🌟 Our Most Beloved Star: Eärendil and the Stars Above Middle-earth

How the starry skies of Arda shine new light on The Lord of the Rings

Elen síla lúmenn' omentielvo! A star shines on the hour of our meeting!

This is just a quick reminder to keep your eyes out for a special post that will be arriving in your inboxes tomorrow on Hobbit Day (September 22nd)!

Credit: New Line Cinema

Faced with the sight of Shelob moving towards him to kill him, Samwise Gamgee reels from the shock of his encounter with the foul creature. But a sudden thought comes to him as she closes on him and he reaches into his cloak. Rising to his feet, he pulls out the phial of Galadriel and cries “Gilthoniel A Elbereth!” At that, the phial “flamed like a star that leaping from the firmament sears the dark air with intolerable light. No such terror out of heaven had ever burned in Shelob’s face before.”¹

The light from the phial pains Shelob so greatly that she instantly retreats, miserable and defeated.

On the face of it, this scene in Shelob’s lair near the Stairs of Cirith Ungol is compelling and exciting because of the danger that Sam and Frodo face, the way Sam’s love for Frodo motivates him to do courageous deeds, and the way that the gift Galadriel gave Frodo earlier becomes crucial to the plot and the survival of our heroes. But it’s also effective because the cry that Sam utters and the power of the phial itself hint at a deep history to the world of Middle-earth that we are only scratching the surface of in this scene.

The world of The Lord of the Rings is an ancient world with ages of history and legend that fill its pages. Readers interested in this world and history might find themselves asking what exactly Sam’s cry meant. Who or what is he referencing? And what was it about the phial and the light that it emitted that so pained Shelob?

It turns out that the answers to these questions go back to the very creation of the world of Arda as told in The Silmarillion and involve the heart of the story of The Silmarillion: the light of the Trees of Valinor, the light of the Silmarils, and the light of the very stars in the heavens.

Knowing more of this story uncovers layers of richness to the story of The Lord of the Rings that anyone reading the book can sense but that only those who know The Silmarillion—or who paid extra attention during any of the many songs that reference and explain some of it in The Lord of the Rings—can fully appreciate.

So today we’re going to look at the stories of Varda, Queen of the Valar, Fëanor, creator of the Silmarils, and Eärendil the Mariner and then return to some of the references to the stars and to Elbereth in The Lord of the Rings. These stories will give us fresh eyes for and a deeper understanding of what’s going on not just on the surface of the The Lord of the Rings but also in the deeper layers of meaning as well.

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The Queen of the Stars

We begin this exploration of the lights of heaven with Varda. Varda is the Queen of the Valar—the angelic powers who govern the world of Arda on behalf of the supreme deity Illúvatar—and is called Lady of the Stars. The “light of Illúvatar lives still in her face” and in “light is her power and her joy.” The elves hold her “most in reverence and love” and call her Elbereth in Sindarin, meaning “Star-Queen.”²

The elves and other people of Middle-earth who revere her as well “call upon her name out of the shadows of Middle-earth, and uplift it in song at the rising of the stars”³ because of all the Valar, she hears those who cry to her, particularly when she stands with Manwë:

When Manwë there ascends his throne and looks forth, if Varda is beside him, he sees further than all other eyes, through mist, and through darkness, and over the leagues of the sea. And if Manwë is with her, Varda hears more clearly than all other ears the sound of voices that cry from east to west, from the hills and the valleys, and from the dark places that Melkor has made upon Earth.⁴

Varda is known as Elbereth because it was she who created all the stars long ago⁵ and then who in the “greatest of all the works of the Valar since their coming” took dew from Telperion, one of the Two Trees of Valinor, and created even greater and brighter stars right before the awakening of the elves. For even as she ended her labors, the elves awoke and “their eyes beheld first of all things the stars of heaven. Therefore they have ever loved the starlight, and have revered Varda Elentári above all the Valar.”⁶

We see many examples of this love for Elbereth and many cries for her aid in The Lord of the Rings. When Frodo, Sam, Legolas, or any other character in The Lord of the Rings mentions ‘Elbereth,’ they are invoking Varda’s aid, praising her, or referring to her. On Weathertop, for instance, when the Witch-king comes for Frodo, Frodo cries “O Elbereth! Gilthoniel! (“O Elbereth! Starkindler!) as he slashes at the Witch-king.⁷ Strider later comments that Frodo’s blade did little damage to the Witch-king but that “more deadly to him was the name of Elbereth.”⁸

Fëanor and the Silmarils

Once the elves awake under the starlight, the mightiest in form or deed to come from them is Fëanor. He creates the Silmarils and by his artistry and skill manages to capture the light of the Two Trees of Valinor, Telperion and Laurelin, within the Silmarils. The story of The Silmarillion is largely the story of these eponymous jewels and the tragic events that surround them.

Everyone who beholds them, even and especially the Dark Lord Morgoth, desires these jewels for their beauty, which comes in part from the same light from Telperion that provided the light of the stars. Once Melkor destroys the Two Trees and the Silmarils are all that remain of their radiance and beauty, this desire for them by all turns to discord, distrust, and destruction.

Over the course of the story of The Silmarillion, two of the Silmarils are lost forever. But one Silmaril finds its way back to Valinor and a special destiny on the ship of Eärendil the half-elven Mariner.

Eärendil

Statue of Eärendil with the Silmaril on his brow and the Star of Eärendil shining behind in the sky. Credit: Amazon Prime Video

Eärendil is the son of Tuor and father of Elrond and Elros. He and his wife Elwing sail to Valinor in the West with the final Silmaril to entreat the Valar to come to the aid of Elves and Men in their fight against Melkor. The Valar listen to and accept his plea. After defeating Morgoth, Elbereth herself equips the ship with immortal wings. Then she lays on Eärendil the task of sailing through the night sky as a star with the Silmaril set on his brow to light his way through the sky. He becomes the brightest star in the sky, appearing especially bright in the mornings and evenings and serving as a sign of hope from the Valar to the peoples of Middle-earth.

There and Back Again

All of this lore from The Silmarillion makes reading through The Lord of the Rings a richer and more vibrant experience. Frodo invoking the name of Elbereth as aid during his confrontation with the Witch-king on Weathertop changes from a random Elven battle-cry used by a hobbit to a personal plea to the Queen of the Stars for her help in a dire hour of need.

Bilbo sings of Eärendil’s journey and transformation into a star in Rivendell. What otherwise might be a dense and (dare I say) boring song⁹ suddenly becomes much more interesting when you have the context for who Eärendil was, the importance of his journey, and the significance of his task from Elbereth, as well as when you realize that Bilbo is performing this song in the house of Eärendil’s own son!

Galadriel’s gift of the phial to Frodo takes on immediate and immense significance when you read that it contains “the light of Eärendil’s star.” The light in the phial Galadriel gives to Frodo is light from one of the Silmarils themselves! Which in turn is light captured from the Two Trees of Valinor! A gift precious beyond measure!

The stars in the skies above Arda represent the force of goodness in the world, imparting hope and strength to those below who gaze up at them. And even when mentions of the stars in The Lord of the Rings do not specifically invoke the names or stories of Elbereth or Eärendil, this background still provides an extra layer of meaning and hope when they appear.

Weary from their harrowing journey through Mordor—Boromir tried to warn them against simply walking into Mordor—Sam and Frodo take a rest before continuing the final leg of their journey to Mount Doom. Frodo immediately falls asleep and Sam takes the first watch. Fighting sleep, he looks out from their cover and up into the sky.

Far above the Ephel Dúath in the West the night-sky was still dim and pale. There, peeping among the cloud-wrack above a dark tor high up in the mountains, Sam saw a white star twinkle for a while. The beauty of it smote his heart, as he looked up out of the forsaken land, and hope returned to him. For like a shaft, clear and cold, the thought pierced him that in the end the Shadow was only a small and passing thing: there was light and high beauty for ever beyond its reach. His song in the Tower had been defiance rather than hope; for then he was thinking of himself. Now, for a moment, his own fate, and even his master's, ceased to trouble him. He crawled back into the brambles and laid himself by Frodo's side, and putting away all fear he cast himself into a deep untroubled sleep.”¹⁰

Sam, who has without exactly knowing what he was doing has already invoked Elbereth by name several times by this point, looks up to the night sky. Just like the first elves to awaken, he sees a star in the sky and he is struck by its beauty, heartened in his trouble and encouraged on his journey. The stars and their Queen are no small part of why he and Frodo eventually reach Mount Doom. Just as the pity of Bilbo and Frodo on Gollum revealed larger forces of Good at work in the world, so too do the stars in the night sky above Middle-earth. Hope shining in the dark.