By Oshun
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Tar-Palantir succeeded to the throne as the twenty-fourth and penultimate ruler of Númenor. He was born in year 3035 of the Second Age. As the eldest son and heir, he took over the throne at the death of his father Ar-Gimilzôr and ruled for about seventy-eight years.1 His father was a hard act to follow--a wicked ruler called "the greatest enemy of the Faithful."2 Ar-Gimilzôr was infamous for being the king who outlawed the use of Elven tongues on the island. He detested the Lords of Andúnië who remained loyal to the founding principles of Númenor and were called the Faithful. (Additional details of Tar-Palantir’s father’s reign can be found in our previous biography of Ar-Gimilzôr. ) Tar-Palantir tried to roll back time and undo the damage done to the country by his father’s followers who were called the King’s Men.
The original name of Tar-Palantir was Inziladûn. This is an Adûnaic name meaning Flower of the West.3 It can be transliterated into Quenya as Númellótë.4 Both his birth name and his chosen name give off a tone of softness and light notable following the brutality and destructive nature of his father. His Quenya name Tar-Palantir means "He who looks afar."5
One might not be able to resist a smile at the fact that, even when telling the story of a minor character, Tolkien the philologist allowed himself the space and time to make discursive remarks about languages and naming. When Tar-Palantir chose his regnal name, he returned to the use of Quenya dating back to Elros: "But when Inziladûn acceded to the sceptre, he took again a title in the Elven-tongue as of old, calling himself Tar-Palantir, for he was far-sighted both in eye and in mind, and even those that hated him feared his words as those of a true-seer."6
The prefix Tar is an easy tip-off for those who are weak in Elvish languages. Tolkien explained in correspondence how it had been "the custom of the Kings to take their titles in the forms of the Quenya or High-elven tongue, that being the noblest tongue of the world."7 Ar-Gimilzôr’s well-embalmed body would have rolled over in his tomb at the idea that his heir had resurrected this custom.
Tar-Palantir certainly did not take after his father, neither in temperament nor in principles. Rather, he was much closer to his mother, Inzilbêth. She was secretly loyal to the political leanings of her own kinsmen—based in a historic devotion to the Valar and a yearning for the former days of friendship and communication with the Elves of Tol Eressëa. She had been born into the house of the Lords of the Andúnië, descendants of a cadet branch8 of the line of Elros, and followed their belief system which was, of course, diametrically opposed to that of her husband. Tolkien describes succinctly in a letter written around 1951 the appearance of a moral/philosophical division between the so-called King’s Men and the Faithful preceding the fall of Númenor:
There are three phases in their fall from grace. First acquiescence, obedience that is free and willing, though without complete understanding. Then for long they obey unwillingly, murmuring more and more openly. Finally they rebel – and a rift appears between the King’s men and rebels, and the small minority of persecuted Faithful.9
It appears that there was no love lost between Ar-Gimilzôr and Inzilbêth, his consort and the mother of his children: "Gimilzôr took her to wife, though this was little to her liking, for she was in heart one of the Faithful, being taught by her mother; but the kings and their sons were grown proud and not to be gainsaid in their wishes."10
Known for her great beauty, she was far more than a pretty face. Her differences with her spouse were profound and undoubtedly could have been dangerous to her well-being had she not been cautious and kept them carefully concealed. Inzilbêth, however, was a strong-minded woman. Unwavering in her principles, she had determined to influence the direction of their eldest son Inziladûn.
She closely guarded the extent of her intentions from Ar-Gimilzôr, the better to exert a positive influence upon his oldest son and the heir to the throne. She tutored Inziladûn in the difference between the original customs and loyalties of Númenor before its degeneration and how far it had fallen from those days of grace, succeeding in winning him to her side. She exposed him to the ways and beliefs of the Faithful through her own relationship with the house of her birth: "He also would spend much of his days in Andúnië, since Lindórië his mother’s mother was of the kin of the Lords, being sister indeed of Eärendur."11
Inziladûn grew up to be very much the product of his parents’ political estrangement. He is repulsed by Ar-Gimilzôr’s cruel and vengeful policies while accepting wholeheartedly the tenacious tutelage of his mother in the ways of the Faithful. He shared his mother’s belief in the Valar’s explanation of mortality as a gift and turned away from the cruel and rebellious King’s Men with their fury and terror at the idea of death and their jealousy of Elven immortality. This concept of the gift of death may not be so transparent to all readers. Independent scholar Gaelle Abalea explains it relatively succinctly:
[U]nlike elves who are reincarnated, possibly endlessly, until Arda is no more, men’s souls leave the circles of Middle-earth achieving true immortality as they are supposed to survive the end of the world. The Eldar know that when Arda dies, they will die with it, being of Arda. They know also that upon dying Men leave Arda and might live eternally near Eru, even after Elvenkind and Arda are no more. This knowledge makes the Eldar envy the Gift of Ilúvatar and ignorance makes Men reject it.12
His father, although we are not given much detail, apparently did not make any great effort to win the heart and mind of his heir. It is written that he would have far preferred to have handed the Sceptre into the hands of his younger son Gimilkhâd. The younger of his sons "went with his father, unless he were yet prouder and more wilful. To him Ar-Gimilzôr would have yielded the sceptre rather than to the elder son, if the laws had allowed."13
So, when Ar-Gimilzôr went ungentle into that good night, his legal heir took the throne with his mother’s blessing and all of his Valar-revering principles intact: "Tar-Palantir repented of the ways of the Kings before him, and would fain have returned to the friendship of the Eldar and the Lords of the West."14 Sadly for him, despite his desire to restore peace and tolerance throughout his realm, his bitter younger brother would not allow this to happen. Tal-Palantir took the throne with the most noble of intentions:
He gave peace for a while to the Faithful; and he went once more at due seasons to the Hallow of Eru upon the Meneltarma, which Ar-Gimilzôr had forsaken. The White Tree he tended again with honour; and he prophesied, saying that when the Tree perished, then also would the line of the Kings come to its end.15
However, his younger brother with all of the malevolent energy of their deceased father took over the leadership of the party of the King’s Men and hounded his brother in every way he could. Gimilkhâd "opposed the will of his brother as openly as he dared, and yet more in secret." Anything Tar-Palantir might have been able to do to save the headlong rush to destruction would have been too little and too late. The Ainur and the Elves had already run out of patience and mercy. While we cannot help but feel like Tar-Palantir tried his best, the island was held under the sway of King’s Men:
Thus the days of Tar-Palantir became darkened with grief; and he would spend much of his time in the west, and there ascended often the ancient tower of King Minastir upon the hill of Oromet nigh to Andúnië, whence he gazed westward in yearning, hoping to see, maybe, some sail upon the sea. But no ship came ever again from the West to Númenor, and Avallónë was veiled in cloud.16
If it were not tragic enough that Tar-Palantir had died a broken-hearted failure at his inability to fulfill his dreams and those of his mother and reverse the fate of their country, things in Númenor only got worse after he died. He had married late in his life and produced only one child, a daughter named Míriel, "But when the King died she was taken to wife by Pharazôn son of Gimilkhâd... against her will, and against the law of Númenor since she was the child of his father's brother."17 Tar-Palantir’s nephew seized the throne and took the title of Ar-Pharazôn. Most readers will recognize his name. The last and mightiest of the Kings of Númenor, he used his strength for the greatest evil and brought about the destruction of Númenor.
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