Morwinyon
Morwinyon is a star named in the earliest tales of Tolkien's Legendarium. Christopher Tolkien identified it as Arcturus, the third brightest individual star visible in the Northern Hemisphere with an orange-yellow colour.
In "The Coming of the Elves and the Making of Kôr", Manwë suddenly became aware that the Elves had awoken. Their arrival prompted Varda to create new stars to double the glory of the sky. At the end of this task Varda was returning in great haste to Valinor and she dropped Morwinyon in the west where it blazes above the world's edge.[1]
In "The Tale of the Sun and Moon", it was said that jewel-makers caught their inspiration from the stars and "not least did they love Morwinyon of the west, whose name meaneth the glint at dusk."[2] In the commentary on this section of The Book of Lost Tales Part I, Christopher Tolkien noted that Morwinyon was identified in both the Qenya and Gnomish word-lists as Arcturus. Strangely, it is represented as always being in the western sky. Apparently in the ancient myths of the Elves not all heavenly bodies moved from East to West.[3]
Etymology
In Qenya Lexicon, Morwinyon derives from two roots: MORO, meaning "glint in the dark", and GWINI, with a derivative word wintil, meaning "a glint". The Gnomish version is Morwinthi, probably connected to gwim or gwinc "spark, flash" or gwimla "wink, twinkle".[4]
References
- ↑ J.R.R. Tolkien, Christopher Tolkien (ed.), The Book of Lost Tales Part One, "V. The Coming of the Elves and the Making of Kôr"
- ↑ J.R.R. Tolkien, Christopher Tolkien (ed.), The Book of Lost Tales Part One, "VIII. The Tale of the Sun and Moon"
- ↑ J.R.R. Tolkien, Christopher Tolkien (ed.), The Book of Lost Tales Part One, "VIII. The Tale of the Sun and Moon": "Notes and Commentary"
- ↑ J.R.R. Tolkien, Christopher Tolkien (ed.), The Book of Lost Tales Part One, Appendix: Names in the Lost Tales – Part I
