Elros

© Illustration by MellorianJ
Elros Tar-Minyatur
Biographical information
Other names	Elerossë (Q.) Indilzar (A.)
Titles	King of Númenor
Birth	FA 532
Rule	SA 32 – 442 (410 years)
Death	SA 442
Realms	Númenor
Spouse	Unnamed wife
Weapon	Aranrúth Dramborleg
Physical description
Race	Half-elven (chose to be mortal)
Height	Tall
Hair	Dark
Eyes	Grey
Culture	Ñoldor (House of Fingolfin), Sindar (House of Thingol) Dúnedain of Númenor (House of Elros)

Elros, also known as Elros Tar-Minyatur, the Half-elven, was the son of Eärendil and Elwing, brother of Elrond, uncle of Elladan and Elrohir and Arwen Undómiel, and the first King of Númenor; ancestor to a line of kings that led to his distant descendant Aragorn II Elessar. He had a strong friendship with the Elves, who were half his kin.

Biography

First Age

In FA 532, Elros was born in the Elven havens of Arvernien. When they were only children, the Sons of Fëanor attacked the havens in order to recover the Silmaril, and Elros and Elrond were taken captive by Maglor and Maedhros. Around the same time, Elwing, their mother, cast herself into the great sea and vanished from Middle-earth.

From then on, Elros and his brother were raised by Maglor. They were both raised in love for Maglor was not proud of his deeds. It is nowhere told when or if Elros and Elrond actually left Maglor or if they participated in the War of Wrath which broke the power of Morgoth for good.

Second Age

Elros Half-elven

Eventually the War of Wrath ended. As Elros and Elrond were Peredhil, or Half-elven, and only in these two remained the line of heroic chieftains of Men in the First Age. The Valar gave to Elrond and Elros the choice of which kindred they would belong to. Elros chose to be of Man-kind and as such he was granted a great life-span. Eonwë came among the faithful humans and he taught them and gave them wisdom, power, and a life longer than any others of mortal race, but none of the high men ever reached the age of Elros. A great land was prepared for them; not a part of Middle-earth yet not wholly separate from it. This land was Númenor, and Elros would be its first king.

Númenor was raised from the depths of the sea by Ossë, established by Aulë and enriched by Yavanna. The Elves came bringing flowers and fountains out of Tol Eressëa from Avallonë, and wrought gardens in Númenor. The Valar called it Andor, "The Land of Gift", and its own people called it Westernessë, for it lay west of all the lands inhabited by mortals.

At age 90, Elros ascended the throne of Númenor in the city of Armenelos where he was inscribed as Elros Tar-Minyatur. The sword Aranrúth, which once was his great-great-grandfather Thingol's sword, the Ring of Barahir, and Dramborleg, the Axe of Tuor, became heirlooms of the Kings of Númenor. During his reign, Elros had four children to an unnamed mortal wife. They included three sons, Vardamir Nólimon, Manwendil, and Atanalcar, and a daughter, Tindómiel.

Elros died in SA 442, after ruling Númenor for 410 years.

Trivia

• Elros' lifespan was 500 years, and he started ruling Númenor at an old age (90), but he gave up his life willingly, so the oldest age Elros could ever have been is unknown.
• He could possibly be related to the Valar, as his ancestor Melian the Maia was a distant relative of Yavanna and Vána, who are Valar.
• Elros' descendants never lived up to his age; his descendant Aragorn only lived up to 210 years, which was less than half his age. In fact the oldest King/Queen of Númenor other than Elros was Tar-Atanamir, who lived to 421 years, 79 years less than Elros' lifespan. It was, however, stated that Elros' life and reign were particularly long, even by the standards of his lineage, which could be attributed to his parentage.
• Elros reign over Númenor was nearly twice as long as Aragorn's age.

Etymology

Elros was a Sindarin word that meant "Elf of the spray", from el ("elf" or "star", interchangeably) and ross ("foam, spray"). The name came from the Quenya word Elerossë.

Tar-Minyatur was a Quenya word that meant "High First-ruler" in the High-Elven tongue, from tar ("king"), minya ("first") and túrë ("master, lord"). Afterwards this was the convention by which most succeeding Kings of Númenor took their royal title.

Earlier Names

In earlier versions, the Adûnaic name for Elros was Indilzar Azrabelo, and later changed to Gimilzôr. Later, the name Gimilzôr was given to the twenty-third King of Númenor.

Line of the Half-elven

Finwë

Indis

Fingolfin

Anairë

Galdor

Thingol

Melian

Elenwë

Turgon

Huor

Rían

Beren

Lúthien

Idril

Tuor

Dior

Nimloth

Eärendil

Elwing

Eluréd and Elurín

Elros

Elrond

Celebrían

Kings of Númenor

Lords of Andunie

Elendil

Isildur

Anarion

Kings of Arnor

Kings of Gondor

Chieftains of the Dúnedain

Aragorn

Arwen

Elladan

Elrohir

Eldarion

Daughters

The marriages between Elves and Men are in bold.
The half-elven or the Peredhil are in italic.

Translations

Foreign Language	Translated name
Amharic	ኤልሮስ
Arabic	ايلروس
Armenian	Ելրոս
Belarusian Cyrillic	Эльрос
Bengali	ইলর্স
Bulgarian Cyrillic	Елрос (Elros) Елрос Тар-Миниатур (Elros Tar-Minyatur)
Catalan	Élros
Chinese (Hong Kong)	愛洛斯 (Elros) 愛洛斯 · 塔爾-明亞特 (Elros Tar-Minyatur)
Danish	Elros (Númenors 1. konge)
Georgian	ელროსი (Elros) ელროსი ტარ-მინიატური (Elros Tar-Minyatur)
Greek	Ελρος
Gujarati	ઍલ્રોસ
Hebrew	(Elros) אלרוס (Elros Tar-Minyatur) אלרוס טאר מיניאטור
Hindi	एल्रोस
Japanese	エルロス
Kannada	ಎಲ್ರೋಸ್
Kazakh	Елрос (Cyrillic) Elros (Latin)
Korean	엘로스
Kyrgyz Cyrillic	Элрос
Macedonian Cyrillic	Елрос
Marathi	एल्लोस
Mongolian Cyrillic	Елрос
Nepalese	एल्रोस
Persian	(Elros) الروس (Elros Tar-Minyatur) الروس تار-مینیاتور
Punjabi	ਏਲਰੋਸ
Russian	Элрос (Elros) Элрос Тар-Миньятур (Elros Tar-Minyatur)
Sanskrit	एल्रोस्
Serbian	Елрос (Cyrillic) Elros (Latin)
Sinhalese	ඊල්රෝස්
Tajik Cyrillic	Елрос
Tamil	ஏல்ரொஸ்
Telugu	ఏల్రొస
Thai	เอลรอส
Ukrainian Cyrillic	Ельрос
Uzbek	Елрос (Cyrillic) Elros (Latin)
Yiddish	עלראָס

King of Númenor
Preceded by None	Elros	Succeeded by Vardamir Nólimon
SA 32 - SA 442