Episode 119 Summary

Tony Meade

Active Member
SESSION 119

Comment on the “One Ring to find them”:
  • While the implication of “find” is that the One Ring draws the other Rings of Power to itself, it’s ability to work on people from a distance makes finding the other Rings less important.
  • Though the sequence of verbs after “rule them” makes sense, the fact that “rule them” comes first seems to counteract the need to physically collect the Rings in one place.
  • The One Ring does not seem to be used to find the other Rings, as Sauron doesn’t know where the Seven Rings are located and is only able to find Thráin’s ring after he exposes himself.
  • Sauron didn’t have the One Ring when Thráin was abroad, but he also didn’t locate any of the Seven when he did have the One, or else he wouldn’t have allowed dragons to destroy them.
  • The Three Elven Rings were removed and concealed using their bearers’ power alone.
  • Note: This is parallel to the shielding of Melian’s mind from Morgoth in The Silmarillion. Morgoth is unable to learn what is happening in Doriath because she doesn’t allow it. Galadriel does a very similar thing, but because Sauron doesn’t have the One Ring, he can’t use it to penetrate her shield through her own Ring, Nenya.
  • Sam says later in Mordor that when he wears the Ring, he feels more visible to the Enemy, and Frodo says something similar on Amon Hen, which says something about Sauron and the Ring.
  • In this sense, the “finding” is more about searching for and within the minds of those that own the other Rings of Power, and to “bring” them under his power, rather than a physical search.
  • Sauron’s goal is not to bring everyone into Mordor, but to rule over all the peoples and lands where they are. He wishes to expand his power and gather everyone into the darkness itself.
  • What Sauron seems to miscalculate is that Celebrimbor would be aware of him, and that the connection of minds would work both ways, making himself open to be known by his enemies.
  • It’s also possible that Sauron underestimated the power of Celebrimbor and the other Elf-lords, which is something that he has been known to do with others in the past and the present.
  • That he underestimated the Hobbits’ ability to resist the Ringwraiths is another example of this.
  • It’s only the One Ring that Sauron wants brought to him through physically capturing Frodo.
Eärendil gets an upgrade:
  • In the first and third line of stanza six, we see an internal rhyme with the terminal rhyme that is repeated in lines two and four. This only happens in this quatrain.
  • It’s also interesting that the sages teach Eärendil music in this context. There is an incantatory feeling to this stanza to go along with the description of his learning of stories and songs.
  • The word “tarried” is used here again, emphasizing his wandering nature and homelessness.
  • He is now entering Faerie, and there is a sense that time is different from Middle-earth. We don’t know how long he is there, but it would be some time due to the teaching he receives.
  • Who clothed him and when did they do this? What are the “seven lights” sent before him?
  • Note: This contradicts the account in The Silmarillion, where Eärendil finds Tirion and the other places empty and is about to depart before being called back. Here, he is met by someone as soon as he disembarks and is sent on to Tirion and the Valar after being prepared by them.
  • Note: Is “elven-white” clothing what Gandalf the White was given in Lothlorien? It seems likely.
  • Whoever is interacting with Eärendil on his ship seem to be honoring the fact that he persisted in his quest and rewarding him with gifts before sending him off to Valinor.
  • There may be a sense in which he is being tested to see if he will hold to his purpose or just go home richer after being given so many gifts before even entering the lands of the Valar.
Coming unto the timeless halls:
  • This stanza does not portray Eärendil as a hero with a quest, but only as a wandering traveler. We are not told what he actually accomplishes, and the use of the passive voice conceals it.
  • Note: There is a theme in the poem of doom being laid on Eärendil and that he suffered because of that doom, but not who laid that doom upon him nor why, and more of the nature of doom.
  • There is a deliberate avoidance of using the character’s proper name, and even the Elder King is only referred to by their title. This de-emphasizes any personal agency in this doom.
  • Is “forlorn” describing Eärendil or the land? It seems to be deliberately ambiguous in the syntax, and it may even be used as an adverb to describe the manner in which he went forth.
  • If the land is forlorn, that would mean an empty land, but if he is forlorn, it’s about his solitude.
  • The sages that he met may have warned him that leaving the strand meant never leaving again.
  • The stanza brings him to the threshold of the timeless halls, but we don’t meet the Elder King.
  • All of the descriptors have to do with time, but more importantly with the idea of immortality in the depths of time. This emphasizes three times that this is a place outside of mortal lands.
  • Note: In the “Where Are The Horse And The Rider?” poem in The Two Towers, this metaphor of years flowing like a river is also used. This is also mentioned in Galadriel’s poem.
  • This emphasizes that these lands are not meant for Eärendil and is in contrast to his nature.
  • We are not only not told what words were spoken, but who spoke them. The word “unheard” makes the sentence intentionally sound like a paradox, though it emphasizes the mystery.
  • This could also be a way of acknowledging that only those present actually know what was said, though we are told about the subjects of those words, being “of folk of Men and Elven-kin”.
  • We are not told who showed visions to whom and what they are, but that these are of things that cannot be shown to those who dwell within the world from which Valinor is separate.
  • We are not told if the visions are about things beyond the world, or if they were shown to those who live beyond the world.
  • There are more internal rhymes in the first two lines of the final quatrain of stanza six, along with general matching of consonants and near-assonance, which adds to the richness of sound.
  • Note: We know from The Silmarillion that it was Eärendil who brought the messages of Elves and Men to the Valar, but this is not explicit in this poem, nor are we told what his errand is.
  • Everyone in Bilbo’s audience knows the particulars of the story, so he can take that for granted and spend his effort on a different angle, but the readers are excluded from that knowledge.
  • The stanza begins and ends with the passing on of secret knowledge and wondrous sights.
  • Through context, it is foreshadowed that Eärendil will never return to mortal lands to share what he learned.
(continued below)
 

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(continued)

A new ship is built:
  • The first two and half lines of the first quatrain are about what unexpected things the ship contains, while the last line and a half are about what is expected that is missing.
  • Note: This is the first time in the book where Tolkien uses the term “mithril”, though the concept was first raised in writing about Moria and Bilbo’s mail shirt. Tolkien must have added it to the poem and in other places in revision, as he did later to the revised version of The Hobbit.
  • The building of the ship seems to be a parallel to his gift of new clothes, in that he is leaving behind all of the old and taking on the new, with the notable exception of the Silmaril.
  • Note: In The Silmarillion, his own ship is modified, rather than a new ship built, and there is no mention of Elwing’s fate in this poem, as this is not the focus of this version of the story.
  • Overall, there is a sense of rebirth from Eärendil’s old life and into a new life.
The metaphorical light made literal:
  • In the beginning of the poem, the banners were shown with symbols of light, and were lit by lanterns, but now the Silmaril replaces both the banners and the lanterns.
  • Though this is in the passive voice again, Elbereth is named as the subject of the sentence, and we know that she set the Silmaril. This emphasizes the object of the action over the subject.
  • The Silmaril is shown to be the most important object, but Elbereth’s importance is also emphasized by the reflexive word “herself” and her name as the pivot point of the sentence.
  • Once again, Eärendil is not named, and is only mentioned in pronoun form as a verb object.
  • Where is the Silmaril set? It’s not clear if it is the mast or the prow, or just the ship itself, but syntactically the word “thereon” is very remote from the place to which it refers.
  • What is elven-glass? This may be a reference to the kind of crystal that the Phial of Galadriel is made from, and possibly related to the material of the Silmaril itself.
  • This whole stanza is one long sentence, with multiple independent and subordinate clauses, that sometimes begin and end in the middle of lines, and cross over between the quatrains.
  • The last clause is a description explaining the doom set on him by Elbereth. We have already heard of Elbereth in the book several times, and in important contexts.
  • Note: She is the only member of the Valar who have been named up to this point in the book. The only other member of the Valar ever named later is Oromë, and he is unexplained.
  • It’s not explained where this ship was built, and therefore where Elbereth went to do all of this.
  • This is second arming of Eärendil, from the first one described earlier, but he is less active in it.
  • The “undying doom” recalls the time imagery that had been used to describe the halls earlier. However, we are not clearly told if he is made immortal, though it is implied by the doom.
  • Note: The immortal wings are in contrast to the mortal ones used by Icarus and Daedalus.
  • These immortal wings are shown to be necessary for the undying doom laid on him, and it is implied that he will never find a shore to land upon again.
END OF SESSION
 

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