Tar-Palantir

Lineage

Inziladûn was born in S.A. 3035, the elder son of Ar-Gimilzôr, twenty-third King of Númenor, and of Inzilbêth, a lady of the line of the Lords of Andúnië, who had been taken as queen against her wish. Ar-Gimilzôr was the harshest enemy the Faithful had yet known: he forbade the Elven tongues, punished any who welcomed the ships of Tol Eressëa, and moved the Faithful from the western coasts to Rómenna where he could watch them. His wife secretly taught her elder son the beliefs of her own house. The King preferred his younger son Gimilkhâd, who was of his own mind, but the law of succession could not be set aside, and in 3177 Inziladûn received the sceptre.

The King who repented

He took his royal name in the High-elven tongue, the first King to do so since Ar-Adûnakhôr had abandoned the custom, and called himself Tar-Palantir, the Far-sighted, for he was said to have the gift of foresight. He returned to the hallow of the Meneltarma at the due seasons of prayer to Eru, which his fathers had neglected, and he tended again the White Tree Nimloth in the court of Armenelos, which had been left to wither. He declared that on the life of the Tree hung the life of the royal house, and foretold that when it perished the line of the kings would perish too. He would go often to the tower of Oromet on the western cape near Andúnië, hoping to see a sail from the West, for he believed that if Númenor humbled itself the Eldar might return. They never came: the ships of the Elves no longer sailed to Númenor, and the shadow of Sauron in Middle-earth grew unchecked. His repentance came too late to turn the people, most of whom had been raised to think of the Valar as jailers.

Gimilkhâd and the King's Men

His brother Gimilkhâd, who was born in 3044 and lived to 3243, made himself the leader of the King's Men in defiance of the King, openly at first and then in secret when Tar-Palantir forbade him. He was a man of great vigour and the party grew strong under him, and the Faithful, though no longer persecuted, remained few. Gimilkhâd's son Pharazôn grew up in that party and became its darling, and Tar-Palantir could not prevent it.

Death and the end of the line

Tar-Palantir had only one child, a daughter, Míriel, born in 3117, and under the law she was his heir. He died in 3255, weary and sad, his great hope unfulfilled. Pharazôn, returning to Númenor at that moment with wealth and fame from the wars in Middle-earth, took Míriel by force as his wife and seized the sceptre. Tar-Palantir's prophecy was fulfilled within a generation: Nimloth was cut down at Sauron's counsel, the line of the kings ended with Ar-Pharazôn in the Downfall, and only the seedling that Isildur had stolen from the Tree survived, so that the far-sight of the last good King proved true.

Died in S.A. 3255, his hope of the Eldar's return unfulfilled; his daughter was dispossessed by Ar-Pharazôn.