Quote:
Originally Posted by Inziladun
Formal worship of the One would hopefully serve to keep them focused as well on the afterlife that awaited them, instead of becoming obsessed with having more life within the world, bound to it, as the Valar and Elves were.
That is to say that it seems now that the singular worship of Eru by Númenor was tied into both their greatness among mortals, which allowed them something of a taste of Eldar life, with its accompanying potential for envy, and their inherent remaining mortality, which did not allow them the luxury of holding fast to the world.
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Note however that the (public) worship of Eru was restricted to the King alone, on certain specified days; invoking the Almighty was simply Not Done except by the highest, on the highest occasions. It is said in Cirion and Eorl that the very act of naming The One hallowed the sdummit of Halifirien from thenceforward, and it was an act that astounded all present- even though Cirion legally had all th powers of the Kings, this was one none of his predecessors had ever presumed to exercise.