Friday, October 22, 2010

Noldor in Aman Timeline

This time-line focuses on the Noldor in Aman. This portion of history is 3500 years after the creation of the world that is: Eä. A year in this age was between nine and ten sun-years long.

The Age of the Two Trees in Valinor
and
The Age of the Stars in Middle-Earth

0: The Valar create the Two Trees of Light, Telperion the Elder and Laurelin the Younger.

c.500: Aulë and Yavanna create and the hibernate the Dwarves and Ents.

1050 : Varda finishes the star-making by kindling the Sickle of the Gods.
The Elves awake in Cuivié
nen. Melkor discovers and harasses them.

1085 : Oromë discovers the Elves. Melkor breeds Orcs.

1092 - 1099 : The Valar [Powers] protect the Elves and battle Melko.

1100: The Valar raize Utumno and chain Melkor, now doomed to spend 300 Valinorean years confined in the Halls of Mandos.

1101 The Valar summon the elves to Valinor.

1102 the Vala Oromë escorts Ingwë, Finwë, and Elwë to Valinor.

1104 The Three return to convince many elves to follow them to Valinor.

1105 The Great March begins. The Avari [the Unwilling] stay behind.

c. 1110 Awakening of the Dwarves.

1115 The Eldar [marchers]reach Anduin the Great and the Hithaeglir (Misty Mountains)

1125 Awakening of the Ents. The Vanyar and Noldor reach Beleriand.

1128 The Teleri re-join the other Eldar in Beleriand.

1130 Melian enchants and detains Thingol (Elwë) in Nan-Elmoth.

1132 The Vanyar and Noldor travel over the western sea with Ulmo on Tol Eressëa

1133 - 1140 The Vanyar and Noldor arrive in Aman. They build Tirion upon Tùna and the Tower of Ingwë. The Vanyar begin to settle Valmar.

1142 Yavanna gives the Noldor
in Tirion the White Tree Galathilion from Telperion.

1149 Ulmo returns to Middle-earth to bring the Teleri to Aman, but Ossë persuades some to remain in West Beleriand (Falas) to become the first mariners, having Cìrdan as Lord.

1150 - 1151 The Teleri travel overseas west from Beleriand with Ossë on Tol Eressëa.

1152 Thingol awakes from the trance, marrying Melian.

1161 Ossë teaches the Teleri the art of shipbuilding, who travel to Valinor.

The Noontide of Valinor

1162 Olwë, the Teleri, and the Noldor begin building Aqualondë.

1165 The last Vanyar depart Tirion for Valmar.

1179 Mùriel births Féanor, then departs to the Halls of Mandos. The House of Finwë discovers earth-gems, and devises tools for their cutting and shaping. Noldo Rùmil devises letters.

1189 Finwë takes Indis, Ingwë's sister, as second wife.

1190 Indis births Fingolfin.

1200 Melian births Lùthien.

1229 Fëanor marries Nerdanel.

1230 Indis births Finarfin. Nerdanel births Maedhros.

1240 Fingolfin weds Anairë.

1245 Anairë births Fingon.

1250 Fëanor revises Rùmil's letters, creating the Tengwar script.
Dwarves enter Ered Luin mountains and found Nogrod and Belegost.

1280 Finarfin weds Eärwen, daughter of Olwë.

1300 Anairë births of Turgon.
Eärwen births Finrod. Sindarin lore-master Daeron designes his Runes. Dwarves and elves build Menegroth of the Thousand Caves.

1320 Menegroth is fortified against
wolves and other evil creatures roaming Beleriand.

1330 The first orcs invade Beleriand.

1350 Denethor and the Nandor come to Beleriand and settle in Ossiriand.

1362
Eärwen births Galadriel.

c. 1400 Dwarf Durin founds Khazad-dùm.

Melkor Unchained

1400 Melkor is unchained under Tulkas' guardianship.

1410 Manwë gives Melkor freedom within Valinor. Melkor feigns love for the Eldar, teaching and lying to precipitate disputes between Fëanor and Fingolfin.

1449 - 1450 Fëanor constructs the Three Silmarils, enclosing the Lights of the Two Trees.

1450 - 1490 Melkor raises further dissension, teaching sword-making among the Noldor.
Fëanor and Fingolfin quarrel. Many Noldor divide their allegiances and forge weapons in secret.

1490 Fëanor threatens Fingolfin at swordpoint. The Valar banish Fëanor from Tirion for 12 years. Finwë and Fëanor's sons also leave Tirion to build Formenos secretly in the North. Fingolfin is regent in Tirion. Known fomentor Melkor eludes the Valar.

1492 Fëanor rebuffs Melkor's parley in Formenos,
naming him 'Morgoth Bauglir' [Black Foe].

The Darkening of Valinor

1493 Melkor seeks and finds the monstrous Ungoliant in southern Aman.

1495 Melkor and Ungoliant fatally poison the Two Trees. Melkor kills Finwë and steals the Silmarils. Melkor and Ungoliant flee across the Helcaraxë, battling and separating at Lammoth. Melkor, shape-trapped as the Tyrant of Utumno, regains Angband.

Many Noldor revolt with Fëanor to leave Tirion, battling the Teleri in Alqualondë [the First Kinslaying], then sailing to Middle-earth and burning the swan-ships of the Teleri at Losgar.

1496 Mandos utters of the Prophecy of the North and the Doom of the Noldor.
Repentant Finarfin returns to Tirion, there to rule the remnant of the Noldor in Aman.

1497 Melkor invades Beleriand. Orcs slay Denethor. Melian raises The Girdle around Doriath.

1498 Fëanor and the Noldor attack Melkor in Angband to recover the Silmarils. Balrogs slay Fëanor, Maedhros is captured
. Fingolfin and his tribe march over the Helcaraxë to Middle Earth.

The Second Spring of Arda:
The First Age of the Sun and Moon

1500 Aulë and the Valar prepare the Moon and the Sun from the last Silver Flower of Telperion and the last Golden Fruit of Laurelin.The Moon rises, crossing the sky seven times before the rising of the Sun.

This able time-line is borrowed and abridged from the Tolkien Forums

Saturday, October 2, 2010

Estë and Lórien

Like Aulë [meaning "invention" in Quenya] is pronounced rather like "Owl Lay", Estë [meaning Repose, Rest"] sounds a bit like "Ess Stay"

Estë, the gentle, healer of hurts and of weariness, is Irmo's spouse. Grey is her raiment; and rest is her gift. She walks not by day, but sleeps upon an island in the tree-shadowed lake of Lórellin [Dream-lake].

J.R.R Tolkien uses the lovely word "Fëanturi" to mean "masters of spirits" to describe two Valar brothers named Námo [Judge] and Irmo [Desire]. They are usually called Mandos and Lórien, after their domains, the Halls of Mandos [safe-keep] where dead spirits go, and the Gardens of Lórien [Dream-land].

Irmo the younger is the master of visions and dreams. In Lórien are his gardens in the land of the Valar, and they are the fairest of all places in the world, filled with many spirits. From the fountains of Irmo and Estë, all those who dwell in Valinor draw refreshment; and often the Valar come themselves to Lórien and there find repose and easing of the burden of Arda.

This is almost every quote describing to these two characters, the Lord and Lady of Dreams, masters of desire, illusion and healing. While there is minimal description of Estë and no description at all of Irmo (what does a dream look like?), the Gardens of Lórien gets a few more examples:

When [Tillion of the Ainu] would rest he forsook the woods of Oromë, and going into Lórien he lay in dream by the pools of Esté, in Telperion's [the Silver Tree's] flickering beams

Varda, Queen of Skies, later appointed Tillion as the driver of the Moon, ordered to continually circle the sky beside the sun. By driving erratically, he irked the Sun-maid into burning him and the earth some. Estë and Irmo have a part of making peace.

Because of the waywardness of Tilion, therefore, and yet more because of the prayers of Lórien and Esté, who said that sleep and rest had been banished from the Earth, and the stars were hidden, Varda changed her counsel, and allowed a time wherein the world should still have shadow and half-light.


While I think of it, Lothlorien, where dwelt Galadriel in Middle-Earth in Lord of the Rings, is a wholly different place than Lorien. I'll end with a story that ties Noldor Elves to Lórien, when Míriel [Jewel-woman], Fëanor's mother and the first wife of the Noldor King Finwë, made the Gardens her final resting place.

In the bearing of her son, Míriel was consumed in spirit and body; and after his birth she yearned for release from the labours of living. ... when Míriel languished still, Finwë sought the counsel of Manwë, and Manwë delivered her to the care of Irmo in Lórien.
There is some grief at Míriel's departure and exhaustion, then,

She went then to the gardens of Lórien and lay down to sleep; but though she seemed to sleep, her spirit indeed departed from her body, and passed in silence to the halls of Mandos. The maidens of Estë tended the body of Míriel, and it remained unwithered; but she did not return. Then Finwë lived in sorrow; and he went often to the gardens of Lórien, and sitting beneath the silver willows beside the body of his wife he called her by her names. But it was unavailing; and alone in all the Blessed Realm he was deprived of joy. After a while he went to Lórien no more.