Robert H. Paul D, Julia Wordy, Joe Bagelman.
Speaker 2 (40:36):
Richard K, Matt R. Matthew W. Garrett P.
Speaker 1 (40:39):
Chris K, John W. Eugene D, Chris B, Daniel S,
SEB M. SHANEU Supreme, Corey C. Miss Anonymous, Andrew T. Redhawk, Shannoness,
Brian O, Zeke F, James L. Chris l azyave Ish
of the Hammer, Teresa C. David of Pines with.
Speaker 2 (40:54):
Jack and Eric B.
Speaker 1 (40:56):
All Right, thank you all. Thank you to our amazing patrons,
we really appreciate you. And thanks to everybody for watching
and or listening. We will talk at you next time.
Bye bye
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