Two Trees of Valinor

In J. R. R. Tolkien's legendarium, the Two Trees of Valinor are Telperion and Laurelin, the Silver Tree and the Gold Tree, which bring light to Valinor, a paradisiacal realm where the Valar and Maiar, angel-like divine beings, and many of the Elves live. The Two Trees are of enormous size, and exude dew that is a pure and magical light in liquid form. The Elvish craftsman Fëanor makes the unrivalled jewels, the Silmarils, with their light. The Two Trees are destroyed by the evil beings Ungoliant and Melkor, but their last flower and fruit are made into the Moon and the Sun. Melkor, now known as Morgoth, steals the Silmarils, provoking the disastrous War of the Jewels. Descendants of Telperion survive, growing in Númenor and, after its destruction, in Gondor; in both cases the trees are symbolic of those kingdoms. For many years while Gondor has no King, the White Tree of Gondor stands dead in the citadel of Minas Tirith. When Aragorn restores the line of Kings to Gondor, he finds a sapling descended from Telperion and plants it in his citadel.

Commentators have seen mythic and Christian symbolism in the Two Trees; they have been called the most important symbols in the entire legendarium. Their origins have been traced to the medieval Trees of the Sun and the Moon. Parallels have also been identified with Celtic mythology, where several pairs of trees appear. The White Tree of Gondor, too, has been traced to the medieval Dry Tree, a symbol of resurrection. Verlyn Flieger has described the progressive splintering of the light of the Two Trees through Middle-earth's troubled history, noting that light represents the Christian Logos. Tom Shippey links the sundering of the Elves into different groups to the Two Trees and to the Prose Edda which speaks of light and dark Elves; Tolkien treats the difference between these as whether they have made the journey to Valinor and seen the light of the Two Trees.

The first sources of light for all of Tolkien's imaginary world, Arda, are two enormous Lamps on the central continent, Middle-earth: Illuin, the silver one to the north, and Ormal, the golden one to the south. They are created by the Valar, powerful spirit beings, but are thrown down and destroyed by the Dark Lord Melkor.

The Valar retreat to Valinor to make their home on the western continent, and there one of them, Yavanna the Vala of living things, sings into existence the Two Trees to provide a new pair of light-sources. Of the two, Telperion is male and silver, while the other, Laurelin, is female and golden. The Trees stand on the hill Ezellohar, outside Valimar, the city of the Valar. They grow in the presence of all the Valar, watered by the tears of the Vala of pity and mourning, Nienna. Telperion's leaves are dark green above and silver below. His flowers are white like cherry blossom, and his silvery dew is collected as a source of water and of light. Varda used the dew to form stars in the sky, in preparation for the arrival of the Elves. Laurelin has leaves of a young green, like newly opened beech leaves trimmed with gold, and her dew is collected by the Vala of light Varda.

Each Tree, in turn, gives off light for seven hours (waxing to full brightness and then slowly waning again), with the ends of their cycles overlapping, so that at one hour each of "dawn" and "dusk" soft gold and silver light are given off together. Each "day" of first silver then gold light lasts twelve hours.

Countless "days" pass, until Melkor reappears. He enlists the help of the giant spider Ungoliant to destroy the Two Trees. Concealed in a cloud of darkness, Melkor strikes each Tree and the insatiable Ungoliant devours whatever life and light remains in it.

Yavanna and Nienna attempt a healing, but they succeed only in reviving Telperion's last flower (to become the Moon) and Laurelin's last fruit (to become the Sun). These are turned into flying ships crossing the sky, and each is steered by spirits of the same 'genders' as the Trees themselves: male Tilion and female Arien. This is why, in The Lord of the Rings, the Sun is called "she" and the Moon "he". The true light of the Trees now resides only in the three Silmarils, jewels crafted by the Elf Fëanor with the light of the Two Trees before their destruction.

Because the Elves that first come to Valinor especially love Telperion, Yavanna takes a cutting from the tree and makes a second tree like it to stand in their city of Tirion. This tree, named Galathilion, is identical to Telperion except that it does not emit light. It has many seedlings, one of which is named Celeborn, and grows on the isle of Tol Eressëa. In the Second Age, a seedling of Celeborn is brought as a gift to the Men who live on the island of Númenor. It is Nimloth, the White Tree of Númenor. When the dark lord Sauron takes control of the island, he makes king Ar-Pharazôn cut it down. The hero Isildur saves a single fruit of Nimloth, and plants seedlings in Middle-earth. During the rule of the Stewards of Gondor, the White Tree of Gondor, a descendant of Nimloth, stands dead in the citadel of Minas Tirith. On Aragorn's return as King at the end of the Third Age, he finds a seedling in the snow on the mountain behind the city, and brings it back to the citadel, where it flourishes.