Eärendil
the Mariner; the Star of the West; father of Elrond and Elros
Name and Lineage
Eärendil — “the Mariner”, the son of Tuor and Idril, the grandson of Turgon and (on his mother’s side) heir to all the hope of the Noldor; his wife is Elwing of Doriath; their children are the twins Elrond and Elros. He is of the Half-elven, the link of Eldar and Men, and the star-sailor of the west whom the later songs call.
The Voyage
- The havens of Sirion: When, after the Fall of Gondolin, the remnant of the hidden city came to the mouth of Sirion by the sea, Eärendil — who had been borne thither in the last escape — became the leader of the refugees, with Elwing, whom he wed. There the third of Elwing’s kindred — the havens gathered the survivors of Gondolin and Doriath.
- The seventh ship: Eärendil, longing to find his father and the dwelling of the Valar — he built the great ship Vingilot (“the Foam-flower”), and sailed the seven seas of the world seeking the way to the Blessed Realm; thrice" — he sought, and at last, guided by Elwing (who, with the Silmaril of Beren, flew to him as a white bird — she brought the jewel), he sailed through the shadows and found the West.
- The star: Bidden to choose for himself and his kin, Eärendil chose the fate of the Elves; but the Valar, rather than let the mortal-mariner die, set the Silmaril upon his brow — the Vingilot was raised into the sky — he came ever after “a shining star in the heavens, the morning and the evening star”, with , sailing the Vingilot as the “herald of the Elves… and the sign of hope against the Dark”; his theft — he wears the last Silmaril of the Three as the star that watches over the freeing of the world.
The Intercession
His greatest deed , the hinge of the whole age: by his voyage and (in the West) his plea to the Valar, Eärendil — the first mortal or half-mortal since the rebellion ever to reach Aman — obtained the pardon and the release of the hosts of the West: “for… he alone of mortals had adventured into the shadow and held the light”; the Valar at last consented to the War of Wrath. The sundered and the dead — his intercession ends the Long Defeat: Morgoth is thrust out, the Silmarils passed on, and the Two Kindreds’ long war closed — with Eärendil himself, doomed to the sky forever, the beacon of the “awakening” hope.
The Meaning Eärendil concentrates the mythology’s union of motifs
— the Elf-man blood, the Silmaril’s light, the sea, the star, the intercession — and Tolkien named him, in the deepest texts (the Fall of Gondolin, the Eärendil poems of the Book of Lost Tales), his name means “sea-lover”; and his choosing gives the line of the Half-elven its doctrine: the choice of Elrond (Elves) and Elros (Men) is already latent in the father whose very existence is that choice made universal.