Black Númenórean

The **Black Númenóreans** were High Men from Númenor. They were under the Shadow like the King's Men, cruel oppressors and overlords over the more primitive Middle Men of Middle-earth. As they were colonizing the continent, they survived the Downfall of Númenor.

## History

The Númenóreans' power and knowledge had grown throughout the course of the Second Age,
 and became increasingly preoccupied with the limits placed on their
happiness—and eventually their power—by mortality, the purpose of which
they began to question. They started fearing the Gift of Men and attempted to delay it or recall life.

This growing wish to escape death, made most of the Númenoreans envious of the immortal Eldar,
 who they had come to physically resemble. The Eldar sought ever to
remind the men of Númenor however, that death was a gift of the One God,
 Ilúvatar, to all men, and the will of Ilúvatar could not be gainsaid.

Nevertheless, after S.A. 2221, when Tar-Ancalimon became King of Númenor, the Númenóreans became divided. The King's Men who turned away from the Valar and the Eldar, and eventually became vulnerable to the corruption of Sauron, who dominated the minds and wills of most of the Númenóreans with the One Ring.[1] The powerful and elderly King Ar-Pharazôn, had become frightened of old age[2] was persuaded by Sauron that Ilúvatar was a lie invented by the Valar, and seduced him.

Some indigenous people of Middle-earth were afraid of those Númenóreans, whom they called "Go-hilleg" in their language. The "Go-hilleg" terrified those people with their ships and intended at some point to conquer the land of Agar and slay its people.[3]

Three of the Ringwraiths can be considered among the first and most powerful Númenóreans who were corrupted by Sauron,[4]
 1000 years before the Downfall: they served Sauron, being enslaved to
his will, having become so because of their lust for power or knowledge.
Even the colonists who had settled on the shores and seaward regions of the Westlands, turned to evil, the Darkness and the black arts. These evil lords made their fortresses and dwellings in the South, because of the power of Gil-galad.

## After the Downfall

For many centuries after the Downfall, these descendants of the King's Men held onto the haven of Umbar, the most northerly and famous of their realms.

When the surviving Faithful Numenoreans founded Gondor and Arnor, they saw their southern counterparts as renegades, calling them the Black Númenóreans.[7] The Black Númenóreans held a similar hatred of Gondor after generations.[8]

Two early Black Númenórean lords from the late Second Age were Herumor and Fuinur who desired power over men of other, lesser races, and they "rose to (great) power amongst the Haradrim", the peoples neighbouring Umbar. They likely shared Sauron's defeat at the hands of the Last Alliance of Elves and Men.

The triumph of the Last Alliance marked the decline of the Black
Númenórean race and the end of their racial superiority. They dwindled
swiftly or became merged with the Middle Men.[9]

Queen Berúthiel, wife of Gondor's King Tarannon Falastur was "a black Númenórean".[10][11]
 This was a loveless union, and was presumably a political
accommodation: that such arrangements were possible implies the
existence at that time of more Gondor-friendly Black Númenóreans than
the much later Mouth of Sauron.

A Black Númenórean elite survived at least in Umbar for over a
thousand years after Númenor's fall, maintaining much influence in Haradwaith.
 As late as Third Age 1015, for example, even after being exiled from
their homeland for nearly a century, the lords that had been driven from
 Umbar led the Haradrim to retake Umbar.[12]

Not much is known about the Black Númenóreans after their defeat by Ciryaher in T.A. 1050. A "Renegade", The Mouth of Sauron, had entered the service of Sauron in Mordor. He mocked the army of King Elessar in front of the Morannon.

## Men *Banadûnaim ("Half-Númenóreans")*

The true Black Númenóreans were a dying bloodline in the late third age,
 but despite the Kingsmen´s disdain of what they considered "lesser
men", there had been several mixed-blooded successor cultures in Harad claiming to be heirs of Númenórean superiority. Among these were the Amazôn, Anbalukkhôri, Bellakarani, Gimilthânians, Kharadûnaim, Pharazâin, Tantûraki and Zimrathânians.
 In many of these former Númenórean Colonies caste systems prevailed, in
 which classes of population claiming to be of high Númenórean blood
held the highest social status. Classes of indigenous lineage held the
lowest social status (For example the People of Bellakar who divided themselves into Adûnaim, Bellakarani, Bellakaze, Bellanarod and Desert-Dwellers).

The true Black Númenóreans called those "lesser Black Númenóreans" whose blood had mingled with lesser Men *Banadûnaim ("Half-Númenóreans")*. The largest part of the Umbareans, Bellakarani, Anbalukkhôri and Zimrathânians were such Banadûnaim.

## Culture

The Black Númenórean style of governing was no doubt tyrannical, and
may also have involved a tradition of duumviracy, at least in Umbar.
After Herumor and Fuinur there were also Angamaite and Sangahyando. Some lords were idle and lazy, they used to fight amongst themselves, until they became conquered by the wild men.[6]

The Black Númenóreans did not use Westron, but probably retained their old tongue Adûnaic, speaking a dialect of it. (In The Notion Club Papers, part of *Sauron Defeated*,
 Arundel Lowdham cited two descendants of classical Adûnaic. One of
these must have been Westron, the other the tongue of the Black

Númenóreans)