Gondorian Renaissance

The 17th century was a time of great change and upheaval for Gondor. The society, strongly hierarchical and stratified, dominated by a small Dúnedain elite, experienced two major wars (1633–1638, 1653–1666) and the plague (1635–1638), which claimed the lives of half of the kingdom’s population. Particularly, the economic and political aftermath of the plague disrupted Gondor well into the end of the century.

The opening of Gondor and its Númenorean renaissance ultimately stemmed not from technological advancements, but from societal changes forced by external stimuli. In the decades following the plague, ordinary Gondorians, previously excluded from economic and societal life, challenged the Elvish-speaking Dúnedain elite in all spheres of society.

The great reform of 1675 brought commoners into Gondor’s Grand Council for the first time since King Falastur (830–913). Amidst the upheaval, Dúnedain houses that embraced the ethos of the new age and invested their substantial wealth in trade and science fared the best. On the other hand, many families accustomed to a life of leisure on their estates faced challenges due to rising labor costs, rural depopulation, and the pressure of new religious-political movements.

Technological advancements also occurred. The first advanced printing press in Gondor was brought from the north by Tharbad refugees Hamson and Hamfast, who emigrated to Linhir in 1652. Ten years later, printing presses were already operating in ten major cities of Gondor. The rapid spread of technology is evidenced by the presence of printing presses in forty cities by the 1690s, with over a dozen in Minas Anor alone.

The adoption of printing technology significantly impacted Gondor’s old universities, which could now effectively disseminate new ideas to the common people. It also facilitated the rapid growth of pietism, initially a phenomenon limited to Linhir, into a widespread grassroots movement throughout South Gondor. During the reign of Steward Daldor, pietism became a trend even at court. When King Tarondor cut his long hair short, rumors circulated that he had secretly embraced pietism.

The meritocratic system established in Gondor as a result of the numerous civil wars of the Dúnedain in the 16th century created opportunities for advancement. With old noble houses in exile or completely wiped out, new Dúnadan families were rapidly elevated to the elite. By the end of the 17th century, this trend extended, despite aristocratic opposition, to the subject peoples. Even the most significant Steward of Gondor of his time, Count Daldor, began his career as a humble merchant named Meldin Barahirion. King Tarondor ennobled him in 1647 for his diplomatic efforts and as a translator of Haradan languages.

Alongside Count Daldor, the most notable figure of the early 17th-century renaissance was the king’s close friend, Curvegil Rúthion (later Count Parth Feren). Rúthion was not only a renowned swordsman and fencing theorist but also a landscape architect and mathematician. Rúthion applied a mathematical approach both in combat and in designing new geometric gardens for King Tarondor. He expanded known integer powers and roots to general fractional powers and formulated laws corresponding to the present rules of exponentiation. Rúthion’s influence also led to a significant increase in the use of symbols in mathematical writings.

Daldor and Rúthion were trailblazers for a new type of individual: a renaissance man. These individuals were polymaths, proficient in business, politics, art, and history. With the opening of Gondor’s intellectual and physical boundaries, many of these renaissance men and women ended up traveling to distant lands—where many also stayed permanently.

Famous polymaths

Saeros Morvegil (1631–?)

Saeros Morvegil, hailing from Linhir, was an astronomer, a seeker of wisdom, and an intrepid voyager. Born unto a lineage of lesser nobility, he forsook the path ordained by his progenitors, opting instead for the scholarly pursuit. Even in his youth, he delved into the archaic tongues of Adûnaic and Quenya. In the year 1648, he embarked upon the study of jurisprudence within the halls of Calamandos in Osgiliath, the preeminent law school of in the realm. Yet, the allure of literature and philosophy proved mightier than the strictures of law, prompting his migration to the Academy of Hyarmendol.

Morvegil was particularly adept at ancient languages. In 1651, he became associated with the dissidents of Minas Ithil, and together with the theology students of Minas Ithil, they developed a textual critical method for interpreting ancient writings. In 1653, the students published an anonymous pamphlet called Anañolme, castigating the dogma of the Faithful, which was immediately banned. In 1656, Morvegil was offered a part-time teaching position in geometry and astronomy at Hyarmendol. Here, he continued to develop the scientific method and was one of the first to use a telescope for observing the night sky. In 1664, he observed the shadows of mountains on the moon, from which he deduced that the moon was a spherical, earth-like object.

In 1665, Morvegil left Gondor to join the Watch of Mordor as a volunteer. He then traveled east to Sturlurtsa Khand. Frustrated with the eastern scholars, he returned to the west in 1671, when he was appointed as the inaugural rector of Ramlond University. During this time, Morvegil continued his astronomical observations and demonstrated that Alcarinquë, the wandering star, had four smaller satellites. He observed that the moons appeared and disappeared periodically, which he speculated was due to their movement around Alcarinquë, leading him to conclude they were moons.

After resigning from his position as rector of Ramlond University in 1676, Morvegil packed his telescope and embarked upon another expedition to the East. His goal was to travel with a caravan across Middle-earth to the easternmost regions to uncover the mythical homeland of humanity. He never returned. Although his fate remained unknown, Morvegil’s critical method revolutionized university education throughout Gondor.

Elemmiriel Lebennivet (1630–1702)

Count Daldor’s niece and ward, known as Mira Elemmiriel, later Lady Lebennivet, was an astrologer, builder of scientific instruments, mathematician, and natural scientist. Elemmiriel is remembered for being the first to observe and document a new star that astounded the entire Gondorian intelligentsia.

Under her adoptive father’s guidance, Elemmiriel received a complete aristocratic upbringing. She was taught, in accordance with the spirit of the times, Quenya, Sindarin, Adûnaic, Haradaic, and other southern languages. Elemmiriel was renowned for her dexterity and natural aptitude for comprehending complex mechanisms.

In 1654, she persuaded her adoptive father to construct a personal alchemy laboratory for her in Daldor’s castle. Around this time, she also engaged in a duel with swords against another woman while dressed in men’s attire. After her foray into alchemy, Elemmiriel turned her attention to astronomy. She built several observation devices herself and refined the lens telescope developed by Saeros Morvegil.

In 1673, with Count Daldor ascending to the position of Steward of Gondor, Elemmiriel was appointed as the royal astrologer. Using her telescope, she observed a new star in the constellation of Wilwarin. She closely monitored it and concluded that it was a new fixed star in the sky, which she named Vinyaél. The following year, she published the work The New Eärendil, which caused a sensation among the learned circles.

The last time a new star was said to have appeared in the sky was thousands of years ago when Eru allowed the Valar to raise Eärendil as the Morning Star, and the ancestors of the three houses of men followed the star to Númenor. So, the event had a profound significance in world history, if anyone could decipher what it meant.

The significance of the star was debated throughout the 1670s. Pietists saw the star as a “new Silmaril”, kindled by Varda to comfort the faithful. The star was a sign to the pietist movement that the Dúnedain were once again being called to choose between sin and piety, and that a great upheaval was imminent.

More secular explanations were also proposed. Representatives of the Honourable Greater Gondor Trading Company explained the star as a celestial sign that the Valar themselves were blessing their explorations. Others argued that the star ignited in the constellation of Wilwarin signified that a new savior would arise from the Wilwarin lineage, inspiring the bestowing of grandiloquent names like Valandil, Amandil, and Ar-Gilion (“royal son of the star”) upon newborn boys.

Elemmiriel continued her observations of the stars. In 1676, she was the first to observe the Rings of Lumbar with a telescope she had constructed herself, equipped with a 2½-inch lens and a 20-foot focal length. In 1680, Elemmiriel completed her magnum opus, the star catalog Parf o menel aglar elenath, which contained the location data of 777 stars. Elemmiriel was among the first to realize the importance of systematic observation in astronomy.

Master Gherardo (1628–1676)

Gherardo Bangor was a lowborn mathematician and cartographer from Lebennin. He is best known for the so-called Bangor projection and the first reliable world map designed for maritime navigation.

Gherardo was born as the seventh child of a poor cobbler in a small village in the Pelargir countryside. He attended itinerant school at the age of seven and showed great talent in arithmetic and drawing from a young age. Gherardo’s merchant uncle, Gisbert, from Pelargir, took him to work in his shop and later sent him to study theology at the University of Minas Ithil.

At Minas Ithil, Gherardo became acquainted with the dissidents of the “Red Hand” secret society. His studies were prolonged because the poor Gherardo had to return to his uncle’s freight business to work as a bookkeeper. After receiving his master’s degree in 1652, he fled the war and persecution of dissidents to Belfalas, where he delved into the study of mathematics, precision engineering, and pendulums.

Gherardo taught mathematics in Nargond and established a cartography office there for the use of sailors. In 1654, he completed a six-part map of northwestern Middle-earth. In 1659, he developed a new map projection, which he named after himself, for maritime charts. In this projection, the meridians are vertical and equidistant, and the parallels are placed at such distances from the equator that sailing routes, forming equal angles everywhere with the cardinal directions, appear as straight lines.

Using the large pendulum at the castle of Naur Amrûn, Gherardo developed a theory in 1671 that helped solve the determination of the meridians. The famous adventurer, Sigil Ross, hired him as the head of the cartography department of the newly established Honourable Greater Gondor Trading Company. During this time, based on his previous maps and information from Umbarean captains, Gherardo created the first reliable world map, Ambarkanta. The world map was later immortalized as a mosaic on the floor of the Great Hall of the Trading Company’s Hall in Pelargir, completed in 1676.

Gherardo was part of the Trading Company’s first eastern expedition (1674–1676). He succumbed to scurvy and dysentery on the return journey.

Master Belemir (1638–1729)

Belemir Lorilad (born Bartolo Colla) was a naturalist, painter, cartographer, and physician from Lorilad, Lebennin. A self-taught polymath, he initially only attended itinerant school but taught himself drawing, writing, and observation while working as an apprentice to an apothecary. He progressed so rapidly that his master sent him to Pelargir to study medicine with a scholarship from Prince Mordulin.

As a physician, Bartolo adopted the Elvish name “Belemir Lorilad,” by which he became known thereafter. Belemir collected plant and animal specimens, compiled a study of botany in Pelargir, and then turned his attention to studying the life cycles of fish. His skill as a naturalist evolved until his drawings and watercolor paintings closely resembled living creatures.

In addition to painting plants and animals, Belemir also created portraits, landscapes, and still lifes, which found their way into many wealthy Pelargir households. As a physician, he combined his extensive knowledge of herbal remedies with anatomy and developed the widely used doctrine of drug correspondences in 1670. Prince Mordulin funded his research and recommended him as a naturalist for the Honourable Greater Gondor Trading Company‘s expedition in 1674.

During the journey, Belemir drew maps, painted landscapes of new lands, and compiled a catalog of animals and plants unknown in Gondor, which he also illustrated. On the expedition, Belemir particularly studied the mystery of eels, although he failed to conclusively determine the secret of their spawning grounds. Belemir’s most famous painting from 1674-1676 is a large oil work depicting King Tarondor and the commanders of the Trading Company disembarking at Ormond Bay in the southernmost reaches of Middle-earth.

Upon his return from the East in 1678, Belemir continued as the head and researcher of the Trading Company’s medical department until his death. Enriched by the company’s shares, he purchased a palace in Pelargir, where he housed his extensive collection of plants and animals, as well as specimens preserved in spirits.

Literature

Beginnings of Gondor’s literary renaissance is often traced back to the publication of Beredur Caragost’s Book of the Courtier in 1628, which became both a bestseller and a source of inspiration for Prince Minastir and his court. Book of the Courtier was widely copied, and in 1660, it was reprinted using the new printing press, making it accessible to a broader audience. Another significant work in the same genre was Eremir Tharbardil’s Guide to Child Rearing, published in 1630.

Curvegil Rúthion’s autobiographical fencing manual, Maeth Edlothiad: Feats and Swordsmanship of Count Parth Feren (1659), revolutionized Gondorian martial arts. Maeth Edlothiad became the Silmarillion of swordsmanship for centuries, and its impact on the biographical style cannot be underestimated.

Drama

Gondor’s drama flourished during the 17th century. Mystery plays, popular in the 16th century, gave way to more elaborate productions featuring choirs and orchestras. King Tarondor, who had a deep-seated affinity for the stage, initiated the Tarmerendë Theater Festival in 1651, where the best plays were royally rewarded

One of the earliest successful Tarmerendë plays was Galeotto Dunmardo’s The King of Lhûn (1659), a rendition of the tale of Adanel and the Debate between Finrod and Andreth set in Arnor. In the 1660s, Tarmerendë festivals were dominated by celebrated Anfalas-born playwright and fencing master Baralin Ram Galen. His career began in 1656 with the comedy of The Empty Barrels, or the Fellowship of the Learned.

Baralin Ram Galen’s early works included the allegorical sonnet Fastitocalon (1660) and the comedy Two Young Pelargirians (1663), but he gained widespread acclaim with his picaresque play Miranda Aranel, Princess of Harondor (1664), and its sequel Alagos, or the Tempest (1665). However, he soon abandoned cheap laughs and turned to epic poetry and tragedy. Herumor and Fuinur (1666), Neithan (1667), and Lord of the Shore (1670) received high praise in academic circles but mixed reviews from an audience accustomed to lighter fare.

Baralin briefly returned to prominence with his Akallabêth trilogy. Ruler Of This World (1671) received praise for its lengthy and profound monologues. Later, Baralin Ram Galen found himself embroiled in scandal, testifying against Steward Ecthelion in court. He resigned from his post as a junior secretary, became a merchant, and moved to Minas Ithil to complete his dissertation. His last popular plays were Rómendacil (1675), criticized for its bombastic style and flattery of the king, and Rustic Chivalry (1676), performed only in Anfalas.

Following Baralin, Gondor’s most beloved playwright and Tarmerendë winner was Andril “Bethael” Caron, a bone-carver’s son and former actor from Anórien. Bethael became a court favorite and was elevated to the esteemed position of royal tutor. His debut masterpiece, the satirical musical The Barber of Pelargir (1674), marked a departure from traditional dramatic conventions. Maglor, the Wandering Healer (1676), introduced elements of magic and fantasy. Subsequently, his plays became more serious, his characters more nuanced, and his style shifted from lyrical to prose.

Bethael’s next period began with the Arnorian tragedy King Eärendur (1677), the romantic Country Play (1678), and Aldarion and Erendis (1679), showcasing Bethael’s psychological insight. In the following years, he wrote the Lays of Beleriand collection, including the tragedies Tinúviel (1680), Turambar (1681), and Felagund (1682). Bethael also composed sonnets dedicated to Princess Elbereth and Prince Elatar, totaling 154 poems exploring themes of love, beauty, and mortality.

Female authors

Gondorian renaissance also brought previously rare female writers to the forefront. The most prolific among them was the socialite Silaniel Morvegil (1633–1721), who was closely associated with the Steward Dior and several young courtiers before her tragic and short-lived marriage to the Umbarean corsair Ormond Raudfern. Silaniel abandoned her former life and moved to Khand, where she married the Bayezid Yildirim Pasha and began writing under the pseudonym “Maellis Olosse”, crafting autobiographical tales of her adventures.

The first installment, Whispers Behind the Curtains, or the Unabashed Memoirs of a Linhir Socialite (1674), flew off the shelves, spawning numerous illicit copies. Its titillating and unashamed escapades and romantic encounters scandalized the conservatives but further boosted sales, making it the best-selling Gondorian fictional work of the 17th century.

The second part, Distress in the Desert (1677), was a salacious adventure set in the deserts of Mordor. The astute heroine constantly finds herself seduced by lustful, well-endowed goblins and proud and wild Nûrniag aristocrats. The final part of the memoirs, The Sultry Sultan (1680), completes Silaniel’s story in the court of the Great Khagan. It was also the first eyewitness account of the Peacock Throne’s daily proceedings and, due to its sheer exoticism, sold nearly as well as Whispers Behind the Curtains.

A completely different genre of literature was represented by Baroness Lúthien Asgaril-Rian of Dimrost. She was the daughter of professor Calimon Asgaril, former confidante of the queen, minister, and polymath, best known for her defense of women in works like The City of Women and The Treasury. Lúthien established schools all around Ithilien and a community of female scholars in Dimrost.

The City of Women (1677) examines legendary women such as Haladin’s chieftain Haleth, Idril Celebrindal, Aredhel Ar-Feiniel, and Lúthien Tinúviel, detailing their actions, choices, and morality. She populates the known history’s notable women into a hypothetical city of women and argues, through examples, why women are as capable as men in tasks requiring skill, knowledge, and leadership.

The sequel to The City of Women, The Treasury or the Book of the Lady (1680), belongs even more distinctly to the genre of instructional literature. It is a counterpart to Book of the Courtier aimed at young women. The book guides women on the virtues and skills they should possess and how to conduct themselves honorably. The frame narrative of The Treasury is Lúthien’s dream journey to the underworld. In her dream, she encounters her mythical namesake Tinúviel. Both women then engage in a debate on virtue ethics.

Medical treatises

Steward Daldor granted the Houses of Healing permission to perform autopsies on human bodies. Knowledge of the human body’s functions increased significantly. In 1675, the embalming master Malbeth Belguinar, together with Brother Adan Hyarr, published the treatise Hroañolmë, the art of anatomy and true account of the bodily fluids. The book described findings from twenty different dissections, including tumors, fistulas, and gangrene of the limbs. At the same time, it was demonstrated that the heart was merely muscle, tasked with contracting the chambers and propelling the blood forward.

Medical treatment benefited from enthusiastic alchemical research, which had become fashionable since the secret of mormal, or black powder, spread to Gondor from the East. Heron Alassar, a learned physician, surgeon, and alchemist from Ithilien, became known as the inventor of the most effective anesthetics and pain relievers of his time. Previously, pain relief had relied solely on distilled spirits and poppy seed juice, but Alassar developed potent ether and opium alcohols. His rejuvenating Asëa Alahasta drops contained valerian tincture, opium tincture, peppermint, feverfew root and rose madder. Similarly, the Asëa Alatúlie tincture for lowering fever contained one part ether, three parts brandy, and essential oils from twenty different herbs.

Discoverers

Negociants

During the Gondorian Renaissance, some of the ancient Númenorean courage and seafaring skill were rediscovered. Captains hailing from Pelargir, Umbar, Linhir, and Tharbad ventured northward to the frigid waters of Minheldolath for whaling, and southward to the realms of Bellakar and Harad for the acquisition of spices, dyes, and ivory. Yet, prior to the 17th century, such voyages were sporadic and tentative, lacking the organized fervor that would characterize later endeavors.

In 1662, the ship Nimgaur, outfitted by the Linhir-based Seldorien trading house and commanded by Umbarean-born captain Ormond Raudfern, sailed for the first time around the Cape of Good Hope into the Ormal Sea, where spices abounded. With Seldorien proving the feasibility of circumnavigating the cape, the trading house secured a ten-year monopoly on southern spice trade.

Meanwhile, spurred by the spirit of competition and innovation, merchants from Pelargir and Harnendor refused to be left behind. Under the leadership of Prince Mordulin and Grand Princess Aranel of Mírlond, they established the Honourable Greatern Gondor Trading Company, the kingdom’s inaugural joint-stock enterprise. Their ambitious vision: the establishment of permanent trading outposts in the southern and eastern reaches of the known world. At the heart of the company’s strategic planning stood Cail Badhron, a legal scholar hailing from Pelargir.

Badhron had studied philosophy at the University of Minas Anor, but misfortune and capricious whims of fate led him to the world of commerce. Disenchanted by the lack of intellectual rigor in business affairs, he embarked on a mission to elevate the practice to new heights of scientific precision. In doing so, he also gained many enemies:in 1671, Badhron narrowly escaped an assassination attempt in his favorite tavern. Undeterred, he completed his magnum opus, The Perfect Merchant, or General Instruction regarding the mercantile trade in foreign countries, which revolutionized accounting practices with its pioneering introduction of double-entry bookkeeping. In 1678, he penned a companion volume dedicated to the city council of Pelargir, The Skill of Sailing, together with Umbarian explorer Valandil Maros. Badhron was later appointed overseer of the Pelargir mint and also served as ambassador to Harnendor, where he spent his retirement days.

Explorers

On the 3rd of March in the year 1674 of the Third Age, the Honourable Greater Gondor Trading Company set sail to the south with a fleet of twenty ships. Laden with lead, iron, fabrics, ceramics, wines, ice, and a bounty of gifts intended for the distant princes in exchange for trade rights, the company embarked on a historic voyage. Their first conquest was the Solitude Islands, which, though nominally under Umbar’s sway since the days of the Corsair Lords, had long been left to their own devices.

However, fortune took a fickle turn at Raj, where the local tyrant viewed the company’s endeavors with hostility. After vanquishing the local fleet, the company proceeded southward, passing through Tol Turgul to the Cape of Good Hope. There, amidst discord among the captains, the expedition split into two.

Commanding the larger contingent was Serenur Rotta, whose three galleons hugged the coastline as they sailed northward. Following an altercation with rival Haradrim merchants, they voyaged to Kalakut and the island of Serendib, where, with the benevolent consent of the local sultan, they established a fortified trading post. Leading the smaller party was the intrepid explorer and condottiere Sigil Ross, whose two galleons made landfall in the kingdom of Banten on the island of Sumatra in 1675. Here, the Westerners encountered the enigmatic Cathayans, of whom Gondor had no prior knowledge.

Trading in nutmeg, the Gondorians hastily departed amidst the eruption of Mount Maluku. The return journey proved exceptionally arduous. Winds carried Sigil Ross’s expedition far southward to the shores of Morenor, where one galleon was lost to pack ice. Afflicted by scurvy and starvation, Sigil Ross finally made his way back to the Cape of Good Hope, only to find its fortress abandoned and its garrison besieged by hostile natives. Ross led the company’s “Immortals” in two native uprisings from 1676 to 1678 and the Umbarean Civil War before his triumphant return to Gondor in June of 1680.

A mere eleven months after Sigil Ross’s departure, the Company was once again in Banten with a fleet of three ships. Commander Astaldo pressed onward in the hopes of an audience with the Emperor of Cathay. However, the Cathayans rebuffed his advances, and upon the emperor’s death on March 19, 1681, Astaldo found himself imprisoned. Through guile, Astaldo escaped captivity in November of 1682 aboard the caravel Palarran, whose captain, Aegwen, had come in search of him. In Banten, Astaldo faced one final trial as he vanquished the company’s erstwhile steward, who, in a fit of opium-induced delirium, had declared himself the King of the Ormal Sea.

Further misfortunes befell the company. Of the twelve ships that sailed eastward in 1678, only five returned. In 1681, Serenur Rotta embarked on a voyage to the Far East with eight ships. This time, however, Sultan Jalaluddin the Great of Serendip was prepared, and he ordered his fleet of 150 junks to engage the foreign invaders. Two mighty Gondorian galleons were lost in the ensuing battle.

Nevertheless, these sacrifices were not in vain. Price differentials in the markets were immense. From the East flowed pepper, nutmeg, and ginger at bargain prices. Yet, the internal trade within the Ormal Sea, from which the Gondorians also secured a substantial share, should not be overlooked. The Company transported saffron, opium, mercury, and boxwood to the Far East, bringing back saltpeter, alum, iron, silk, damask, satin, porcelain, gold, and pearls to Gondor.