

Hail Éarendel!
In which I examine the connections of one of Tolkien's most famous characters to Shakespeare, Norse myth, and a local legend from medieval Germany. Content note: foot injury. Image: "Hardvendels Kamp med Koll", by Louis Moe (1898). Credit: Wikipedia. "Éarendel arose where the shadow flows
at Ocean's silent brim;
through the mouth of night as a ray of light
where the shores are sheer and dim
he launched his bark like a silver spark
from the last and lonely sand;
then on