Two Trees of Valinor

The Two Trees of Valinor, named Telperion and Laurelin, were the two great trees of light that illuminated the land of Valinor, the realm of the Valar in the West, during the ancient days before the rising of the Sun and Moon. Their tale is told in The Silmarillion, and their light is among the most sacred and significant things in all of J.R.R. Tolkien's legendarium. Telperion bore silver light and Laurelin gold, and together they marked the passage of time in the Blessed Realm in the elder days.

The light of the Two Trees was a pure and holy radiance, older than the Sun, and its loss and partial preservation echo through the whole history of Middle-earth.

Description

Telperion, the elder of the two, had dark leaves of green shot with silver beneath and bore a dew of silver light. Laurelin had leaves of young green edged with gold and bore golden blossoms that rained down a warm golden light. The two trees waxed and waned in turn, each glowing brightest for a time and then dimming as the other rose, so that there was a gentle mingling of silver and gold and a rhythm of bright and soft hours in Valinor.

The light of the Two Trees was captured by the Elf Fëanor in the three Silmarils, the most precious jewels ever made, which held the unsullied radiance of the Trees within them.

Destruction

The Two Trees were destroyed in the First Age by the first Dark Lord, Morgoth, aided by the monstrous spider Ungoliant, who drained and poisoned them. With the Trees slain, the light of Valinor failed. From the last flower of Laurelin and the last fruit of Telperion the Valar made the Sun and the Moon to give light to the world thereafter. But the original, purer light of the Trees survived only in the Silmarils, which Morgoth had stolen.

Significance

The light of the Two Trees is the source of the most hallowed radiance in Middle-earth. It endures in the Silmarils, and through the Silmaril borne by Eärendil it shines in the brightest star of evening. From that star its light is captured again in the Phial of Galadriel, which aids Frodo Baggins in the darkest depths of his quest. Thus the light born in the elder days of the First Age reaches forward across the ages to give hope in the War of the Ring, a thread that ties Tolkien's vast history together.