Week 20: Second Age – Tuesday 11th
July 2023
#TolkienTrewsday #TolkienTuesday #Tolkien
Welcome to #TolkienTrewsday #TolkienTuesday.
The hub for this Twitter-based event can be found here.
Tolkien Trewsday (the Hobbit name for Tuesday!) invites the #Tolkien community to form a fellowship to collectively tweet about a pre-selected theme about Tolkien, his works and his life.
Each week a new theme will be selected, often via a poll or by a guest host/curator, and together we will build a collective outpouring of creativity, knowledge and love for J.R.R. Tolkien and the adaptions based on his works.
The inspiration for this comes from the highly successful #FolkloreThursday which engaged lovers of Folklore, academics, artists and more to use Twitter to discuss it.
We only ask that if you are joining in, please do so with courtesy and kindness in your tweets. This is a positive-action community event, open to all and supportive of fan diversity. Intolerance, racism, bigotry have no place here.
💬 This week’s theme
Week 20: Second Age – Tuesday 11th
July 2023
The Second Age is a time of great change in Middle-earth. We see the rise and fall of the island kingdom of Númenor. We see Sauron manipulate first the Elves and then Men. The Rings of Power are made. And we see the Last Alliance of Men and Elves against the darkness.
How to contribute
We are keeping it very simple. All you need to do to join is tweet something about the current week’s theme and use the following hashtags in your tweet:
#TolkienTrewsday #TolkienTuesday #Tolkien
Your tweet, besides following the theme, can be anything.
🐦 My accompanying tweet 🧵 (thread) for this week can be found here. It highlights aspects of my blog essay below.
Week 20: The Sea is always right: Dreams
and visions of a Great Wave
Words and art about Númenor
“For men fashioned Númenor: men, those heroes of old that they sing of – of their women we hear less, save that they wept when their men were slain. Númenor was to be a rest after war. But if they weary of rest and the plays of peace, soon they will go back to their great play, manslaying and war. Thus it is; and we are set here among them. But we need not assent. If we love Númenor also, let us enjoy it before they ruin it.”
-- J.R.R. Tolkien (edited by Brian Sibley), The Fall of Númenor: and Other Tales from the Second Age of Middle-earth (The Accession of Tar-Aldarion)
For Tolkien Trewsday
this week, I’m going to take a leisurely stroll through some quotes by J.R.R.
Tolkien and also from “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power” creative team
about Númenor: through their words and images. This will include visual
cues and inspirations behind the depictions we see in the television series. The
aim is to provide a starting point for what will eventually (hopefully) be an
essay on the portrayal of Númenórean culture (and its downfall) within
adaptions and art. The aim for today is to guide fans towards learning more
about the textual evidence and also the artistic representations we are seeing,
providing links to relevant resources and sources.
Before we start on that stroll, I wanted to say none of this could have been pieced together without the hard work and vast knowledge of members within and outside the Tolkien community. I’ve been creating an art thread on Twitter of all the examples of potential influences on the TRoP team in their visualisations of Middle-earth here and it’s people like Yvonne Marjot (@Alayanabeth), Ravenna Tran (@RavennaTran) and many others who have helped gather it together.
Please note: This blog will include images with themes/influences associated with Orientalism, Imperialism and colonisation.
“The Great Wave off Kanagawa” by Katsushika Hokusai (c. 1830-32). Source.
🌊 1. Dreams of Atalantë
Letter 163 To W.H. Auden (7 June 1955)
I say this about the ‘heart’, for I have what some might call an Atlantis complex. Possibly inherited, though my parents died too young for me to know such things about them, and too young to transfer such things by words. Inherited from me (I suppose) by one only of my children, though I did not know that about my son until recently, and he did not know it about me. I mean the terrible recurrent dream (beginning with memory) of the Great Wave, towering up, and coming in ineluctably over the trees and green fields. (I bequeathed it to Faramir.) I don’t think I have had it since I wrote the ‘Downfall of Númenor’ as the last of the legends of the First and Second Age.”
-- Humphrey Carpenter and Christopher Tolkien, The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien (Letter 163 To W.H. Auden, 7 June 1955)
Tolkien was haunted by dreams
of a great wave crashing over a land, his Atlantis complex (Quenya:
Atalantë in Middle-earth) as he called it, something which his son Michael
also shared. This dream became a part of his works in the form of the Númenor
story, repeated in Faramir’s own dream and also in the Notion Club Papers.
In Amazon Prime’s “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power” this dream
is also one Queen Regent Míriel (portrayed by Cynthia Addai-Robinson)
has in Season 1 Episode 4 (“The Great Wave”) which we later learn she first saw
as a vision given to her (and later Galadriel) through the use of a palantír.
I included the ukiyo-e (woodcut) print “The Great Wave off Kanagawa” by Katsushika Hokusai (1760-1849) from c. 1830-32 because there is a great academic paper (see Bibliography below) looking at Tolkien and Japonisme, the French term for late nineteenth century Western interest in Japanese art and culture, which examines his most famous art piece, the original cover for the Hobbit. Tolkien is known to have purchased some Japanese woodblock prints in 1914.
The Great Wave dream of Míriel in Amazon Studio’s “The Lord of the Rings:
The Rings of Power” (Season 1 Episode 4: “The Great Wave”)
🌊 2. Queen Regent Míriel
For both the set design and the costumes of the Númenorians, Avery and Hawley took inspiration from pre-Raphaelite artists, some of whom were Tolkien’s contemporaries. The costumes of Queen Regent Míriel (Cynthia Addai-Robinson) were inspired by painter Herbert Schmalz’s “Zenobia.”
-- Karen M. Peterson, “‘Lord of the Rings; Rings of Power’: How the Canals of Venice and Germany Inspired a Multi-Layered World” from Variety.com (7 December 2022)
“Zenobia's last look on Palmyra”
(1888) by Herbert G Schmalz. 
San Diego Comic Con 2022 “The Rings of Power” Exclusive issue cover.
Thank you to the kindness of the wonderful Nicola Payne (@ladynico_x) for getting me a copy of this special magazine whilst she was at SDCC 2022.
🌊 3. The shadow of death
”One thing I think is really worth noting is that what eventually brings the downfall of Númenor is that men don't want to die. And because of that, it was important to put death everywhere. We developed a couple of infinity symbols, and there's a broken infinity symbol. That gets repeated throughout the streets, and in the alleyways, there are these little columbaria, which are these little niches where the ashes of the dead are put, and there are little shrines to them. So literally, the city is built upon the dead of the Númenor, and you have that sense of death underwriting the whole culture. Some of the graffiti has to do with those types of storytelling as well.”
-- Ramsey Avery, “The Rings of Power Production Designer on Building Death into the Walls of Númenor [Exclusive Interview]” by Vanessa Armstrong from Slashfilm.com (12 September 2022)
A relief depicting two skeletons on a wall in a Númenórean street from still from the
The street wall relief of two skeletons from the Númenor set on Season 1 of Amazon Studio’s “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power” (seen in the “Building Middle-earth: Númenor Wasn’t Built in a Day” video) is a knowing nod to the Númenórean fear of death which hints at the medieval idea of “memento mori” (“memory of death”) and “ars moriendi” (“Art of Dying Well”) whilst also reminding me of the ancient Roman art such the skeleton holding two wine jugs (above), from a Pompeii mosaic (c.1-50 CE) which actually tells the viewer to enjoy life to the fullest (“carpe diem” – “Seize the day”).
“Monochrome mosaic panel of a
skeleton holding two wine jugs” 🌊 4. Walk like an Egyptian
Letter 211 To Rhona Beare (14 October 1958)
“The Númenóreans of Gondor were proud, peculiar, and archaic, and I think are best pictured in (say) Egyptian terms. In many ways they resembled ‘Egyptians’ – the love of, and power to construct, the gigantic and massive. And in their great interest in ancestry and in tombs. (But not of course in ‘theology’: in which respect they were Hebraic and even more puritan – but this would take long to set out: to explain indeed why there is practically no overt ‘religion’, or rather religious acts or places or ceremonies among the ‘good’ or anti-Sauron peoples in The Lord of the Rings.) I think the crown of Gondor (the S. Kingdom) was very tall, like that of Egypt, but with wings attached, not set straight back but at an angle.”
The N. Kingdom had only a diadem (III 323). Cf. the difference between the N. and S. kingdoms of Egypt.
-- Humphrey Carpenter and Christopher Tolkien, The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien (Letter 211 To Rhona Beare, 14 October 1958)
“The Obsequies of an Egyptian Cat” by John Weguelin (1886).
Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmak (New Zealand). Source.
J.R.R. Tolkien’s drawing of the crown of Gondor from Letter 211.
🌊 5. "Númenor... I mean Venice"
Letter 168 To Richard Jeffery (7 September 1955)
“Dear Mr Jeffery, Thank you very much for your letter.... It came while I was away, in Gondor (sc. Venice), as a change from the North Kingdom, or I would have answered before.”
-- Humphrey Carpenter and Christopher Tolkien, The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien (Letter 168 To Richard Jeffery, 7 September 1955)
Númenor from the air showing canal systems. From Amazon Studio’s
“The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power” (Season 1 Episode 3: “Adar”)
When contemplating what such a city could be, Avery found himself thinking of European infrastructure. “Strangely enough, the first image that popped into my head was in Germany; there is a freeway that goes underneath a canal. There’s this photograph of a barge going over this waterway, that’s a bridge of a waterway over the freeway.”
This concept of water management influenced the design of a city where water was a key and abundant element. To further support the concept, one member of the team, a designated “Tolkien expert,” confirmed that the author himself had referenced Venice as a kind of signpost for Númenor.
“That kind of gave me this sense of a three-dimensional Venice,” says Avery.” It’s no longer just on one plane, but that you want to stack up the hills.”
-- Karen M. Peterson, “‘Lord of the Rings; Rings of Power’: How the Canals of Venice and Germany Inspired a Multi-Layered World” from Variety.com (7 December 2022)
“Well, I think there are two elements that actually set the signposts for Númenor. One was this letter that Tolkien wrote where he says, "Gee, I just got back from Númenor. Oh, I mean Venice." Venice evokes a certain sensibility in our heads, that there's a sense of wealth, a sense of beauty, a sense of lots of history, that it's been built up over time. Plus water, a lot of water.
The other element is this sense of it as the Atlantis of Middle-earth. In the third age of Middle-earth [the time period that ends with the events in "The Lord of the Rings" films], we see what leftover elements there are of Númenorian architecture and culture — we see Minas Tirith and Osgiliath — and we know that what those things look like.
In my head, the idea was that those are the ghosts of Númenor. That's what's left ... maybe a 1,000 people got rescued from a civilization of millions of people, so not every bit of technology, or culture, or knowledge, was able to be transferred from Númenor back to Middle-earth.”
-- Ramsey Avery, “The Rings of Power Production Designer on Building Death into the Walls of Númenor [Exclusive Interview]” by Vanessa Armstrong from Slashfilm.com (12 September 2022)
Entering the port of the (so-far) unnamed city on Númenor in Amazon
🌊 6. “Ghosts of Númenor”
Letter 131 To Milton Waldman (1951)
In the south Gondor rises to a peak of power, almost reflecting Númenor, and then fades slowly to decayed Middle Age, a kind of proud, venerable, but increasingly impotent Byzantium.
-- Humphrey Carpenter and Christopher Tolkien, The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien (Letter 131 To Milton Waldman, 1951)
The architecture of Venice is full of domes and white Istrian marble, with Gothic archways. It's also structured around the water it is famous for. Even a quick look at an overhead view of the Italian city makes it very clear why Tolkien said this in the letter. Later in the interview, Avery discusses the watery touches that were built into the Númenor set, like carved octopuses and oyster shells embedded in the walls.
The other element, Avery said, was the feeling that Númenor is akin to the myth of Atlantis. "In the third age of Middle-earth [the time period that ends with the events in "The Lord of the Rings" films], we see what leftover elements there are of Númenorian architecture and culture — we see Minas Tirith and Osgiliath — and we know that what those things look like."
-- Jenna Busch, “Númenor's Design in the Rings of Power Mixes Myth with Real-Life History [Exclusive]” from Slashfilm.com (13 September 2022)
So, Minas Tirith looks like a part of Númenor, but it's not enough of it to actually represent the grandeur of the city. We looked at that Romanesque architecture we see in the movies, and we wanted to dial way up from that in terms of grandeur, beauty, and richness. That and this sense of Venice gave us a conceptual and an emotional standpoint for Númenor.
From there, I looked into what the cognates for that might be in our world. I wanted to get into the sense of history, so I looked back to very old bits of architecture and culture for us, like Babylonian architecture, and Sumerian architecture, and Minoan architecture, all of which are these big, blocky shapes.
-- Ramsey Avery, “The Rings of Power Production Designer on Building Death into the Walls of Númenor [Exclusive Interview]” by Vanessa Armstrong from Slashfilm.com (12 September 2022)
Architectural
masterpiece of the Byzantine and Ottoman Empires: Hagia Sophia (Istanbul). Source.
🌊 7. The Stroke of Doom
‘Yes, we wait for the stroke of doom,’ said Faramir. And they said no more; and it seemed to them as they stood upon the wall that the wind died, and the light failed, and the Sun was bleared, and all sounds in the City or in the lands about were hushed: neither wind, nor voice, nor bird-call, nor rustle of leaf, nor their own breath could be heard; the very beating of their hearts was stilled. Time halted. And as they stood so, their hands met and clasped, though they did not know it. And still they waited for they knew not what. Then presently it seemed to them that above the ridges of the distant mountains another vast mountain of darkness rose, towering up like a wave that should engulf the world, and about it lightnings flickered; and then a tremor ran through the earth, and they felt the walls of the City quiver. A sound like a sigh went up from all the lands about them; and their hearts beat suddenly again. ‘It reminds me of Númenor,’ said Faramir, and wondered to hear himself speak. ‘Of Númenor?’ said Éowyn. ‘Yes,’ said Faramir, ‘of the land of Westernesse that foundered, and of the great dark wave climbing over the green lands and above the hills, and coming
-- J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of
the Rings: The Return of the King (Book Six Chapter 5: The Steward and the
King)
“Joseph, Overseer of Pharaoh’s Granaries” by Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema
(1874). Dahesh Museum, New York City (USA). Source.
🌊 Things to further explore
- The Horns of Ylmir (1914 poem by J.R.R. Tolkien)
- More soon...
🌊 Bibliography
📗 Academic papers
📜 Tolkien’s Japonisme: Prints, Dragons, and a Great Wave
Michael Organ
Tolkien Studies, vol. 10 (2013) / University of Wollongong (Australia) Research Online
https://ro.uow.edu.au/asdpapers/436/
📜 Númenor and the “Devouring Wave”: Literary, Historical, and Psychological Sources for Tolkien’s Self-Described “Atlantis Complex”
Kristine Larsen
Journal of Tolkien Research, Vol. 11 Iss. 2 Article 5 (2020)
https://scholar.valpo.edu/journaloftolkienresearch/vol11/iss2/5/
📗 Online journals and magazines
📜 “8 secrets of Númenor—an unseen kingdom in ‘The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power’”
Amazon Staff (8 August 2022)
https://www.aboutamazon.com/news/entertainment/8-secrets-of-numenor-an-unseen-kingdom-in-the-lord-of-the-rings-the-rings-of-power
📜 “New images reveal a never-before-seen realm in ‘The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power’”
Cosette Jarrett (11 August 2022)
https://www.aboutamazon.com/news/entertainment/lord-of-the-rings-numenor-images
📜 “11 cool facts about the costumes in ‘The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power’”
Cosette Jarrett (3 July 2023)
https://www.aboutamazon.com/news/entertainment/lord-of-the-rings-the-rings-of-power-costume-facts
📜 “The Rings of Power Production Designer on Building Death into the Walls of Númenor [Exclusive Interview]”
Vanessa Armstrong (12 September 2022)
https://www.slashfilm.com/1003491/the-rings-of-power-production-designer-on-building-death-into-the-walls-of-numenor-exclusive-interview/
📜 “Númenor's Design in the Rings of Power Mixes Myth with Real-Life History [Exclusive]”
Jenna Busch (13 September 2022)
https://www.slashfilm.com/1005383/numenors-design-in-the-rings-of-power-mixes-myth-with-real-life-history-exclusive/
📜 “‘Lord of the Rings; Rings of Power’: How the Canals of Venice and Germany Inspired a Multi-Layered World”
Karen M. Peterson (7 December 2022)
https://variety.com/2022/artisans/news/production-design-costume-design-lord-of-the-rings-rings-of-power-1235453233/
📜 “Building Middle-earth: Númenor Wasn’t Built in a Day”
Ted Brown (22 May 2023)
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/general-news/building-middle-earth-numenor-wasnt-built-in-a-day-1235484515/
📗 Online video interviews
📹 “Building Middle-earth” videos from Hollywood Reporter
Hollywood Reporter
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/building-middle-earth/
📹 “'Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power' production designer Ramsey Avery on crafting Middle-earth”
GoldDerby
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9HbolYTfxC0
📹 “Inside the Set: The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power with Megan Vertelle & Ramsey Avery”
Set Decor
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aNdiMpc4szs
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