1. |
Spring of Arda
04:13
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The Spring of Arda was a period of peace and flourishing that started when the First War between the Valar ended.
When the Enemy fled and Arda was completed, in the 1,900th year the Valar raised Illuin and Ormal. Arda became filled with trees and herbs, beast and birds, and all the lands were green. In the midmost of Arda was the Isle of Almaren in the Great Lake where, due to the blending of the light of the Two Lamps all things were richest in grown and fairest in hue, and there the Valar made their abode and rested. Yet beyond the Walls of Night Melkor lurked.
Manwë ordained a great feast in the 3,400th year at which Tulkas wed Nessa.
After the feast Tulkas slept and Melkor, seeing his chance, passed into the North of Middle-earth, raised the Iron Mountains and began the delving of his vast fortress Utumno from which things were perverted and blighted.
In the 3,450th year Melkor came forth in war and threw down the Lamps of the Valar, breaking the lands, roiling the seas, and ending the Spring of Arda. In their efforts to stay the raging storm and preserve what they may of their creations, the Valar were unable to chase and defeat Melkor, who retreated to Utumno.
The Spring of Arda was marred as living things became sick, or rotted, or corrupted into monstrous forms. The destruction of the Lamps brought relative darkness to Middle-earth for several centuries, a period known as the Sleep of Yavanna. After witnessing the destruction that their powers might cause, the Valar were ever after cautious, fearing for the safety of the Children of Ilúvatar, who hadn't yet entered Arda.
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2. |
Two Trees of Valinor
03:14
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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.
The first sources of light for all of Arda were two enormous 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.
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 lesser spirits, male Tilion and female Arien, after the 'genders' of the Trees themselves.
However, the true light of the Trees, before their poisoning by Ungoliant, was said to now reside only in the Silmarils.
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3. |
Bark of Mallorn
04:08
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The mallorn was a kind of large tree growing in Valinor, Númenor and the Westlands.
Mallorn-trees originally grew in Valinor and from there were spread to Tol Eressëa by the Elves once the Lonely Isle was moved to its final position by Ulmo. The Elves of Tol Eressëa brought mallorn-trees to the Men of Númenor and they grew on the shores around the Bay of Eldanna in that land. Even Tar-Aldarion, the great Ship-King, did not cut down these trees.
Mallorn-nuts were given by Tar-Aldarion to his friend Gil-galad, the Noldorin King of Lindon. The mellyrn did not grow in Lindon, but Galadriel took some nuts with her to Lothlórien, where they grew to immense heights (but not as great as the groves of Númenor). Lothlórien became known as the Golden Wood because of them.
Caras Galadhon, the city of Galadriel and Celeborn in Lothlórien, was built in the branches of huge mallorn-trees. The Fellowship spent the night in a flet in a mallorn-tree nearby, and were later given lembas wrapped in mallorn-leaves.
Galadriel gave Samwise Gamgee a box of soil containing a single silver mallorn nut.[6] After the War of the Ring and the Scouring of the Shire, Sam planted the nut in the Party Field where the Party Tree had stood before its felling. It was the only mallorn-tree in Middle-earth outside of Lórien. When the tree bloomed in the next summer it was said that all the Shire became golden from the flowers.
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4. |
Trudging the Path
01:39
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The Elf-path was a little-known pathway through Mirkwood. It led from a western entrance called the Forest Gate to the Elvenking's Halls and thence to the Long Marshes in the east.
When Bilbo Baggins, Thorin, and the company of dwarves passed through the Forest Gate they found their surroundings to be still, dark and stuffy.
The dwarves may have failed in the quest when they came upon the Enchanted River. Thankfully, Bilbo's keen eyes spied the boat on the river's eastern eastern bank. With Bilbo's help, Fíli hooked the boat with a rope and the party could move on, but not before Bombur had fallen in and fallen into a sleep that lasted for many days.
Later the party heard distant singing and laughter. Bilbo climbed one of the trees to see if the end of the path could be spotted but, unaware that his tree was at the bottom of the valley, reported to the dwarves that no end was in sight.
The next day, with no food left, the party saw lights off in the forest and left the Elf-path to try to obtain something to eat. When they scrambled into the ring of feasting Wood-elves all the lights went out as if by magic. The party was lost, and they never returned to the Elf-path. Instead, they were taken captives of Thranduil.
News of this had come to Gandalf, and he hurried to finish his other business and search for Thorin's company.
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Beneath the Soil, Behind the Lock, Under the Knife, Neither in Shade or In the Light.
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