‘Lord of the Rings’: What Is Númenor? The History of Tolkien’s Atlantis

thewrap.com:

Note: The following contains spoilers for “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power” Episode 3.At long last, Númenor has been brought to the screen.

A storied location in J.R.R. Tolkien’s Middle-earth saga, this bustling island paradise has never been portrayed in any Tolkien adaptation until Amazon Prime Video’s “Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power.”The show’s third episode finds Galadriel (Morfydd Clark) and Halbrand (Charlie Vickers) having been rescued by a mysterious ship that takes them to Numenor – a matter of controversy since an elf has not set foot in the city for ages.But what is Númenor and why is it so special?

We run down its history in the books – including what’s going on there during the time of “The Lord of the Rings” – below.Númenor is an island kingdom located to the west of Middle-earth that was, to put it succinctly, the greatest civilization of Men. “It’s Tolkien’s Atlantis,” actors Maxim Baldry – who plays Isildur – told TheWrap, adding that the production spared no expense in bringing the location to life.“It was one of the most incredible sets, they built a whole city and you could walk through it.

They even had frankincense, you could smell it. They just transported us to this world, it was very special.”In the legend of Númenor, the island was quite literally raised out of the sea by the Valar as a gift to Men who stood with the elves against the evil Morgoth during the wars in the First Age.