Telperion
In J. R. R. Tolkien's legendarium, the Two Trees of Valinor are Telperion and Laurelin, the Silver Tree and the Gold Tree, which bring light to Valinor, a paradisiacal realm where the Valar and Maiar, angel-like divine beings, and many of the Elves live. The Two Trees are of enormous size and exude dew that is a pure and magical light in liquid form.
The Elvish craftsman Fëanor made the unrivalled jewels, the Silmarils, with their light. The Two Trees are destroyed by the evil beings Ungoliant and Melkor, but their last flower and fruit are made into the Moon and the Sun. Melkor, now known as Morgoth, steals the Silmarils, provoking the disastrous War of the Jewels. Descendants of Telperion survive, growing in Númenor and, after its destruction, in Gondor; in both cases, the trees are symbolic of those kingdoms. For many years, while Gondor has no King, the White Tree of Gondor stands dead in the citadel of Minas Tirith. When Aragorn restores the line of Kings to Gondor, he finds a sapling descended from Telperion and plants it in his citadel.
Commentators have identified mythic and Christian symbolism in the Two Trees; they have been described as the most important symbols in the entire legendarium. Their origins have been traced to the Trees of the Sun and the Moon in medieval mythology. Parallels have also been identified with Celtic mythology, where several pairs of trees appear. The White Tree of Gondor, too, has been traced to the medieval Dry Tree, a symbol of the resurrection of Jesus.
Verlyn Flieger has described the progressive splintering of the light of the Two Trees through Middle-earth's troubled history, noting that light represents the Christian Logos. Tom Shippey links the sundering of the Elves into different groups to the Two Trees and to the Prose Edda which speaks of Dökkálfar and Ljósálfar (light and dark elves); Tolkien treats the difference between these as whether they have made the journey to Valinor and seen the light of the Two Trees.
Farewell
- 2024-03-07T00:00:00.000000Z
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