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01-09-2007, 04:12 AM | #1 | |
Shady She-Penguin
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Ship of the Dark
In Tal-Elmar, one of the unfinished tales in Peoples of Middle-Earth (HoME XII), Hazad, a middle-earthian man, tells his son Tal-Elmar about Númenóreans' dark ships. He says:
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Or did the Númenóreans really "kidnap" some of the wild men? If yes, why? In my opinion they probably did, since "there's no smoke without fire" and I don't think some wild men would have just fabricated the story. But surely they didn't eat them or sacrifice them, that was most probably superstition and fear from the wildmen's side that caused such rumours. But what did they do with them then? Did Númenóreans have slaves? If yes, then I think they were taken as slaves. But shouldn't this all be against the Númenóreans' high sense of morale? I admit they thought they were lords of everything and "better" than the middle-earthians, but still... Can we actually compare Númenóreans with European colonialists? Any thoughts on this?
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01-09-2007, 05:47 AM | #2 |
Byronic Brand
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Well, I think if we are dealing with the latter days of Numenor, then the captives almost certainly were sacrificed in Sauron's cult, offerings to Melkor, the Giver of Freedom...
Unpleasant, and thought-provoking, and an excellent rebuke to any who see Tolkien as any form of colonialist or, insipid word, racist.
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01-09-2007, 07:00 AM | #3 |
A Mere Boggart
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Lommy, that's an excellent find!
Well, it could be any number of things that were going on. All that is known is that these people were taken away never to be seen again, and understandably, those who remained have constructed a horrific tale (which could even be true). It's also interesting as its very reminiscent of the slave trade, and if indeed Tolkien was drawing on that dark period of history then it's fantastic as even today a lot of the 'establishment' struggle or indeed refuse to acknowledge the part that millions of innocent victims played in the building of an empire. The 'black wings' are interesting - did this refer to actual wings, wing-like structures or the sails?
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01-09-2007, 08:05 AM | #4 | |||
Shady She-Penguin
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Quote:
Quote:
Lal, I guess the black wings refer to the sails, since the passage continues as: Quote:
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01-09-2007, 08:28 AM | #5 | |||
Cryptic Aura
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There's a later passage as well which seems to identify the black wings as sails.
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It's a fascinating little tale, especially with the story of Tal-elmar's mother, who clearly is a captive slave taken in marriage against her will. She has been kidnapped and taken away from a husband and first child. The story suggests that this 'marriage' is a preferable state to what usually happened to slaves. Quote:
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01-10-2007, 03:42 AM | #6 |
Shady She-Penguin
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I love the whole story of Tal-Elmar. Tolkien is often accused of a black-and-white worldview, but Tal-Elmar certainly makes the picture more gray. The pre-Pharazon () Númenóreans are portarayed somewhat ideal good (though they might have some little faults), but Tal-Elmar shows there's another side to them. It doesn't glorify the wild men of Middle-Earth either: Tal-Elmar's grandmother/mother (Tolkien varied their relationship and it was left a bit unclear who she was) was taken captive by the wildmen and forced to marry one of them, and as Bethberry says, that was gentle fate for one that was taken as slave.
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Like the stars chase the sun, over the glowing hill I will conquer Blood is running deep, some things never sleep Double Fenris
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01-10-2007, 07:10 AM | #7 | |
Cryptic Aura
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Quote:
I wonder about this tale, though. It is written much later than Tolkien's other work, so isn't part of his initial inspiration about the Legendarium. Could this be his toying with more contemporary ideas about point of view/perspective and colonial history, seeing how to incorporate them in a narrative placed back in time? I can imagine him curious to see how he could 'fit' a more modern view of history into his mythical creation, to see how the two would meld.
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01-17-2007, 05:24 AM | #8 | |
Animated Skeleton
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The tale of the "Ship of the Dark" is quite probably based on true events. This seems to have taken place during the time that Sauron was absent in Númenor (Tolkien himself wasn't sure about this; he queried about it in one of his notes). But a cursory look at the tale shows that his query should be answered in the affirmative: things exactly like this happened after Sauron seduced the Númenóreans into worshipping Melkor.
What, you thought that Temple in Armenelos was the only one? Or that it was only the Faithful the Númenóreans sacrificed? Well, they went after innocent natives in Middle-earth too: Quote:
(This does not mean, of course, that the account should be taken as completely true; I doubt, for example, that the Númenóreans practiced cannibalism, though it is possible. Tolkien never goes into detail concerning Melkoristic rites. Nevertheless, the story does seem to contain a lot of truth.) The Númenóreans Tar-Elmar meets in the story are obviously not Melkor-worshippers, though; they are clearly members of the Faithful, some of whom are probably leaving Númenor precisely to escape the sort of persecution alluded to above. They were probably in the midst of finding a new home when Tar-Elmar encountered them.
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01-17-2007, 05:50 AM | #9 | |
A Mere Boggart
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Evidence of dark worship in Middle-earth:
Quote:
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