2994: Númenor Margaritaville

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Númenor Margaritaville

Title text: I see white shores, and beyond it, a far green country under a tequila sunrise.

Explanation

Cueball is conflating J.R.R. Tolkien's fictional island "Númenor" with the beach resort in Jimmy Buffett's "Margaritaville". The Elf who is telling him about Númenor, and Aragorn's link to it, becomes progressively more upset, and for cause.

Aragorn, more precisely Aragorn II, is the principal Mannish protagonist of Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings. He is crowned High King of Gondor and Arnor at the end of the saga. He is descended from Elros Tar-Minyatur, first king of Númenor and brother of Elrond.

"I'd rather die while I'm living than live while I'm dead" is a line from Buffett's song "Growing Older But Not Up", from his 1981 album Coconut Telegraph. Ar-Pharazôn, the twenty-fifth, and last, king of Númenor, sought to conquer the Undying Lands, resolving to win eternal life, or die in the attempt. He was therefore responsible for the destruction of Númenor, the removal of the Undying Lands from Arda, and the transformation of Arda into a sphere.

"If there's a heaven for me, I'm sure it has a beach attached" is a quote from the chapter "A Caribbean Soul" of Buffett's autobiography A Pirate Looks at Fifty. Tol Eressëa is an island off the coast of Aman, the continent on which the Valar (divine angelic spirits) live. Aman is thought to have been inspired by the concept of a paradise out of time.

Cueball's last line alludes to a statement made by Galadriel in The Fellowship of the Ring, in the chapter "The Mirror of Galadriel": "I will diminish, and go into the West, and remain Galadriel." Cueball's altered version of the statement refers to Key West, Florida, a city closely associated with Buffett, where he lived for many years, recorded albums, and established the first restaurant in his Margaritaville chain.

The title text alludes to a line from Book VI, Chapter 9: The Grey Havens in The Return of the King. "And then it seemed to him [Frodo] that as in his dream in the house of Bombadil, the grey rain-curtain turned all to silver glass and was rolled back, and he beheld white shores and beyond them a far green country under a swift sunrise." The modified line makes a reference to the Tequila sunrise cocktail - and, perhaps, to the song by the Eagles, which is thematically similar to "Margaritaville".

Tolkien's legendarium is frequently alluded to in xkcd.

Transcript

[An Elf woman with a decorated headband around her long blonde hair and wearing a long dress is walking and talking with Cueball who walks ahead of her looking back at her over his shoulder.]

Elf: Aragorn was king of Gondor, but we Elves remember when his line ruled Númenor.

Cueball: Oh, the place from the Jimmy Buffett songs?

[Closeup on Cueball who has stopped and turned towards the now off-panel Elf. The Elf's reaction is coming from a star burst in the top left corner of the panel.]

Elf [off-panel]: What.

Cueball: The semi-mythical seafaring Atlantic paradise? He sang about it. With the fancy cocktails?

[Zoom back out showing that the Elf and Cueball are now standing facing each other.]

Elf: ...You mean Margaritaville?

Cueball: Yeah, that must be the modern name.

[Another closeup on Cueball with the Elf speaking off-panel as before.]

Elf [off-panel]: Númenor is not Margaritaville.

Cueball: "I'd rather die while I'm living than live while I'm dead," sang Ar-Pharazôn, king of island life.

[Zoom back out to see the Elf is now facepalming while Cueball continues.]

Elf: Please stop.

Cueball: "If there's a heaven for me, I'm sure it has a beach attached" is about the shores of Tol Eressëa.

[The Elf is walking away from Cueball who raises his finger in the air.]

Elf: See, this is why I'm leaving the world of Men.

Cueball: You shall diminish, and go into Key West.

Trivia

In the image of the comic as first published, Númenor was styled "Numenor", and Ar-Pharazôn was given as "Tar-Pharazôn". Cueball had mistakenly appended the Elvish (Quenya) royal title Tar to the Mannish (Adûnaic) regnal name Pharazôn; the king did have a Quenya name, Tar-Calion, but he didn't use it, following the precedent established by most of the Kings of Númenor and signaling the increasing estrangement of the Men of the West (apart from the Elf Friends) from the Elves. The errors were corrected two days after publication.

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Discussion

Looks like the king of island life is Ar-Pharazôn https://tolkiengateway.net/wiki/Ar-Pharazôn 172.71.146.59

Awww this is great. I have just watched the trilogi with my kids (their first time) over the last three weekends, watching the Return of the King over two days finishing just a few hours ago. And then first now I look on yesterdays comic, and in the explanation there is so many references to the things I have just seen right now. Specifically the line "the grey rain-curtain turned all to silver glass and was rolled back, and he beheld white shores and beyond them a far green country under a swift sunrise." where silver glass is in the song "into the west" at the end (which I very much like) and the swift sunrise part is said by Gandalf to Pippin during the battle in Gondor. Love this coincidence. Because I'm a big fan of LoTR and of xkcd. :-) --Kynde (talk) 21:27, 5 October 2024 (UTC)

But there's this one particular harbour / So far but yet so near / Where I see the days as they fade away / And finally disappear. RAGBRAIvet (talk) 00:55, 6 October 2024 (UTC)

The Eagles are coming! Gmcgath (talk) 09:32, 6 October 2024 (UTC)

Ar-Pharazôn: [1] --172.70.210.130 18:18, 22 October 2024 (UTC)

Seemingly xkcd has actually done a rare (silent) comic correction; in the new version, Númenor is indeed written with an accent, and Tar-Pharazôn has become Ar-Pharazôn. So part of the explanation needs to be updated. 172.71.160.93 13:15, 6 October 2024 (UTC)

Well, whaddayaknow? One does not simply mess with the Tolkien canon, I guess. A fix has been attempted. The text associated with the edits maybe should be under a "Trivia" header? 172.68.22.191 14:49, 6 October 2024 (UTC)

Some people say that there's a woman to blame for the elves leaving the world of men, but we know that it is Cueball's damn fault. Stone of Light (talk) 01:20, 7 October 2024 (UTC)

And I always thought Westerland,Germany, was Numenor. Ask Die Ärzte. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ceW3Tfh6iUI 3:15-4:50) 172.71.160.114 11:30, 7 October 2024 (UTC)