This document is part of my discussion of the Decline of the Lifespans of the Númenóreans. Please cite this essay if you quote it or use it. You can e-mail me.

The Lifespans of the Ruling Stewards of Gondor and the Lords of Dol Amroth

At this point, not all the material in this document has yet been properly footnoted. Although that is obvious, I thought I would say it anyway.

The data presented here is from The Peoples of Middle-Earth, “The Heirs of Elendil”. The data for the Stewards is from the C-text of “The Ruling Stewards of Gondor”, which is printed first in the chapter.

The Stewards were members of the House of Hurin of Emyn Arnen, who had been steward to King Minardil of Gondor. At that time, the title of Steward seems not to have been hereditary, but after Hurin of Emyn Arnen, all the Stewards of Gondor were chosen from among his descendants.[i] Three hundred years elapsed before Pelendur became Steward to Ondohir; after Pelendur, the title became hereditary.[ii]

		born	died	age		Comment	became Steward	years Steward
0[iii]	Pelendur	1879	1998	119		steward to Ondohir & Eärnil II; opposed the claim of Arvedui of Fornost to the throne of Gondor
0	Vorondil	1919	2029	110		made the horn born by Boromir in The Fellowship of the Ring	1998	31
1	Mardil Voronwe	1960	2080	120		steward to Earnur, last king of the House of Anarion: first Ruling Steward	2029	51
2	Eradan	1999	2116	117		second Ruling Steward	2080	36
3	Herion	2037	2148	111			2116	32
4	Belegorn	2074	2204	130			2148	56
5	Hurin I	2124	2244	120			2204	40
6	Turin I	2165	2278	113			2244	34
7	Hador	2245	2395	150			2278	117
8	Barahir	2290	2412	122			2395	17
9	Dior	2328	2435	107			2412	23
10	Denethor I	2375	2477	102			2435	42
11	Boromir	2410	2489	79			2477	12
12	Cirion	2449	2567	118		gave Calenardhon to Eorl and the Rohirrim to create Rohan, ally of Gondor	2489	78
13	Hallas	2480	2605	125			2567	38
14	Hurin II	2515	2628	113			2605	23
15	Belecthor I	2545	2655	110			2628	27
16	Orodreth	2576	2685	109			2655	30
17	Ecthelion I	2600	2698	98			2685	13
18	Egalmoth	2626	2743	117			2698	45
19	Beren	2655	2763	108		Saruman takes up residence in Orthanc	2743	20
20	Beregond	2700	2811	111			2763	48
21	Belecthor II	2752	2872	120		the White Tree dies	2811	61
22	Thorondir	2782	2882	100			2872	10
23	Turin II	2815	2914	99			2882	32
24	Turgon	2855	2953	98			2914	39
25	Ecthelion II	2886	2984	98		Aragorn II served him in the guise of Thorondor	2953	31
26	Denethor II	2930	3019	89	†	committed suicide	2984	35
27	Faramir[iv]	2983	3103	120		died IV 82. last Ruling Steward; Prince of Emyn Arnen under Aragorn II, whose steward he remained	3019	84

Only two of the Stewards lived beyond 125 years, and only four of them lived longer than 120 years.

Imrazor was a nobleman of Belfalas. He took the elf-maiden Mithrellas to wife; she was a companion of Nimrodel. His son Galador was the first Lord of Dol Amroth.[v]

		birth	death	age		comments	reign	Corresponding Steward
0[vi]	Imrazor	1950	2076	126		married the elf Mithrellas		Mardil Voronwe
1	Galador	2004	2129	125		first Lord of Dol Amroth	[vii]	Herion
2		2060	2203	143			74	Belegorn
3		2120	2254	134			51	Turin I
4		2172	2299	127			45	Hador
5		2225	2348	123			49	Hador
6		2274	2400	126			52	Barahir
7		2324	2458	134			58	Denethor I
8		2373	2498	125			40	Cirion
9		2418	2540	122			42	Cirion
10		2463	2582	119			42	Hallas
11		2505	2623	118			41	Hurin II
12		2546	2660	114			37	Orodreth
13		2588	2701	113			41	Egalmoth
14		2627	2733	106			32	Egalmoth
15		2671	2746	75	†	"slain by Corsairs of Umbar"	13	Beren
16		2709	2799	90	†	"slain in battle"	53	Beregond
17		2746	2859	113			60	Belecthor II
18		2785	2899	114			40	Turin II
19	Aglahad	2827	2932	105			33	Turgon
20	Angelimir	2866	2977	111			45	Ecthelion II
21	Adrahil	2917	3010	93			33	Denethor II
22	Imrahil	2955	3054	99		died IV 35	44	Faramir[viii]
23	Elphir	2987	3087	100		died IV 57	33	Faramir
24	Alphros	3017	3115	98		died IV 95	28	Faramir

The declining lifespan of the Lords of Dol Amroth has a straight-line character similar to that seen among the Kings of Arnor and Gondor.

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[i] The Return of the King, “Appendix A”, “(iv) Gondor and the Heirs of Anárion”, “The Stewards”, first paragraph

[ii] It is an interesting fact that Pelendur supported the claim of Eärnil II to the throne of Gondor over that of Arvedui of Fornost on behalf of his wife Fíriel, the only surviving child of the previous king, Ondohir. Only Eärnil had the authority to make such an important and powerful post as that of Steward hereditary. The coincidence is rather suggestive of some sort of political deal, but perhaps this was enacted by Eärnil to signify his gratitude to Pelendur and trust in his judgment.

[iii] Neither Pelendur nor Vorondil were Ruling Stewards.

[iv] Faramir was Ruling Steward for only 45 days until Aragorn was crowned King of Gondor. In fact, however, Aragorn was already acting as King from the Battle of Pelennor Fields onward: Imrahil of Dol Amroth recognized him as such, and it seems that the Army of Gondor did, too, since they followed him and his banner into battle. Indeed, Prince Imrahil commanded the heralds as the Army of Gondor passed through Ithilien reclaiming the territory of Gondor from Minas Morgul and the servants of Sauron, “’Say not The Lords of Gondor. Say The King Elessar. For that is true, even though he has not yet sat upon the throne; and it will give the Enemy more thought, if the heralds use that name.’” (The Return of the King, “The Black Gate Opens”) Because of his ability to heal people struck with the Black Breath of the Nazgûl, the people of Minas Tirith also seem to have recognized Aragorn as their rightful king before he received the crown, and called him Elfstone for the green Elessar given him by Arwen through her grandmother, Galadriel, before the Fellowship of the Ring departed Lórien. It is a lovely little jest that the first king of the renewed line of Elendil in Gondor, whose name in common means “Stone Land”, would be “Elessar”, meaning “Elf-stone”: thus it is that the king of the Land of the Stones is the Elf Stone.

[v] It is interesting to note that there was apparently no Lord of Dol Amroth until the Stewards came to power. Eärnur, the last King of Gondor, died in III 2050. That suggests that either Eärnur made Galador Lord of Dol Amroth before he left to duel the Lord of the Nazgûl while his father Imrazor was still alive, or else Mardil, the first Ruling Steward, made Galador the first Lord of Dol Amroth. The latter situation seems to me the more likely: Mardil made Galador the first Lord of Dol Amroth. The House of Hurin was already the leading family of Gondor after Eärnur went missing in action; but the history of Gondor and remembrances of its self-destructive civil war, the Kinstrife, might have made that position uneasy or even untenable should a pretender to the throne appear; indeed, it was precisely to avoid another civil that Mardil was made Ruling Steward by the Council of Gondor. By creating Galador Lord of Dol Amroth, Mardil built another power base allied to him in Belfalas far from Minas Tirith. It seems that by the time of the War of the Ring, the Lords of Dol Amroth had become the second most important family in Gondor.

[vi] Imrazor was not Lord of Dol Amroth. He was a “nobleman of Belfalas”.

[vii] The length of the reign of Galador is unknown: we do not know what year he became Lord of Dol Amroth.

[viii] When Imrahil died, Aragorn Elessar was High King of Arnor and Gondor.