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Valacar

Location(s):
Gondor
Rhovanion

Race/Species: Man

Type/Kind: Dunadan of Gondor

Title(s):
20th King of Gondor (III 1356 - 1432)
Ambassador to Rhovanion (III 1250 - 1260)

Dates:
III 1194 - 1432

Parents:
father: Rómendacil II, 19th King of Gondor

Spouse:
Vidumavi, daughter of Vidugavia, King of Rhovanion

Children:
Eldacar, 21st King of Gondor

Description:

Valacar, son of Rómendacil II, 19th King of Gondor, is the 20th King of Gondor:
The waning of Gondor had already begun before [Atanatar Alcarin] died, and was doubtless observed by its enemies.... Nonetheless it was not until the days of Valacar 1 that the first great evil came upon Gondor: the civil war of the Kin-strife, in which great loss and ruin was caused and never fully repaired.

The Lord of the Rings, Appendix A, Annals of the Kings and Rulers: Gondor and the Heirs of Anárion

Since [Rómendacil] needed men, and desired to strengthen the bond between Gondor and the Northmen, he took many of them into his service and gave to some high rank in his armies.

Rómendacil showed especial favour to Vidugavia, who had aided him in the war. He called himself King of Rhovanion, and was indeed the most powerful of the Northern princes, though his own realm lay between Greenwood and the River Celduin. In 1250 Rómendacil sent his son Valacar as an ambassador to dwell for a while with Vidugavia and make himself acquainted with the language, manners, and policies of the Northmen. But Valacar far exceeded his father's designs. He grew to love the Northern lands and people, and he married Vidumavi, daughter of Vidugavia. It was some years before he returned. From this marriage came later the war of the Kin-strife.

For the high men of Gondor already looked askance at the Northmen among them; and it was a thing unheard of before that the heir to the crown, or any son of the King, should wed one of lesser and alien race. There was already rebellion in the southern provinces when King Valacar grew old. His queen had been a fair and noble lady, but short-lived according to the fate of lesser Men, and the Dúnedain feared that her descendants would prove the same and fall from the majesty of the Kings of Men. Also they were unwilling to accept as lord her son, who though he was now called Eldacar, had been born in an alien country and was named in his youth Vinitharya, a name of his mother's people.

Therefore when Eldacar succeeded his father there was war in Gondor.

The Lord of the Rings, Appendix A, Annals of the Kings and Rulers


Notes
1Valacar was the great-grandson of Atanatar II Alcarin.

The Lord of the Rings, Appendix A, Annals of the Kings and Rulers: The Realms in Exile

Contributors:
Elena Tiriel 17Jul14

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