Humpty Dumpty and the Fall of Pharazon

This will be an interlude before we get to Menelmacar-Orion, I guess.  I am going to make this post as short and sweet as possible.

I woke up early this morning with the Humpty Dumpty nursery rhyme going on in my head.  The one that goes:

 

Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall
Humpty Dumpty had a great fall
All the king's horses and all the king's men
Couldn't put Humpty together again

Well, now we really are going to go Kabbalistic and find meaning in a nursery rhyme, I suppose.

In waking up as this rhyme was being recited in my head (I say it that way because that it felt - like a reading from someone else in my mind), I also had the distinct impression that the nursery rhyme - at least in its usage at the particular moment - was speaking of Pharazon specifically, and the Numenoreans generally.

I am not saying that is the right interpretation, necessarily, or even what was intended, but just that is how I understood it.

And it kind of made sense at first, but then made even more sense as I looked into it just a bit more.

We visualize Humpty as an Egg thanks to Lewis Carroll, I believe.  I've referenced his books on this blog before, and used other characters of his to illustrate points or make analogies (e.g., The White Rabbit) and here Carroll's stories pop up again.

Anyway, Humpty being an Egg gives us another analogy for the Bald Man who wants to reach the Sky.  Eggs are pretty bald.   I've covered that in other posts, though, so I don't think there is anything more to say on that specific feature right now.  You can look those up if you want - I am too tired tonight to link them.

However, as Alice notes in her encounter with Humpty, it is the face that one goes by in identifying people, and she could tell who Humpty was from a long ways away as if 'his name was written all over his face'.  It is also important to note that Alice did not say that Humpty Dumpty was an Egg, only that his physical appearance greatly resembled one (a point she emphasizes with Humpty).

In this encounter, Alice quotes a version of the nursery rhyme that is a bit different than what I just wrote above.  Here is how her version goes:

 

Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall:
Humpty Dumpty had a great fall.
All the King's horses and all the King's men
Couldn't put Humpty Dumpty in his place again.

I've bolded the last line, which is the important change.   Whereas the other version calls to the mind a Being who has broken into many pieces from his fall, this other version simply states that whatever happened to Humpty, it was now not possible to place him back to the location where he was before his fall, which would have been sitting atop a wall.  He had fallen, and could not get back up, no matter how many horses or men were used.

Anyway, the analogy should be pretty clear to the case of Pharazon and the Numenoreans.  They fell, and for a few reasons, cannot be put back in their place.  One of those reasons being their former home is not there to be placed back up to.

Also of interest, is that Alice notices or makes note of a belt that Humpty Dumpty is wearing.  Humpty wants to clarify that it is not a belt, but a cravat, of course.  Whatever.  It serves as both, since Humpty's waist and neck are pretty much the same thing in the state that he is in.

Why interesting?  Well, one of the defining features of Orion-Menelmacar is his shiny belt.  Pharazon too, in Words of the Faithful, was known by his own shiny belt on which he had inscribed his perceived status of being the Chosen One:

Martalion he was called in songs of praise, a Foretold One like unto the mighty men of old, of Turambar and Tuor his sire over the long years.  In gold finery he covered his nakedness, gilded in sunlight so none could withstand him at mid-day, and girded in true-silver of Mithril, an emblem it was said of the portended Noble that would restore the land and its people to the glory that was sung of the gods in yesteryears, when the magic sun and the silver Silpion gave light and truth to all the Fair Folk.  Indeed, among that people it was held out in a final hope that in the exceeding vanity of this "Chosen one" (for that title was carved into the belt of silver) - though the wise said in whispers that the belt alone had been chosen - in him some new relations of Man and Eldar might unfold, as indeed came up them in Eressea.

And here Humpty is also sporting a belt that was nice enough for Alice to notice and make mention.

Pharazon would usurp Miriel's throne in leading the Numenoreans (and this world) to ruin.  I am also suggesting he attempted to usurp, or believed he was, the one who would lead people back to Valinor.  Meaning, the prophecy was real, but he was not that Being.  In other words, his belt symbolically connects him to Faramir-Eonwe, or Menelmacar-Orion, but as a fake or imposter of that Being.  

 I am not saying they were wrong about the belt - Orion has a pretty shiny one - just that they believed in the wrong Man.

The name Pharazon is also an interesting name game for the Being he was acting as.  Phara-, the first part of this name, is the same thing as Fara-, from Faramir.  Faramir's name can mean Jewel Hunter, as guessed at elsewhere on this blog.  Pharazon's name is said to be Adunaic, and means something like Golden One (again, perhaps in copy of the Sun/El-Anor).  But, if looking at it as a word game in Elvish, would mean The Great Hunter, this name representing who he wished to be (and who Sauron likely ended up convincing him that he was).

I don't know.  Just some thoughts, and I had some more, including a reference to Steve Urkel, of all things, but I'll save it for later.  Might be a fun/ interesting short call out.  Basically, I am tired and just want to wrap this post up.  Humpty Dumpty was an unexpected little bit of thinking this morning, so logging some quick thoughts was all I wanted to do.   I suppose it was also timely given that I had been planning to turn to Orion-Menelmacar next.