Part One The earliest days of the First Age were dominated
by prosperity and increasingly close relationships between Men, Elves and Dwarves, but this idyllic
status quo was not to last.
Even as the War of Wrath came to its destructive conclusion and Beleriand was sundered, the
lieutenant of Morgoth fled from the great host who had laid low his master, only to
reemerge at the most opportune moment.
A being like the great deceiver Sauron could never truly be satiated by mere survival and
strove instead for true power.
In his machinations to achieve what he desired most, the map of Middle Earth was once more
to be altered, and in so doing, the fate of Middle Earth was once more to be placed upon
a darker course than had been initially intended by the Valar.
Welcome to our new season on the history of Middle Earth, allow us to present the first
episode of our series on the History of the Second Age of Tolkien’s writings.
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During the Second Age, Númenor prospered to such an extent that the race of man overtook
the strength of the Eldar for the first time in the history of Middle-Earth.
Led by Aldarion, relations between Elves and Men continued to flourish as Númenorean mariners
traversed the continent at will.
However, not all was well in Aldarion’s personal life, as his devotion to the sea
and travel cause a great rift in his marriage to Erendis, a tale which was to survive even
the destruction of Númenor as “Aldarion and Erendis, The Mariner’s Wife.”
Under Aldarion’s rule, the first Númenorean port upon mainland Middle Earth was established
when Vinyalonde was constructed upon the river Gwathló.
To continue the expansion of the Númenorean fleets, the deforestation of the Enedwaith
and Minhiriath was commenced, ensuring continued naval superiority for generations to come.
Only a daughter was born to King Ancalimë, so he changed the rules of succession.
Agnatic primogeniture was replaced with equal primogeniture, allowing Ancalimë to become
the first Queen of Númenor in the stead of her cousin Soronto, who had been heir presumptive
at the time.
However, even as Númenor was approaching the zenith of its power, the chief lieutenant
of the Dark Lord Morgoth began to reveal himself.
"A new shadow arises in the East.
It is no tyranny of evil Men, as your son believes; but a servant of Morgoth is stirring,
and evil things wake again.
Each year it gains in strength, for most Men are ripe to its purpose."
– Gil-galad in Aldarion and Erendis, the Mariner’s Wife
Despite his inactivity in the earliest centuries of the New Age, Sauron had lost none of his
malice and cunning.
By SA 1000, he had gathered enough power to reestablish himself in the land of Mordor.
Here, he would build his seat: the great Barad-Dur, near the fiery pit of Mount Doom and amass
vast hosts of Orcs, Trolls and many other creatures that had come to be through Morgoth’s
twisted machinations.
Sauron was further able to twist the hearts of a number of the earliest nations of men,
foremost amongst them the Easterlings and Haradrim, promising them wealth and power
beyond their very reckoning in return for homage.
Not long after the commencement of the construction of Barad-Dur Tar- Ancalimë came to the throne
in SA 1075 as the first Queen of Númenor and the seventh ruler of that blessed isle.
Her reign was dominated by the necessity of producing an heir for fear of the usurpation
of her line by her cousin Soronto, which she was, fortunately, able to achieve through
the birth of her son Anárion.
It was during this period that Sauron made his first entreaties to the Elves who had
remained in Middle Earth.
However, the wise High King Gil-Galad initially saw through this ruse.
Meanwhile, the Númenorean grip on Middle-Earth was continually strengthened as more permanent
havens were constructed from SA 1200 onwards, including the Haven at Lond Daer.
In SA 1350, the great Elven leaders Celeborn and Galadriel left Eregion in favour of Lothlórien
with their daughter Celebrían in tow, which left Celebrimbor as the Lord of Eregion.
This was to have devastating consequences, as in SA 1500, Sauron, in the guise of Annatar,
who claimed to be a Maia come from Valinor and having previously served Aule, came to
visit Eregion.
He quickly befriended the great smiths of Eregion, foremost amongst them the lord of
that land, Celebrimbor, who had inherited much from his ancestor Feanor.
During his nearly hundred-year-long stay in Eregion, Sauron mentored Celebrimbor and taught
him much of the arts and magic, yet first and foremost of his teachings was of ring
making.
It is in this way that Sauron deceived Celebrimbor into believing that the forging of great Rings
of Power might halt the decay of the world, which was felt most severely by the Elves.
During the period of the forging, Barad-Dur was completed, and Glorfindel was once more
reinstated to Middle-Earth by Manwe, now baring Maia levels of power.
In total, nineteen rings were forged by Elves, sixteen of which Sauron, posing as Annatar,
had a direct hand in.
Yet, the greatest three, bar the One secretly created in Middle Earth, were forged by Celebrimbor
alone.
The One Ring was forged by Sauron in the hopes that he would be able to control the Elves
who now bore them.
However, as soon as the Ruling Ring was placed upon the Dark Lord’s finger, the Elves immediately
became aware of his malicious influence and removed theirs.
Sauron, furious at the failure of his plan, came against the Elves with all of the force
available to him in the year SA 1693 in what came to be known as the War of the Elves and
Sauron.
Messages detailing the betrayal of Annatar now revealed to be the lieutenant of Morgoth
Sauron, were immediately sent North to Lindon.
There, the High King Gil-Galad began to prepare what forces were immediately available to
him while also sending a missive to Númenor requesting aid.
The war truly commenced in SA 1695 as Sauron’s forces crossed the Fords of Isen and laid
siege to Eregion.
Celebrimbor, as lord of Eregion, marshalled the defences of his land, while Elrond was
sent at the head of a small army to reinforce the forger of the Rings.
However, the onslaught was such that by the time Elrond arrived at the capital of Ost-in-Edhil,
the city had been razed to the ground, and Lord Celebrimbor lay amongst the fallen.
The small force Elrond commanded, shocked to such an extent by the death of one of Feanor’s
descendants at the hands of Sauron, was quickly routed.
If not for the Dwarves of Khazad-Dum sallying forth to attack the Dark Lord’s forces from
the rear, which allowed the mauled Elves a brief respite.
Elrond engaged in a tactical retreat into the Misty Mountains, where he constructed
a fortress within a secluded valley that came to be known as Rivendell in the years to come.
The Dwarves meanwhile retreated into Khazad-Dum, sealing the gates, aware that even at this
stage, their numbers were too few to contain the might of Mordor.
At this stage, Sauron had recovered all of the Rings bar the three which had been given
to the Elves, in his planning of the campaign, their recovery was foremost within his mind
as a result.
The Dark Lord initially believed that all three were in the possession of the High King
Gil-Galad when, in fact, he had only retained two, so the brunt of the assault was to be
focused upon his enemy of old.
By the year SA 1699, the vicious assault of the vast hosts of Mordor had brought all of
Eriador under Sauron’s thumb, while a small force was sent to besiege Imladris and prevent
Elrond from counter-attacking at the rear of the host.
Further, the Grey Havens were besieged, and Lindon was entirely cut off from all aid,
as Khazad-Dum and Rivendell would prove to be of little use in the battle that was to
come.
Yet hope came to Middle-Earth once more from the West when a vast Númenorean army was
deployed upon the mainland for the first time in the history of that storied isle.
Tar-Minastir would not see his Elven friends left to fight this battle alone and sent a
naval detachment under the command of Ciryatur to relieve Lindon.
In these days, the average Númenorean stood on average six feet four inches tall and was
arrayed in the finest arms and armour available, which drew a stark contrast to the ill-shapen
orcish hosts they were to face.
Lindon was immediately relieved by the arrival of these mighty warriors and their capable
commander, while further Númenorean contingents were landed at Tharbad on the Gwathló and
further South near Pelargir.
Ciryatur, bolstered by Gil-Galad and his Elven swordsmen, pushed the hosts of Sauron further
South in a continuous retreat, with massive casualties being sustained near Sarn’s Ford,
which unsuspectingly brought them to the Gwathló.
With a second Númenorean army blocking their retreat, the vast host of Mordor, composed
mainly of cowardly Orcs, was left with little chance but to stand and fight.
The Battle of the Gwathló, as it came to be known, was an utterly one-sided affair.
Organized ranks of highly trained and disciplined ranks of formidable Númenoreans, believed
to number some 150,000 in total, provided both the hammer and anvil of this enterprise.
The armies of Sauron were, therefore, utterly devastated at the hands of the Men of the
West, with a small contingent attempting to escape to the East of Calenardhon.
Unbeknownst to this desperate few yet more Númenorens were to descend upon them.
The destruction of the host was so complete that Sauron was lucky simply to escape back
to Mordor with nought more than a token bodyguard of the 600,000 he had brought forth to annihilate
the Elves.
The Elves under Gil-Galad did not leave themselves idle either, marching upon the unsuspecting
besiegers of Imladris and annihilating them with the aid of a sally from Elrond’s survivors.
Thus, the War of the Elves and Sauron ended, with Sauron’s might substantially destroyed
to the point it would take him a full millennia to rebuild.
However, the Elves also suffered dearly in this war, as Eregion had ceased to exist,
and Eriador was utterly devastated by the war which had been waged upon its soil.
Sauron would swear revenge upon those who had dared to resist, bearing upon his already
blackened soul a particularly grievous grudge upon the land of Númenor, which had utterly
humbled him.
Yet at this stage, the Númenorean position seemed utterly unassailable, possessing a
formidable and numerous force of warriors and mariners and a base of operations that
Sauron could not hope to reach.
Such was their ascendancy at the zenith of the Kingdom that permanent settlements continued
to be established upon the mainland, which required nought more than a paltry garrison,
for none amongst the peoples of that fair Isle feared Sauron.
Yet a healthy dose of fear may have saved the people of Númenor much suffering and
woe, for what was to come would bring to an end their peaceful and prosperous existence
for good and all.
However, this is a tale for our next video on the history of the Second Age, which will
focus on the return of Sauron, the corruption of the Númenóreans and the inevitable slide
toward suffering and great sadness upon the shores of Middle Earth.
The next few videos in this series will be dedicated to the efforts of the new Dark Lord
to establish his dominance over all of Middle Earth, but we are planning to cover the battles
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