[Formendacil]

"But it's rude of me to complain to you about your compatriots. Let's speak of somezing else. Vy don't you tell me a bit about zat Lord Hallas whose estate ve're heading for?"

Amdír thought about it for a moment.

"Lord Hallas is the sort of lord who you would not have seen in Minas Anor before the time of Elessar. Do not mistake me, he is a good man, but he is not a serious minded lord. He has a thousand interests, and as many friends. That is how he became the Master of Revels, when no other lord in the court wanted the task, and that is how he lost it, once he made it successful. He is an easy master to please, because he has wealth and does not fear to lose it--but he will not be impoverished any time soon, for he has good men as his stewards, and he inherited vast properties in Ithilien that are only these past few years being reclaimed.

"I do not know why there is a special sort of pride that seems to affect many Gondorians. Perhaps it is a just pride in the fight we made against Sauron that has become twisted, so that we no longer recognise that there were others who fought him as well.

"But perhaps it is more than that... perhaps it is the pride of Númenor haunting us yet--but I think it is not Gondor's purity that makes for this arrogance, but the fact that the blood of Númenor has become mixed. The way I see it, if only Númenóreans had settled in Gondor, they might have recognised their allies as fair partners without fearing that they would usurp them--but that is not how our tale was written. Instead, the Men of Gondor today are equal parts Númenórean and Men who never left--Men who might have been akin, they say, to the Edain of the House of Haleth in ancient times, Men related to the Dead of Dunharrow and the Dunlendings, and the peoples of shadowy Minihiriath. The Númenóreans did not recognise them as kin, in the same way they recognised the Northmen of Dale and Rhovannion as kin, and so although they formed one realm, they did not form a realm of trust.

"Instead, the Númenóreans feared the local Men, who outnumbered them--they feared that they would not be true if Sauron returned, and when Sauron returned at least some of the Men--those we call the Dead of Dunharrorw--proved them right. In their turn, the local Men feared the Dúnedain who had come over the Sea--feared them because they were tall, and bright, and long-lived; because they built great cities and fortresses and knew much. They loved them--and they feared them.

"And that, I think is how, although the Dúnedain never outnumbered the rest, that all of Gondor came to think of itself as pure-blooded Númenórean. The Men who were did not trust those who were not, and those who were not wanted to be so, and in both cases only those who whose blood could be trusted--those who were family fostered a distrust of those who were different. That is why, when we first met the Northmen, and were ourselves strong, we distrusted them--we distrusted them so much that we rebelled against a great king who shared their blood. That is also why, when we were weak, and needed their aid, we found a way to call them kin--those of the House of Hador that never crossed the mountains we said---and so we gave them Calenardhon."

Amdír paused, and looked at Coldan directly. "I apologise for going on so," he said. "I have wondered at such things before, however, and it seems to me that we Gondorians put down those who are different in order to assert how 'Gondorian' we are--how Númenórean we think we are. You mention Cirdacil, and he is a good example. His name is High Elvish, and his title is great, but the Elvish of Minas Tirith is not his mother-tongue, for he hails from Pelargir, where they speak the Common Speech, and his birth is as low as yours or mine. Who knows what blood is in his ancestry? Perhaps he has the blood of Corsairs, as you have the blood of Wainriders.

"I think Dorwinion has the better way of responding to such ancestry--to ignore it. What does it matter if an enemy soldier fathered one of your ancestors? Lúthien the Fair was the ancestor of Ar-Pharazôn as well as Tar-Míriel after all, but her goodness did not lighten his darkness.

Amdír paused again.

"I should apologise again--I do not know how much of the history that is commonly told to our children in Gondor is told in Dorwinion. Though you were our east-march once, you have more kinship with Dale than with Gondor, and much has passed since our lands were sundered. If I am speaking too much of our admittedly overwhelming history, which truly does drench everything in Gondor with its taste, perhaps we should speak of something else. Did you find that Rollan gave you the advice you sought yesterday?"