Editing Two Trees of Valinor (section)

== Origins ==

{{anchor|Trees of Sun and Moon}}

=== Medieval Trees of the Sun and the Moon ===

{{further|Tolkien and the medieval|Tolkien and the Celtic}}

The Tolkien scholar [[John Garth (author)|John Garth]] traces the mythology and symbolism of the Two Trees to the medieval [[Trees of the Sun and the Moon]]. Tolkien stated in an interview{{efn|Garth states (in a footnote, no. 43) this was a radio interview with Denys Geroult, [[BBC]], 1965.<ref name="Garth 2020"/>}} that the Two Trees derived from them, "in the great Alexander stories"<ref name="Garth 2020"/> rather than from the World Tree [[Yggdrasil]] of Norse myth. Garth notes that the ''[[Wonders of the East]]''<!--Garth names ''Wonders'' specifically, and mentions in passing "and a letter supposedly written by Alexander to his tutor Aristotle" but does not suggest that the letter was Tolkien's source.-->, an [[Old English]] manuscript in the same Codex as ''[[Beowulf]]'', tells that [[Alexander the Great]] travelled beyond India to [[Paradise]], where he saw the two magical trees. They drip down a wonderful [[balsam]], and have the power of speech. They tell Alexander that he will die in [[Babylon]]. Garth writes that Tolkien's trees emit light, not balsam; and instead of prophesying death, their own deaths bring Arda's era of immortality to an end.<ref name="Garth 2020">{{cite book |last=Garth |first=John |title=The Worlds of J.R.R. Tolkien: The Places that Inspired Middle-earth |title-link=The Worlds of J. R. R. Tolkien |date=2020 |publisher=[[Frances Lincoln Publishers]] & [[Princeton University Press]] |isbn=978-0-7112-4127-5 |pages=40–41 |chapter=Four Winds |author-link=John Garth (author) |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JMjgDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA40 |quote=... the lakes of sun and moon from the Old English ''[[Wonders of the East]]''.}}</ref>

=== Trees in Celtic mythology ===

Marie Barnfield, writing in ''[[Mallorn (journal)|Mallorn]]'', states that the male/female pair of trees has numerous [[Tolkien and the Celtic|parallels in Celtic mythology]], including the pine trees of [[Deirdre]] and [[Naoise]], and the paired rose bush of [[Esyllt]] and vine of [[Tristan|Trystan]]. Further, the hill of Ezellohar in front of Valimar's western gate matches the "sacred centre of Ireland", the [[Hill of Uisneach]] "to the west of Tara". The Two Trees of Valinor, in this context, align with the "feminine" Ash tree of Uisnech, and the "masculine" ''[[Lia Fáil]]'', the standing stone on the hill of Tara. Lastly, the dews of Telperion and the rains from Laurelin that served "as wells of water and of light" match up, according to Barnfield, with [[Connla's Well]] and the [[Well of Segais]].<ref name="Barnfield 1991">{{cite journal |last=Barnfield |first=Marie |title=Celtic Influences on the History of the First Age |journal=[[Mallorn (journal)|Mallorn]] |issue=28 |year=1991 |pages=2–6 |jstor=45321637}}</ref>

=== The Sampo in the ''Kalevala'' ===

Tolkien read the Finnish ''[[Kalevala]]'' closely. Its central symbol is the magical [[Sampo]], a device that brought wealth and good fortune to its owner, but whose mechanism is described only vaguely. Jonathan Himes, writing in ''[[Mythlore]]'', has suggested that Tolkien found the Sampo complex, and chose to split the Sampo's parts into desirable objects. Its pillar became the Two Trees of Valinor with their Tree of life aspect, illuminating the world. Its decorated lid became the brilliant Silmarils, which embodied all that was left of the light of the Two Trees, thus tying the symbols together.<ref name="Himes 2000">{{cite journal |last=Himes |first=Jonathan B. |year=2000 |title=What J.R.R. Tolkien Really Did with the Sampo? |journal=[[Mythlore]] |volume=22 |issue=4 |at=Article 7 |url=https://dc.swosu.edu/mythlore/vol22/iss4/7}}</ref><ref name="Crawford 1888">{{cite book |last1=Lönnrot |first1=Elias |author1-link=Elias Lönnrot |last2=Crawford |first2=John Martin (trans.) |author2-link=John Martin Crawford (scholar) |url=http://www.sacred-texts.com/neu/kveng/kvrune10.htm <!--also Gutenberg--> |title=Kalevala |chapter=Rune X |year=1888}}</ref>

=== The Dry Tree ===

{{see also|Dry Tree}}

Cynthia Cohen writes in ''[[Tolkien Studies]]'' that the White Tree of Gondor in ''The Lord of the Rings'' stands for "the deeper history of Men in Tolkien's [[Fictional universe|Secondary World]], reaching back to [its ancestors,] the Two Trees of Valinor".<ref name="Cohen 2009"/> During most of the action of the novel, the tree is dead, and has been for over a century<!--166 years-->, but all the same it serves as a symbol of Gondor's strength and national identity, and of hope for the Kingdom's renewal. She suggests that the White Tree parallels the [[Dry Tree]] mentioned in the 14th century text ''[[Mandeville's Travels]]''. The Dry Tree had been alive in the time of [[Jesus|Christ]], and was prophesied to come to life again when a "great lord from the western part of the world" returned to the [[Holy Land]], just as Aragorn brings the line of Kings back to Gondor. Cohen comments that the dead White Tree's replacement by a living sapling "upholds the metaphor of [[Resurrection of Jesus|resurrection]] and enables Tolkien to draw an implicit connection between Aragorn and Christ".<ref name="Cohen 2009"/> Finally, she remarks on the verse that Aragorn recites when he sees the White Mountains of Gondor: "West Wind blew there; the light upon the Silver Tree / Fell like bright rain in gardens in the Kings of old," which she states links Telperion, the Silver Tree of Valinor, to the White Tree. Since [[Tolkien's ambiguity|Tolkien has left it ambiguous]] whether the Silver Tree of the verse, the place where the West Wind blew, or where the "bright rain" fell, are [[Time in J. R. R. Tolkien's fiction|in long-ago Valinor or present-time Gondor]], the ancestry of the tree and the lineage of the Kings merge into a continuum.<ref name="Cohen 2009">{{cite journal |last=Cohen |first=Cynthia M. |year=2009 |title=The Unique Representation of Trees in 'The Lord of the Rings' |journal=Tolkien Studies |publisher=Project MUSE |volume=6 |issue=1 |pages=99–102 |doi=10.1353/tks.0.0041 |issn=1547-3163|hdl=10211.3/157628 |hdl-access=free }}</ref>

[[Patrick Curry]], in the ''J.R.R. Tolkien Encyclopedia'', writes that the importance that Tolkien gives to the Two Trees shows "the [[Trees in Middle-earth|iconic status of trees]] in both his work and his life."<ref name="Curry2013">{{cite book |last=Curry |first=Patrick |author-link=Patrick Curry (author) |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=B0loOBA3ejIC&pg=PA682 |chapter=Two Trees |editor-last=Drout |editor-first=Michael D. C. |editor-link=Michael Drout |title=[[J. R. R. Tolkien Encyclopedia]] |year=2013 |orig-year=2007 |isbn=978-0-415-86511-1 |page=682|publisher=Taylor & Francis }}</ref> Richard Goetsch adds that the Two Trees are "central to many of the crucial plot developments of the entire saga, from the beginning of the First Age to the end of the Third Age", and further that they "function as the ultimate expression of the natural world in Tolkien's mythos."<ref name="Goetsch 2012">{{cite web |last=Goetsch |first=Richard A. |title=Environmental Stewardship in the Works of J. R. R. Tolkien |url=https://www.academia.edu/1825597 |publisher=Trinity Evangelical Divinity School |access-date=1 August 2023}}</ref>

<gallery class=center mode=nolines widths=200 heights=240>
File:Alexander and followers praying at Trees of Sun and Moon England 1333.jpg|[[Alexander the Great]] and followers kneeling in prayer at the Trees of the Sun and the Moon, under the guidance of a high priest. England 1333-c. 1340
File:Stone of Destiny 2018-07-24.jpg|Celtic symbol: The ''[[Lia Fáil]]'' on the hill of Tara
File:Akseli Gallen-Kallela - Sammon ryöstö.jpg|upright=0.5|Magical symbol in the ''[[Kalevala]]'': ''The Theft of the [[Sampo]]'' by [[Akseli Gallen-Kallela]], 1897
File:Trees of Sun and Moon and Dry Tree Rouen 1444.jpg|The [[Dry Tree]] with the [[Phoenix (mythology)|Phoenix]], flanked by the Trees of the Sun and the Moon. [[Rouen]] 1444-1445
</gallery>