@tolkienofcolourweek day two | passing on traditions | traditions of númenor
Most strange of all were the bear-dances. The bears, the black bears especially, had curious dances of their own; but these seem to have become improved and elaborated by the instruction of Men. At times the bears would perform dances for the entertainment of their human friends. The most famous was the Great Bear-dance [ruxotompalë] of Tompollë in the Forostar, to which every year in the autumn many would come from all parts of the island, since it occurred not long after the Eruhantalë, at which a great concourse was assembled. To those not accustomed to the bears the slow (but dignified) motions of the bears, sometimes as many as 50 or more together, appeared astonishing and comic. But it was understood by all admitted to the spectacle that there should be no open laughter. The laughter of Men was a sound that the bears could not understand: it alarmed and angered them.
—The Nature of Middle-earth, “The World, its Lands, and its Inhabitants: Of the Land and Beasts of Númenor”
Here must be told of the custom that when a ship departed rom Númenor over the Great Sea to Middle-earth a woman, most often of the captain’s kin, should set upon the vessel’s prow the Green Bough of Return; and that was cut from the tree oiolairë, that signifies “Ever-summer,” which the Eldar gave to the Númenóreans, saying that they set it upon their own ships in token of friendship with Ossë and Uinen. The leaves of that tree were evergreen, glossy and fragrant; and it throve upon sea-air.
—Unfinished Tales, “Aldarion and Erendis: The Mariner’s Wife”
Near to the centre of the Mittalmar stood the tall mountain called the Meneltarma, Pillar of the Heavens, sacred to the worship of Eru Ilúvatar. [...] There no tool or weapon had ever been borne; and there none might speak any word, save the King only. Thrice only in each year the King spoke, offering prayer for the coming year at the Erukyermë in the first days of spring, praise of Eru Ilúvatar at the Erulaitalë in midsummer, and thanksgiving to him at the Eruhantalë at the end of autumn. At these times the King ascended the mountain on foot followed by a great concourse of the people, clad in white and garlanded, but silent. At other times the people were free to climb to the summit alone or in company, but it is said that the silence was so great that even a stranger ignorant of Númenor and all its history, if he were transported thither, would not have dared to speak aloud.
—Unfinished Tales, “The Second Age: Description of the Island of Númenor”
Upon the departure of Elros, being then 381 years of age, he [Vardamir Nólimon] did not ascend the throne, but gave the sceptre to his son. He is nonetheless accounted the second of the Kings, and is deemed to have reigned one year. It remained the custom thereafter until the days of Tar-Atanamir that the King should yield the sceptre to his successor before he died; and the Kings died of free will while yet an vigour of mind.
—Unfinished Tales, “The Line of Elros: The Kings of Númenor”
Though many of these traditions dwindled or were cast aside as the Shadow lengthened over Númenor, some endured: bear-dances were practiced into the Third Age in the far corners of Middle-earth and customs of ship-gifts grew widespread among all mortals. And others were revived in the Reunited Kingdom, namely the voluntary passing of the scepter from King Elessar to his son Eldarion, and while all but the peak of Meneltarma sank beneath the Sea, prayers to Eru were once more heard from the mouths of the Dúnedain kings.
