Religion in Middle Earth?

[Wilogrim]

Hello all I am new to interacting on the tor site I am a huge fan of everything the community has posted thus far.
I digress.. would it make sense that the faithful numenoreans would follow their traditions especially after civil war on numenor.
so would the realms in exile led by elendil the tall follow the old traditions even after the deaths of anarian elendil and isildur . with the separation of gondor and arnor under two separate kingships each would want to say we are the leader..
Just a thought the dunadan do follow tradition?.. what are your thoughts guys ?. .

[ThrorII]

For the Numenorians in exile, I think the situation would be similar to the Jews after the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem. With no Temple, there were no sacrifices, therefore the Jewish religion was fundamentally changed.

The mountain top Meneltarma was THE location where the Numenorians revered the Eru (God). With Numenor sunk, there was no way else to perform their rituals. Their religion was fundamentally altered, and they could only remember and honor Eru, but not formally worship.

[Tolwen]

For the Numenorians in exile, I think the situation would be similar to the Jews after the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem. With no Temple, there were no sacrifices, therefore the Jewish religion was fundamentally changed.

The mountain top Meneltarma was THE location where the Numenorians revered the Eru (God). With Numenor sunk, there was no way else to perform their rituals. Their religion was fundamentally altered, and they could only remember and honor Eru, but not formally worship.

IIRC there was actually a substitute. In Gondor the hallow on Mindolluin (where Aragorn later found the seedling of the White Tree) served in the same function as the hallow on Meneltarma. Thus Gondor both had a Priest (the King) and a proper place (the Mindolluin). For Arnor, I'd be interesting whether they also had a place (a king existed as well, almost as long as in Gondor).

Cheers
Tolwen

[Wilogrim]

My personal thought is this..
If a king was of both high king of gondor and arnor they would have the right to be the priest king ... and as I think the numenoreans were creatures of habit and honoured the old traditions.
Aragorn would have renued the religion of old.
Especially as aragorn chose the time of his passing like the faithful numenorean kings of old and reinstated the numenorean bloodline with his wife the daughter of Elrond.
I would have imagined the reconstruction of gondor and arnor was a daunting task .
But that said the servents of sauron must have been in complete disarray.

[ThrorII]

IIRC there was actually a substitute. In Gondor the hallow on Mindolluin (where Aragorn later found the seedling of the White Tree) served in the same function as the hallow on Meneltarma. Thus Gondor both had a Priest (the King) and a proper place (the Mindolluin). For Arnor, I'd be interesting whether they also had a place (a king existed as well, almost as long as in Gondor).

I'll have to research. I know Gandalf led Aragorn there to find the sapling, but I don't recall anything said about using it as a place of worship. Although it would be possible.

I'd say, however, that since between 2002TA and and 1FA there was no king in Gondor (and Arnor had been kingless since 1974TA) there was no formal religion for over 1000 years.