Aldarion and Erendis: The Mariner's Wife
the tale of the Ship-kings and a marriage that failed
Nature
Aldarion and Erendis: The Mariner’s Wife is the longest of the Second Age tales in Unfinished Tales (Part Two, II): the story of Aldarion, the great mariner who became king under the name Tar-Aldarion, and of his wife Erendis — a tragedy of a marriage undone by the sea, and the coming of their daughter Ancalimë, first of the Ruling Queens.
Contents
The tale tells of Aldarion, the only son of King Tar-Meneldur, whose love of the sea sent him ever-further voyaging to the coasts of Middle-earth, where his friendship aided the Elves and the sea-power of Númenor arose — the beginning of the age of the Ship-kings. Erendis, proud and of the deep-rooted landward folk, loved him and was grieved by his long absences; their betrothal was long deferred, their marriage marred, and at last, when he would not give up the sea, she withdrew from him. The story follows the estrangement, the birth and upbringing of their daughter Ancalimë, the king’s laws by which she might be his heir, and the silent ending of the marriage: Aldarion served out his long reign, and Ancalimë became the first queen to hold the sceptre in her own right.
Composition
A finished prose tale of the Second Age, unique among that age’s matter for its length and domestic scope; it is published in Unfinished Tales with the genealogical material of the Line of Elros and a commentary by Christopher Tolkien on its place among Tolkien’s Númenor writings.