Elros

Birth and captivity

Elros and his twin Elrond were born in F.A. 532 at the Havens of Sirion in Arvernien, sons of Eärendil the Mariner and Elwing, and so descendants of the Three Houses of the Edain, of the Noldor, the Sindar and Melian the Maia. When they were six the sons of Fëanor sacked the Havens for the Silmaril, their mother cast herself into the sea, and the boys were carried off by Maedhros and Maglor. The brothers feared they would be killed, but Maglor took pity on the twins and raised them with real affection, and they came to love him in return. They were freed when the host of the Valar arrived, and lived through the War of Wrath that ended the First Age.

The Choice

Because their parents had reached Valinor, the Valar gave Elros and Elrond the choice that had been offered to Eärendil and Elwing: to be reckoned among the Elves, immortal within the world, or among Men, with the gift of death and departure. Elrond chose the Firstborn. Elros chose Men. The Silmarillion adds that he was granted, as the reward of his father's errand and the price of his choice, a lifespan many times that of ordinary Men, though not the endless life of the Elves; the Appendices give him five hundred years. The two brothers loved each other, and their sundering into different kindreds was the first working-out of the fate of the Half-elven.

The founding of Númenor

After Morgoth was cast out, the Valar rewarded the Edain who had fought beside the Elves by raising a new land in the sea between Middle-earth and Aman. Guided by the star of Eärendil, the Edain sailed to it in S.A. 32, and Elros, their lord, became the first King of Númenor under the royal name Tar-Minyatur. He founded the city of Armenelos on the slopes below the holy mountain Meneltarma, and his house was called the House of Elros. The Eldar of Tol Eressëa sailed to Númenor with gifts, among them the seedling that grew into Nimloth the White Tree, and the Númenóreans in his reign were the friends of the Elves and the fair-spoken of all Men.

Reign and death

Elros reigned for four hundred and ten years, longer than any of his descendants. In his time the Númenóreans learned shipcraft and the lore of the Eldar, and their kings took Quenya names in his honour ever after. He was ninety years old when he took the sceptre and five hundred when he laid it down. In S.A. 442, having reached the end of the years granted him, he died of his own free will and was succeeded by his eldest son Vardamir, who at once passed the sceptre to his own son Tar-Amandil. Unfinished Tales, in the Line of Elros, records that he was the father of four children: Vardamir Nólimon, Tindómiel, Manwendil and Atanalcar.

Legacy

The House of Elros ruled Númenor for more than three thousand years, from Tar-Minyatur to Ar-Pharazôn, whose pride brought about the Downfall. The lords of Andúnië, descended from a daughter of the fourth king, kept the older faith, and their heir Elendil escaped the drowning to found Arnor and Gondor; Isildur, Anárion and, at the end of the Third Age, Aragorn were of the line of Elros. The long lives of the Dúnedain, the Númenórean stature and grey eyes, and the claim of the Kings of Gondor to kinship with the Elves all descended from his choice. When Aragorn married Arwen, the branches of Elros and Elrond, divided at the end of the First Age, were joined again.

Died of his own will in S.A. 442 at the age of five hundred, the longest-lived of all the kings of Númenor.