Contents of this entry
A family divided by different destiniesKingship and the fear that comes laterPrimary referencesRelated encyclopedia entries
A family divided by different destinies
Elros and Elrond are the sons of Eärendil and Elwing. Their childhood is caught in the violence at the Havens of Sirion, where the sons of Fëanor seek the Silmaril. The published Silmarillion preserves Maglor’s care for the children, a disturbing proximity between tenderness and the wider violence caused by the oath.
The brothers are granted a choice of kindred. Elrond chooses the Elven fate; Elros chooses that of Men and becomes the founding king of the island realm granted to the Edain. His exceptional lifespan does not cancel mortality. Númenórean longevity is a gift within a mortal condition, not the same thing as the Elves’ relationship with the life of Arda.
Kingship and the fear that comes later
Tar-Minyatur’s reign stands near the beginning of Númenor’s long history, before the later division between loyalty to the West and imperial ambition. The royal succession and the Lords of Andúnië carry his ancestry into different branches, one of which eventually leads to Elendil and Aragorn.
The importance of Elros therefore extends beyond the first reign. His choice makes the later fear of death particularly significant: Númenor’s kings inherit a mortal destiny deliberately accepted by their ancestor, yet some descendants seek to escape its conditions through power.
He is not simply an earlier version of Elrond with a crown. The brothers’ differing fates allow Tolkien to place enduring kinship beside an ultimate separation. Their descendants repeatedly encounter the consequences, most personally in the choice of Arwen many ages later.
Primary references
The Silmarillion, “Of the Voyage of Eärendil and the War of Wrath” and “Akallabêth”; Unfinished Tales, “The Line of Elros”; The Lord of the Rings, Appendix A, “The Númenórean Kings”.
