Middle-earth seen by the barbarians: The complete collection including a previously unpublished essay (22 page)

With the Castamirion dynasty eliminated and the fate of the other Dúnedainic dissidents unknown, ‘
Umbar was again held for a while by the kings. Telumehtar added to his name the title Umbardacil
.’
(
KR
, IV)
But Gondor was no longer ruled by Ship-kings, and Telumehtar did not have the foresight to reclaim and resettle port or fortress. He simply left the ruined and deserted haven to decay and, apparently, forbade anyone from Harad to enter while leaving just a protective garrison. Yet Osgiliath would hold Umbar for the major part of a century, meeting little resistance, for in the meantime ‘
the peoples of Harad were … engaged in wars and feuds of their own
’,
(
CE
)
being in peril to get subdued by a new and very powerful opponent: the ever-hungry Wainrider empire from Rhún (see chapter
III.3.3
).

Ultimately, Sauron’s emissaries managed to arrange that fragile alliance between Wainriders, Khand and the Haradrim that in 1944 invaded the Southern Kingdom both from the east and the south. ‘
In the new evils that soon befell Gondor Umbar was again lost, and fell into the hands of the Men of the Harad
,’
(
KR
)
who probably included some Black Númenóreans. They could not use it yet to support their land forces from the seaside, though. The Harad forces just ‘
poured into Ithilien
’,
(
KR
)
were stopped by Eärnil’s Southern Army, and vanquished.

1. 1810 - 1944
   TA
   :
   I
   NTERREGNUM
   

Umbar was at last ‘
reoccupied and rebuilt
’
(
HE
)
under the sovereignty of Haradrim. The Southrons quickly reinaugurated the traditions of the Castamirioni, becoming Corsairs by their own right, though on a lower level. Wherever they may have learnt their shipcraft, their fleets consisted merely of ‘
dromunds, and ships of great draught with many oars, and with black sails bellying in the breeze
’
(
RK
),
though other sources claim that the Corsairs preferred ‘
red sails with black star or eye
’.
(
PBD
)
A dromund is a vessel that Byzantium has much relied upon: a kind of large and swift ship of war, not unlike a triere of the Roman Empire. Typically it was a large ship, driven by 100 oars on two banks that were served by slaves. However, it had no keel, and that restricted it to coastal areas; the new Corsairs were unable to navigate the open seas of the Bay of Belfalas and the greater Belegaer. The shipbuilding of the New Realm of Umbar was indeed a far cry from the sophisticated high-sea ‘
galleons
’
(
HA
)
of Númenor.

The New Realm had a different hierarchical structure than its predecessors. It was no longer held by a duumvirate but by autocratic individuals whose official title was Captain of the Haven
(
KR
, IV)
. Beyond that, we do not learn anything about life in Umbar nor do we know whether Gondor’s political opposition was still asking for asylum there. Gondor never relinquished its claim of the firth, and to them, the Corsairs remained ‘
rebels
’ and ‘
renegades
’
(
KR
, IV;
RK
)
. Lasting peace was never achieved again in the Third Age.

1. 1944 - 3019
   TA
   :
   N
   EW
   R
   EALM
   

The situation was much aggravated after 2460, when the Watchful Peace ended and Sauron returned to Dol Guldur. ‘
After that time, Gondor was assailed both by orcs out of Mordor (which had long been unguarded) and the Corsairs of Umbar
.’
(
CE
)

In 2746, the 15
^th
Prince of Dol Amroth fell, apparently during an attempt to stop a raid of the Corsairs in Dor-en-Ernil
(
HE
)
. No other source gives any details of the circumstances under which he died. That was only a test of Gondor’s remaining strength.

Only a few years later, ‘
in the days of Beren, the nineteenth Steward
’
(
KR
, IV)
, in 2758, Gondor was finally ‘
attacked by fleets of the Corsairs
’ 
(
TY
)
who supported Sauron in his large-scale simultaneous campaign against the - kingless - Southern Kingdom and its recent new ally, Rohan. ‘
Three great fleets, long prepared, came up from Umbar and the Harad, and assailed the coasts of Gondor in great force; and the enemy made many landings, even as far north as the mouth of the Isen
.’
(
KR
)
Then the west march of Rohan was in peril of getting ravaged - but Wulf, a local landlord, averted the threat. He managed to negotiate an alliance with the Corsairs and aroused the Dunlendings who now, ‘
seeing their chance … were in great force, for they were joined by
[the]
enemies of Gondor that landed in the mouths of Lefnui and Isen
’
(
KR
)
. Wulf went with them to Edoras, and took it, and for a short time, he had the support of the Corsairs to elevate him to his throne.

But the New Realm had no part in the eventual defeat of the usurper by the Long Winter and the legitimate kings of Rohan. The Corsairs may have been present again in 2885 when ‘
stirred up by emissaries of Sauron the Haradrim cross
[ed]
the Poros and attack
[ed]
Gondor
.’
(
TY
)
Then they ‘
occupied South Gondor, and there was much fighting along the Poros
.’
(
KR
)
There is, however, no official statement of the New Realm that would tell which side it supported. Such a declaration was issued only when ‘
after the second arising of Sauron … Umbar fell under the domination of his servants, and the memorial of his humiliation
[the big globe of Ar-Pharazôn’s memorial that had been dominating the firth of Umbar for well-nigh two-thousand years now]
was thrown down
.’
(
KR
)
The New Realm was the one that fell deepest into Darkness. ‘
The corsairs of Umbar … have long ceased to fear the might of Gondor, and they have allied them with the Enemy
.’ 
(
RK
)

The threat was relieved a few decades before the War of the Ring when Umbar suffered heavy losses. In 2979, the mysterious warlord ‘
Thorongil often counselled Ecthelion that the strength of the rebels in Umbar was a great peril to Gondor. He finally got leave of the Steward and gathered a small fleet, and he came to Umbar unlooked-for by night, and there burned a great part of the ships of the Corsairs. He himself overthrew the Captain of the Haven in battle upon the quays, and then he withdrew his fleet with small loss
.’
(
KR
, IV)

The New Realm had not yet recovered from that blow, dealt in 2980, when Sauron summoned its vessels to provide troop transportation to the Pelennor fields. Still, eyewitnesses observed that the main fleet of Umbar consisted of ‘
fifty great ships and smaller vessels beyond coun
t.’
(
RK
)

1. The corsairs have long ceased to fear the might of Gondor
   

But to no avail: With the Fall of Barad-dûr, Umbar finally lost its sovereignty and submitted to the crown of King Elessar.
(
KR
)

1. The Captain of the Haven
   

It was in 3019 TA that the King’s Men of Númenor wrote history for a last time. One of them, ‘
a renegade, who came of the race of those that are named the Black Númenóreans
’,
(
RK
)
presented himself in public as an emissary of Mordor. ‘
His name is remembered in no tale, for he himself had forgotten it, and he said: “I am the Mouth of Sauron”.’ … And he entered the service of the Dark Tower when it first rose again, and because of his cunning he grew ever higher in the Lord’s favour; and he learned great sorcery, and knew much of the mind of Sauron and was more cruel than any orc
.’
(
KR
, IV)

This man may also have been the ‘
horseman in the night
’ who asked the Dwarf-king Dain for ‘
a trifle that Sauron fancies
’
(
FR
)
and also ‘
the Questioner
’ whom Grishnákh intended to deliver Merry and Pippin to
(
TT
)
. All together the Mouth of Sauron remains elusive. We do not know whether he came from Umbar or another southern port or maybe from the Harad aristocracy further inland. And how, after all the turmoils of three millenia during which their nation had ‘dwindled’ and ‘merged’ and been routed by the forces of Gondor, could there still be any Black Númenórean with a right to claim that name?

Even those few allusions to his identity that have been recorded have caused many arguments. How shall we interpret the stupefying statement that ‘
he entered the service of the Dark Tower when it first rose again
’? Barad-dûr ‘first rose again’ in the late Second Age! (Following its desertion while Sauron was in Númenor and believed to be destroyed.) The rebuilding of the Dark Tower at the end of the Third Age is commonly referenced as ‘
the second arising
’. (
KR
; iv)

1. T
   HE LAST
   B
   LACK
   N
   ÚMENÓREAN