For the story of the Silmarils is a story of trust betrayed. In the terrible lair of Shelob, in a place where all other lights have gone out, Frodo cries out, “Aiya Eärendil elenion ancalima!” “Hail Eärendil, brightest of stars!” And at this moment when all hope is gone the light of the Silmaril blazes forth and the memory of the fall of Morgoth is rekindled.īut I mentioned sorrow too. Eärendil brought hope to Middle-earth when it lay prostrate before the power of Morgoth and his star continues to do so today. The light of the Silmaril that is captured in the phial is a sign of hope to which all the peoples of Middle-earth can look each morning and evening in the star that shines brightly above them. There is a sense in which the whole of this history is contained in Galadriel’s phial, both in its beauty and its sorrow. Along with his people, the Noldor, he steals ships from the Teleri, slaying them when they try to resist him, and so begins the tragic history of Middle-earth that reaches a climax in The Lord of the Rings.Ī light when all other lights have gone out. After the theft of the Silmarils Fëanor will pursue Morgoth, defying the Valar who forbid him to leave Valinor. Eventually the trees are destroyed by Morgoth with the aid of Ungoliant, the terrible spider-like monster and ancestor of Shelob, who Frodo and Sam will encounter in the tunnels of Cirith Ungol and who Sam will vanquish with the aid of Galadriel’s phial after Frodo is poisoned. It is the story of how Fëanor made three exquisite jewels in which was captured the light of the two trees in Valinor, of Telperion and of Laurelin. Galadriel herself has been intimately involved in this history from the beginning. This is Frodo’s immersion into the history of light of which he is a vital part and of which Galadriel’s phial is now a living symbol. If anyone knows the who created this I would be delighted to add an ascription.įrodo remembers the verses that Bilbo chanted about Eärendil in the Hall of Fire in Rivendell, the verses that seemed to Frodo “to fit somehow” into something about which he was dreaming, about “an endless river of swelling gold and silver” flowing over him. I have not been able to find an artist’s name for this. May it be a light to you in dark places, when all other lights go out.” Galadriel captures the light of the star of Eärendil in her phial. It will shine still brighter when night is about you. “In this phial,” she said, “is caught the light of Eärendil’s star, set amid the waters of my fountain. Anke Eismann imagines the giving of the Phial to Frodo. She gives to him “a small crystal phial” that glitters as she moves it and “rays of white light” spring from her hand. The Fellowship of the Ring by J.R.R Tolkien (Harper Collins 1991) pp.365-367Īfter Galadriel has given a gift of three of her golden hairs to Gimli there remains one last gift to be given, to Frodo, the Ring-bearer who is not last in her thoughts.
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