[[stars-astro-constellations-planets]] # The Morning Star (Venus) PIE *h₂ews-* "dawn/east" + *wendʰ-* "wind, turn, braid, wrap" PG *austaz* "east" *windaną* "wind, wrap, turn, change" PG *auzi-wandilaz* "dawn-wanderer/planet" *auzra-wanðilaz* *aurawanðilaz* AS ēarendel ON aurvandil Aurvandil's Toe OHG orentil/orendil, erentil Lom auriwandalo Lat horruuendillus horwendill Note: Used as a noun and a personal name ## Near Eastern Ishtar a) Proto-Indo-European *h2s-tḗr (> Hittite ḫašter, Greek astḗr, etc.) ‘star’ → Proto- Semitic *cattar- (> Akkadian Ištar, Hebrew caštōret, etc.) ‘deified star, planet Venus’. [[klein-et2017-21]] ## Anglo-Saxon Ēarendel > **O Oriens, splendor lucis-aeternae et sol iustitiae: veni, et illumine sedentem in tenebris, et umbra mortis.** >   > O Dayspring, splendor of eternal light and sun of justice: > come, and illuminate those who dwell in darkness and in the shadow of death. > [Youtube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HAUzuw1l-7U) > **ēalā ēarendel, engla beorhtast, ofer middangeard monnum sended, ond sōðfæsta sunnan lēoma, torht ofer tunglas, þū tīda gehwane of sylfum þē symle inlīhtes!** >    > Hail Ēarendel, brightest of angels/stars, > over earth sent for man, > and trust-fast sun's gleam, > splendid above the stars, > you every time > of oneself he-that season enlighten! >    > AS **sylfum** "from **symbel** "festival, season, celebration" from **simbel** "always, continually, constant" from PG **simla** "ever, always" ## Norse Auvandil's Toe > Thor went home to Thrúdvangar, and the hone remained sticking in his head. Then came the wise woman who was called Gróa, wife of Aurvandill the Valiant: she sang her spells over Thor until the hone was loosened. But when Thor knew that, and thought that there was hope that the hone might be removed, he desired to reward Gróa for her leech-craft and make her glad, and told her these things: that he had waded from the north over Icy Stream and had borne Aurvandill in a basket on his back from the north out of Jötunheim. And he added for a token, that one of Aurvandill's toes had stuck out of the basket, and became frozen; wherefore Thor broke it off and cast it up into the heavens, and made thereof the star called Aurvandill's Toe. Thor said that it would not be long ere Aurvandill came home: but Gróa was so rejoiced that she forgot her incantations, and the hone was not loosened, and stands yet in Thor's head. Therefore it is forbidden to cast a hone across the floor, for then the hone is stirred in Thor's head. > > Þórr fór heim til Þrúðvanga, ok stóð heinin í höfði honum. Þá kom til völva sú, er Gróa hét, kona Aurvandils ins frækna. Hon gól galdra sína yfir Þór, til þess er heinin losnaði. En er Þórr fann þat ok þótti þá ván, at braut myndi ná heininni, þá vildi hann launa Gró lækninguna ok gera hana fegna, sagði henni þau tíðendi, at hann hafði vaðit norðan yfir Élivága ok hafði borit í meis á baki sér Aurvandil norðan ór Jötunheimum, ok þat til jartegna, at ein tá hans hafði staðit ór meisinum, ok var sú frerin, svá at Þórr braut af ok kastaði upp á himin ok gerði af stjörnu þá, er heitir Aurvandilstá. Þórr sagði, at eigi myndi langt til, at Aurvandill myndi heim koma, en Gróa varð svá fegin, at hon mundi enga galdra, ok varð heinin eigi lausari ok stendr enn í höfði Þór, ok er þat boðit til varnanar at kasta hein of gólf þvert, því at þá hrærist heinin í höfði Þór. ## Other "The word also occurs elsewhere in Old English as a gloss to the Latin word iubar, probably referring to Venus, or 'aurora' or 'star'..." Greek Phōsphoros Jacob Grimm (1835) emphasizes the great age of the tradition reflected in the mythological material surrounding this name, without being able to reconstruct the characteristics of the Common Germanic myth. Viktor Rydberg in his Teutonic Mythology also assumes Common Germanic age for the figure. Tolkien *The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien*, p.385 "...it at least seems certain that it belonged to astronomical-myth, and was the name of a star or star-group. To my mind the Anglo-Saxon uses seem plainly to indicate that it was a star presaging the dawn (at any rate in English tradition): that is what we now call Venus: the morning star as it may be seen shining brilliantly in the dawn, before the actual rising of the Sun. Compare the [Blickling Homilies](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blickling-homilies) (p. 163, I. 3) which states Nu seo Cristes gebyrd at his aeriste, se niwa eorendel Sanctus Johannes; and nu se leoma thaere sothan sunnan God selfa cuman wille "And now the birth of Christ (was) at his appearing, and the new eorendel (morning-star) was John the Baptist. And now the gleam of the true Sun, God himself, shall come." The use of the words "new eorendel" shows that eorendel was a pagan god Check out: http://www.germanicmythology.com/ASTRONOMY/HRUNGNIR.html ## Tolkien's Eärendil "when Frodo first thinks of the Phial of Galadriel to help them through the darkness he exclaims [The Quenya phrase] "Aiya Eärendil, elenion ancalima!" [literally "Hail Eärendil, brightest of stars!"]" [The Keys of Middle Earth, p.115] "Before 1914 I wrote a 'poem' upon Earendel who launched his ship like a bright spark from the havens of the Sun. I adopted him into my mythology - in which he became a prime figure as a mariner, and eventually as a herald star, and a sign of hope to men." "[It] became entangled with...The Fall of Arthur...the voyage of Eärendil became entwined with the Arthurian myth. Lancelot's departure to seek Avalon and the body of his dead king, was linked by Tolkien originally to an unfinished poem in alliterative metre on Eärendel's voyage to seek the Lonely Island." [The Keys of Middle Earth, p.115] The source poem, Christ I - bears a similarity to Tolkien's Sindarin poem "A Elbereth Gilthoniel". - Begins with the AS word "ēalā" meaning "hello, hail", this was the inspiration for Tolkien's elvish language. When the elves first awoke, they saw the stars and exclaimed "El-ā!" meaning "behold!". This is why they are called "Elves", they are the star-people Poem from The Book of Lost Tales II – “The Tale of Eärendel” The Voyage of Éarendel the Evening Star, or, The Last Voyage of Eärendel Scipfæreld Éarendeles Ǽfensteorran Éalá Éarendel Engla Beorhtast Eärendel 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 sunlit breath of day’s fiery death He sailed from Westerland. He threaded his path o’er the aftermath Of the splendour of the Sun, And wandered far past many a star In his gleaming galleon. On the gathering tide of darkness ride The argosies of the sky, And spangle the night with their sails of light As the streaming star goes by. Unheeding he dips past these twinkling ships, By his wayward spirit whirled On and endless quest through the darkling West O’er the margin of the world; And he fares in haste o’er the jeweled waste And the dusk from whence he came With his heart afire with bright desire And his face in silver flame. The Ship of the Moon from the East comes soon From the Haven of the Sun, Whose white gates gleam in the coming beam Of the mighty silver one. Lo! with bellying clouds as his vessel’s shrouds He weighs anchor down in the dark, And on shimmering oars leaves the blazing shores In his argent-timbered bark. Then Éarendel fled from that Shipman dread Beyond the dark earth’s pale, Back under the rim of the Ocean dim, And behind the world set sail; And he heard the mirth of the folk of earth And the falling of their tears, As the world dropped back in a cloudy wrack On its journey down the years. Then he glimmering passed to the starless vast As an isléd lamp at sea, And beyond the ken of mortal men Set his lonely errantry, Tracking the Sun in his galleon Through the pathless firmament, Till his light grew old in abysses cold And his eager flame was spent.