Vingilot
the Foam-flower; the ship of Eärendil
Name and Making
Vingilot — in Quenya Wingilótë, “Foam-flower” (sometimes ‘Foam’ or “flower of the foam”) — is the great ship built for Eärendil the Mariner: “the most beautiful of the ships” — the Quenta:, with the swan-craft of Círdan’s folk and the timbers of the western woods; it carried the fugitive hopes of the age.
The Voyage
- The seeking: In the last age of Beleriand, Eärendil (with Elwing and their two sons) dwelt at the Havens of Sirion; driven by the longing and the doom, he went seeking his father (Tuor and Idril were lost), seeking the valar, seeking a way for the sorrows of the world.
- The quests of the sea: On the Vingilot he — in his wanderings he and his mariners sought the “Hiding of Valinor” through the Shadowy Seas; at the last, with the Silmaril brought by Elwing (who flew to him as a white bird), the Vingilot passed the barrier and came to Aman.
- The healing of the world: His plea answered, the ship — hallowed, with the Silmaril set — was raised into the heavens as the Morning and Evening Star: “and… the Vingilot… of Eärendil… was made a star” — ever after Eärendil (with Elwing at his side in the earlier tradition)on) sails the sky with the Silmaril at the prow, the sign of hope against the dark — the “Star of Highest Hope”.
The War of Wrath
In the final battles, the Vingilot came down from the sky
— in the War of Wrath, Eärendil (in the sky-ship) fought the winged dragons of Morgoth and cast down Ancalagon the Black upon Thangorodrim — the ship’s greatest deed, the end of the Enemy’s dragons.
Significance
Vingilot is the mythology’s emblem of the sea-quest and the salvation: the ship that (like the Cross in Ruskin’s no) carries the last light of the Trees into the sky — the “Foam-flower” in which the hope of the Noldor and the Sindar, of Elves and Men, was borne past the door of the world and made eternal.