Two Trees of Valinor

2008-09-07T00:07:10Z

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{{objects
| image=[[Image:Roger Garland - Two Trees of Valinor.jpg|300px]]
| name=Two Trees of Valinor
| othernames=Gold and Silver trees
| derivation=
| location=[[Ezellohar]]
| ownedby=[[Valar]]
| maker=[[Yavanna]]
| appearance=Two tall trees, one of gold, the other of silver
| references=''[[The Silmarillion]]''
|}}
The '''Two Trees of Valinor''' are '''Telperion''' and '''Laurelin''', the Silver Tree and the Gold that brought light to the Land of the [[Valar]] in ancient times. They were destroyed by [[Melkor]] and [[Ungoliant]], but their last flower and fruit were made by the Valar into the [[Moon]] and the [[Sun]].

== Creation and destruction ==
The first sources of light for all of [[Arda]] were two enormous [[Two Lamps|Lamps]], Illuin, the silver one to the north and Ormal, the golden one to the south. These were cast down and destroyed by [[Melkor]]. Afterward, the Valar went to [[Valinor]] and [[Yavanna]] sang into existence the Two Trees, silver [[Telperion]] and golden [[Laurelin]]. Telperion was considered male and Laurelin female. The Trees sat on the hill [[Ezellohar]] located outside [[Valimar]]. They grew in the presence of all of the [[Valar]], watered by the tears of [[Nienna]].

Each tree was a source of light: Telperion's silver and Laurelin's gold. Telperion had dark leaves (silver on one side) and his silvery dew was collected as a source of water and of light. Laurelin had gold-trimmed leaves and her dew was likewise collected by [[Varda]].

One "day" lasted twelve hours. Each Tree, in turn, would give off light for seven hours (waxing to full brightness and then slowly waning again), so that at one hour each of "dawn" and "dusk" soft gold and silver light would be given off together.

[[Image:Luis_Bejarano_-_Morgoth_and_Ungoliant_attacking_the_Two_Trees.jpg|left|thumb|350px|"Morgoth and Ungoliant attacking the Two Trees" by [[Luis Bejarano]].]]
Jealous [[Melkor]] enlisted the help of the giant spider-creature [[Ungoliant]] (an ancestress of [[Shelob]]) to destroy the Two Trees. Concealed in a cloud of darkness, Melkor struck each Tree and the insatiable Ungoliant devoured whatever life and light remained in them.

Again [[Yavanna]] sang and [[Nienna]] wept, but they succeeded only in reviving Telperion's last flower (to become the [[Moon]]) and Laurelin's last fruit (to become the [[Sun]]). These were assigned to [[Maiar|lesser spirits]], male [[Tilion]] and female [[Arien]], after the 'genders' of the Trees themselves. This is why, in ''[[The Lord of the Rings]]'', the Sun is usually referred to as "she" and the moon as "he".

However the true light of the Trees, before their poisoning by Ungoliant, was said to now reside only in the [[Silmarils]].

== Telperion's descendants ==
Because the Elves that first came to Valinor especially loved Telperion, Yavanna made a second tree like it to stand in the city of [[Tirion]] where the [[Vanyar]] and [[Ñoldor]] dwelt together at first. This tree, named '''Galathilion''', was identical to Telperion except that it gave no light of its own. It had many seedlings, one of which was planted in the isle of [[Tol Eressëa]] (named '''Celeborn''').

In the [[Second Age]], a seedling of Celeborn was brought as a gift to the [[Númenor]]eans -- that was [[Nimloth]], the White Tree of Númenor. It lasted through the vast majority of the realm's duration, but when [[Sauron]] took control of the island he had king [[Ar-Pharazôn]] chop it down.

Fortunately [[Isildur]] managed to save a single fruit of that tree. Of this fruit later came the [[White Tree of Gondor]].

== Internal Significance ==
The Two Trees of Valinor existed at a time when the only other source of light were the stars (which had been created for the Elves' benefit by [[Varda]] from the dews collected from the Two Trees). When three Elven ambassadors were brought to see Valinor for themselves, in order that the Elves might be convinced to come to Valinor, it seems that the Two Trees affected them most significantly.

In particular [[Thingol]] is said to have been motivated in the [[Great Journey]] by his desire to see the Light of Valinor again (until he finds contentment in the light he sees in [[Melian]]'s face). Also in later times, the Elves would be divided between the '''''[[Calaquendi]]''''' who had seen the light of the Trees, and the '''''[[Moriquendi]]''''' who hadn't, with the former group explicitly superior in many ways.

The whole of the history of the [[First Age]] is strongly affected by the desire of many different characters to possess the [[Silmarils]] who contain the only remaining unsullied light of the Trees.

In the [[Second Age|Second]] and [[Third Age|Third]] Ages, the White Trees of Númenor and of Gondor, whose likeness descends from that of Telperion, have a mostly symbolic significance. They stand both as symbols of the kingdoms in question, and also as reminders of the ancestral alliance between the [[Dúnedain]] and the Elves.

== External Significance ==
Light as a concept is full of symbolism. [[J.R.R. Tolkien|Tolkien]], as a Roman Catholic, would certainly have been exposed to the significance of light in Christian symbolism. Trees were of special importance to Tolkien - in his short story "[[Tree and Leaf]]", which in a sense was an elaborate allegory explaining his own creative process, the protagonist, Niggle, spends his life painting a single Tree.

The Trees are just another appearance of the recurrent 'gold and silver' concept of the legendarium. They are created after the lamps [[Ormal]] and [[Illuin]], and from the trees themselves, Sun and Moon are created.

== Alternate names ==
Both Telperion and Laurelin are said to have been given many names among which are the following: Telperion was also named '''Silpion''' and '''Ninquelótë''' while Laurelin was also given the names of '''Malinalda''' and '''Culúrien'''.

In early writings of Tolkien (see: ''[[The History of Middle-earth]]'') Telperion's names were '''Silpion''', '''Bansil''' and '''Belthil'''.

== Quotations ==
"Yet even as hope failed [...] Telperion bore at last upon a leafless bough one great flower of silver, and Laurelin a single trait of gold." - ''The Silmarillion''

[[Category:Creations of the Valar]]
[[Category:Trees]]

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Two Trees of Valinor