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appendix a 1379
Umbar and there joined the rebels; while others had renounced
their lineage and taken wives not of Númenórean blood.
So it was that no claimant to the crown could be found who
was of pure blood, or whose claim all would allow; and all feared
the memory of the Kin-strife, knowing that if any such dissension
arose again, then Gondor would perish. Therefore, though the
years lengthened, the Steward continued to rule Gondor, and
the crown of Elendil lay in the lap of King Eärnil in the Houses
of the Dead, where Eärnur had left it.
The Stewards
The House of the Stewards was called the House of Húrin, for
they were descendants of the Steward of King Minardil (1621–
34), Húrin of Emyn Arnen, a man of high Númenórean race.
After his day the kings had always chosen their stewards from
among his descendants; and after the days of Pelendur the Stewardship
became hereditary as a kingship, from father to son or
nearest kin.
Each new Steward indeed took office with the oath ‘to hold
rod and rule in the name of the king, until he shall return’. But
these soon became words of ritual little heeded, for the Stewards
exercised all the power of the kings. Yet many in Gondor still
believed that a king would indeed return in some time to come;
and some remembered the ancient line of the North, which it
was rumoured still lived on in the shadows. But against such
thoughts the Ruling Stewards hardened their hearts.
Nonetheless the Stewards never sat on the ancient throne;
and they wore no crown, and held no sceptre. They bore a
white rod only as the token of their office; and their banner
was white without charge; but the royal banner had been sable,
upon which was displayed a white tree in blossom beneath
seven stars.
After Mardil Voronwë, who was reckoned the first of the line,
there followed twenty-four Ruling Stewards of Gondor, until the
time of Denethor II, the twenty-sixth and last. At first they had
quiet, for those were the days of the Watchful Peace, during
which Sauron withdrew before the power of the White Council