Of Pharazon and Miriel

[Huinesoron]

Originally Posted by Urwen

I drew the portrait of true ruler of Numenor, sitting upon her throne.

You sent me off on a brief hunt to see if Tolkien ever described either of the sceptres, but it doesn't look like he did. He did describe (and indeed depict) Numenorean fabrics, so I'm imagining that in the coloured version Tar-Miriel is dressed in elaborate brocade, somewhere between Moroccan and Noldorin in style. ^_^

Originally Posted by Urwen

Another thing that irks me is why the Faithful never did anything. So they stayed true to their pro-Elven view. There, they had a King who was pro-Elven too. Who, upon dying, named his only child - who was pro-Elven too - as his heiress.

Along comes Pharazon, who takes the throne by force, and the Faithful never try to oppose him and return the throne to his wife?

Did they give up on Numenor at that point or something?

Did they have the manpower to pull that off? The days when the Faithful and the King's Men were balanced forces were long past; Tar-Palantir's reforms were met with open revolt, and he seems to have basically holed up in his tower in Andunie to avoid actually dealing with them. I'm sure he felt supported, hanging out in the Faithful heartland - that's why he thought Miriel would be able to take the sceptre - but I don't think he was generally popular.

In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if Gimilkhad was actually running Numenor 'in the king's name' for most of Tar-Palantir's reign. He was the king's brother, and with Tar-Palantir off in Andunie, who else would take over administration? The Gateway specifically says that 'most of the Numenoreans... were led by Gimilkhad and Pharazon, and given the latter's known throne-taking tendencies, are we really to believe they confined themselves to ideological leadership?

As supporting evidence, I offer up the fact that the eventual Faithful evacuation used only 9 ships. Assuming they somehow managed to cram them in as densely as the inmates on a prison hulk, that's still under 5000 surviving Faithful at the Downfall. Okay, that's after the Sauronian persecutions - but Numenor was on a scale with Great Britain, which had a population in the millions during the Medieval period. The Faithful were a tiny religious minority by this point.

hS