Rómenna

The eastern haven

Rómenna stood at the head of the deep Bay of Rómenna, which cut into the eastern side of Númenor between the promontories of the Orrostar and the Hyarrostar. The town lay within Arandor, the Kingsland of the Mittalmar, a day's journey from Armenelos, and the two together were the centre of the realm. Facing Middle-earth, Rómenna was the natural port for every voyage east, and as the Númenóreans became mariners it grew into the greatest harbour of the island, with shipyards, quays, and the houses of the sea-captains and the trading families along its shore.

The Venturers

The first Númenórean ship to reach Middle-earth, Vëantur's Entulessë, set out from Rómenna in the year 600, and his grandson Tar-Aldarion made the haven the home of his Guild of Venturers. Their guildhouse was a ship, Eämbar, moored in the bay, and Aldarion's great vessels were built and launched there before he moved his yards elsewhere. The oiolairë bough that a woman of the mariner's family set on the prow as a token of friendship with Ossë was a custom of Rómenna's quays. Through the following ages the fleets that carried Númenórean power to Middle-earth, whether to teach the lesser Men or to take tribute from them, sailed out of the Bay of Rómenna.

The refuge of the Faithful

When Ar-Gimilzôr turned against the Elendili, he ordered them removed from the west of the island, where they had lived near the Elves' havens, and settled them in the east where he could watch them. Rómenna thus became the home of the Faithful and of the Lords of Andúnië, and though Tar-Palantir eased their lot, they remained there. In the reign of Ar-Pharazôn, Amandil, the last Lord, withdrew from the court to Rómenna, and the Faithful gathered about him and his son Elendil. When Sauron's persecution began they lived in constant danger, and it was from Rómenna that Amandil at last put out in a small ship by night, sailing west to plead with the Valar. He was never heard of again.

The nine ships

On Amandil's counsel, Elendil made his ships ready in the bay with his people, his heirlooms, the seven palantíri that the Eldar had given to the Lords of Andúnië, and the seedling of the White Tree that Isildur had saved. When Ar-Pharazôn's fleet sailed and the world was changed, a great wind out of the west drove Elendil's nine ships from the bay before the sea rose over Númenor. They were carried across the ocean to Middle-earth, where Elendil landed in the north and his sons in the south, and the kingdoms of Arnor and Gondor were founded. Rómenna itself, with everything left in it, went beneath the waves.

Rómenna lay on the eastern coast of Númenor at the innermost point of its bay, in the Kingsland between the eastern and south-eastern promontories. The fishing villages of the southern coast and the timber-forests of the Hyarrostar lay to the south, the grain-lands of the Orrostar to the north, and the road inland ran west to Armenelos and the Meneltarma.