Your discovery of 'Numinor' in C.S.L.'s That Hideous Strength is discovery of a plagiarism: well, not that, since he used the word, taken from my legends of the First and Second Ages, in the belief that they would soon appear. They have not, but I suppose now they may. The spelling Numinor is due to his hearing it and not seeing it. Númenóre or Númenor means in High-elven simply West-land. As for the shape of the world of the Third Age, I am afraid that was devised 'dramatically' rather than geologically, or paleontologically. I do sometimes wish that I had made some sort of agreement between the imaginations or theories of the geologists and my map a little more possible. But that would only have made more trouble with human history.
J.R.R. Tolkien
#169 From a letter to Hugh Brogan 11 September 1955
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5 comments:
Nice map of Numenor.
what a wonderful gem of a find! I am reading that hideous strength, and quite flipped my lid when I saw CS mention Numinor (and spell it incorrectly...)! This is a fantastic explanation of what I've just found on page 201. Thanks so much for posting
Somehow missed this use by old CS first time I read the Trilogy. This time I ran to the 'puter and found this answer. Thanks for the post!
Thanks for this! I also am re-reading THS and was startled to see Numinor mentioned. I missed it the first time around (and I don't think the spelling was the reason). Thanks again!
Numinor was Yumi's brother in Ulysses31
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