Strands of Pearl – literal or metaphor? A simple question about the Earendil poem.

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?
 
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?
From Chapter 5 of the Quenta Silmarillion (p71 of the 1989 UNWIN PAPERBACKS print for Australia and New Zealand):
"Many jewels the Noldor gave them, opals and diamonds and pale crystals, which they strewed upon the shores and scattered in the pools; marvellous were the beaches of Elendë in those days. And many pearls they won for themselves from the sea, and their halls were of pearl, and of pearl were the mansions of Olwë at Alqualondë, the Haven of the Swans, lit with many lamps."

We can't rule out the possibility of the tale tellers describing an imagined experience, rather than a reported experience. Eärendil didn't have much opportunity to sit down with the Elves of Middle-Earth to give a first-hand account of his journey.
 
Well, as you may know, if, perchance, you have read some of my earlier posts, I am always very reluctant to take the Silmarillion as canon.

Also, reading the Lord of the Rings on it's own, and as a first time reader (which we are trying to do in this class), we would know nothing from the Silmarillion.

So, as a first time reader, is it not more likely that the 'pearl, and 'gold' and 'jewels' of the beaches of Elvenhome are figurative images from the mind of Earendil (who does not actually see them), than an actual representation of the constitution of those beaches?

So, my question stands, in the context of The Lord of the Rings, should we consider these references as metaphor or imagery? Do we have any reason to think that they should perhaps be taken as literal?
 
Well, as you may know, if, perchance, you have read some of my earlier posts, I am always very reluctant to take the Silmarillion as canon.

Also, reading the Lord of the Rings on it's own, and as a first time reader (which we are trying to do in this class), we would know nothing from the Silmarillion.

So, as a first time reader, is it not more likely that the 'pearl, and 'gold' and 'jewels' of the beaches of Elvenhome are figurative images from the mind of Earendil (who does not actually see them), than an actual representation of the constitution of those beaches?

So, my question stands, in the context of The Lord of the Rings, should we consider these references as metaphor or imagery? Do we have any reason to think that they should perhaps be taken as literal?

Yes, however I find your position relating to the Silmarillion somewhat unhelpful at times. I would never suggest that the Silmarillion provides incontestable proof of an interpretation, but it still provides some interesting and generally relevant data points.

A "first time reader" of the Lord of the Rings in 1954 could be expected to have a solid grounding in Fairy (Faerie) stories, in which case the literal imagery would indeed be more believable.

However, my suggestion is that the Elves (and by extension Bilbo) wouldn't have much (if any) opportunity to discuss the experience with Eärendil in order to tell (and write) the tales. We have no definitive data to suggest that the beaches actually were strewn with pearls, gold, and jewels at the time of Eärendil's arrival in Aman; they may have been washed away in the intervening millennia.

Imagine a younger (Third Age) Sinda being told the story of Eärendil by one of the few remaining Noldor and when Eärendil's arrival is being related (as an incidental part of the story) the young Elf asks what the beaches of Aman look like. The Noldo explains that the last time they saw the beaches they were strewn with pearls and jewels and they shone like gold. The Sinda, fancying themselves to be a poet, then writes this description down as representing Eärendil's experience but leaves it open as to whether it is a literal or figurative experience.

Ultimately, does it actually matter whether this is a literal or metaphoric description?
 
If the strands of Valinor were ever strewn with gold and jewels collected from across Middle Earth by the Noldor, and by pearls, fished up by the Teleri, and, especially if all that was still there however many hundreds or thousands of years later, when Earendil arrived on those shores, then the geology of Middle Earth must have been surpassing strange.

The shoreline of Valinor must extend for thousands of miles. To strew the strands of those thousands of miles with jewels and gold, would have required more jewels and gold than seems reasonable. All the gold which has ever been found since 2000 BC would fill less than 3.5 Olympic sized swimming pools. So, 4,000 years of gold production in our world if strewn over the strands of Valinor would not really be detectable.

Unless we assume that gold was vastly more prevalent in early Arda (mining techniques were vastly more primitive), then it seems unlikely that Valinor's strands were noticably occupied by gold. I don't believe it. I don't think Earendil saw it (well, we know he didn't). He imagined it. And the passage in the Silmarillion was probably due to Bilbo's translations of Elvish legends into the Red Book of Westmarch that made it into the Silmarillion being overly, and romantically, influenced by legends of dubious veracity.
 
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If the strands of Valinor were ever strewn with gold and jewels collected from across Middle Earth by the Noldor, and by pearls, fished up by the Teleri, and, especially if all that was still there however many hundreds or thousands of years later, when Earendil arrived on those shores, then the geology of Middle Earth must have been surpassing strange.

The shoreline of Valinor must extend for thousands of miles. To strew the strands of those thousands of miles with jewels and gold, would have required more jewels and gold than seems reasonable. All the gold which has ever been found since 2000 BC would fill less than 3.5 Olympic sized swimming pools. So, 4,000 years of gold production in our world if strewn over the strands of Valinor would not really be detectable.

Unless we assume that gold was vastly more prevalent in early Arda (mining techniques were vastly more primitive), then it seems unlikely that Valinor's strands were noticably occupied by gold. I don't believe it. I don't think Earendil saw it (well, we know he didn't). He imagined it. And the passage in the Silmarillion was probably due to Bilbo's translations of Elvish legends into the Red Book of Westmarch that made it into the Silmarillion being overly, and romantically, influenced by legends of dubious veracity.

It is never stated that the shores the full length of Aman were strewn with jewels.
Metallic Gold is never mentioned in the Silmarillion description, but yellow sand, in the right light, might be described to shine like gold.

You say that "we know he didn't" [see the shores of Valinor], but what is your source?

It is true the poem states
"From gnashing of the Narrow Ice
where shadow lies on frozen hills,
from nether heats and burning waste
he turned in haste, and roving still
on starless waters far astray
at last he came to Night of Naught,
and passed, and never sight he saw
of shining shore nor light he sought."

But this is before Elwing brings the Silmaril after which, with determination, he arrives at his destination, and the locals (presumably Elves) teach him songs, tell him stories, and bring him harps of gold.
Then
"They clothed him then in elven-white,
and seven lights before him sent,
as through the Calacirian
to hidden land forlorn he went.
He came unto the timeless halls
where shining fall the countless years,
and endless reigns the Elder King
in Ilmarin on Mountain sheer;"

We've already seen hyphenated words hinting at more complex meanings than their components so this might be more than simply white clothes habitually worn by Elves.
Even if they brought the songs, stories, golden harps, and clothes to him on his ship out of sight of the shore (doubtful), how does he get to Ilmarin (inland in Valinor) without seeing the beach?

None of this eliminates the possibility of this being artistic license on the part of the Elves of Middle-Earth, or Bilbo.
 
Hi Anthony,

When I said that Earendil does not see the pearls, gold, jewels, I mean in the moment when the poem describes them.

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.


Earendil is still surrounded by darkness, except what is illuminated near his ship by the light of the silmaril. He hears the waves breaking, but imagines, and does not see the strands of pearl and yellow gold and jewels wan.

He hears 'the music long' of the waves. He does not see anything until 'He saw the mountain silent rise', in the next quatrain.

If he saw anything of jeweled shores later in his perambulations of Elvenhome, it is unclear how his report would have ever made it back to Middle Earth to be incorporated in a poem by Bilbo.
 
When I said that Earendil does not see the pearls, gold, jewels, I mean in the moment when the poem describes them.

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.


Earendil is still surrounded by darkness, except what is illuminated near his ship by the light of the silmaril. He hears the waves breaking, but imagines, and does not see the strands of pearl and yellow gold and jewels wan.

I'm sorry, but this seems like sophistry. Whether surrounded by darkness at the time of hearing the waves and then seeing the beach later, or seeing and hearing simultaneously, I don't see how it affects the story told, nor how it shifts the description from literal to metaphoric.

If he saw anything of jeweled shores later in his perambulations of Elvenhome, it is unclear how his report would have ever made it back to Middle Earth to be incorporated in a poem by Bilbo.

That's the real point isn't it?

How can this be a true first person account from Eӓrendil unless he took a few minutes (or hours) during the War of Wrath to give an interview to another Elf who survives long enough for it to be recorded.

The only other explanations that occur to me are:
1. One of Eӓrendil's crew, whose fate is not described, or one of the Vanyar told the story on return to Middle-Earth with the host of the Valar.
2. The story was made up by a bard in Middle-Earth after seeing the result of Eӓrendil's voyage.

Neither of these definitively answer the literal versus metaphoric question. But then, why can't it be both?
 
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