Amnon
Other names: Emnon, Amnor, Amnos
Amnon (later versions Amnos) the Prophet is a shadowy, obscure Maia of Mandos who prophesied the Fall of Gondolin to the Noldor during their rebellion in Tolkien’s early writings. The prophecy is latered quoted by King Turgon himself during the actual fall of the city. Amnon's race isn’t specified, but his ability to prophecy doom (an trait associated with the Vala Namo/Mandos, who at the time was called Vefantur), grim and shadowy appearance, and the fact that it takes place in Valinor makes most people assume he was an Ainu, likely a Maia of Mandos. Tolkien’s son Christopher himself speculates this is the case in a footnote in The Book of Lost Tales Part 1. Some fans even interpret him as the chief of Mandos’ Maiar, and sometimes also as the unidentified figure (usually assumed to be Mandos himself) who speaks the Doom of Mandos to the Noldor after the Kinslaying at Alqualonde. He would be the only named Maia of Mandos (Although early drafts had Pallando, who became one of the Blue Wizards, as a Maia associated with Mandos and Nienna before he was eventually made a Maia of Orome like his friend Alatar).
The situation is confusing though because the earliest versions mention "The Prophecy of Amnon” as well as “Amnon the Prophet of Old” when referring to the prophecy of the unnamed servant of Mandos, giving the impression that we are supposed to assume this is his name. But later versions of the event refer to an unnamed servant of who utters the same prophecy to the Noldor at a place called Amnor. The Flight of the Noldoli mentions, “the Prophecies of Amnos, for thus was the place where they were spoken called at that time...” and The Tale of the Sun and Moon tells us, “Lastly came some [servant] from Mandos who had gazed upon that sad throng nigh the strands of Amnor...the Elves wept, for now seemed the darkness black indeed and that more than the outward light of the fair Trees was slain.” Hence it becomes unclear if the name of the prophecy refers to the person who uttered it or the place where it was spoken. In the Silmarillion it mentions that there are a vast number of Maiar and the elves only know the names of a few of them, so it’s possible that the Noldor named the being who uttered the prophecy after the place where it was spoken because they didn’t know his true name. This would further back up the assumption that Amnon was associated with Mandos, since that Vala’s actual name is Namo but he is usually referred to by the name of a place.Â
Amnon and his prophecy don’t appear in the published Silmarillion, but there is a reference to them in the stand-alone The Fall of Gondolin novel that came out in 2018. They are also mentioned in Part 1 and Part 2 of the published Book of Lost Tales.
Many people have found Tolkien’s use of the name Amnon for this character strange, because Tolkien was a devout Catholic and in the Bible Amnon is the name of the wicked son of King David who forces himself on his own half-sister and is slain by his own brother in revenge. It is also very similar to the name of the Biblical land of Ammon, whose inhabitants (the Ammonites) were frequent enemies of the Israelites and were said to have practiced child sacrifice to the god Molech.Â
