Matt DeForrest
Active Member
While catching up on what I missed last class, I began to notice a parallel between the poem and Frodo’s quest:
- Earendil comes through death and darkness to Valinor on a mission to save all Middle Earth = Frodo comes through death and darkness to Rivendel on a mission to save all Middle Earth
- Earendil arrives in Valinor = Frodo arrives in Rivendell
- Earendil learns stories and can’t go back = Frodo hears the stories of growing war and can’t go back
- The Valar make a boat (a ribbed structure) made of mithril = Frodo gets Bilbo’s coat of mail (that goes over his ribs — I seem to recall an Anglo-Saxon Kenn ing for the rib cage but I cannot recall it offhand)
- The Valar place the Simaril on the mast to light the way = Frodo gets the Vial of Galadriel to light his way
- The Simaril (the big McGuffin of the SImarillion) is the only thing he gets to carry after Valinor = The One Ring (the big McGuffin of the Lord of the Rings) is the only thing he gets to carry after Rivendell
- The Valar lay on/recognize the doom of Earendil = Elrond recognizes the doom of Frodo
- Earendill doesn’t get to go home = Frodo doesn’t get to go home (in the sense he has saved it for others and not for himself)