Timeline Event
Destruction of the Two Trees
Event Type: General
Age: Time of the Trees
Year: 1495
Description:
Morgoth and Ungoliant's destruction of the Two Trees of Valinor about fifty years before the first age.
"...when both Trees were shining, and the silent city of Valmar was filled with radiance of silver and gold. And in that very hour Melkor and Ungoliant came hastening over the fields of Valinor, as the shadow of a black cloud upon the wind fleets over the sunlit earth; and they came before the green mound Ezellohar. Then the Unlight of Ungoliant rose up even to the roots of the Trees, and Melkor sprang upon the mound; and with his black spear he smote each Tree to its core, wounded them deep, and their sap poured forth as it were their blood, and was spilled upon the ground. But Ungoliant sucked it up, and going then from Tree to Tree she set her black beak to their wounds, till they were drained; and the poison of Death that was in her went into their tissues and withered them, root, branch, and leaf; and they died."
The Silmarillion Ch. 8 "Of the Darkening of Valinor"
The Valar failed in their attempt to save the trees: "Then Manwë bade Yavanna and Nienna to put forth all their powers of growth and healing; and they put forth all their powers upon the Trees.... Telperion bore at last upon a leafless bough one great flower of silver, and Laurelin a single fruit of gold."
The radiance of these was preserved as the Sun and the Moon.
The Silmarillion, Ch 11 Of the Sun and Moon and the Hiding of Valinor
Contributors:
Moriel 7.1.03; Loquacious 07.01.03, Lyllyn 2.1.04
