Eärnil II

Lineage

Eärnil was a member of the royal house of Gondor but not of the direct line. His father Siriondil was the son of Calimmacil, whose father Arciryas was a younger brother of King Narmacil II; Eärnil was thus a descendant of Telumehtar Umbardacil through a cadet branch. He was born in 1883 and rose in the king's service as a soldier, becoming Captain of the Southern Army, the force that guarded the borders of Ithilien and Harondor against the Haradrim.

The Battle of the Camp

In 1944 the Wainriders returned in strength, having allied themselves with the men of Khand and of Near Harad, and struck Gondor from north and south at once. King Ondoher led the Northern Army out to Dagorlad to meet the eastern attack and was killed there with his sons Artamir and Faramir; the army was scattered and the Wainriders poured through the Black Gate into Ithilien. In the south the Haradrim crossed the Poros into South Ithilien and met Eärnil, who defeated them decisively. Rather than wait for orders, he turned north at once. The Wainriders, thinking Gondor beaten, had halted to feast and celebrate in their camp in North Ithilien, and Eärnil fell on them with the Southern Army and the survivors of the Northern host that he had gathered on the march. The camp was stormed, the wagons burned, and the enemy driven in rout into the Dead Marshes, where most of them perished. The Battle of the Camp ended the Wainriders as a threat to Gondor.

The choice of the king

Ondoher's death left Gondor without an obvious heir. Arvedui of Arthedain claimed the crown both as the heir of Isildur and as the husband of Fíriel, Ondoher's daughter and only surviving child, arguing that the law of Númenor would have given the succession to a daughter. The Council of Gondor, led by the Steward Pelendur, rejected the claim after a year's delay. The kingship of Gondor, they held, passed through the line of Anárion only and through male heirs; and there was a victorious general of that line at hand. Eärnil was crowned in 1945. He was wise enough to write to Arvedui promising friendship and aid, saying that he did not forget the ancient kinship of the two realms.

Reign

Eärnil's reign of ninety-eight years was one of consolidation after the disasters of the Wainrider wars. His promise to the North was tested in 1973, when Arvedui sent word that Angmar was gathering for a final assault. Eärnil dispatched his son Eärnur with a great fleet. It sailed too late to save Fornost or Arvedui but arrived in the spring of 1975 to destroy the Witch-king's army at the Battle of Fornost, the greatest victory the South ever won on behalf of the North. Eärnil also strengthened the watch on Mordor, though the Nazgûl had already re-entered it, and lived to see Minas Ithil fall to them in 2002 during his reign. He died in 2043, and Eärnur, the last king, succeeded him.

Died in 2043 after a reign of ninety-eight years; succeeded by his son Eärnur, the last king of the line.