Second King of Gondor through whom the line of Kings descended. Anárion was born in Numenor in 3219 of the Second Age. He was the son of Elendil and he had an older brother Isildur. Anárion had four children. The three eldest were most likely daughters, and the fourth was a son named Meneldil who was the last man born in Numenor in 3318.
Anárion and his family were among the Faithful who rejected the efforts of Sauron to corrupt the Men of Numenor. Sauron convinced Ar-Pharazôn, King of Numenor, to wage war against the Valar in a misguided attempt to attain immortality. When Ar-Pharazôn’s fleet set out for the Undying Lands in 3319, the Faithful remained in Numenor. The fleet was destroyed and Numenor sank beneath the Sea, but the Faithful had prepared their own ships and were able to escape to Middle-earth.

Anárion had two ships of his own, Isildur had three, and Elendil had four. Elendil’s ships landed in northern Middle-earth and Anárion and Isildur sailed south to the Bay of Belfalas and up the Anduin. In 3320, the North-kingdom of Arnor and the South-kingdom of Gondor were founded. Elendil was the High King and lived in Arnor, while Isildur and Anárion jointly ruled Gondor in the south.

The capital of Gondor was Osgiliath on the Anduin. Isildur and Anárion each had a throne there in the Great Hall. Anárion built the stronghold of Minas Anor in the region of Anórien on the west side of the Anduin. He kept the palantír called the Anor-stone there.

Unknown to Isildur and Anárion, Sauron had returned to Mordor. In 3429, Sauron attacked Gondor and captured Isildur’s stronghold Minas Ithil. Isildur went north to Arnor to consult with Elendil. Anárion remained behind to defend Gondor. He was able to hold Osgiliath and drive Sauron’s forces back to Mordor for the time being, but he feared he would not be able to withstand another assault.

Elendil formed the Last Alliance of Elves and Men with Gil-galad of the Elves. They came south in 3434 and joined with Anárion’s forces and fought the War of the Last Alliance against Sauron. The Last Alliance defeated Sauron’s forces in the Battle of Dagorlad and entered Mordor. They besieged Sauron in Barad-dûr for seven years. Sauron attacked the sieged army from above with fire and projectiles.

In 3440, Anárion was killed by a stone cast from the Dark Tower that crushed his helmet. The siege ended the next year in 3441 when Sauron came down and fought Elendil and Gil-galad, who were both killed, but not before Sauron also fell and Isildur took the One Ring from him, which allowed Sauron’s spirit to survive.

Isildur intended to be High King of both Gondor and Arnor and to live in the North-kingdom while Anárion’s son Meneldil directly ruled Gondor. But Isildur was killed by Orcs in the Gladden Fields in the year 2 of the Third Age. Isildur’s only surviving son Valandil was still a child, and when he came of age he took up the kingship of Arnor but did not claim the High Kingship.

Meneldil therefore remained the sole ruler and Anárion’s descendants continued to rule Gondor until the line of Kings ended with Earnur in 2050. At the end of the Third Age, the kingship was resumed by Aragorn who was a direct descendant of Isildur but was also a descendant of Anárion through Firiel, daughter of King Ondoher of Gondor, who married Arvedui of the North-kingdom.

Etymology: The name Anárion literraly means “Sun son” in Quenya from Anár meaning “the Sun” and the masculine ending -ion denoting “son of.

The Barrow-downs are undoubtedly a place of mystery and evil- however It was not always as such, and its role in history, was so much more!

Throughout the ages the Barrow-downs were long used as a burial ground by Men, however our story begins just over 2,000 years ago when the Kingdom of Arnor, which spanned the entire region of Eriador, split up into three distinct kingdoms after the fall of Eärendur, the final King of Arnor. Each of the fallen King’s sons staked a claim to the throne and in order to prevent civil war, the land was divided- Arthedain to the east, Cardolan to the south, and Rhudaur to the north. It is within the newly created Kingdom of Cardolan that the Barrow-downs resided, which at this point in history were no more than a series of low, grassy hills sparsely crowned with barrows- and it was here that Tyrn Gorthad , the capital of Cardolan, was founded.

For over 400 years the megaliths and barrows of the Barrow-downs served as the final resting places for the princes of Cardolan, up until the year 1300 of the Second Age when the Kingdom of Angmar was built by the Lord of the Nazgûl. It was at this point in time that the downfall of Cardolan began to play out, first with the fall of Rhudar to Angmar. The last Kings of Rhudaur were not of Númenórean blood, but were descended of Men in service of Angmar. Under their rule the land became a vassal of Angmar, and thus enemies of Cardolan and Arthedain. Cardolan became the most important ally of Arthedain in the fight to hold back Angmar, but it proved too much for Cardolan which entrenched itself at its capital of Tyrn Gorthad, in the Barrow-downs. The final blow for Cardolan came when the Witch King of Angmar sent evil spirits, wights, to occupy the Barrow-downs. The combined forces of Angmar, Rhudaur and the wights overran and destroyed Cardolan in TA 1409.

After the fall of Cardolan, Arthedain once again staked claim to all of Arnor, even making a failed attempt to reclaim the Barrow-downs and the capital of Tyrn Gorthad, but the wights kept them out. For 500 years Arthedain kept up the struggle against Angmar until the TA 1974, when Angmar overran the city of Fornost, which had served as the capital of Arthedain.

In recent times it was revealed by the hermit Tom Bombadil that several Hobbits had tried to pass through the Barrow-downs and were trapped there by a wight. The hermit claimed to have rescued them and aided them on their journey to the City of Bree.

Today the Barrow-downs are a place of ruin and evil. The wights still hold the Downs and the ruins of Tyrn Gorthhad with several wight lords residing with the deepest tombs. Do you dare to enter, to seek the lost lore, to face the darkness within?