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Places in Middle-earth

Tol Eressëa

Type: Islands & Coasts

Region: Aman

Other Names The Lonely Isle

Location: In the Bay of Eldamar just off the coast of Valinor. It is near the Calacirya, a gap in the Pelóri opened by the Valar so the light of the Trees could reach Tol Eressëa.

Description: 'Therefore Ulmo and his servants took an island which long had stood alone amidst the Sea, since the tumults of the fall of Illuin, and they moved it, and brought it to the grey bay of Balar, as it were a mighty ship. And the Vanyar and the Noldor embarked upon the isle, Eressëa, and were drawn over the Sea, and came at last to the land of Aman.'
Morgoth's Ring, Annals of Aman

'Then through Calacirya, the Pass of Light, the radiance of the Blessed Realm streamed forth, kindling the dark waves to silver and gold, and it touched the Lonely Isle, and its western shore grew green and fair. There bloomed the first flowers that ever were east of the Mountains of Aman.'
Silmarillion, Ch 5, Of Eldamar and the Princes of the Eldalië

From an early version:
...The beech on hill, the willow in the fen,
The rainy poplars, and the frowning yews
Within thine aged courts that muse
In sombre splendour all the day;
Until the twinkle of the early stars
Comes glinting through their sable bars,
And the white moon climbing up the sky
Looks down upon the ghosts of trees that die
Slowly and silently from day to day.
0 Lonely Isle, here was thy citadel,
Ere bannered summer from his fortress fell.
Then full of music were thine elms:
Green was their armour, green their helms,
The Lords and Kings of all thy trees....
Book of Lost Tales 1, Ch I, The Cottage of Lost Play

Originally the Teleri lived on Tol Eressëa, but eventually abandoned the isle for Alqualondë in order to be closer to the light of the Trees.
The Elves returning from Middle-earth after the War of Wrath settled on Tol Eressëa.

Contributors: Lyllyn 8.3.03

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