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Things of Middle-earth

Erendis' Diamond

Type: Artifacts

Description:[After Aldarion's first voyage in the Palarran:] It is said that he hastened his return, and was gone less time than he had designed; and coming back he brought gifts for the Queen and the ladies of her house, but the richest gift he brought for Erendis, and that was a diamond. Cold now were the greetings between the King and his son; and Meneldur rebuked him, saying that such a gift was unbecoming in the King's Heir unless it were a betrothal gift, and he demanded that Aldarion declare his mind.

Unfinished Tales, Part 2, Ch 2, Aldarion and Erendis

Riding one day in the forests of the Westlands he saw a woman, whose dark hair flowed in the wind, and about her was a green cloak clasped at the throat with a bright jewel; and he took her for one of the Eldar, who came at times to those parts of the Island. But she approached, and he knew her for Erendis, and saw that the jewel was the one that he had given her; then suddenly he knew in himself the love that he bore her, and he felt the emptiness of his days.

Unfinished Tales, Part 2, Ch 2, Aldarion and Erendis

[Taking] suddenly the jewel from her throat she asked him: "Would you have me trade this to buy me other goods that I desire?"

"No!" said he. "But you do not lock it in hoard. Yet I think you set it too high; for it is dimmed by the light of your eyes."

Unfinished Tales, Part 2, Ch 2, Aldarion and Erendis

[Erendis said:] "I have had my betrothal gift, though it came beforehand. It is the only jewel that I have or would have; and I will set it yet higher." Then [Aldarion] saw that she had caused the white gem to be set as a star in a silver fillet; and at her asking he bound it on her forehead. She wore it so for many years, until sorrow befell; and thus she was known far and wide as Tar-Elestirnë, the Lady of the Star-brow.

Unfinished Tales, Part 2, Ch 2, Aldarion and Erendis

Thus came, it is said, the manner of the Kings and Queens afterward to wear as a star a white jewel upon the brow, and they had no crown. [Author's note.]

Unfinished Tales, Part 2, Ch 2, Aldarion and Erendis: Notes, Note 9

This tradition cannot be unconnected with that of the Elendilmir, a star-like gem borne on the brow as a token of royalty in Arnor; but the original Elendilmir itself, since it belonged to Silmarien, was in existence in Númenor ... before Aldarion brought Erendis' jewel from Middle-earth, and they cannot be the same.

Unfinished Tales, Part 3, Ch 1, The Disaster of the Gladden Fields: Notes, Note 32

Contributors: Tanaqui 14Nov05

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