# Why were there still Black Numenoreans?



## BalrogRingDestroyer (Jun 14, 2018)

I get that those like the Nazgul and those ensnared enough like the Mouth of Sauron would still stay loyal to Mordor, but I wonder why none of the King's Men, who survived, of course, realized that Sauron, on his "Let's attack Valinor" scheme caused Eru to sink the island and thus realized that Sauron had been USING them to weaken them and betray King Phazron, and so allied with the Faithful to bring him down.

Also, what happened to them after the end of the Second Age? Were many still around during the War of the Ring? Also, were any still left in the Fourth Age or did Aragorn hunt them all down and kill them all?


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## Halasían (Jun 14, 2018)

The Corsairs of Umbar in the War of the Ring were the remnent descendants of the 'Black Numenoreans'. They were for the most part wiped out by the Aragorn and the Army of the Dead when they were heading up the Anduin towards Minas Tirith. They didn't actually come from Numenor, but from Gondor when there was a civil war between King Eldacar and his 2nd cousin Castamir over the mingling of blood with the Rhovanions. Castamir claimed the throne when unrest boiled over from King Eldacar having a Rhovanion mother, saying the crown was his by rights because Eldacar wasn't true Numenorean. After ten years of rule, Castamir and his sons were overthrown by Eldacar and his Rhovanion army and fled in ships to Umbar, becoming known as the Black Numenoreans.


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## Alcuin (Jun 15, 2018)

The Black Númenóreans of Third Age Middle-earth were the descendents of the Kings Men of the Second Age. 

Tolkien suggests that most of the Númenórean settlements in Middle-earth were south of Umbar. What later became Gondor and Arnor were settlements of the Faithful Númenóreans of the second half of the Second Age, and these were the minority party of Númenórean society. 

From _Return of the King_, “Gondor and the Heirs of Anárion”, in the footnotes:


> The great cape and land-locked firth of Umbar had been Númenórean land since days of old; but it was a stronghold of the King's Men, who were afterwards called the Black Númenóreans, corrupted by Sauron, and who hated above all the followers of Elendil. After the fall of Sauron their race swiftly dwindled or became merged with the Men of Middle-earth, but they inherited without lessening their hatred of Gondor. Umbar, therefore, was only taken at great cost.


Umbar was first settled by Dúnedain in the Second Age, perhaps around 1800; it was “made into a great fortress of Númenor” in 2280, and Pelargir, which became the chief haven of the Faithful, was founded in 2350. 

With the Downfall of Númenor, the Akallabêth, much of the western shore of Middle-earth was hit with a tsunami. Besides that, many of the Kings Men of Middle-earth joined with Ar-Pharazôn’s invasion force against Valinor. So the populations of Umbar and many other Númenórean settlements along the coasts were probably depleted. Moreover, the Dúnedain settled in these regions were already in rebellion against Eru and the Valar: in all likelihood, their society quickly decayed, and they intermingled with other Men. The marriage of Tarannon Falastur, the tenth king of Gondor, to Queen Berúthiel was likely a dynastic marriage to heal the rifts between the Faithful Elendili of Gondor and the now-called Black Númenóreans, formerly the Kings Men, south of Umbar (and inland). Falastur died in Third Age 913, so we may safely assume that, although the unhappy marriage was unconsummated (Berúthiel was apparently beautiful but really weird), there was a ruling dynasty somewhere in Far Harad sufficiently widely recognized to make such a (risky) union worthwhile: they were probably at least related to the old ruling house of Númenor, if not a cadet (junior) branch of the old royal house. 

About 400 years later, Castamir the Usurper overthrew Eldacar son of Valacar on the pretense that Eldacar was not pure-blooded Dúnedain. Although Eldacar defeated and killed Castamir at the Crossings of Erui west and south of Minas Tirith, Castamir’s sons and followers escaped downriver to Pelargir and thence commenced to Umbar, which had become a stronghold of Gondor’s after Falastur’s nephew Eärnil invested it. Umbar was never again under the control of Gondor until the days of King Elessar. 

The Kings Men had turned away from their traditional theology their forefathers learned from the Eldar (which fit with their own traditions they brought with them into Beleriand) and embraced religious beliefs more to their liking. Some of them might have secretly (or not so secretly) worshipped Sauron in the Second Age even before he was imperiously (and foolishly!) taken to Númenor by the impious Ar-Pharazôn. Three of the Nazgûl were recruited from the Númenóreans, and it is likely that for many years, they also travelled amongst their kinsfolk, perverting their minds and beliefs. Sauron’s return from the destruction of Númenor must have seemed to them a miracle, confirming their belief that he was, as he styled himself, a god-king. The Black Númenóreans returned to their worship of Sauron: from his description of Berúthiel published in an interview with Tolkien in the 1960s, it certainly sounds as if she was also a worshipper of Sauron; she was at least a practitioner of his teachings. 

As for Ar-Pharazôn, he was not “betrayed” by Sauron so much as he was cozened by Sauron. Sauron told him what he wanted to hear, then encouraged him to act upon it. Pharazôn tried to invade Valinor because he wanted to invade Valinor. It was what the Kings Men wanted to hear, too. The surviving Black Númenóreans probably fought against Elendil and Gil-galad for Sauron in the War of the Last Alliance: they were just a continuation of what already existed. 

Late in the Third Age, the Corsairs were a continuation of the Númenórean sea-faring tradition, a tradition that included (as it had with real-world Vikings) sudden appearances of ships along the coasts for raiding and kidnapping. The defection of Castamir’s family and followers midway through the Third Age strengthened the folk of Umbar while simultaneously weakening Gondor, leaving it vulnerable to these raids. By the way, Aragorn’s surprise appearance in and assault from the black-sailed ships is emblematic not of Corsair raids, but of Númenórean military strategy in the Second Age, of which Corsair raids were also an echo. (Cf. Viking invasions.) 

In the War of the Ring, Aragorn seized the naval expedition of Umbar at Pelargir using the Dead Men of Dunharrow. Nearly all the Haradrim (Corsairs) were killed or captured. (And frankly, it doesn’t sound like the Dúnedain of Gondor were too interested in capturing Corsairs.) At the end of the war, King Elessar “made peace with the peoples of Harad”: it’s probably safe to assume they recognized his suzerainty, so that sooner or later, Umbar and Harad - and the Black Númenóreans - once again fell under the dominion of Gondor.


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