Summery Elrond

[Darren Grey]

The summeriness of Elrond was discussed recently, with the summer-light in his face at the Hall of Fire. It brought to mind how Galadriel is later (much later!) talked of by Gimli as being representative of morning, in contrast with Arwen of the evening. Is there something related here? The summer association of Elrond could be an effect of the preservation of the elven ring, or simply a representation of how he and Galadriel still carry an atmosphere of the early days of Middle-Earth when the sun was yet young, with Galadriel representing an even earlier time.

Also, in searching the text for other instances of "summer-light" or similar I could only find one relevant thing, when Sam holds the phial to Frodo's face after Shelob had her way with him: "...the light burned gently now with the soft radiance of the evening-star in summer, and in that light Frodo’s face was fair of hue again, pale but beautiful with an Elvish beauty, as of one who has long passed the shadows." The reference to the evening star and Elvish beauty both seem relevant to Elrond. Thoughts?

 

[Flammifer]

Hi Darren,

The reference to the evening star might well recall Elrond, but, Iikely that 'summer' might refer to Elrond,whereas the 'evening-star' more clearly recalls Earendil (not surprisingly, as it is the light of his star that is captured in Galadriel's glass). So, perhaps this passage relates to both Elrond and Earendil, and, perhaps, links them.

I think this is a reference to Earendil's star as the 'evening star' that I missed in a previous post or reply trying to find all the references to Earendil as either the morning or the evening star. (In the post, "From poem evidence, does Earendil become the Morning Star?")

With the addition of this reference, I think we have one instance of Earendil's star referred to as the morning star, and five instances of it being related to the evening star (now that, thanks to NotACat, I believe that footnote #4 in Appendix A,I,(i) confirms that the star Sam sees in Mordor is Earendil's star).

Thanks for bringing this passage to my attention.

 

[Darren Grey]

I don't think the passage is intended to recall Elrond, I just find it interesting that this is the only other time I could find of light having a "summer" quality to it. There's maybe some core quality here which connects both Elrond and this instance of Earendil's light.