#tar calmacil

          Tar-Calmacil was the eighteenth King of Númenor. His mother Tári-Avaldë raised him to disdain the will of the Valar, and though he was crowned with his Quenya name, he was an ardent member of the King’s Men and conducted his court in the Adûnaic tongue, and his supporters called him Ar-Belzagar.           Ar-Belzagar renewed Númenor’s focus on imperialism, further expanding their influence in Middle-earth. Though this resulted in Sauron retreating further to the east, it also brought great turmoil and suffering to the Middle Men, whom he pillaged and plundered on his conquests.           Calmacil married young, to his sweetheart Naltanárië, and they were madly in love for many years before politics came between them. Naltanárië was of the Faithful, and though she hoped to influence her husband to soften his persecution of her people, her attempts proved unsuccessful as Ar-Belzagar grew more and more wicked, forcing upon her the name Arî-Aglazôri and threatening her life should she continue to defy him.           But Naltanárië would not be cowed. She went behind her husband’s back to preach faith in the Valar, friendship to the elves, and compassion for the Faithful, not truly believing that Tar-Calmacil would make good on his threats. Alas, Ar-Belzagar grew so wrathful that he arrested her and promised to execute her as a public example should she not repent of her words. True to her values, Naltanárië met her end with pride, burning at the stake in a horrific display of Númenor’s decline into darkness.           Even the King’s Men looked askance at this atrocious act, turning against Ar-Belzagar and to his sons Abattârik and Gimilzagar. Though both young men were, like their father, haughty and ambitious, they loved their mother and refused to accept her execution as just. Abattârik hungered to take the throne as early as he could, that he might, as he saw it, better the nation, and using their grief at Naltanárië’s death he manipulated his younger brother into avenging her with the sword.           Upon Ar-Belzagar’s murder, Gimilzagar was now the target of the ire of all Númenor. With false sorrow, the newly-crowned Tar-Ardamin, known to the King’s Men as Ar-Abattârik, held a trial for his brother and declared that he also would meet his end. Betrayed, Gimilzagar spoke against Abattârik, but the people were satisfied that justice had at last been done, and he was lawfully executed before a great crowd of Númenóreans, including his wife and daughter.

          Tar-Vanimeldë was the sixteenth ruler and third and final Ruling Queen of Númenor. She was her father Tar-Telemmaitë’s only heir at the time of his death, thus inheriting the scepter from him despite his reluctance to pass leadership onto his daughter. Vanimeldë was not raised as an heir, as her father hoped for a son, and thus she was inexperienced and uninterested in queenship. When her cousin Herucalmo, descendant of Aicanásso, declared his love for her, she was easily won over by his promises to care for her and her kingdom.           It soon became clear that Herucalmo cared less for Tar-Vanimeldë and more for her throne, but even so she was glad to have someone else take on her responsibility. Vanimeldë preferred to focus on music, theater, and dancing, sponsoring the arts and even enjoying a different kind of fame under the stage name Liltalissë.           Tar-Vanimeldë and Herucalmo had one child, Alcarin. As his son grew and showed, like his mother, little interest in governance, Herucalmo’s greed and ambition only increased. He plotted to gradually poison his wife, killing her slowly before her time, and upon her death he seized the throne and declared himself Tar-Anducal, seventeenth King of Númenor.           Alcarin cared more for food and wine than for his rightful kingship, and was content to let his usurping father rule in his stead until his wife Avaldë began to pressure him to avenge his mother. In truth Avaldë wasted no tears on Tar-Vanimeldë, but wanted the throne for herself. She was one of the King’s Women, the society first founded by Alcarin’s ancestress Tári-Fanyahelcë, and chose for herself the Adûnaic name Pharâzarî, the golden queen.           At her bidding, Alcarin dosed his father with the same poison he had fed to Tar-Vanimeldë, and Herucalmo met the same unfortunate end as his wife. Tári-Avaldë celebrated the occasion by promising her son Calmacil, a man as cunning and vicious as herself, that if necessary, she would help him dispose of his father in the same manner. In the end such lengths were not necessary, but Calmacil would meet a similarly ghastly end mirroring that of his grandfather “Tar”-Anducal...

Tolkien, J.R.R.. Unfinished Tales. (London: HarperCollins, 1998.) 286. (The Line of Elros: Kings of Númenor)