Meneldil

Lineage and birth

Meneldil was the fourth child and only surviving son of Anárion, the younger son of Elendil. He was born in Númenor in S.A. 3318, the year before the Downfall, and the tradition of Gondor recorded him as the last man to be born in the island before it was drowned. He was carried to Middle-earth as an infant in his father's ships, and grew up in the new realm of Gondor that Anárion and Isildur founded together in S.A. 3320.

The war and the succession

Meneldil was a grown man when Sauron attacked Gondor in S.A. 3429 and when the Last Alliance marched. His father was killed by a stone cast from Barad-dûr in 3440, the year before Sauron's overthrow, and by the law of the realm Meneldil became lord of Anárion's share of Gondor under the High King. When the war ended Isildur, now High King of both realms, came south and spent a year in Gondor ordering its affairs. He planted a seedling of the White Tree in Minas Anor in memory of his brother and, in T.A. 2, committed the whole rule of Gondor to Meneldil before riding north with his sons to take up his father's kingdom of Arnor.

Unfinished Tales preserves a tradition that Meneldil was glad to see his uncle go, being a man of courtesy but of ambition who preferred to rule without a High King over him, and that Isildur understood as much. Whatever the truth, Isildur's death at the Gladden Fields a few weeks later made the question moot. Meneldil ruled Gondor as a full king, and though the North Kingdom always maintained that the High Kingship belonged to Isildur's heirs, the kings of Gondor from Meneldil onward regarded themselves as independent. This separation, unresolved for three thousand years, was the root of Gondor's rejection of Arvedui's claim in 1944 and was healed only when Aragorn united both crowns.

Reign and legacy

Meneldil reigned for a hundred and fifty-six years, a peaceful span in which Gondor grew and its borders were secured. He was succeeded in 158 by his son Cemendur. Through him every king of Gondor down to Eärnur was a descendant of Anárion, and the Stewards were later to invoke the line of Anárion against any claimant from the North.

Died in T.A. 158 after a long and peaceful reign; succeeded by his son Cemendur.