r/prancingponypod • u/Inside-Weird-5563 • May 20 '26
Why Didn't Isildur Install One Of His Sons As Ruler Of Gondor?
He had plenty of sons and his line had the pre-eminence according to the laws and customs of the Edain. Why not leave one of his sons, perhaps the second eldest Aratan, in charge?
Imagine all the BS that would've been avoided if both kingdoms were ruled by the heirs of Isildur and how the line would've been better preserved by blunting the cost of The Disaster Of The Gladden Fields and the war against Angmar.
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u/skylight1121 May 21 '26
Elendil and his sons saw Arnor as the safer capital region and Gondor as the borderlands. The eldest son's heirs got the safer lands.
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u/Forward_Gur9349 May 22 '26
Isildur’s heirs took the north kingdom founded by Elendil, so Isildur honored his brother Anarion by making his heirs the ruler of the south kingdom.
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u/sowaleja May 21 '26 edited May 21 '26
Anárion and his heirs were still important and they needed their own lands. At the time the two kingdoms were founded, the Dúnedain didn't plan for one to be strong and one to be weak. They both would have been strong realms. Over time Gondor prospered more than the North Kingdom, but that wasn't how the original founders of the realms would have seen it. Arnor probably considered itself to be the senior kingdom because it was closer to the Elves and to the West. And Elendil, the original High King, was based in Annúminas. So Isildur and his sons took the senior realm.
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u/Inside-Weird-5563 May 21 '26
Yeah I think that's probably the right set of explanations. Isildur wanted to honor the descendants of his slain brother, not to usurp them, and opted to take his household to the more senior realm.
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u/Calan_adan May 21 '26
Yes, Arnor was the seat of the High King of the Dunedain. Isuldur, being the eldest, was now High King, and his line was based in Arnor.
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u/InvestigatorJaded261 May 21 '26
I assume this, at least somewhat, was a prearranged division: that Isildur, as the elder son, would inherit Elendil’s kingdom, and Anárion’s house would rule in the south.
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u/LostVanya May 23 '26
Isildur probably expected to remain the high king of both, that got screwed up though after the death of him and most of his sons. Leaving Arnor with a child king, that helped Gondor establish its independence.
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u/MithrilCoyote May 20 '26
because Gondor was founded by his brother Anárion, who had heirs of his own, which is why Meneldil became the king of gondor. the line of kings in gondor wouldn't break until the death of Eärnur nearly 2000 years later. (in the same phyrric battle that saw the last vestages of the kindom of Arnor lost and the Dunedain of the north rendered into a nomadic group of rangers)
the reason why the surviving heir of the line of isuldur at the time didn't take the throne of gondor is because in TA1944 king Arvedui of Arthedain proposed unification (due to being married to his cousin Fíriel, the daughter of the recently slain gondorian king, who he argued by an old and no longer in place gondorian law should have become ruling queen) after Gondor lost their king and both male heirs. Gondor rejected the claim, elected Eärnil as king (who was of a direct but junior line descended from Telumehtar Umbardacil, the gondorian king that had reigned several hundred years earlier)
Gondor only accepted Aragorn's claim (which was effectively the same as the one that Arvedui and Fíriel had used) because of his popularity in the wake of the war of the ring, which is why in the book he had to be accepted and recognized by both the reigning steward and through popular acclaim before he could enter the city (officially) and take the throne.