The Civil Wars of the Dúnedain

[Inderjit S]

Both Númenórean kingdoms, Arnor and Gondor suffered from civil wars. But the question I ask is which was the most destructive?

Initially people claim that the Arnorian civil war was by far more “destructive”. The sons of Eärendur, Amlaith and two other unnamed (in any texts) divided Arnor into three “realms”, Arthedain, Cardolan and Rhuduar. Annuminas, the tower of Elendil Voronda and then capital of Arnor was deserted . The Dúnedain of Arthedain dwelt in Fornost. It seems that relations between the three realms were far from passive, Arthedain and Rhuduar contended for the Weather Hills, in a attempt to gain control over the palantir of Amon Sul. Arthedain also claimed, by the right of the elder house to be the ‘true’ representative of Arnor, and claimed to be the Elder house, which was not without some truth, as the line of the Isildurioni was maintained there, whereas it perished in Cardolan and Rhuduar.

Sauron, seeing hope in the weakness of Arnor, whilst Gondor will still strong, sent the Witch-King to the North in order to destabilize a already weak and alienated Dúnedain kingdom. This of course, lead to the destruction of Arnor, by the Witch-King. Rhuduar was soon in control of the Witch-King, but Cardolan and Arthedain held out, for a while, with the aid of Círdan and Elrond. In 1409, a great host was sent out of Angmar, and they took the Weather Hills, where Arveleg had his camp, and Cardolan was ravaged. Some of the Dúnedain of Cardolan retreated to the Barrow-Downs, and some went into the Old Forest. (It could be that the owner of the brooch that Tom Bombadil takes from the Barrow-wight was one of a Arnorian noble lady.) A lot of the people of Cardolan were killed in the Great Plague. But the Dúnedain of Arthedain still held on, for a while In 1974, the Witch-King sent another host and drove the Dúnedain from Fornost and they passed over into Círdan’s land over the River Lune. But their king Arvedui held out in the North Downs, and eventually fled north, taking refuge in an ancient Dwarf-mine and eventually fleeing North and residing with the barbarous people of Lossoth. Círdan hearing of Arvedui’s plight from his son Aranarth sent ships to retrieve him. Against the wisdom of the chief of the Lossoth, Arvedui boarded the ship in order to go to Mithlond. But the ship sank and so died the last king of Arnor. His sons, presumably remained in Mithlond, but the son of Aranarth, Arahael was fostered in Rivendell, as were all the chieftains of Arnor thereafter. When the realm of Angmar was eventually over-thrown by Gondor and Lindon, the Dúnedain of Arnor died out, but the line of Isildur continued. The civil war and unrest within the divided realm of Arnor gave Sauron a opportunity to destroy the Númenórean threat in the north, much to his benefit. Of course, Gondor was from the start the stronger realm, Arnor had suffered a lot more casualties in the Last Alliance, but the Witch-King would have been very hard to put to wear down the Dúnedain as he did if they were united. Arnor was also a lot harder to target then Gondor, as Gondor was closely situated to Mordor, Harad and the realms in the East, plus Arnor was protected by the Misty Mountains, and so maybe Sauron would not have been able to wear done Arnor like he wore down Gondor if they were united. Of course, Arnor’s destruction led to the fostering of the Dúnedain leaders in Rivendell, which meant the nobility and wisdom of the line of Isildur was increased up to the time of Aragorn II, who contributed to the defeat of Sauron and unification of Gondor and Arnor.

Meanwhile, the civil war in Gondor was no less destructive. Now, there was a long-standing alliance between Gondor and the Northmen who resided in Rhovanion to the East and West of Mirkwood. Now Minalcar son of Calmacil received the Kingship because his older brother, Narmacil I had no heir. Calmacil was a man of ease, but his son, Minalcar was a vigorous, hard-working young man therefore Calmacil gave to Minalcar the title of ‘Karma-kundo’ (Helm Guardian) which he virtually gave him the power of the King, and in matters of war he had the full authority. When he became King in 1304, after the death of his father, he was crowned under the name of Rómendacil II (East-victory), this epessë came about after his defeat of a group of Easterlings between Rhovanion and the Inland Sea.

To improve relations between the Northmen and Gondor he received many Northmen into his service and sent his son, Valacar as a ambassador to dwell with Vidugavia, ‘King of Rhovanion’ who Rómendacil Minalcar had friendly relations with. Whilst there, Valacar fell in love with Vidugavia’s daughter Vidumavi Galaðwen. Rómendacil supported the marriage, but fear in angering Vidugavia would have played a large part in this decision. Nevertheless he would have been anxious as to how the proud Dúnedain would have reacted to their future king marrying someone of non-Númenórean blood. Valacar too would have held these fears, but when he was recalled back to Gondor in 1260, it seemed all was well, and he was received gladly. But the Dúnedain soon began to murmur at the fact that the King’s heir was of alien blood, and at the new found pride of the Northmen who resided in Gondor. Valacar’s son was named, in the tongue of Rhovanion Vinitharya but when he came back to Gondor he was named by his father Eldacar and that name he bore thereafter amongst the Dúnedain. After the death of Valacar’s wife, Vidumavi Galaðwen dissension began to grow even more and when Eldacar was crowned king, was broke out. A Confederate of various peoples, mainly descendents of Anárion had been set up in South Gondor and they came together and made war against Eldacar and he was besieged in Osgilaith. But he managed to escape to Rhovanion and there gather a great force, together with all the Dúnedain that would follow him and the Dúnedain of Calenardhon. Now the leader of the confederates who seized power, because he was the one with the most power (Him being captain of the ships in Umbar and the other coastal towns and being the nearest successor to Eldacar, being the grand-son of Calimehtar younger brother of Rómendacil II. He killed Eldacar’s son, Ornendil and removed the Kings house from Osgilaith to Pelargir and cared little for anything but the ports, which angered the Dúnedain of Anorien and Ithilien who fled to Eldacar. Eldacar set out with a huge host in 1447 and defeated Castamir’s army at the battle at the Crossings of Erui, but Castamir’s children escaped and his people held out at Pelargir before fleeing to Umbar. But in this battle much of the best blood of Gondor was shed and many heirs of Anárion relinquished their claim or fled south to Umbar.

Gondor was thus greatly weakened, and open to attacks from the Haradrim and Sauron saw the opportunity here, due to Gondor’s follies and loosened the Men of the South and East upon them, further sapping it’s strength. One most look at how the pride of the Dúnedain in the North and South lead to their destruction-but I ask you which one do you view as worse, both in terms of benefits reaped for Sauron and which one was the more morally wrong?

Thank you.

 

[Snaga]

Destructiveness: Gondor survived. Arnor did not. Is it more complicated than that?

Morality: in Arnor initial indecision and unwillingness to settle a dispute leads to a passive division of the kingdom, which then leads to war. In Gondor the dispute is immediately and much more obviously violent. On the other hand, in Arnor there are no big issues lying behind the dispute, merely a lust for power. Whereas in Gondor, there is the element of racism in the dispute. I'm inclining towards Gondor's civil war as more immoral.

 

[Halasían]

Arnor vs Gondor

Yes its more complicated than that. In Arnor's case, I think it was more a royal family feud that led to the divisions into Rhuadur, Cardolan, and Arthedain. Basicly, even though Arnor was slowly worn down and was much more sparsly populated, the seemingly more minor family feud had a 'divide and conquer' effect on Arnor. It is my opinion that Eärendur was somewhat weak and indecisive, for he should have given succession to his eldest, but the family relations being as bad as they were, it most likely would have led to a civil war. In the end Rhuadur joined with the witchking for the most part and battled Arthedain anyway.

In Gondor, the Kin strife was devastating on its scale, but the fact Gondor was so much stronger in might despite the mingling of blood, it was able to survive, though its effects were still felt up to the war of the Ring.

 

[Inderjit S]

Destructiveness: Gondor survived. Arnor did not. Is it more complicated than that?

Well, yes. You must look at the inherent power of each realm, at the time of the civil war. Gondor was at that time a very powerful, prosperous realm. But due to it's indolence, pride and racism, it was greatly weakened. Sauron was able to re-gain his foothold in Mordor, the men of Harad re-allied themselves to Sauron and the Easterlings were given hope for victory against a crumbling empire. Gondor as the "stalwart soldier" of the West, destroyed itself with it's bitter and savage (and pointless) civil war-what came out of it exactly? Sauron's main enemy was weakened, and a lot of the Númenorean blood was spilled, as well as a paranoia developing amongst the descendants of Anarion.

Arnor, was no where near as big military wise as Gondor. It was a weak state beforehand and therefore it's destruction can be seen as being on a smaller scale in comparison. Gondor’s civil war was on a larger scale then Arnor’s.

 

[Húrin Thalion]

Depends on if you include outer factors like invasions that occured not at the exact time as or as a part of the civil war. Without the Angmar invasions, the Arnorian realms would probably have survived, the question is in what form, as one or more, as "good" or "evil", as hostile to Gondor or allied with it. in Gondor, some of the worst damage was done by the preceding and following invasions, thoguh it is said that some of the best blood in Gondor was spilled in the kin-strife. I would say that in itself, the civil war in Arnor was the most damaging since it lead to a continuous and very dangerous strife that would not have stopped if the participants had not been defeated by Angmar, whereas in Gondor, the descendants of Castamir were slain a generation or so after the initial struggle.

Måns

 

[Halasían]

Well, yes. You must look at the inherent power of each realm, at the time of the civil war. Gondor was at that time a very powerful, prosperous realm. But due to it's indolence, pride and racism, it was greatly weakened. Sauron was able to re-gain his foothold in Mordor, the men of Harad re-allied themselves to Sauron and the Easterlings were given hope for victory against a crumbling empire. Gondor as the "stalwart soldier" of the West, destroyed itself with it's bitter and savage (and pointless) civil war-what came out of it exactly? Sauron's main enemy was weakened, and a lot of the Númenorean blood was spilled, as well as a paranoia developing amongst the descendants of Anarion.

Arnor, was no where near as big military wise as Gondor. It was a weak state beforehand and therefore it's destruction can be seen as being on a smaller scale in comparison. Gondor’s civil war was on a larger scale then Arnor’s.

It is interesting that in Gondor, the inherent racism against intermingling with the Northmen led to a more "Numenorean" leader usurping the crown. Yet the rule of Castimir only led to neglect to much of Gondor for he turned his thought and resources toward the sea. Quite Numenorean I would say, yet it led to further strife and bloodshed when Eldecar returned with an army with Northmen. Yes it did lead to a weakening of Gondor, but obviously not enough for the forces of Mordor to overcome Gondor and Rohan on the battlefield. This was why the Ring was so critical.

Adding to this discussion. Before Arnor was divided, surely there was a growing dissention among the regions many years before. It looks like the three sons of Earendur were born in the time of King Elendur, so possibly the seeds of Arnor's division were planted even then.

 

[Rōmānus]

I would not call what happened in Eriador a civil war since they were three separate kingdoms constantly at odds. Gondor’s was a civil war which did end up weakening superior bloodlines since they died out. The dunédain had always been a really small minority in Gondor anyway (LotR, Appendix F) and this just made it worse, like the Great Plague did. I would say that the fighting of the dunédain in Eriador was worse since it ended up in the destruction of all their kingdoms. Gondor had lost the royal house, but the dunédain nobility were still around and so was Gondor with its shrinking borders.