XPost: rec.arts.books.tolkien   
   From: spamgard@blueyonder.co.uk   
      
   Larry Caldwell  wrote:   
   > Odysseus wrote:   
      
   >> And although I'm not as well informed   
   >> as I should be, I'm unaware of any precedent for a few of the mythic   
   >> ideas in the _Silmarillion_, e.g. the world having once been   
   >> illuminated by two Trees, one golden and one silvery, whose   
   >> respective rescued fruits became our Sun and Moon. Do you know of   
   >> one?   
   >   
   > That is a modification of the Zohar, the "Book of Light"  or "Book of   
   > Splendor" that is one of the most important books on QBL.  In the   
   > Zohar there is only one tree, the Tree of Life, and the light pours   
   > down the left hand and right hand path, illuminating all of creation.   
      
   Tolkien's Trees only illuminated parts of Aman (and no parts of   
   Middle-earth) until the Sun and Moon were created.   
      
   > The source of light is Kether, and the two trees are Chokmah and   
   > Binah.  At the creation, light poured out from Kether and filled   
   > Chokmah and Binah, then spilled to the lower sefiroth.  However, the   
   > light was too strong, and only Chokmah and Binah remained whole.  The   
   > lower sefiroth were shattered, and transmit the light imperfectly.   
      
   Sounds quite different from Tolkien's Trees.   
      
   > Much ancient European mythology venerated trees, but if Tolkien had   
   > other sources for illumination from trees, I am unaware of them.  That   
   > is certainly possible.  It seems that every couple years I run across   
   > another obscure little bit of mythology that he tucked in there.   
      
   I think it is quite possible to independently think of the concept of   
   Trees giving forth light. Unless you know that Tolkien read the   
   mythologies you are thinking of, or there are _very_ close similarities,   
   then I think you can only speculate as to whether Tolkien consciously or   
   unconsciously borrowed an idea or independently rediscovered/created it.   
      
   > After the silmarils are lost, Lucifer/Earendil ends up the only   
   > repository of the original light, probably as a created back story of   
   > Galadriel's gift to Frodo.   
      
   Actually, Earendil/Earendel started the whole thing off. The story of   
   the Silmarils was also written before 'The Lord of the Rings'. It would   
   be more correct to see Galadriel as created in LotR and shoehorned into   
   the Silmarillion story to add a link between the stories.   
      
   And the gift to Frodo allows Tolkien to put the "Aiya Earendil ancalima"   
   phrase in the story (in Shelob's Lair), which brings the whole thing   
   full circle to the original phrase he read in an Anglo-Saxon text. In   
   Letter 297 Tolkien says that Frodo's cry in Shelob's Lair is "derived at   
   long remove from 'Eala Earendel engla beorhtast'", which is a phrase   
   from Anglo-Saxon English. The full thing is:   
      
   "Eala Earendel engla beorhtast   
   Offer middangeard monnum sended."   
   Cynewulf's Christ I, 11.104-105   
      
   'Hail Earendil, brightest of angels   
   Over Middle-earth to Men sent'   
      
   > You are correct that, in tradition   
   > mythology, the sun and moon are a primary creation or gods in their   
   > own right.   
      
   Though in Tolkien they do get semi-divine beings (Maiar) to sail them   
   around the sky: Tilion and Arien.   
      
   Christopher   
      
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