Tar-Aldarion
the Mariner; the sixth King of Númenor
Names and Titles
Tar-Aldarion — “the Mariner”, called also the Ship-king — was the sixth King of Númenor, the son of Tar-Meneldur, the husband of Erendis, and the father of Tar-Ancalimë, the first Ruling Queen. His tale is told in Aldarion and Erendis: The Mariner’s Wife.
Life
Tar-Aldarion was born in S.A. 700 and held the Sceptre from 883 to 1075. He was the greatest mariner of his line, and the first to carry the ships of the Númenóreans far abroad beyond the seas to the shores of Middle-earth, where he built the haven of Vinyalondë in the west coastlands. Under his sailings the sea-power of Númenor was established, though the felling of trees for his timber and vessels was already a grief to some in the land.
The Marriage to Erendis
Long he had loved Erendis, the Mariner’s Wife, but their natures were set against each other: he was drawn always to the sea, and she to the land. When he was abroad on his long voyages Erendis would not dwell at the havens, and they lived estranged. Their only child was Tar-Ancalimë, who was raised by her mother and kept far from her father’s sea-craft.
The Sceptre and the Succession
The Sceptre passed to his daughter Tar-Ancalimë, the first Ruling Queen, in S.A. 1075, and Tar-Aldarion lived on until 1098. With his daughter’s reign the tradition of the Ruling Queens of Númenor began.
Significance
Tar-Aldarion is the ship-king of Númenor, the ruler who carried the might of the kingdom over the Sea; his tale is the great Númenórean story of the parting of sea and land, and of the estrangement in his house that left the Sceptre to a woman.