Few things about the Earendil poem

[SilberFaust]

There was a question what does "in years of yore" means. I thought about it:
At first Earendil did not have a home. He just `tarried` in Arvernien. After he came to West he tarried there, and it was to him, apperantly, just as Arvenien. Someone asked if time stopped. I don't think it did, but I do think there was a feeling of a very long time while in Middle earth it was just a little while (even though in Lothlorien it's the other way around). He was there for a very long time, and the memory of his Middle earth was distant. But when he went out of the West he returned to the `normal` timeline, and he understood his home is still there. It was like going back in time, when he realised he was actually still in "years of yore". When he came to the west it was "in the night", and he returned "a distant flame before the sun", and I can't avoid the feeling of it being the same night (or more: feeling to Earendil like it was the same night, like waking from a long dream). Indeed, it really was the same night in one sense: There was Evernight between Middle earth and the West, and it was there until Earendil passed back and broght the light there, and the Ban was lifted.

 

[Flammifer]

Hi Silberfaust,

I like your conception that time might have passed differently for Earendil in Elvenhome, than it did in Middle Earth.

I like it, because it is the sort of thing that often happens when mortals enter Faerie, so, could it have happened here?

However, I don't think I agree with it. It seems more likely to me that 'in years of yore', just modifies (or deepens our understanding) of 'In Elder Days', which is the phrase that immediately precedes it. What are 'Elder Days'? Oh, those are 'years of yore', those times that were long long ago from where we sit here in the Hall of Fire.

Still, it is possible that both are true. It could be that time passed differently for Earendil in Elvenhome, than time passed in Middle Earth. I just don't think there is much evidence to suggest this.

 

[SilberFaust]

But the question in the class was why would Bilbo suddenly remind us it was 'in Elder Days in years of yore' in the middle of the poem. (Actually it is almost the end, but still does not seem like a proper place. He could say in the beginning, in all the Mighty-Earendil-Description it was a very long time ago, or add it in the end, when he says he is forever a herald on – since the days of yore. But why in the description of the weeping sore?)

Another little thing about the poem I just remebered: There was a question what is the meaning of 'words unheard'. I'm not sure if I don't understand the question, but it always seemed obvious to me the words are unheard by everyone in Middle-earth, as it continues: "beyond the world were visions showed/forbid to those that dwell therein"

 

[Flammifer]

Hi SilberFaust, Your response caused me to have another idea about why 'In Elder Days in years of yore' appears where it does in the poem.

It could be that this line is aimed as much at us, the modern reader, as at the audience in the Hall of Fire. It is a reminder that these are our Elder Days, and our Years of Yore, as Middle Earth is our Earth, just long long ago.

So, it is a signal: This poem is still important. Earendil is still up there. The Flammifer is still burning brightly in the sky.