The Crisis of the High King, and the Mystery of Tharbad

 Before I get into the main topic, I wanted to talk a little bit about the city of Tharbad.

Tharbad is a mysterious location of great interest to in-depth Tolkien fans; a city located between Arnor and Gondor, on the Greyflood.  During Tolkien's lifetime, very little was revealed about it, other than it was ruined in the great floods about a hundred years before the War of the Ring, leaving the remnants of its great bridge a dangerous ford.  

With the publication of Unfinished Tales, however, we received a wealth of information.  It apparently had been constructed on the site of a ford of some kind, the only significant crossing point for miles (its name literally means 'road-crossing'.  As it sat amid the Great Fens that occupy the upper reaches of the Greyflood, great causeways had to be erected on either side of the river to reach it.  Also significant - that the city sat on the furthest point on the Greyflood that ships could safely reach, making it an important port and shipping destination.  In fact, it was said to be the most expeditious route between the two kingdoms, which maintained the forts, causeways, and port.

Still, a number of questions remained, which has made it a favorite topic of speculation, especially in pen-and-paper RPGs (The first Middle-Earth RPG had a substantial depiction of the city, in fact):

The reference to the two kingdoms maintaining it together is interesting.  It is clearly on the edge of Arnor's territory; Gondor didn't extend much further than Caledardhon (later, the land of the Rohirrim, Rohan); the territory inbetween, Enedwaith, has been stated multiple times to have never been settled by the Numenoreans.  That 'two kingdoms' are mentioned implies that it dated no earlier than the start of the Third Age.  While the Great Road certainly was of significance, and that it laid where a river route connected up with the road, it is still hard to figure out why it was maintained by both kingdoms, or how it survived the destruction of Arnor.  Was it an independent city in the end?  And did it have some hidden significance we're missing?

But let's turn to the main topic.  There's a very mysterious set of circumstances that happens at the beginning of the Third Age.  While there are two Numenorean realms that were found by the exiles, Arnor and Gondor (as well as Belfalas and possibly others; see my prior post on the subject), it was made clear that Elendil - as High King - ruled all of them, with Arnor ('royal realm') as his personal domain.  His sons, Isildur and Anarion jointly ruled Gondor far to the south, each with their own fief (Ithilien and Anorien, respectively) with their own capitol (Minas Ithil and Minas Anor).  However, the realm of Gondor was ruled from the city of Osgiliath, which sat on both sides of the Great River, halfway between the other two cities, where the two ruled from thrones side-by-side as equals.  This system lasted for over a century, and was upended by the War of the Last Alliance and deaths of both Elendil and Anarion.

Isildur inherited his father's title but only ruled for little more than a year (and never from the capitol of Annuminas in the far north).  His initial plan was to return to the north to rule as High King, with his nephew Meneldil, Anarion's son, ruling under him in Gondor.  As we know, though, the tragic circumstances at the Disaster at Gladden Fields ended with the deaths of not only Isildur, but all his heirs except his young son who had stayed behind in Rivendell.

And after that, the realms separate.  Meneldil and his heirs rule from Gondor, and Isildur's son - Valandil - and his heirs rule from Arnor.   The title of High King is never revived until 3000 years later, with King Elessar.  

But that's all the information we're given.  Nothing much happens in Gondor for over 400 years, and apart from a decline mentioned over the years, we get nothing about Arnor until the kingdom disintegrates into three smaller ones about 800 years later.  We're told nothing about what exactly happened with the separation of the Numenorean kingdoms, except that it happened.  So is there any inferences that we can make that might explain it?  I think there is.

There are two minor clues to consider.  One is that The Disaster at Gladden Fields has a brief description of Meneldil, and that he preferred being independent of Isilur as he hoped that his duties in the north would keep him too busy to interfere with the affairs of Gondor.  The second is that Meneldil does not ascend the throne immediately upon Isildur's death; while Isildur perishes in 2 TA, Meneldil is only crowned in 10 TA.  The most likely reason is his age, as he was too young to join the war; Arnor was most likely governed by some sort of regency, perhaps a council of Numenorean families.

With these circumstances, I think we can reconstruct what happened.  With a regency in place, Meneldil makes his move to declare that Gondor would not recognize the authority of Arnor.  A political crisis would have ensued, and in turn some form of negotiations and talks held.  The Arnor regency would insist that when Valandil came of age, he would be the new High King as the heir of Isildur; Meneldil in turn would claim that he had as much of a claim to the throne as his cousin did.  There would be a complete impasse.  In addition, you have Belfalas, which was made a Principality by Elendil (and possibly the lands around Lond Daer) which would not recognize a mere King of Gondor or Arnor.

However, Gondor itself lends itself to a precedent - the joint rule of Isildur and Anarion, from a city set between their realms but, likely, was not considered part of either.   Here's where Tharbad, then, comes into play.

Tharbad instead of being an independent city-state, is a jointly-ruled city that becomes the technical capitol of the Faithful Numenoreans, located roughly halfway between the two other capitols.  Both nations would help construct it and maintain it.  This would serve a number of purposes - a symbolic uniting of equal realms (rather than Arnor being the High King's realm), the strengthening of trade and communication without relying on passing through elven lands (or using the port of Lond Daer).  The respective lines of kings would most likely only visit, sending representatives the rest of the time.  For the most part, the separated realms probably dealt with matters that had little to no effect on the other, and that decisions would only be made at Tharbad for issues that affected both realms. 

This would mean that, even without a High King, the two kingdoms would still be united as one realm, at least until the end of Arnor.  (I would suspect that the construction of Tharbad as the 'new' capitol of the two realms would diminish Annuminas' stature, to the point that the capitol would be moved to Fornost, contributing to the disintegration of that realm).  Soon after that, probably during the height of Gondor's power (circa 1000 TA), they would no longer honor the joint rulership, pointing out that the realm of Arnor no longer existed.  When the Kings of Arthedain once again claimed lordship over all the former lands of Arnor, with the deaths of the other branches of Isildur's heirs, they may have attempted to once again assert their equal rulership, only to be rebuffed.  There is the strong suggestion that the realms of Arnor and Gondor were bitterly divided in the days prior to the penultimate king of the northern line, and I suspect that would be it.

In the end, King Arvedui would make a play to revive the title of High King by marrying the daughter of the King of Gondor, uniting the two lines; it was ignored, and he soon perished.  In the meantime, Tharbad apparently became more and more independent, possibly remaining neutral (or more defensive) in the wars with the Witch-King and therefore being saved from destruction, but slowly declining as trade between the north and south faded away, before finally falling into ruin.  We know nothing of its fate post-war, but the new High King, Elessar, seemed determined to return to Annuminas as the capitol in the north, and Tharbad's supposed ties to royalty would not be revisited.  However, Gandalf's communications with Butterbur after the war ended suggested that people would once again live and thrive in the area.  It seems inconceivable that, in the end, the town of Tharbad would not rise and once again be a center for trade and commerce in the Reunited Kingdom.