Downfall of Númenor

The Downfall of Númenor, also called the Fall or Drowning of Númenor, was the utter destruction of the island of Númenor, a divine punishment by Eru Ilúvatar to the Númenóreans for breaking the Ban of the Valar. Ar-Pharazôn, the King of Númenor, had been coerced by Sauron to assault the Undying Lands which ultimately led to the island's destruction and death of most of its people in SA 3319.
==History==
===Prelude===
Early in the Second Age, Morgoth's greatest servant, Sauron, had grown mighty in Middle-earth. Ruling through terror, force, and persuasion, Sauron dominated peoples of Middle-earth in the south and east. After the forging of the One Ring, Sauron launched an invasion of Eriador and destroyed Eregion in the War of the Elves and Sauron. Númenor dispatched an immense military force to Middle-earth to aid the Elves of Lindon and, after a period of heavy fighting, defeated Sauron and his hosts.
Sauron returned to Mordor to rebuild his strength and, having tasted the power of conquest and victory in arms, the Númenóreans began establishing settlements along the coasts and oppressed the Men of Middle-earth. Many began to speak openly of their envy of the Eldar's immortality and in defiance of the Ban. It appeared to the Valar that the shadow of Morgoth had returned to plague their hearts. Emissaries of the Valar came to Númenor during the reign of Tar-Atanamir, seeking to remind them that death was not given as a punishment, but the people of Númenor did not heed their words and later became split into two factions; the King's Men, those loyal to the King and prone to oppose the restraints upon Númenor, and the Faithful, those who remained true to their friendship with the Eldar and loyal to the Valar. As time went on, Númenor continued to grow in wealth and might, yet its people's bliss was diminished.
===Advisor to the King===
After returning to the height of his power, Sauron began attacking Númenórean cities by the coasts and took on the titles 'Lord of the Earth' and 'King of Men'. Ar-Pharazôn the King received word of his rise in power, and angered by Sauron's pride, the Númenóreans swiftly came once more to Middle-earth with a great military force to confront Sauron a final time in SA 3261. So mighty were they that Sauron's forces fled from them with barely a fight. Sauron, realizing he could not defeat the Númenóreans militarily, allowed himself to be captured, and begged falsely for mercy. The Númenóreans brought him back as a prisoner.
Through Sauron's cunning and persuasion, he rose from prisoner to adviser for the King, convincing many officials to worship Morgoth, they quickly became corrupted to his side. Under Sauron's influence, the Númenóreans prospered but became more nefarious, the Men of Middle-earth were hunted and enslaved and brought back to Númenor to be slain cruelly, sometimes sacrificed in the name of Morgoth. The White Tree, Nimloth, was cut down, and its wood was used to light the first fire on the altar of a mighty Temple for Morgoth that was built in Armenelos. Recognizing the corruption of the council, Amandil, the Lord of Andúnië withdrew to Rómenna where most of the Faithful had been forced to relocate and were being openly persecuted.
The shadow of death soon loomed over Ar-Pharazôn, and fearing death and old age, the king was prompted by Sauron to make war upon the Valar, seize the Undying Lands and take immortality by force and so preparations began in SA 3310 of a great armada for the invasion. Amandil was aware of the king's machinations and consulted with his son Elendil, revealing his plan to sail west in secret, imitating their forefather Eärendil, and seek mercy from the Valar for what was to come, as Amandil perceived it would be the Doom of Númenor. Amandil then departed, along with three close servants, he sailed east as if heading for Middle-earth, then turned the west and was never seen or heard of again. Following the advice of his father, Elendil prepared for the ruin of Númenor, gathering more of the Faithful and prepared their ships that were anchored in the east coast, storing their heirlooms and goods.
===Drowning of Númenor===
During these days, the weather in Númenor grew restless, and storms wrecked the ships of the Númenóreans. Then a great cloud "shaped as an eagle" loomed over the island, and beneath its wings lightning struck the land. Few Númenóreans repented; most of them defied the warning, and Sauron stood on the temple roof unscathed by the lightning. By SA 3319, Ar-Pharazôn's armada, known as the Great Armament, was complete. Ar-Pharazôn boarded his flagship Alcarondas ahead of his fleet and departed for Aman. Sauron remained behind. The fleet finally arrived on the shores of Aman and Ar-Pharazôn's host made their camp about Túna.
The Valar feared that this host could wreak havoc in Valinor, but they were forbidden from killing or otherwise using force against Men. Manwë, chief of the Valar, thus called upon Ilúvatar, who opened a massive chasm in the sea between Númenor and Aman that swallowed the Great Armament of Ar-Pharazôn. And the king himself, along with his host that had landed on Aman, was 'buried under falling hills', and were said to remain in the Caves of the Forgotten until the Dagor Dagorath. Númenor was drowned by a great wave and sank into the abyss, killing its inhabitants, including the body of Sauron, which robbed him his ability to assume fair forms ever after. Ilúvatar broke and changed the world, changing Arda's shape from flat to round and taking Aman and Tol Eressëa from the world forever, so that no mortal sailor could reach the True West again.
===Aftermath===
The Faithful managed to escape the catastrophe, led by Elendil and his sons Isildur and Anárion on nine ships. Among their possessions were the Palantíri, the Ring of Barahir, the silver rod of the Lords of Andúnië, Narsil and a scion of Nimloth which grew from a fruit Isildur saved before the tree was cut down. They sailed eastward and landed on Middle-earth, but due to the upheaval caused by the destruction of Númenor, their ships were separated, such that Elendil landed in Lindon with four ships, while Isildur's three and Anárion's two were borne southward.
The followers of Elendil united the colonists of those lands among the Middle Men, and established two kingdoms which came to be known as the Realms in Exile: Gondor, in the south, and Arnor, in the north. These few Númenóreans endeavored to preserve Númenor's culture in these realms. Adûnaic, the language of Númenor, was spoken in them; it later evolved into Westron or the Common Speech, borrowing some words from Elvish languages. The sadness and the shock from the loss of their island home always remained in the hearts of the Númenóreans and their descendants and was commemorated, in Gondor at least, by the Standing Silence.
Other Númenóreans survived that were of the King's Men, as they were already in Middle-earth before the Downfall and established other realms in exile to the south; of these, the Haven of Umbar was the chief and continued to dominate the peoples of neighboring Harad. They later became known as the Black Númenóreans and continued to serve Sauron, who had also survived the Downfall, although greatly diminished and bereft of shape returned to Middle-earth with the One Ring to continue troubling its inhabitants.
New Lands formed in the West to replace the absence of Aman; islands rose and hills were formed. The coastline of Middle-earth also felt the effects of the cataclysm. In some places, the coasts retreated, and in others they had advanced. Lindon in particular suffered great loss from the advance of the coasts, whereas the coasts had retreated to the east and south of the Bay of Belfalas, leaving Pelargir much further inland than it had been and nearly destroying Tolfalas. As the Anduin found new courses along the new coasts, the Ethir Anduin formed.
==Legacy==
After its fall, Númenor was called Akallabêth or Atalantë in Quenya, meaning "the Downfallen", Mar-nu-Falmar ("Land under the Waves").
Sauron's plan to destroy Númenor had been overwhelmingly successful, and though he too was caught by the flooding, he escaped, and at some point, returned to Middle-earth, believing himself to now be fully unopposed.
==Translations==
Foreign Language 	Translated name
Afrikaans 	Ondergang van Númenor
Albanian 	Rënia e Númenor
Amharic 	የኑመኖር ውድቀት
Arabic 	سقوط نومينور
Armenian 	Նումենորի անկումը
Assamese 	নুমেনৰৰ পতন
Asturian 	Cayida de Númenor
Azerbaijani 	Númenorun Süqutu
Basque 	Númenorren Erorketa
Belarusian Cyrillic	Падзенне Нуменора
Bengali 	নুমেনোরের পতন
Bulgarian Cyrillic 	Падането на Нуменор
Cambodian 	ការដួលរលំនៃណុមេនរ្
Catalan 	Caiguda de Númenor
Cebuano 	Pagkapukan sa Númenor
Chinese 	努门诺尔的覆灭
Croatian 	Pad Númenora
Czech 	Pád Númenoru
Danish 	Númenors undergang
Estonian 	Númenori allakäik
Faeoese 	Númenors fall
Filipino 	Pagbagsak ng Númenor
Finnish 	Númenorin tuho
French 	Chute de Númenor
Frisian 	Undergong fan Númenor (Western)
Friulian 	Abbassament di Númenor
Galician 	Caída de Númenor
Georgian 	ნუმენორის დაცემა
German 	Untergang von Númenor
Greek 	Πτώση του Νούμενορ
Gujarati 	ન્યુમેનોરનું પતન
Hawaiian 	Hiolo o Numenor
Hebrew 	נפילתו של נומנור
Hindi 	नुमेनोर का पतन
Hungarian 	Númenor bukása
Indonesian 	Kejatuhan Númenor
Irish Gaelic 	Titim Númenor
Japanese 	ヌーメノールの没落
Javanese 	Mudhun Númenor
Kannada 	ನ್ಯೂಮೆನರ್ ಪತನ
Kazakh 	Нұменордың Құлауы (Cyrillic) Numenordıñ Qulawı (Latin)
Konkani 	नुमेनोराचो पतन
Korean 	누메노르의 몰락
Kyrgyz Cyrillic 	Нуменордун Кулашы
Latin 	Excidium Númenor
Latvian 	Númenoras sabrukums
Lithuanian 	Númenor žlugimas
Luxembourgish 	Ënnergang vun Númenor
Macedonian Cyrillic	Падот на Нуменор
Malagasy 	Fianjeran'i Númenor
Malaysian 	Kejatuhan Númenor
Maltese 	Il-Waqgħa ta' Númenor
Manx 	Tuittym Númenor
Marathi 	नुमेनोरचे पतन
Mongolian Cyrillic 	Нуменорын уналт
Nepalese 	णुमेनोरको पतन
Occitan 	Casuda de Númenor
Pashto 	د نومېنور سقوط
Persian 	سقوط نومنور
Polish 	Upadek Númenoru
Portuguese 	Queda de Númenor
Punjabi 	ਨੂਮੇਨੋਰ ਦਾ ਪਤਨ
Romanian 	Căderea Númenor
Russian 	Падение Нуменора
Sanskrit 	नुमेनोर् इत्यस्य पतनम्
Sardinian 	Iscadèntzia de Númenor
Serbian 	Пропаст Нуменора (Cyrillic) Propast Numenora (Latin)
Sicilian 	Caduta di Númenor
Sinhalese 	ණුමෙනොර්හි වැටීම
Slovak 	Pád Númenoru
Slovenian 	Padec Númenorja
Spanish 	Caída de Númenor
Tamil 	நியூமெனரின் வீழ்ச்சி
Tatar 	Нúменор төшүе
Telugu 	న్యూమెనార్ పతనం
Thai 	การล่มสลายของนูเมนอร์
Turkish 	Númenor'un Çöküşü
Turkmen 	Númenoryň Ýykylmagy
Ukrainian Cyrillic 	Падіння Нуменора
Urdu 	ںومےنور کا زوال
Uzbek 	Нúменорнинг Қулаши (Cyrillic) Númenorning Qulashi (Latin)
Venetian 	Caduta de Númenor
Vietnamese 	Sự sụp đổ của Númenor
Welsh 	Cwymp Númenor
Yiddish 	אונטערפאל פון נומענאָר
fr:Chute de Númenor
pl:Upadek Númenoru
ru:Низвержение Нуменора
Category:Events
Category:Second Age