Spies of the Valar

In the early days of the kingdom of Númenor, its people maintained friendly relations with the Eldar of Eressëa, which lay nearby to the west. The Elves from that isle would often sail to Númenor, where they were greeted by the Men who lived there. As the centuries passed, a powerful faction developed that distrusted these Elves, imagining that they were spying for the Valar. During the reign of Ar-Gimilzôr (who acceded the throne in II 3102) the so-called 'Spies of the Valar' were banned from Númenor altogether, and those few Faithful Númenóreans who continued to welcome them became subject to legal sanction.