The Encyclopedia of Arda - Helluin (original) (raw)
| Dates Created more than three Ages before the first rising of the Sun Location In the sky Origins Made by Varda from the dews of Telperion Pronunciation helloo'in Meaning 'Ice blue' Other names Identified with the star Sirius1 Indexes: Alphabetical: H Others About this entry: Updated 12 November 2021 This entry is complete | The brightest of Varda’s stars Soon before the Firstborn Children of Ilúvatar, the Elves, were set to awake in Middle-earth, the Vala Varda prepared the way for them. Using the silver dews of the shining Tree Telperion, she filled the sky with shimmering lights. These new bright stars shone down on Middle-earth, which until that time, being beyond the Light of the Trees, lay under darkness. Brightest among these new stars was one that shone with a silver-blue light, named Helluin in Elvish, which signifies 'ice-blue'. This was the star that is known today as Sirius, and is still the brightest of all the stars in the sky. The first rising of Helluin was tied to the appearance of the first Elves. It was said that, as the blue-white star rose into the sky for the first time, the Elves awoke in Middle-earth by the waters of Cuiviénen. The newly-made stars, including brilliant Helluin, were the first things that the Elves saw, and so they revered starlight and its maker Varda (or Elbereth, as the Sindar came to call her). Long years later, when the Eldar had departed from Cuiviénen and journeyed to far Valinor, the famed craftsman Fëanor began to create shining jewels. Long before he made the Silmarils for which he was famed, the shimmering white and blue light of the first crystals he made was compared directly with the light of Helluin, though even those first jewels of Fëanor shone brighter than the blue-white star of Varda. Notes 1 In Tolkien's very early work The Lost Tales, the star we today call Sirius was first known simply as Gil, or 'star'. It rose on winter nights to follow the constellation of Telimektar (later Telumehtar, that is Orion) in a manner described as being like a 'Blue Bee'. From this comparison it developed another name, Nielluin, the 'Blue Bee' or 'Bee of Azure'. In later works the connection to bees was lost, and the name evolved to its final form of Helluin, meaning simply 'ice blue'. Indexes: Alphabetical: H Others About this entry: Updated 12 November 2021 This entry is complete For acknowledgements and references, see the Disclaimer & Bibliography page. Original content © copyright Mark Fisher 1999, 2001, 2019, 2021. All rights reserved. For conditions of reuse, see the Site FAQ. Website services kindly sponsored by Discus from Axiom Software Ltd.Discus DISC Candidate Matching helps find the optimum personalities for any role in moments. |
|---|