The Fall of Arnor: How Angmar Destroyed the Northern Kingdom | Tolkien Lore

The Fall of Arnor traces the eleven-century collapse of the senior kingdom of the Dunedain, from Elendil's founding on the shores of Lake Evendim to the drowning of its last king in the frozen Icebay of Forochel. When Earendur's three sons divided the realm in T.A. 861, they created the structural weakness that the Witch-king of Angmar would exploit across a patient 675-year campaign of infiltration, siege, plague, and demographic strangulation. The destruction of the Tower of Amon Sul severed the palantiri link to Gondor. The Great Plague emptied Cardolan. Barrow-wights denied recolonization. When Arvedui -- prophetically named Last-king at birth -- drowned with the final seeing-stones, the kingdom died with him. Yet the Dunedain survived as Rangers, preserving their royal line through sixteen Chieftains across nearly two thousand years of secret exile, until Aragorn received the Sceptre of Annuminas and restored what Tolkien called eucatastrophe -- the joyous reversal of permanent defeat.