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Timeline Event

Amandil sails West to seek aid from the Valar

Event Type: General

Age: Akallabêth/Last Alliance

Year: 3316

Description:
An event in the prelude to the Assault on Valinor; see that entry for an overview:

Then Ar-Pharazôn, being besotted, ... began to ponder ... how he might make war upon the Valar. ... And Amandil ... was dismayed and filled with a great dread, for he knew that Men could not vanquish the Valar in war, and that ruin must come upon the world, if this war were not stayed. Therefore he called his son, Elendil, and he said to him:

'The days are dark, and there is no hope for Men, for the Faithful are few. Therefore I am minded to try that counsel which our forefather Eärendil took of old, to sail into the West..., and to speak to the Valar, even to Manwë himself, if may be, and beseech his aid ere all is lost.'

'Would you then betray the King?' said Elendil. 'For you know well the charge that they make against us, that we are traitors and spies, and that until this day it has been false.'

'If I thought that Manwë needed such a messenger,' said Amandil, 'I would betray the King. For there is but one loyalty from which no man can be absolved in heart for any cause. But it is for mercy upon Men and their deliverance from Sauron the Deceiver that I would plead, since some at least have remained faithful. And as for the Ban, I will suffer in myself the penalty, lest all my people should become guilty.'

The Silmarillion, Akallabêth

It is said that Amandil set sail in a small ship at night, and steered first eastward, and then went about and passed into the west. And he took with him three servants, dear to his heart, and never again were they heard of by word or sign in this world, nor is there any tale or guess of their fate. Men could not a second time be saved by any such embassy, and for the treason of Númenor there was no easy absolving.

The Silmarillion, Akallabêth

And in ... the Hiding of Valinor, the Enchanted Isles were set, and all the seas about them were filled with shadows and bewilderment. And these isles were strung as a net ... from the north to the south, before Tol Eressëa ... is reached by one sailing west. Hardly might any vessel pass between them.... And in the twilight a great weariness came upon mariners...; but all that ever set foot upon the islands were there entrapped, and slept until the Change of the World. Thus it was ... of the many messengers that in after days sailed into the West none came ever to Valinor - save one only: the mightiest mariner of song.

The Silmarillion, Quenta Silmarillion, Ch 11, Of the Sun and Moon and the Hiding of Valinor

The date of Amandil's voyage is given in this text, 3316....

The Peoples of Middle-Earth, HoME Vol 12, Part 1, Ch 6, The Tale of Years of the Second Age: Notes, Note 22

Contributors:
Elena Tiriel 28Oct05, 11Nov05, 16Nov05

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