She is the daughter of the last faithful king of Numenor. By rights, she should have become the
fourth Ruling Queen of her people, but instead she would be usurped by her cousin Pharazon.
Today, on Nerd of the Rings, we cover the life of Tar-Miriel.
Miriel is born in 3117 of the Second Age, in a Numenor that has already fallen far
from the heights of its past. She is born to Tar-Palantir - and in order to fully
grasp the early life of the daughter, we will first take a look at the father.
Tar-Palantir is born to King Ar-Gimilzor and is initially given the Adunaic name
Inziladun. These Adunaic names had become customary in Numenor as they moved further
and further in their hatred toward the Valar and Eldar, and turned toward evil ways. Despite
being born to such a king, Inziladun is taught by his mother Inzilibeth the ways of the Faithful,
for she was secretly one of those who remained true to the Valar and Eldar.
Upon his father’s death, in 3177, Inziladun seeks to repent of the ways of his forebears, taking his
royal name in the elven tongue of Quenya as the great kings of old. Thus, he becomes Tar-Palantir,
“the farsighted”, 24th King of Numenor, when Miriel is 60 years old. Like her father,
Miriel is presumably taught the ways of the faithful. The king’s gift of foresight showed
him that should the white tree ever perish, the line of Kings would come to an end.
Thus during his rule, the White Tree of Nimloth is properly tended once more.
However, all was not well in Numenor. There were still many among the King’s Men faction
who rebelled against the king. They are led by Palantir’s brother Gimilkhad, who had followed
in the ways of their father. And upon Gimilkhad’s death, the mantle is taken up by his son,
Pharazon. Thus, during the 78-year reign of Tar-Palantir, there was much strife and
rebellion. And because Pharazon had won great renown as a captain of both land and sea,
and had brought back great wealth which he freely gave to the people, the hearts of the
people were turned to Pharazon. And in 3255, Tar-Palantir grew weary of grief and died.
And to Miriel now by right and the laws of the Númenóreans came the sceptre.
But Pharazôn took her to wife against her will, doing evil in this and evil also in that the laws
of Númenor did not permit the marriage, even in the royal house, of those more nearly akin than
cousins in the second degree. And when they were wedded, he seized the sceptre into his own hand,
taking the title of Ar-Pharazôn; and the name of his queen he changed to Ar-Zimraphel.
While forced to take an Adunaic name, the meaning remains the same - jewel-daughter.
While the most complete version of the story has this marriage being forced,
it’s interesting to note that in some of his earliest writings on the fall of Numenor,
Tolkien had Miriel legitimately falling for Pharazon.
In these older notes, we have a description of Miriel as being a woman of great beauty and
smaller in stature than most women of Numenor. We are also told that though she was older than
Pharazon by a year, she seemed younger and- though the law forbade the marriage of cousins
and her father opposed it as well - Pharazon’s eyes are turned toward his cousin.
In this text, Miriel is betrothed to a lord of Andunie named Elentir. However, Miriel becomes
infatuated with Pharazon and when her father dies, she instead marries Pharazon, voluntarily
yielding the sceptre to him. Obviously this is nowhere near where the story ultimately went,
but the drastic change of Miriel’s character is an interesting part of the formation of the story.
Returning to the tale we know from Tolkien’s later writings, Tar-Miriel would be Queen of Numenor
during the reign of Ar-Pharazon, having been taken to wife against her will. Six years after Pharazon
seizes power, Miriel would bear witness to the coming of Sauron to the island realm, and her
husband’s further descent due to the influence of the dark lord. Sauron would convince the king to
cut down the White Tree of Nimloth and burn it as a sacrifice in the newly built Temple of Melkor.
As Miriel’s father foresaw, the death of the white tree would indeed foreshadow the end of the kings
of Numenor. Sauron would next convince an aging Ar-Pharazon that he could conquer the Undying
Lands of Valinor and take immortality by force. After nine years of preparations, Ar-Pharazon
and his massive fleet launch their attack upon Valinor. As Ar-Pharazon reaches land and claims
it for his own, the Valar call upon Iluvatar to intervene and in that moment the world is changed.
Pharazon and his soldiers were buried under falling hills and the island realm of Numenor
is taken by the sea. In The Silmarillion, we hear of the end of Numenor and the end of Tar-Miriel…
In an hour unlooked for by Men this doom befell, on the nine and thirtieth day since the passing
of the fleets. Then suddenly fire burst from the Meneltarma, and there came a mighty wind and a
tumult of the earth, and the sky reeled, and the hills slid, and Númenor went down into the sea,
with all its children and its wives and its maidens and its ladies proud; and all its gardens
and its halls and its towers, its tombs and its riches, and its jewels and its
webs and its things painted and carven, and its laughter and its mirth and its music, its wisdom
and its lore: they vanished for ever. And last of all the mounting wave, green and cold and plumed
with foam, climbing over the land, took to its bosom Tar-Míriel the Queen, fairer than silver or
ivory or pearls. Too late she strove to ascend the steep ways of the Meneltarma to the holy place;
for the waters overtook her, and her cry was lost in the roaring of the wind.
Tar-Miriel is lost with her realm to the sea. While it would be the end of Numenor,
it would not be the end of their people. For those among the faithful,
now led by a distant cousin of Miriel, would make their way to Middle-earth, founding new realms in
exile. Next Saturday, we’ll pick up with this very character as we cover the life of Elendil.
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