Arnor is the Homeland of the Tribes of Israel

Just as Tolkien’s Gondor represented the Hijaz, home of the House of Ishmael, correspondingly Arnor in Eriador represents the ancient home of the House of Israel around the birth of Jesus the Messiah. The region corresponds to Ancient Israel in the Levant. Here is a map of Arnor.

Tolkien takes real characters places and events and renames them, thus disguising them as something else in his high fantasy fiction. Arnor the northern kingdom of the Dúnedain eventually splits into 3 kingdoms before is destroyed by the northern barbarians of Angmar.

The kingdom of the House of Israel shortly before the lifetime of the Messiah was ruled by one king but eventually split into a Tetrarchy between three of his sons, Harold Antipas, Philip, and Archelaus. This is known as the Herodian Tetrarchy.

The House of Ishmael and House of Israel share the same lineage of Abraham/the Blessed Tree/Shajara. The House of Anárion in Gondor and the House of Isildur in Arnor share the same lineage, that of Elendil represented by the White Tree in Minas Tirith.

#Abraham the Khaleel/God’s Friend was forced to migrate from #Mesopotamia. He carried the Prophetic Royal language and culture to ancient Arabia and Canaan. Elendil the Faithful was forced to migrate from Númenór. He carried the Royal culture, language and seeing stones/prophecy.

The Hasmoneans ruled Ancient Israel semi-independently from 140 to 116 BC, then fully independently by 110 BC. They ruled until 37 BC when the Herodians were given power with Roman assistance. #Tolkien‘s Arnor was founded SA 3320, Isildur was killed TA 2 leaving one surviving son.

In #Tolkien‘s story Isildur’s son became king in TA 10. Then in TA 861 Arnor was divided into 3 realms. In real history the Romans installed Herod and Ancient #Israel became a Roman client state. In 4 BC Herod died and the realm was split between his children.

In 6 CE the Romans annexed Judaea and made it into a province. One by one other realms were absorbed as Roman provinces. Philip’s last realms were annexed into the Roman province of Syria in 34 CE. Antipas ruled Galilee and Perea until 39 CE when they were annexed.

In #Tolkien‘s story in TA 1300 the Witch-king built the kingdom of Angmar in the north-east. In TA 1409 Angmar annexed Rhudaur, then annexed Cardolan later in the same year. The Dúnedain in both realms fled or were exterminated. As with Angmar’s barbarians so too with Rome’s.

In #Tolkien‘s story Arthedain’s independence held until TA 1974, when Angmar completely annexed Arnor. Its last king died and with him were lost the #palantir seeing stones in TA 1975. Thus the Northern Kingdom was destroyed, and the Dúnedain formed the Rangers of the North.