Annúminas

Annúminas stood on the southern shore of Lake Evendim, the lake called Nenuial by the Elves, in the hills of north-western Eriador. Elendil chose the site for its beauty and for its closeness to Lindon, and he built there the chief city of Arnor, the seat of his High Kingship over both realms in exile. Its name means the Tower of the West, and the city's chief treasures were the palantír that Elendil kept there, the greatest of the northern Stones, and the silver rod that was the sceptre of the northern kings, said to have been the rod of the Lords of Andúnië in Númenor and the oldest surviving work of Men's hands in Middle-earth.

The texts give no description of the city's buildings. What is recorded is its decline: as the Dúnedain of the North grew fewer, the kings withdrew to Fornost, and Annúminas fell empty. By the time of the wars with Angmar it was a ruin beside the lake, and its palantír had been removed to Fornost, from which Arvedui carried it to its loss in the ice of Forochel.

Elendil founded Annúminas in S.A. 3320 and ruled from it until he marched to the Last Alliance in 3430. Isildur, his heir, held it for two years, and his youngest son Valandil and the six kings who followed reigned there in decreasing state. By the death of Eärendur in T.A. 861 the seat of the kingdom had already passed to Fornost, and the division of Arnor left Annúminas a deserted city inside the borders of Arthedain. The Sceptre of Annúminas was carried away to Fornost and later kept at Rivendell through the long line of the Chieftains, and it was the sceptre that Elrond brought south to Aragorn at his wedding in 3019. King Elessar rebuilt Annúminas in the Fourth Age and dwelt there when he came north, and the city by the lake once more became the capital of Arnor within the Reunited Kingdom.

A city on the southern shore of Lake Evendim (Nenuial), in the Hills of Evendim north of the Shire; Fornost lies to the east on the North Downs.