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appendix a 1353
hidden city of Gondolin. 1 Tuor was the son of Huor of the
House of Hador, the Third House of the Edain and the most
renowned in the wars with Morgoth. Eärendil the Mariner was
their son.
Eärendil wedded Elwing, and with the power of the silmaril
passed the Shadows 2 and came to the Uttermost West, and
speaking as ambassador of both Elves and Men obtained the
help by which Morgoth was overthrown. Eärendil was not permitted
to return to mortal lands, and his ship bearing the silmaril
was set to sail in the heavens as a star, and a sign of hope to the
dwellers in Middle-earth oppressed by the Great Enemy or his
servants. 3 The silmarilli alone preserved the ancient light of the
Two Trees of Valinor before Morgoth poisoned them; but the
other two were lost at the end of the First Age. Of these things
the full tale, and much else concerning Elves and Men, is told
in The Silmarillion.
The sons of Eärendil were Elros and Elrond, the Peredhil or
Half-elven. In them alone the line of the heroic chieftains of the
Edain in the First Age was preserved; and after the fall of Gilgalad
4 the lineage of the High-elven Kings was also in Middleearth
only represented by their descendants.
At the end of the First Age the Valar gave to the Half-elven
an irrevocable choice to which kindred they would belong.
Elrond chose to be of Elven-kind, and became a master of wisdom.
To him therefore was granted the same grace as to those
of the High Elves that still lingered in Middle-earth: that when
weary at last of the mortal lands they could take ship from the
Grey Havens and pass into the Uttermost West; and this grace
continued after the change of the world. But to the children of
Elrond a choice was also appointed: to pass with him from the
circles of the world; or if they remained to become mortal and
die in Middle-earth. For Elrond, therefore, all chances of the
War of the Ring were fraught with sorrow. 5
1 The Hobbit, p.49; The Lord of the Rings, p.412.
2 pp. 304–8.
3 pp. 470–4; pp. 932, 942; pp. 1197, 1206.
4 pp. 68, 242–3.
5 See pp. 1276, 1280.