Akallabêth (The Downfallen in Sindarin) is the story of the destruction of the Kingdom of Nùmenor?. At the end of the [First Age]? (described in detail in the Quenta Silmarillion), those of Men who had been helping Elves? in their fight against Melkor? were given a new small continent of their own, free from the evil and sadness of Middle Earth. It was located in the middle of the Great Ocean, between the western shores of Middle Earth, and the eastern shores of Aman?, where the Valar? dwelt.
As they entered Nùmenor, the Men were forbidden to set sail towards Aman. They gladly agreed to this, because they regarded mortality as a gift, and did not envy the Valar and Elves who could not die. For two and a half thousand years Nùmenor had grown in might. Nùmenorian ships sailed the seas and established remote colonies, some of them in Middle Earth. During that time, the Elves of Middle Earth were engaged in a bitter fight with Morgoth?'s former servant Sauron, who had turned into a Dark Lord himself. The Elves asked for the help of the Nùmenorians, and they agreed. Sauron's armies became afraid of the might of Nùmenor, and so he was captured and brought imprisoned to the Nùmenorian king.
However Sauron exploited his power to corrupt the Nùmenorian king. Soon he became his advisor, and much of Nùmenor was turned to evil. By that time, the Nùmenorians no longer regarded death as a gift; they desired the immortality, which they hoped they could find in Aman. Sauron convinced the king to try and assail Aman. However as this was done, the Valar appealed to [Eru Ilùvatar]?. Eru destroyed the Nùmenorian host, by crushing it under stones; however he also caused the whole of Nùmenor to sink under the Great Ocean. Just a few men of Nùmenorian royal blood, uncorrupted by Sauron, fled Nùmenor by ships earlier with some gifts that Men received from the Valar and the Elves in times of peace. They were led by Elendil? the Tall, and his two sons: Isildur? and Anàrion?.
They set sail to Middle Earth, where they had established two kingdoms which were managed as Nùmenorian provinces: Gondor? in the south, and Arnor? in the North. The culture of Nùmenor became the dominant culture of Middle Earth (thus, Westron?, a descendant of the Adùnaic language of Nùmenor became the lingua franca). The sadness and the shock from the loss of a whole continent lived ever in the hearts of kings of Nùmenorian descent. Arda? was made spherical, and Aman was put beyond it, out of the reach of mortal men. Sauron escaped Nùmenor as well.
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