'Evenstar', the meaning of this beautiful Elvish song based on Tolkien's work

Autumn is my favorite season of the year. It's a time that holds a very special meaning in the work of J.R.R. Tolkien.

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In hiy stories about Middle Earth, autumn represents the decline of the elves. After the fall of Beleriand and the Changing of the World, the once-mighty Eldar watched their people fall into decline. By the time of the War of the Ring, the elves were only present in four territories: the high elves of Rivendell and Lindon, and the wood elves of Mirkwood and Lothlórien, the latter ruled by a Noldor, Galadriel.

When he filmed his cinematic version of "The Lord of the Rings," Peter Jackson depicted that decline by showing us autumnal images of Rivendell. Elrond's refuge seemed a vestige of something once magnificent, but even in those dark times, it still possessed the immense beauty of this season.

The soundtrack of "The Two Towers" included an Elven song that is as beautiful as it is autumnal: "Evenstar" (The Evening Star). The song's title was no accident: that is the meaning of the nickname "Undómiel" that the Eldar gave to Elrond's daughter, Arwen. A descendant of Lúthien Tinuviel, Arwen's beauty evoked that of the Elven princess who joined her fate to a human, Beren.

"Evenstar" is the work of Canadian composer Howard Shore, author of the excellent soundtrack for these films. The original lyrics were written by two New Zealand women: Frances Walsh, screenwriter and wife of Peter Jackson (and also author of the beautiful song "Into the West," sung by Annie Lennox at the end of "The Return of the King"), and screenwriter Philippa Boyens, who, like Walsh, worked on the screenplays for Peter Jackson's "The Lord of the Rings" and "The Hobbit" films. The Sindarin translation, one of Tolkien's Elvish languages, was done by David Salo, an American linguist specializing in the work of the British writer.

The song was masterfully performed by Isabel Bayrakdarian, a Canadian soprano of Armenian origin, and by the London Philharmonic Orchestra, with choral accompaniment from The London Oratory School Schola and The London Voices, under the direction of Howard Shore.

This is the Sindarin lyric for "Evenstar".:

U i veted...
na i onnad.
Si boe u-dhannathach
Ae u-esteliach nad –
Estelio han –
Estelio veleth.

And this is its translation into Spanish:

This isn't the end...
It's the beginning.
You can't falter now.
If you trust nothing else,
trust this:
trust love.

The song is a plea for hope from Arwen to her beloved Aragorn, at a time when all hope seems lost. For those unaware, hope is one of the major themes in Tolkien's work. The British writer detested allegory, but as a Catholic author he instilled his Christian values ​​in his work, and hope is undoubtedly one of the strongest and most powerful in "The Lord of the Rings".

"Evenstar" appears twice in "The Two Towers". In the first instance (above), we see Arwen (very well portrayed by American actress Liv Tyler) and Aragorn (played by American actor Viggo Mortensen) in an encounter evoked by this Dúnedain, in which the elven maiden encourages a man filled with doubt. In this scene, we see an autumnal image of Rivendell. The Fellowship of the Ring departed from that elven refuge in December of the year 3018 of the Third Age, so the autumnal image has its reason for being, but to that is added the message of the decline of the elves.

The second scene in which the song appears is very sad. We can see it above. Elrond foretells Arwen's fate if she binds her destiny to Aragorn's. A future of death and solitude, in which we see the elven lady wandering, now a widow, through a dark forest. In Tolkien's work, this was the sad fate of the elves who did not journey to the Undying Lands: to languish in Middle Earth until they were forgotten by men and almost invisible to them, thus connecting with European traditions about this legendary people.