Vardamir Nólimon, the son of Elros Tar-Minyatur, was a Man with a passion for collecting ancient lore and knowledge. Vardamir's father was the first King of Númenor, and so by right Vardamir should have succeeded to become Númenor's second King. Instead he chose to abdicate, passing the Sceptre directly to his own son, who became King Tar-Amandil.

Tar-Amandil's own son, the grandson of Vardamir, would in turn become King Tar-Elendil. From his grandfather Vardamir, Tar-Elendil had inherited a deep love of lore and legend, and he brought together the trove of knowledge collected by Vardamir, and bound it into books. He made these books of lore with his own hands, and so gained the surname Parmaitë, meaning 'book-hand'.

Of the fate of Tar-Elendil's books we are not told. If they survived the long history from Tar-Elendil's time to the Downfall of Númenor (a period of nearly three thousand years) then perhaps some of them were carried to Middle-earth by Elendil (Tar-Elendil's namesake and distant descendant). Any of the works of Tar-Elendil Parmaitë that remained in Númenor would have been lost beneath the waves of the Great Sea.