The second of two episodes on the Akallabêth, Tolkien’s story of Númenor. Ar-Pharazôn is offered no resistance by Sauron, and gets the bright idea to take him as a hostage. Soon, you-know-who has wormed his way into the King’s trust and turned the Númenóreans to the worship of Melkor. As Sauron’s cult gains power in the kingdom, the Faithful led by Amandil and Elendil are persecuted; the aging Ar-Pharazôn prepares his armada to sail to the Undying Lands to take immortality by force, and the Valar respond with a disaster of biblical proportions. Also, Alan and Shawn finally disagree about something: Genesis.
To listen to our recent interview with John Garth and discussion of the history of the Númenor myth, see Episode 044 – The Threshold of Middle-earth: An Interview with John Garth.
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Recommended Reading:
Tolkien, J. R. R. The Silmarillion (Mariner Books, paperback) pp. 270-282, Akallabêth
Tolkien, J. R. R. The Monsters and the Critics and Other Essays (HarperCollins, paperback)
Carpenter, Humphrey, ed. The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien (Mariner Books, paperback)
The “age” categories in that survey max out at 54. How can anyone do market research when elves, orcs, ents, and I are all in the same bin?