Ēala Ēarendel

This is a translated section from the Old English poem that inspired Tolkien’s poem ‘The Voyage of Earendel’, which together with his constructed language, was the beginning of his legendarium. The poem is an Anglo-Saxon Christian poem called ‘Crist I’ or ‘Crist A.’ 

Hail Earendel, brightest of angels,

Sent to men over middle-earth,

And true radiance of the sun,

Fine beyond stars, you always illuminate,

From your self, every season!

As you, God born wholly of God,

Son of the true Father, were ever

In the glory of heaven without beginning,

So now your own creation awaits you

Through eternity in need, that you send

To us that bright sun, and you yourself come

So that you illuminate those who for the longest time,

Covered by smoke, and in darkness here,

Dwelled in continual night; enfolded in sins,

They had to endure the dark shadow of death.

Now we believe in joyful salvation,

Brought to people through the word of God,

Which in the beginning was from the Father almighty,

Jointly eternal with God, and now again became

The flesh without sin that the virgin bore

Through suffering to safety. God was with us,

Seen among sins; the mighty child of fate

And the son of man dwelt together,

United amidst the people. We may express

Our thanks to the Lord of victory always through our deeds,

Because he wanted to send himself to us.

(‘Crist I’, Lyric 5)

‘Earendel’ is the equivalent of Oriens, Dawn-bringer, Bringer of light or Rising light - in Anglo-Saxon, used for the sunrise and for the morning star. Here it refers to Christ - brightest of Angels, not because he is of Angelic nature but because, by way of analogy, he supereminently fulfills the role of ‘Aggelos’ and is often called ‘King of the Angels’, as St John the Baptist can also be referred to as an ‘Angel.’

Tolkien particularly liked this name ‘Earendel’ which he found in the Old English poem, ‘Crist I.’ He was struck by its great beauty and thought it was euphonic to a peculiar degree for an Anglo-Saxon word. It is a pleasant sounding word. It is clearly fitting that a name used or co-opted to be used for Christ should be beautiful and euphonic. 

It was the inspiration for a poem Tolkien wrote in 1914: ‘The Voyage of Earendel the Evening Star.’ This was apparently the beginning of Tolkien’s mythology, together with his constructed Elvish language, which became later known as Quenya. Earendel became in Tolkien’s legandarium, the half-Elvish mariner Eärendil. In the Two Towers, Frodo explains in Quenya: ‘Hail Eärendil, brightest of stars!’ The first bit of the section from ‘Crist I’ given above was an obvious inspiration for Tolkien:

Ēala ēarendel, engla beorhtast,

ofer middangeard monnum sended.

"Hail Earendel, brightest of angels,

Sent to men over middle-earth.”

‘Middle Earth’ or ‘Middangeard’ or ‘Midgard’ was in Norse and Anglo-Saxon used to refer to the mortal realm; it was compatible with Christianised use for reference to Earth where mortals dwell, which is neither Heaven nor Hell.