Timeline Event
Ar-Pharazôn begins building the Great Armament
Event Type: Military/Strategic
Age: Akallabêth/Last Alliance
Year: 3310
Description:
An event in the prelude to the Assault on Valinor; see that entry for an overview:
At length Ar-Pharazôn listened to [Sauron's] counsel.... He prepared then the greatest armament that the world had seen....
The Return of the King, LoTR Appendix A, Annals of the Kings and Rulers: The Númenórean Kings
Therefore he began to prepare a vast armament for the assault upon Valinor, that should surpass the one with which he had come to Umbar even as a great galleon of Numenor surpassed a fisherman's boat.
The Peoples of Middle-Earth, HoME Vol 12, Part 1, Ch 5, The History of the Akallabêth
'[Ar-Pharazôn will not] grieve over much, if we [House of Amandil] seek to depart.... But let it not be seen that you [Elendil] intend to take many men, or he will be troubled, because of the war that he now plots, for which he will need all the force that he may gather.'
The Silmarillion, Akallabêth
Then [Elendil] journeyed in secret to the western shores and gazed out over the sea.... But naught could he descry save the fleets of Ar-Pharazôn gathering in the havens of the west.
The Silmarillion, Akallabêth
... the fleets of the Númenóreans darkened the sea upon the west of the land, and they were like an archipelago of a thousand isles; their masts were as a forest upon the mountains, and their sails like a brooding cloud; and their banners were golden and black.
The Silmarillion, Akallabêth
Contributors:
Lyllyn 7.28.03
added quotes: Elena Tiriel 15Nov05