An Out-Of-This-World Tribute to J.R.R. Tolkien

Earendil by alystraea (Deviantart)

You never know where you’re going to come across Tolkien fans.

On the 30th of March, a team of researchers, led by astrophysicist Brian Welch, and aided by the Hubble Space Telescope, announced they had discovered ‘the most distant single star ever before seen’ lying just under 13 billion light-years from Earth.

They decided to name the star ‘Earendel’.

Yes, they have named it after a character in Tolkien’s ‘The Silmarillion’, Eärendil who is the father of Elrond Half-Elven and his brother, Elros.

Earendil, his wife Elwing, Elros and Elrond by Jenny Dolfen

Tolkien based the name, Eärendil, on the Anglo-Saxon ‘éarendel’, which means ‘shining light’.

He was inspired by these lines describing the Advent of Christ in ‘Christ I’, part of a collection of Old English poems, believed to have been written by the Old English poet, Cynewulf:
‘Éala éarendel engla beorhtast’ (Hail Éarendel, brightest of angels)
ofer middangeard monnum sended…’ (sent over middle-earth to men…)

Interestingly, the poem includes the word, ‘middle-earth’.

In ‘The Lord of the Rings’, Galadriel gives Frodo a phial of light she calls ‘the light of Eärendil, our most beloved star…’

Without giving anything away, in ‘The Silmarillion’, Eärendil is connected to the ‘Bright Star of Morning’; we sometimes refer to our ‘morning star’ as the ‘dawn star’.

So, according to NASA astronomer, Michelle Thaller, naming the newly-discovered distant star, Earendel, is fitting as it’s “literally, from the dawn of time, the dawn of stars forming… the farthest star we’ve ever seen…”

And in the video in the Space.com article, Thaller also mentions that many of them are Tolkien fans as she gives us a glimpse of her Elvish tattoos.

How wonderful that, no matter what happens, Tolkien’s legacy will now forever live on in the cosmos.

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I’ll be taking a small break, so won’t be posting for the next 2 weeks but plan on being back on the 3rd of May with a review of ‘The Silmarillion’.

Enjoy the Easter break and the rest of April!