The Silmarillion VI

(AKALLABÊTH and OF THE RINGS OF POWER AND THE THIRD AGE)

This is the end of our ongoing review of The Silmarillion. Parts I, II, III, IV, and V have already covered the Ainulindalë, the Valaquenta, and the Quenta Silmarillion.

Set after the defeat of Morgoth, the Akallabêth chronicles the rise and fall of Númenor, the island kingdom gifted to the loyal Houses of Men by the Valar. Their first king was Elros, half Elven son of Eärendil and Elwing, who, unlike his brother Elrond, chose to tie his fate to the human side of the family. For a while, everything is fine. The Númenóreans learn from their Elven friends, who have split between Eressëa and the Middle Earth, where Elves like Gil-Galad and Elrond still live, worship Eru Ilúvatar, and are content to follow the Valar's advice, which forbids them from travelling too far West, where Valinor was located. Their good behaviour results in physical benefits: they live longer than Man's normal lifespan, they're taller, and they're not affected by illness.

Meanwhile, in Middle Earth, the Men who had managed to stay out of all that Morgoth/Valar mess, have been subjugated by Morgoth's surviving evil human allies. They're also tormented by all those creatures Morgoth made and who, for some reason, weren't all captured or killed by the Valar when they finally took him down. The Valar also don't care about these Men because they accepted the rule of Morgoth's former allies. At one point, the kind Númenóreans sail East and help these neglected people to better themselves thanks to all they learned from their superior Western friends. That's both nice and incredibly awkward. Who else is in Middle Earth? Sauron, who's finally gotten around to building Barad-dûr. He has designs on the Men's kingdoms and has begun calling himself King. However, he's wary of the might of Númenor. Luckily for Sauron, the Númenóreans have slowly let the fear of their Eru-given mortality consume them and have become increasingly more greedy and ambitious. They start an empire by taking over the Eastern territories of Middle Earth and begin rejecting the teachings of the Valar. Not all of them, though. Some, the Faithful, are still loyal and appreciative of the Elves' superior culture.

Proving that he's every bit as wise as the great Manwë, the Númenórean king, Ar-Pharazôn, decides to bring Sauron to Númenor after he forces him to bend the knee. Morgoth's former ally soon becomes the king's counsellor and convinces him to worship Morgoth with smoke and human sacrifices. Even after they begin to get sick, and suffer from mental and physical decay, the Númenóreans don't realise their new beliefs and religion are wrong. And what do the Valar do to help the Faithful or stop Sauron before he gets too much power? Nothing. Because they're still useless. Finally, Sauron convinces the ageing king that they lied and that worthy Men can become immortal if they reach Valinor. His goal is to get rid of him so he can take over Middle Earth. After Ar-Pharazôn sails with his army, the Faithful escape to Middle Earth led by Elendil.

For some reason, the idiot Númenóreans are allowed to reach Valinor and only then does Eru decide to intervene and Arda's geography is rearranged again. He hides Valinor and Eressëa, makes the world round and obliterates Númenor and all its remaining people, including the children. That seems a little too genocidal. If Eru was going to show his might, he could've easily just struck Ar-Pharazôn or one of his rebellious predecessors with a lightning bolt in front of everyone. Especially since there were people there who were still loyal to the Valar and were willing to work against their rulers. Destroying the fleet as soon as it set sail would've worked, too. Of course, if the island kingdom didn't sink, Tolkien wouldn't have been able to link it to the mythical Atlantis by having the Elven name for it post fall be Atalantë.

The story of Númenor is interesting and deserving of a whole book. However, we didn't like how Tolkien wrote the humans. The Middle Earth ones were evil, weak, uncivilised, only bettering their lives with the help of the first Númenóreans who kindly shared the wisdom they themselves had received from the superior races. Are we really supposed to believe that, left to their own devices, the humans wouldn't have been able to achieve anything? The locations of these settlements made things worse by having the mighty Valar and the Elves of Eressëa be in the West, while the poor dumb Middle Earth humans were in the East, which basically means the westerners went East to take civilization to the ignorant savages.

We had problems with the decay of the Númenóreans, too. Ar-Pharazôn was objectively horrible - he came to power by forcibly marrying his cousin and stealing her birthright and agrees to human sacrifices - but the way Tolkien wrote the distancing of the people of Númenor from the Valar and the Elves was too simplistic. There's no middle ground. The moment there's a little deviation from the path the Valar set them onto, it's shown as a mistake that must be corrected. The relationship between them and with the Elves just felt so paternalistic. It was odd to see the Númenóreans being told that they should accept their and the Elves' differences when Tolkien spent so much time praising them for their similarities and pointing at them as a sign of superiority in relation to the other humans. And it's not just about intellect, it's about physical appearance, too. This has happened before with human heroes Beren and Túrin Turambar, who were said to look like Elves. Did Tolkien not realise how that comes across? We didn't expect racial diversity in a story by a white author that was mostly written in the first half of the 20th century based on Norse and Celtic mythology, but there was no need to have all the good white people look alike.

There's an unpleasant whiff of know your place throughout the whole chapter. You could always argue that the Númenóreans were being bad people both in their kingdom and in Middle Earth, but Tolkien chose to present their ambition and fear of their uncertain future in such a negative way. He could've added some complexity - he chose not to. Because God forbid anyone rejects the wonderful, magical Valar.

In Of the Rings of Power and the Third Age, we finally get to the most famous events in Middle Earth: the wars with Sauron and the one ring to rule them all. After Morgoth's defeat, Sauron surrenders to the Valar's emissary but doesn't go to Valinor to be sentenced because he's not in the mood to do any real penance. Instead, he stays in Middle Earth, builds his own evil lair, and gathers Morgoth's former servants around him. Because the Valar didn't bother arresting anyone other than Morgoth and expected everyone to just be good from then on. Idiots. Also, we didn't like how Tolkien tried to blame Sauron's continued evilness on Morgoth. Couldn't he just have been already a little bit bad to begin with? Morgoth wasn't influenced by anyone. Unless Eru made him evil on purpose, knowing all the pain and misery he would cause his children, but that doesn't match with how Tolkien has written him so far.

Sauron is a shapeshifter and makes himself look all fair and wise so he can trick the Elves. Since Gil-Galad and Elrond don't trust him, he targets the Elves of Eregion. They're known as highly skilled craftsmen, and the best of them is Celebrimbor, son of Curufin, one of Fëanor’s annoying sons. Sauron begins by trying to turn them against Gil-Galad, who's the most powerful Elven king, and encouraging them to become ever more skilled at their craft and elevating the lower, Middle Earth Elves to the same level as the ones that left to Eressëa. All that bettering culminates into the making of magical rings that give power to whoever uses them. Unbeknownst to them, sneaky Sauron makes another ring to control all the others. Shockingly, unlike his father and uncles, Celebrimbor isn't a greedy jerk and it's because of him that the Elves get three rings untouched by Sauron. Are we sure he wasn't adopted? Also, just how dumb are these Elves? Some random guy shows up attempting to sow discord among the Elven kingdoms, possessing skill beyond anything they know, and on top of that, Gil-Galad sends messengers telling them to be careful, and they don't bother to try to find out where he came from? At least, they're able to sense the master ring when Sauron puts it on. Their resistance leads to the abandoning of Eregion and the death of Celebrimbor. It's around this time that Elrond builds Rivendell.

Sauron gives the other rings to the Dwarves and the Men, who, as Tolkien helpfully keeps reminding readers, are the weakest, most easily corrupted of all. This leads the Dwarves to become greedy gold hoarders, and the Men to become Nazgûl. The more powerful he gets, the more Elves flee the Middle Earth. This should mean that the Valar are aware of what's happening, but they do nothing while one of Morgoth's former allies follows in his master's footsteps. Because they're useless. Gil-Galad is too powerful for Sauron to attack, but apparently not powerful enough to go to war with him and win. Who can challenge all powerful Sauron? Númenor. Considering that by then the Númenóreans were already going through physical and cultural decay thanks to their fear of mortality and rejection of the Valar and Eru Ilúvatar, this doesn't make much sense. Still, Sauron puts his plans on hold, goes to Númenor with Ar-Pharazôn, and helps cause the empire's fall.

After Númenor disappears, the Faithful who escaped build new kingdoms on Middle Earth. Elendil founds Arnor, and his sons, Isildur and Anárion, who landed in the South, found Gondor. Sauron is also back in Middle Earth, and he wants to finish what he started. Not even the Palantíri could help prevent the destruction caused by him and his massive evil army. Finally, Gil-Galad and the Númenórean refugees team up and kick his ass. The Elven king and Elendil die, but Isildur manages to take Sauron's master ring with his father's broken sword and he runs away. This is not the end because instead of destroying said ring, Isildur keeps it and promptly loses it after being attacked by Orcs. Afterwards, everyone just forgets about it and goes on their separate ways. So, let's recap, shall we? Both Elves and humans know Sauron isn't dead and that his super powerful ring is out there somewhere. This should be a matter of great concern because they just witnessed what he can do with it. However, they just do nothing to find either of them. This makes everyone, including Elrond, look incredibly stupid. Yes, all this is necessary for the events of The Lord of the Rings to happen, but still.

After the war, the Númenórean kingdoms shrink and lineages break: "Gondor waned, and the line of Meneldil son of Anárion failed. For the blood of the Númenóreans became much mingled with that of other men, and their power and wisdom was diminished, and their lifespan was shortened, and the watch upon Mordor slumbered". That quote was taken straight from the book. Yes, Tolkien actually wrote that. It would've been less... let's go with weird if he hadn't included "wisdom", as it suggests the Númenóreans' intellectual abilities are linked to their genetics. Thankfully, he didn't think to describe those lesser people they mingled with. While the kings of Gondor are self-sabotaging with their poor marital choices, the Nazgûl begin preparing Sauron's eventual return. The Elves fare better than the Númenórean refugees and thanks to two Rings of Power, Elrond's Rivendell and Galadriel's Lothlórien thrive. However, the Elves know their days are numbered and that when the master ring is destroyed, their own rings will become weaker, and the Age of Man will begin. Is that why no one noticed Sauron settled in the forest of Mirkwood and became known as the Sorcerer of Dol Guldur? Was the Elves' collective subconscious making them ignore the obvious signs to stall the impending twilight of their people? How could his neighbour King Thranduil not have immediately checked out who this random evil sorcerer was?

Surprisingly, even the Valar realise something must be done and for the first time ever take some preventive measures by sending the Istari, aka Wizards. Tolkien only bothered naming three: Curunír, Mithrandir, and Radagast. Thanks to the northern Men's inability to pronounce non-Middle Earth names, the first two become known as Saruman and Gandalf. Even though they were sent to help fight Sauron, Saruman is a greedy, proud, Dark Lord wannabe who, after being elected head of the Council of the Wise (alternate name, White Council) (yes, really), quickly begins messing with their efforts to stop Sauron from regaining his power because he wants to find the One Ring. This, of course, made us wonder how these Wizards were selected. Did no one at any moment notice Saruman's ethical and moral failings? Seriously? The only time he agrees to let the Council take action against Sauron is after he becomes worried he might be too close to the One Ring's location. However, by then it's too late and Sauron just goes back to Mordor and begins preparing his reign of terror. Meanwhile, that coveted magical trinket is secretly in the hands of a certain Hobbit...

What follows is a synopsis of the events of The Lord of the Rings and the reveal that Gandalf had the Ring of Fire, which had been given to him by Círdan (Elrond had the Sapphire Ring and Galadriel had the Adamant Ring), all along. We're guessing that's how he survived the Balrog in The Fellowship of the Ring. In the end, the last of the Elves sail away from Middle Earth. The ending is very poetic.

These last two stories were interesting, though we really could've done without all the weird eugenics talk. Yeah, that may sound harsh, but we don't know how else to refer to Tolkien's comparison of the superior Dúnedain and the lesser Middle Earth Men. Why, oh why did he have to mention their height? Couldn't he just have left it at longer lifespans? Also, just how many times did he need to remind readers that the Men, even the great Númenóreans, are weak, both physically and mentally? We get that much of this repetitiveness is due to these being separate stories that Tolkien never got the chance to properly prepare for publication, but that doesn't make it less annoying. Especially considering what's being repeated. We didn't like the sudden appearance of magical objects, either. The Palantíri had already been mentioned, but it seems no one thought of using them for ages. The Rings of Power came out of nowhere. Had no one, including Sauron and Morgoth, ever thought of making them before? When you add Saruman conveniently throwing his Palantir out of the window in The Two Towers, Tolkien clearly had no idea of how to deal with powerful magical objects in his stories.

Well, that's it - we finally finished reviewing The Silmarillion. After reading the whole book, we don't get why Amazon decided to go for the better known Rings of Power instead of the less famous Númenor, because that's a story that's dying to be adapted into a multi-season TV series filled with political intrigue and magic. Was it the lack of sex and dragons?