Gondor is a fictional kingdom in J. R. R. Tolkien's writings, described as the greatest realm of Men in the west of Middle-earth at the end of the Third Age. The third volume of The Lord of the Rings, The Return of the King, is largely concerned with the events in Gondor during the War of the Ring and with the restoration of the realm afterward. The history of the kingdom is outlined in the appendices of the book.
Gondor was founded by the brothers Isildur and Anárion, exiles from the downfallen island kingdom of Númenor. Along with Arnor in the north, Gondor, the South-kingdom, served as a last stronghold of the Men of the West. After an early period of growth under the House of Elendil, Gondor gradually declined as the Third Age progressed, being continually weakened by internal strife and conflict with the allies of the Dark Lord Sauron. By the time of the War of the Ring, the throne of Gondor is empty, and its principalities and fiefdoms instead pay deference to the regency of the Stewards of Gondor. The kingdom's ascendancy is restored only with Sauron's final defeat and the crowning of Aragorn as king.
Based upon early conceptions, the history and geography of Gondor were developed in stages as Tolkien extended his legendarium while writing The Lord of the Rings. Critics have noted the contrast between the cultured but lifeless Stewards of Gondor, and the simple but vigorous leaders of the Kingdom of Rohan, modelled on Tolkien's favoured Anglo-Saxons. Scholars have noted parallels between Gondor and the Normans, Ancient Rome, the Vikings, the Goths, the Langobards, and the Byzantine Empire.
Literature
In-fiction etymology
Tolkien intended the name Gondor to be Sindarin for "Stone-land". Appendix F, "Of Men" entries GOND-, NDOR- This is echoed in the text of The Lord of the Rings by the name for Gondor among the Rohirrim, Stoningland. book 5 ch. 6 "The Battle of the Pelennor Fields" Tolkien's early writings suggest that this was a reference to the highly developed masonry of Gondorians in contrast to their rustic neighbours. ch. 22 "New Uncertainties and New Projections" This view is supported by the Drúedain terms for Gondorians and Minas Tirith—Stonehouse-folk and Stone-city. book 5 ch. 5 "The Ride of the Rohirrim" Tolkien denied that the name Gondor had been inspired by the ancient Ethiopian citadel of Gondar, stating that the root Ond went back to an account he had read as a child mentioning ond ("stone") as one of only two words known of the pre-Celtic languages of Britain. Gondor is also called the South-kingdom or Southern Realm, and together with Arnor as the Númenórean Realms in Exile. Researchers Wayne G. Hammond and Christina Scull have proposed a Quenya translation of Gondor: Ondonórë. The Men of Gondor are nicknamed "Tarks" (from Quenya tarkil "High Man", Númenórean) by the orcs of Mordor., "The Tower of Cirith Ungol"
Fictional geography
Country
Gondor's geography is illustrated in the maps for The Lord of the Rings made by Christopher Tolkien on the basis of his father's sketches, and geographical accounts in The Rivers and Beacon-Hills of Gondor, Cirion and Eorl, and The Lord of the Rings. Gondor lies in the west of Middle-earth, on the northern shores of Anfalas entries ÁNAD-, PHÁLAS-, TOL2- and the Bay of Belfalas part 2 ch. 4 "History of Galadriel and Celeborn": "Amroth and Nimrodel" with the great port of Pelargir near the river Anduin's delta in the fertile book 5 ch. 9 "The Last Debate" and populous region of Lebennin, stretching up to the White Mountains (Sindarin: Ered Nimrais, "Mountains of White Horns"). Near the mouths of Anduin was the island of Tolfalas. ch. 6 "The Tale of Years of the Second Age"
To the north-west of Gondor lies Arnor; to the north, Gondor is bordered by Wilderland and Rohan; to the north-east, by Rhûn; to the east, across the great river Anduin and the province of Ithilien, by Mordor; to the south, by the deserts of northern Harad. To the west lies the Great Sea.
The wide land to the west of Rohan was Enedwaith; in some of Tolkien's writings it is part of Gondor, in others not. ch. 10 "Of Dwarves and Men", and notes 66, 76 part 2 ch. 4 "History of Galadriel and Celeborn"; Appendices C and D
The hot and dry region of South Gondor, or Harondor was by the time of the War of the Ring "a debatable and desert land", contested by the men of Harad. map of the West of Middle-earth
The region of Lamedon and the uplands of the prosperous Morthond, with the desolate Hill of Erech, book 1 ch. 2 "The Passing of the Grey Company" lay to the south of the White Mountains, while the populous valleys of Lossarnach were just south of Minas Tirith. The city's port was also a few miles south at Harlond, where the great river Anduin made its closest approach to Minas Tirith. Ringló Vale lay between Lamedon and Lebennin. map of Gondor
The region of Calenardhon lay to the north of the White Mountains; it was granted independence as the kingdom of Rohan. "The Battles of the Fords of Isen", Appendix (ii) To the northeast, the river Anduin enters the hills of the Emyn Muil and passes the Sarn Gebir, dangerous straits, above a large river-lake, Nen Hithoel. Its entrance was once the northern border of Gondor, and is marked by the Gates of Argonath, an enormous pair of kingly statues, as a warning to trespassers. At the southern end of the lake are the hills of Amon Hen (the Hill of Seeing) and Amon Lhaw (the Hill of Hearing) on the west and east shores; below Amon Hen is the lawn of Parth Galen, where the Fellowship disembarked and was then broken, with the capture of Merry and Pippin, and the death of Boromir. Between the two hills is a rocky islet, Tol Brandir, which partly dams the river; just below it is an enormous waterfall, the Falls of Rauros, over which Boromir's funeral-boat is sent. Further down the river are the hills of Emyn Arnen.
Capital, Minas Tirith
The capital of Gondor at the end of the Third Age, Minas Tirith (Sindarin: "Tower of Guard"), lay at the eastern end of the White Mountains, built around a shoulder of Mount Mindolluin., book 5 ch. 8 "The Houses of Healing" The city had seven walls: each held a gate, and each gate faced a different direction from the next., book 5, ch. 4 "The Siege of Gondor" The city was surrounded by the Pelennor Fields, an area of farmlands ringed by a wall. Inside the seventh wall was the Citadel, topped by the White Tower. Behind the tower, reached from the sixth level, was a saddle leading to the necropolis of the Kings and Stewards, with a street of tombs, Rath Dínen.
Within the Court of the Fountain stood the White Tree, the symbol of Gondor. It was dry throughout the centuries that Gondor was ruled by the Stewards; Aragorn brought a sapling of the White Tree into the city on his return as King. John Garth writes that the White Tree has been likened to the Dry Tree of the 14th century Travels of Sir John Mandeville. The tale runs that the Dry Tree had been dry since the crucifixion of Christ, but that it would flower afresh when "a prince of the west side of the world should sing a mass beneath it".
Tolkien's map-notes for the illustrator Pauline Baynes indicate that the city had the latitude of Ravenna, an Italian city on the Adriatic Sea, though it lay "900 miles east of Hobbiton more near Belgrade". The Warning beacons of Gondor were atop a line of foothills running back west from Minas Tirith towards Rohan.
Dol Amroth
Dol Amroth (Sindarin: "the Hill of Amroth") was a fortress-city on a peninsula jutting westward into the Bay of Belfalas, on Gondor's southern shore. It is also the name of the port city, one of the five great cities of Gondor, and the seat of the principality of the same name, founded by prince Galador., "Cirion and Eorl and the Friendship of Gondor and Rohan". The whimsical poem "The Man in the Moon Came Down Too Soon" in The Adventures of Tom Bombadil tells how the Man in the Moon fell one night into "the windy Bay of Bel"; his fall is marked by the tolling of a bell in the Seaward Tower (Tirith Aear) of Dol Amroth, and he recovers at an inn in the city.The Adventures of Tom Bombadil, Introduction and Poem 6
Its ruler, the Prince of Dol Amroth, is subject to the sovereignty of Gondor. The principality's boundaries are not explicitly defined, though the Prince ruled Belfalas as a fief, as well as an area to the east on the map labelled Dor-en-Ernil ("The Land of the Prince"). Imrahil, Prince of Dol Amroth in The Return of the King, was linked by marriage both to the Stewards of Gondor and to the Kings of Rohan. He was the brother of Lady Finduilas and uncle to her sons Boromir and Faramir;, Appendix A, "The Stewards" a kinsman of Théoden;, "Disaster of the Gladden Fields". and the father of Éomer's wife Lothíriel., Appendix A, "The House of Eorl" Imrahil played a major part in the defence of Minas Tirith; the soldiers whom Imrahil led to Minas Tirith formed the largest contingent from the hinterland to the defence of the city., book 5, ch. 1 "Minas Tirith" They marched under a banner "silver upon blue", bearing "a white ship like a swan upon blue water"., book 5 ch. 8 "The Houses of Healing
Some like Finduilas are of Númenórean descent, and still speak the Elvish language. Tolkien wrote about the city's protective sea-walls and described Belfalas as a "great fief". Prince Imrahil's castle is by the sea; Tolkien described him as "of high blood, and his folk also, tall men and proud with sea-grey eyes". Local tradition claimed that the line's forefather, Imrazôr the Númenórean had married an Elf, though the line remained mortal.
Fictional history
Pre-Númenórean
The first people in the region were the Drúedain, a hunter-gatherer group of Men who arrive in the First Age. They were pushed aside by later settlers and came to live in the pine-woods of the Druadan Forest by the north-eastern White Mountains. book 6 ch. 6 "Many Partings" The next people settled in the White Mountains, and became known as the Men of the Mountains. They built a subterranean complex at Dunharrow, later known as the Paths of the Dead, which extended through the mountain range from north to south. They became subject to Sauron in the Dark Years. Fragments of pre-Númenórean languages survive in later ages in place-names such as Erech, Arnach, and Umbar. Appendix F part 1
Númenórean kingdom
The shorelands of Gondor were widely colonized by the Númenóreans from the middle of the Second Age, especially by Elf-friends loyal to Elendil. "Of the Rings of Power and the Third Age" His sons Isildur and Anárion landed in Gondor after the drowning of Númenor, and co-founded the Kingdom of Gondor. Isildur brought with him a seedling of Nimloth (Sindarin: nim, "white" and loth, "blossom") the Fair, the white tree from Númenor. This tree and its descendants came to be called the White Tree of Gondor, and appears on the kingdom's coat of arms. Elendil, who founded the Kingdom of Arnor to the north, was held to be the High King of all the lands of the Dúnedain. Appendix A, I (iv) Isildur established the city of Minas Ithil (Sindarin: "Tower of the Moon") while Anárion established the city of Minas Anor (Sindarin: "Tower of the Sun").
Sauron survived the destruction of Númenor and secretly returned to his realm of Mordor, soon launching a war against the Númenórean kingdoms. He captured Minas Ithil, but Isildur escaped by ship to Arnor; meanwhile, Anárion was able to defend Osgiliath. Elendil and the Elven-king Gil-galad formed the Last Alliance of Elves and Men, and together with Isildur and Anárion, they besieged and defeated Mordor. Sauron was overthrown; but the One Ring that Isildur took from him was not destroyed, and thus Sauron continued to exist.