Ringil
the pillar of the southern lamp of the Two Lamps
Names
Ringil — the name of the great pillar that the Valar raised in the far south of the world to bear one of the Two Lamps. (The same name was borne in later ages by the great sword of Fingolfin; the pillar is the earlier thing.)
Description
Ringil was one of the two towering pillars of the first light-work of the Valar: a colossal mountain-like pillar in the South, upon whose summit was set the golden lamp Ormal, while its northern fellow, the pillar Helcar, bore the azure lamp Illuin. In the springtime of Arda the light of the lamps shone from the two pillars over the whole of the young world.
History
After the ruin of the first darkening, the Valar (in the crafts of Aulë) raised the pillars and set the Two Lamps upon them, and the years of the Lamps began, when the world slept in a fair light. But Melkor came secretly out of Utumno and smote the works: the lamps were overthrown and their pillars shattered, and Ringil fell, and the waters welled up in the wreck, making the sea of the south (as the sea of Helcar was made in the north) so that the world was darkened again until the Two Trees and the age of Valinor.