"GL1" - читать интересную книгу автора (vol05)

might and skill had in those days become exceedingly great, and
they had moreover the aid of Sur. The fleets of the Numenoreans
were like a great land of many islands, and their masts like a forest
of mountain-trees, and their banners like the streamers of a
thunderstorm, and their sails were black. And they moved slowly
into the West, for all the winds were stilled and the world lay silent
in the fear of that time. And they passed Tol-eressea, and it is said
that the Elves mourned and grew sick, for the light of Valinor was
cut off by the cloud of the Numenoreans. But Angor assailed the
shores of the Gods, and he cast bolts of thunder, and fire came
upon the sides of Taniquetil.
But the Gods were silent. Sorrow and dismay were in the
heart of Manwe, and he spoke to Iluvatar, and took power and
counsel from the Lord of All; and the fate and fashion of the world
was changed. For the silence of the Gods was broken suddenly,
and Valinor was sundered from the earth, and a rift appeared in
the midst of Belegar east of Tol-eressea, and into this chasm the
great seas plunged, and the noise of the falling waters filled all the
earth and the smoke of the cataracts rose above the tops of the
everlasting mountains. But all the ships of Numenor that were

west of Tol-eressea were drawn down into the great abyss and
drowned, and Angor the mighty and Istar his queen fell like stars
into the dark, and they perished out of all knowledge. And the
mortal warriors that had set foot in the land of the Gods were
buried under fallen hills, where legend saith that they lie im-
prisoned in the Forgotten Caves until the day of Doom and the
Last Battle. And the Elves of Tol-eressea passed through the gates
of death, and were gathered to their kindred in the land of the
Gods, and became as they; and the Lonely Isle remained only as a
shape of the past.
$8. But Iluvatar gave power to the Gods, and they bent back
the edges of the Middle-earth, and they made it into a globe, so
that however far a man should sail he could never again reach
the true West, but came back weary at last to the place of his
beginning. Thus New Lands came into being beneath the Old
World, and all were equally distant from the centre of the round
earth; and there was flood and great confusion of waters, and seas
covered what was once the dry, and lands appeared where there
had been deep seas. Thus also the heavy air flowed round all the
earth in that time, above the waters; and the springs of all waters
were cut off from the stars.
$9. But Numenor being nigh upon the East to the great rift was
utterly thrown down and overwhelmed in sea, and its glory
perished. But a remnant of the Numenoreans escaped the ruin in
this manner. Partly by the device of Angor, and partly of their own
will (because they revered still the Lords of the West and mis-
trusted Sur) many had abode in ships upon the east coast of their
land, lest the issue of war be evil. Wherefore protected for a while
by the land they avoided the draught of the sea, and a great wind