An autumn song of hope in the decline of the eldar in Middle Earth
Autumn is my favorite season of the year. It is a time that in JRR Tolkien’s work has a very special meaning.
In his stories about Middle Earth, autumn represents the decline of the elves. After the fall of Beleriand and the Change of the World, The once powerful Eldar watch their people decline. At the time of the War of the Ring, the elves are only present in four territories: the high elves of Rivendell and Lindon and the wood elves of Mirkwood and Lothlórienin the latter case with a Noldor, Galadriel, as queen.
When he filmed his film version of “The Lord of the Rings”, Peter Jackson represented that decadence by showing us autumnal images of Rivendell. Elrond’s refuge seemed a vestige of something that had once been great, but even in these low hours they still had the enormous beauty of this season of the year.
The soundtrack of “The Two Towers” included an elven song that is as beautiful as it is autumnal: “Evenstar.” The title of the song was no coincidence: that is the meaning of the nickname “Undómiel” that the eldar gave to Elrond’s daughter, Arwen. Descendant of Lúthien Tinuviel, Arwen’s beauty evoked that of that elven princess who joined her luck with a human, Beren..
“Evenstar” is the work of Canadian composer Howard Shoreauthor of the excellent soundtrack of these films. The original lyrics were written by two New Zealand women: Frances Walshscreenwriter and wife of Peter Jackson (and also author of the beautiful song “Into the west”, sung by Annie Lennox at the end of “The Return of the King”), and screenwriter Philippa Boyenswho like Walsh worked on the scripts for the films “The Lord of the Rings” and “The Hobbit” by Peter Jackson. The translation into Sindarin, one of Tolkien’s Elvish languages, was done by David Saloan American linguist specializing in the work of the British writer.
The song was masterfully performed by Isabel BayrakdarianCanadian soprano of Armenian origin, and by the London Philharmonic Orchestrawith accompaniment in the choirs of The London Oratory School Schola and The London Voices, under the direction of Howard Shore.
These are the lyrics to “Evenstar” in Sindarin:
U i veted…
na i onnad.
She is a beautiful woman
Ae u-esteliach nad –
Estelio han –
Estelio veleth.
And this is its translation into Spanish:
This is not the end…
It’s the beginning.
You can’t give up now.
If you don’t trust anything else,
trust this:
trust in love.
The song is an appeal to Arwen’s hope for her beloved Aragorn.at a time when all hope seems lost. In case anyone doesn’t know this, Hope is one of the great themes of Tolkien’s work. The British writer hated allegories, but as a Catholic author he expressed his Christian values in his work, and that of hope is, without a doubt, one of the strongest and most powerful in “The Lord of the Rings.”
“Evenstar” appears twice in “The Two Towers”. In the first (on these lines) we see Arwen (very well played by the American actress Liv Tyler) and Aragorn (played by the American actor Viggo Mortensen) in a meeting evoked by this dúnedain, in which the elven maiden encourages a man full of doubts. In this scene we see an autumn image of Rivendell. The Fellowship of the Ring left that elven refuge in December of the year 3018 of the Third Age, so the autumn image has its reason for being, but to that is added the message of the decline of the elves.
The second scene in which the song appears is very sad. We can see it on these lines. Elrond predicts to Arwen the future that awaits her if she unites her destiny with Aragorn’s. A future of death and loneliness, in which we see the elven lady wandering, now a widow, through a dark forest. In Tolkien’s work, this was the sad fate of the elves who did not leave for the Undying Lands: languish in Middle Earth until they are forgotten by men and almost invisible to their eyes, thus connecting with European traditions about that legendary people.
