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It is hard to understand how Numenorean fortifications of Elendil's primary realm should be more vulnerable than the Gondor fortifications.
Because one kingdom was next-door to Mordor and the other wasn't?
Gondor seems at all times to have been more populous. When Elendil's boys washed ashore there was already a substantial Numenorean town at Pelargir, a population of Numenoreans in Belfalas/Dor-en-Ernil, and fairly considerable non-Dunedain populations in the mountains and coasts.
Arnor wasn't I think as empty as it would become, but still one doesn't get the impression of numbers. Elendil, one is tempted to think, viewed the place strategically, as a bridge-realm linking Lindon in the west with Rivendell in the east.
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The entire plot of The Lord of the Rings could be said to turn on what Sauron didn’t know, and when he didn’t know it.
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