Númenor

Númenor, also called Elenna-nórë or Westernesse, is a fictional place in J. R. R. Tolkien's writings. It was the kingdom occupying a large island to the west of Middle-earth, the main setting of Tolkien's writings, and was the greatest civilization of Men. However, after centuries of prosperity, many of its inhabitants ceased to worship the One God, Eru Ilúvatar, and they rebelled against the Valar. They invaded Valinor in an erroneous search for immortality, resulting in the destruction of the island and the death of most of its people. Tolkien intended Númenor to allude to the legendary Atlantis.

The end of Númenor echoes the Biblical stories of the fall of man and the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, and John Milton's Paradise Lost. The tale forms part of the theme of decline and fall in Middle-earth that runs throughout Tolkien's legendarium, ancient Númenor representing a now-mythical age of greatness. Scholars, and Tolkien himself, have noted likenesses between Númenor and ancient civilisations including ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia, Phoenicia, and Carthage. Its language, Adûnaic, was modelled on Semitic languages. Tolkien chose to make the names of its months reflect those of the French Republican calendar, translated into his Elvish languages.