Song of Eärendil
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The Song of Eärendil is the longest poem in The Lord of the Rings. In the fiction, it is sung and composed by the Hobbit Bilbo Baggins in the Elvish sanctuary of Rivendell. It tells how the mariner Eä
The "Song of Eärendil" follows the Middle English poem Pearl (miniature from the Cotton Nero manuscript pictured) in its metrical and poetic intricacy.
Frodo listens to the Song of Eärendil "in highly Keatsian style". Portrait of John Keats by William Hilton, c. 1822
Eärendil's ship Vingilótë sails the sky and is made "of mithril and of elven-glass", much like the image of a spaceship. Cover of Amazing Stories, 1947
History of Arda
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In J. R. R. Tolkien's legendarium, the history of Arda, also called the history of Middle-earth, began when the Ainur entered Arda, following the creation events in the Ainulindalë and long ages of la
Tolkien meant Arda to be what Paul H. Kocher calls "our own green and solid Earth", seen here in the Baltistan mountains, "at some quite remote epoch in the past".
Tolkien likened the Last Battle, Dagor Dagorath, that ends "the world" (Arda) to the Norse Ragnarök. Engraving Battle of the Doomed Gods by Friedrich Wilhelm Heine, 1882