Míriel was the only child of Tar-Palantir, the king of Númenor who tried to turn his people back to their old friendship with the Elves and the Valar. By the law of Númenor the sceptre should have passed to her when he died.1,2
Her cousin Pharazôn took it instead. He made her his wife against her will, though the laws of Númenor forbade marriage between such close kin even in the royal house, and he seized the throne as Ar-Pharazôn. Her name was changed to its Adûnaic form, Ar-Zimraphel.1
Under Ar-Pharazôn Númenor reached the height of its pride. He brought Sauron back as a captive, and Sauron became his counsellor; the worship of Melkor followed, and at last the king's assault on the Undying Lands.1
When the sea rose against Númenor at the Downfall, the Queen tried to climb the Meneltarma, the holy mountain at the centre of the island, to its hallow on the summit. The great wave overtook her on the way, and she was lost with the land.1
Three queens had ruled Númenor in their own right before her, under the law that let a king's eldest child inherit whether son or daughter. Míriel should have been the fourth, and the last ruler of the line of Elros; instead the line ended with the man who took her throne.3,1
Sources
Citations name the chapter rather than the page, so they work in any edition. The colour of each note shows what kind of source it is.
- Appendices Tolkien's own appendices to The Lord of the Rings.
- Edited posthumously The Silmarillion, Unfinished Tales and Tolkien's late writings on the Elder Days, assembled by Christopher Tolkien from his father's papers.
- Edited posthumously The Silmarillion, “Akallabêth”
- Appendices The Lord of the Rings, Appendix A, I (i), “The Númenórean Kings”
- Edited posthumously Unfinished Tales, Part Two, II, “The Line of Elros: Kings of Númenor”