Flammifer
Well-Known Member
In discussion 118, of the Earendil poem, (which I missed due to hanging out in the Berkshires after New England Moot), the class spent a long time discussing the section of Stanza 5, “until he hears on strands of pearl where ends the world the music long, where ever foaming billows roll the yellow gold and jewels wan”.
Throughout this discussion, the talk was all interpreting the ‘strands of pearl’ and ‘yellow gold and jewels wan’ as though this was to be interpreted literally. What are ‘wan’ jewels, the class wondered?
Were the jewels cut? If not, why weren’t they called ‘gems’? Was this like a stony or pebbly beach?
I have always interpreted all this imagery as metaphor, not literally. Earendil hears the music of waves breaking on a beach. The sand on the beach would seem white from a distance (if you could see it, which Earendil cannot, he can only hear the breaking waves), like pearls. The sand where it is rolled by the waves, if one were close to it, would look golden. What ‘wan’, or pale jewels are found on a beach? Seashells.
Earendil does not see this strand. He only hears waves, breaking on a beach. All these images of the strand are just in Earendil’s mind. He thinks of beaches he has known. He exaggerates those images, or puts them into metaphor, just to emphasize that this is a wonderous strand, of a marvelous land, in Otherworld, where seldom mortal goes.
Question – should we really think that beaches in Valinor are strewn with pearls, gold, and jewels? Or should we take this as a metaphor in Earendil’s imagination?
Throughout this discussion, the talk was all interpreting the ‘strands of pearl’ and ‘yellow gold and jewels wan’ as though this was to be interpreted literally. What are ‘wan’ jewels, the class wondered?
Were the jewels cut? If not, why weren’t they called ‘gems’? Was this like a stony or pebbly beach?
I have always interpreted all this imagery as metaphor, not literally. Earendil hears the music of waves breaking on a beach. The sand on the beach would seem white from a distance (if you could see it, which Earendil cannot, he can only hear the breaking waves), like pearls. The sand where it is rolled by the waves, if one were close to it, would look golden. What ‘wan’, or pale jewels are found on a beach? Seashells.
Earendil does not see this strand. He only hears waves, breaking on a beach. All these images of the strand are just in Earendil’s mind. He thinks of beaches he has known. He exaggerates those images, or puts them into metaphor, just to emphasize that this is a wonderous strand, of a marvelous land, in Otherworld, where seldom mortal goes.
Question – should we really think that beaches in Valinor are strewn with pearls, gold, and jewels? Or should we take this as a metaphor in Earendil’s imagination?