Anárion enters The Rings of Power Season 3 training soldiers alongside his father, Elendil, for an anticipated civil war in Númenor. Played by Andrew Richardson, he’s Elendil’s younger son and Isildur’s younger brother. His arrival adds another character to Prime Video’s already large Middle-earth ensemble, but his role in Tolkien’s Second Age goes well beyond family connections: he helps found Gondor.
Showrunners J.D. Payne and Patrick McKay are adapting Tolkien’s Second Age, and Anárion gets mentioned less than his father and older brother. His deeds and descendants still shape events all the way through The Lord of the Rings.
First, there’s the family tree. Elendil, played by Lloyd Owen, is related to Elros, Númenor’s founding king, and becomes one of the most honored kings in Tolkien’s legendarium. Thousands of years after his death, Aragorn still shouts his name as a battle cry. In The Rings of Power, Elendil is only beginning that career.
Anárion’s older brother, Isildur, is played by Maxim Baldry. Their younger sister, Eärien, played by Ema Horvath, was created for the series and doesn’t appear in Tolkien’s writings. Eärien’s death in Season 3, episode two leaves Elendil and his two sons as the surviving members of their immediate family. Their mother drowned before the show began; Tolkien’s source material never mentions her.
Anárion also has a wife and children in Tolkien’s writings, although most remain unnamed. Whether he already has that family in The Rings of Power hasn’t been officially established, and it doesn’t appear that he does. One of his sons is Meneldil, a future king of Gondor. Unfinished Tales records a detail from Tolkien’s otherwise unpublished writing: Meneldil was “the last man to be born in Númenor.” The line points ahead to Númenor’s destruction.
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Where Was Anárion During Seasons 1 and 2 of The Rings of Power and How Does He Appear in Season 3?
Anárion’s absence from the first two seasons has a straightforward geographical explanation. Númenor is a large island, and most of the action so far has taken place on its eastern shores, facing Middle-earth. Anárion has spent that time on the western side.
Those western shores face the distant Valinor and the immortal Blessed Realm across the sea. That direction becomes critical to Númenor’s story, including the ambitions of its new king, Pharazôn, played by Trystan Gravelle.
Season 3 jumps forward five years. When Anárion enters the action, he and Elendil are training soldiers of the Faithful, Númenor’s pro-Elvish, traditionalist faction, for an anticipated civil war against Pharazôn’s army. The time jump drops him straight into the action without a lengthy introduction.
What Happens to Anárion in Tolkien’s Books?
Númenor meets an Atlantis-like end, which explains the ominous description of Meneldil’s birth. When the island perishes, Elendil and his sons lead survivors across the sea to Middle-earth. Anárion personally commands two ships during the escape and literally rides a wave to the mainland.
The Silmarillion describes the journey: “The tempests overtook them, and they were borne aloft on hills of water even to the clouds, and they descended upon Middle-earth like birds of the storm.”
The storm separates the family. Elendil lands with his ships in the north, where he joins Gil-galad and founds Arnor. Isildur and Anárion reach land farther south and establish Gondor. The region is suitable partly because Númenórean settlements already exist there, a process Season 2 of The Rings of Power shows beginning. Once their kingdom is established, the brothers rule together.
Anárion and Isildur’s Future as the Founders of Gondor in The Rings of Power
Anárion’s greatest legacy runs through the kings of Gondor. He and Isildur build their capital, Osgiliath, and rule from thrones set side by side. Elendil remains high king, but he governs Arnor in the north while his sons share responsibility for Gondor in the south. This future as a king of Gondor awaits Anárion in the show’s Second Age story.
Osgiliath is the ruined, river-spanning city seen in The Lord of the Rings. In The Return of the King, Orcs cross it on their way to attack Minas Tirith.
Minas Tirith also begins as Anárion’s project, originally called Minas Anor, the Tower of the Sun. Isildur builds its counterpart, Minas Ithil, the Tower of the Moon. Sauron eventually captures that fortress, which becomes Minas Morgul, the sinister, glowing green tower seen in The Two Towers.
How Does Anárion Die?
The brothers enjoy peace in Gondor for a time, but their kingdom borders Sauron’s territory in Mordor. When he attacks, Isildur heads north to seek their father’s help. Anárion stays behind to defend Gondor against the Dark Lord.
The conflict leads to the Last Alliance of Elves and Men, when a great force of Men, Elves, Dwarves, and others invades Mordor to stop Sauron. The division reaches beyond those peoples. As The Silmarillion explains, “all living things were divided in that day, and some of every kind, even of beasts and birds, were found in either host, save the Elves only.”
Peter Jackson’s The Fellowship of the Ring opens with this war, showing vast armies fighting on the ash-covered plains near Mount Doom before Sauron loses the One Ring. Anárion’s death takes place during that conflict, before Sauron’s final defeat, but isn’t shown in the film’s introduction.
In Tolkien’s account, Anárion joins the invasion of Mordor and the siege of Barad-dûr, Sauron’s fortress. Season 3 of The Rings of Power also shows Barad-dûr under construction. Anárion is killed in battle before its walls.
The Silmarillion gives his final moments a brief description: “There in the valley of Gorgoroth Anárion son of Elendil was slain, and many others.”
Anárion’s Legacy Lives Into The Lord of the Rings and The Third Age of Middle-Earth
Anárion dies during Middle-earth’s Second Age, but his legacy continues into the Third Age, when The Lord of the Rings takes place. One glimpse comes through the Argonath, the two enormous statues the Fellowship sails past near the end of The Fellowship of the Ring. Those statues depict Isildur and Anárion.
His family line also survives through the ages to Aragorn and forms part of Aragorn’s claim to Gondor’s throne. The genealogy is complicated, but Anárion’s descendants rule Gondor long after his death.
After Sauron loses the Ring and Elendil and Anárion have perished, Isildur becomes high king and heads north to Arnor. Anárion’s heirs continue ruling Gondor for another two thousand years. The Stewards eventually replace them, beginning the kingdom’s millennium-long wait for the return of the king.
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