The Voyage of Éarendel the Evening Star - For me, Tolkien's first good poem

The Voyage of Éarendel the Evening Star 

First version - dated 24 September 1914 

JRR Tolkien was 22 years old. 

Éarendel sprang up from the Ocean's cup

In the gloom of the mid-world's rim; 

From the door of Night as a ray of light 

Leapt over the twilight brim, 

And launching his bark like a silver spark 

From the golden-fading sand 

Down the sunlit breath of Day's fiery Death 

He sped from Westerland. 

He threaded his path o'er the aftermath 

Of the glory of the Sun, 

And went wandering 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 Evening star goes by. 

But unheeding he dips past these twinkling ships, 

By his wandering spirit whirled 

On an magic quest through the darkening West 

Toward the margent of the world; 

And he fares in haste o'er the jewelled waste 

To the dusk from whence he came 

With his heart afire with bright desire 

And his face in silver flame. 

For 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 the dark, 

And on shimmering oars leaves the skiey shores 

In his argent-orbéd bark. 

And 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 hearkened to 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 

And voyaging the skies 

Till his splendour was shorn by the birth of Morn 

And he died with the Dawn in his eyes.

**

I first had this poem brought to my attention by the reading and analysis on John Garth's Tolkien and the Great War; although it was mentioned by Carpenter's biography as the earliest recorded beginning of the Legendarium, and was featured in The Book of Lost Tales which I had read - but without registering this lovely poem.

In my slow read through of the chronological ordering of JRR Tolkiens poems (in the 2024 three volume Collected Poems, edited by Scull and Hammond) this is the sixteenth poem, and the earliest that I whole-heartedly enjoyed and appreciated. 

I also preferred the first draft - that version reproduced above - over Tolkien's several later revisions. Some of my favourite lines, including the first, were omitted or changed in later versions. 

The revisions came after JRRT tried to discover what this poem meant - he was (apparently) not consciously aware of the poems meaning at the time of writing.

The word Earendil (encountered in the context of an Old English poem Crist) was of great significance to Tolkien - it seems to have acted as a catalyst which started the creation of his mythology (the Legendarium) - initially with the Lost Tales. 

At the point when the above poem was written, the meaning of Earendil had not crystallized for Tolkien. It was during the process of working on this poem that it began to be "discovered". 

At the time of writing, Earendil was apparently a person, a mariner who launches from the ocean into the skies; and who encounters personified celestial bodies the Sun, and Moon, and Venus - the evening star. 

He traverses the dark aspect of the earth from West (sunset) to East (sunrise); and then dies, apparently in a kind of blissful consummation, by being consumed by the light of dawn. 

This may be a cyclical myth of the events of every night; or it may be the account of a single day's - triumphant, but terminal - voyage. Tolkien seems to have been drawn to both possibilities in his later work.   

Later revisions tried to clarify, or impose, a more consistent allegorical and/or mythological meaning. After many intermediate stages; the character of Earendil (half-elven, father of Elrond and Elros) was eventually given a vital role in the mythology. 

And - in his enchanted boat and with a Silmaril on his brow - Earendil was ultimately transformed into what we call "Venus", which is (at different phases of its orbit) both the Evening Star and the Morning Star (brightest of all celestial bodies, except the moon); recognized as a sign of new hope for the elves of Middle Earth. 

But this destination not was evident to Tolkien at the time of first writing the Voyage of Earendil. He was groping in the dark, and working almost entirely by inspiration and intuition. 

A great deal was gained by the subsequent development of the myths - and we modern readers look back from this state of knowledge; but I also feel that something fresh and lovely in the September 1914 poem was lost in the process.     

Where now the horse and the rider? For Tolkien, death (and "entropy") is more fundamentally tragic than evil

"Where now the horse and the rider?" is a poem of the Riders of Rohan, recited by Aragorn in The Two Towers, as he approaches Edoras with Gandalf, Gimli and Legolas. It is perhaps my favourite of all the poems by Tolkien, and indeed one of my favourite poems.

In the recently published Collected Poems of JRR Tolkien (edited by C Scull and WG Hammond, pp 1225-6) is quoted some annotations by Tolkien with reference to this poem, in relation to the Old English lyric The Wanderer from which the first line is derived: 

["Where now the horse and the rider"] laments the ineluctable ending and passing back into oblivion of the fortunate, the full-lived, the unblemished and beautiful.  

To me that is more poignant than any particular disaster, from the cruelty of men or the hostility of the world. 

This strikes me as a profound and startling statement from Tolkien, and one with which I am in full sympathy. What he is saying is that the ultimate tragedy of this mortal life and world is not evil, but death and what we might term "entropy". 

In other words, for JRRT and for myself; what is ultimately tragic is the inevitable and unavoidable evanescence of all that is Good, all that is True, Beautiful and Virtuous; all that is best - and every person and "thing" that we most love. 

In this life; all changes, and eventually degenerates and dies. 

Yes there is new creation, but it is not the same. 

There is only memory; but memory fades. And even while memory survives, over the generations and the span of time, this loss accumulates in our awareness.

What Tolkien is saying here; is that even if we consider only the very best of this mortal life, the fortunate, the full-lived, the unblemished and beautiful - considering only that which is good, and eliminating from consideration all that is evil - the cruelty of men or the hostility of the world... 

Even then; the sufficiency, the adequacy, the acceptability of our life and world is undercut by the fact that the best and good will move towards the ineluctable ending and passing back into oblivion.

It is from this inevitability of change and death - as much as, or indeed more than, from evil - that Jesus Christ has offered us salvation. 

Charles Williams and Magic

From Charles Williams's point of view; the most relevant aspect of magical societies (in the Golden Dawn tradition*) was that training (initiation) was a matter of inner visualization and concentration. For instance, in meditation, holding attention on imagined scenes, leading onto imagined journeys. 

These scenarios were then populated with symbolism, and the meaning of this symbolism had previously been assimilated by meditation. 

Golden Dawn symbolism was rooted in the Qabalah (variously spelled), which was regarded as a complete categorization of reality, and its inner relations. 

This inner work of imagination was linked with everyday reality - so that what happened in imagination, and via the symbolism, had effects on the inner plane, which necessarily affected material life. 

To put it differently; members of the GD who were conducting a magical ritual or ceremony, would do so with the conviction that what was happening in the minds of the participants here and now in their temple, would be having general effects (effects for the good, beneficial effects - or so they intended) on other people elsewhere, and the world at large. So this kind of white society was a serious and high-minded business, much like a church; or more accurately a monastery consisting of priests and acolytes.   

The Golden Dawn ceremonies and rituals were really just a way of enhancing the above inner processes. 

There was also the matter of "energizing" the above processes, infusing psychic energy, generating (or tapping) the power to make these work. This was the sex magic aspect ("polarity") analogous to Hindu Tantric sex stuff, "raising the Kundalini" - or generating sexual desire, but re-directing it to energize the above processes. 

There seems to have been disputes and schisms about this aspect. Alistair Crowley, for example, was one extreme - using polarity, and drugs, to fuel manipulative power and attain pleasure. (I have not studied Crowley, however, just picked up bits and pieces). 

Dion Fortune is another (good) extreme in which the process was celibate and the energies directed to Christian and altruistic goals. 

All this magical method/ technique/ process was regarded as value neutral, a means to an end; and could be used for evil and selfish goals, as well as for good. 

This was the reason for oaths of secrecy and the screening process of Golden Dawn members (through multiple levels of initiation) - the leaders were trying to prevent this power from falling into the hands of evil-motivated people (black magicians - like Crowley  - who pursued the left hand path; and intended to use the power for gratification or domination). 

The white magic GD societies used these powers for "good" - rather variously defined. 

Early on this was Christian ideas of good (albeit, various understood Christianity), but after the schisms other ideas splintered off; sometimes more secular and utilitarian ideas of promoting the general well-being of the nation, or the world - sometimes with a socio-political focus. 

However, these white magical societies were intense and controlling, very constraining - and it is not surprising that CW left them after he had learned all he could - which seems to have been a lot. 

Williams was apparently what would be called an "adept" of the Greater Mysteries, rather than a mere initiate of the Lesser Mysteries - self-sufficient, and a potential leader, in terms of his magical stature. 

Adepts often went on to found their own magical societies; as did Willaims; because that was the nature of the Companions of the Co-Inherence. 

Alice Mary Hadfield was (she has said) unhappy that the Companions were Not Christian primarily; e.g. she noticed that "substitution" was being regarded by CW as a pure technique or technology - rather than a high level spiritual activity requiring the support of the Holy Ghost. 

This is confirmed by the descriptions of of substitution was administered/ imposed top-down by CW on the other Companions (instructing one Companion to substitute for another in specific respects). The magical society quality of the Companions also fits with the "homework" (e.g. memorization of passages of writing) that Williams demanded of (especially female) disciples - and the sanctions and punishments (including physical) he imposed upon them for their errors in such tasks. 

 All of which makes me think that the Companions of the Co-Inherence were primarily (in effect, and by CW's intention - if not explicitly) a magical society. 

(I tend to think CW's secrecy about the magical societies was not so much a matter of honouring the oaths, as simply wanting to conceal the nature as sources of his remarkable mental powers - which so many people remarked when they met him. These powers were exactly what the Golden Dawn system was intended to train.) 

With respect to CW; it seems to me that - as an adept - he had highly developed his powers of concentration (focusing attention) and inner visualization, and all the other magical methods; such as being able to perform ritual movements and speeches with a high degree of physical control and continuous self- and other-awareness - practised and repeated until they became spontaneous and habitual. 

My inference is that it was these habitual abilities of Williams - magically trained to a high level - that contributed significantly to the charismatic personal magnetism that so many found impressive, or even overwhelming.  

But Williams seems to have used (or desired to use) these magically-derived powers to generate his creative writing, especially poetry; rather than for the usual purposes of magical societies - whether white or black.  

It seems that to use magic for writing was not the intent of the white magic side of the Golden Dawn, and would not have been regarded as a valid purpose - except insofar as such writings were dedicated to "good" ends, perhaps. 

(This was probably another factor in CW leaving the official GD societies). 

I think CW also somewhat deviously abused the powers and methods of GD magic in order to manipulate others; attempting to make them go along with and do things they would otherwise not have done. 

I think he justified this to himself as necessary (or at least permissible) for the generation and energizing of poetry, which he justified as a positive contribution to God's work. 

But I personally don't find these self-justifications convincing - I think there was a great deal of ego and hedonism mixed in with CW's motivations! 

In plain words; I think that Charles Williams was sometimes (but recurrently) guilty of using his Golden Dawn training for black magical purposes, on the left hand path. 

At least, that is what comes through in the utilitarian and pragmatic ways Williams talked about his work - writing for money was a recurrent theme; even something his insisted upon as right and proper. If CW's poetry and writing had been the kind of sacred practice that would have justified the use of magical methods, then I do not think he could have taken this materialistic attitude in public utterances (and in some of his writings). 

Also the self-justification of magical usage is contradicted by CW's long-term concern for attaining greater personal status and recognition - for fame and fortune! 

While such conceits are normal and understandable - when it comes to justifying manipulating and exploiting others by magical techniques - this was surely to abuse his occult powers is on the dark side, on the left hand path. 

And then there are the ways that CW dissipated his time, energy and opportunities - all those pot-boilers, all that writing for money instead of working on poems (money which he mostly spent on unnecessary rather selfish frivolity, and buttering up women!).

All those pointless lectures to all and sundry, all that socializing with strangers - when he claimed to lack time and energy for his core creative work! 

What, for me, contradicts Williams's self-excuse for using Golden Dawn techniques on fascinating and influencing younger women, for deploying polarity/ sex magic, and for forming a magical society that he ruled in a controlling fashion; are things that Williams did instead of doing the best poetic work of which he was capable in a disinterested spirit. 

The Golden Dawn White magicians intended their magical system to be used for the general good of Mankind; especially with a Christian understanding of good.

Instead, Williams claimed that he used the abilities developed by his Golden Dawn magical training to energize, shape and enhance his own writings - specifically poetry of the spiritually highest kind. This was supposed to be the real and only justification for CW's deployment of magic.  

And this he did, but only to a limited extent; and he did much else besides - including activities which would seem intended to benefit CW himself; in terms of personal gratification, domination of others, and status.  

 

*The original Golden Dawn magical society had ceased before the time of Charles Williams, and schism-ed into various strands, in a complex and interactive way (which seems not to be fully understood); several groups persisted for various periods - some groups continue to this day. 

Note: H/T - The above was generated by a query from, and letter to, Sorina Higgins on this subject. It represents my current level of understanding of the Golden Dawn tradition is drawn from the past several years of reading widely but unsystematically in the field; especially Dion Fortune, Gareth Knight and writings of those who influenced and interacted with them - these two are explicitly Christian magicians, but many of their descendants are not Christian. Therefore I have been engaged in some dipping into material from those in contrast or opposition to that tradition - neo-pagans (some of whom I rather like), anything-but-Christians, magical leftists, and those who use magic as de facto psychotherapy. I have also sampled from some of those I would regard as Black Magicians on the left hand path - whether they acknowledge it or not; most of whom have been and are linked to the Crowley tradition in schism from Golden Dawn... Those using magical techniques aiming to get sex, money, attention/ fame, domination; or subversively to attain personal or societal destruction etc. In sum: magic used against The Good. There is a great deal of this on-line, including YouTube.  

The Most Reluctant Convert (2021) - Max McLean in a short movie about CS Lewis's conversion

Lastnight we watched "The most reluctant convert" a short (90 minute) movie about CS Lewis's life and conversion - written-by and starring the excellent Bible Gateway performer Max McLean. 

It is a meaty and uncompromising piece, which managed to interest me and hold my attention; even though I have read the contributing texts, especially Surprised by Joy; and indeed I've seen several earlier movies that covered much the same ground. 

Like many adult converts to Christianity over the past seventy years - CS Lewis's writings played a significant role in this process. 

Looking back, I can see several respects in which Lewis's experiences, and his answers, seem wrong to me now - including his experience of having to resist being-converted, his orthodox-traditional-classical theology, and the way he equates being-a-Christian with joining a (mainstream) church. 

Nonetheless, CSL (and a few others) got me over the line, which is What Matters! 

(The rest was, necessarily, Up To Me.)

I was pleased that the movie's take-home message, spoken by Lewis during in the last few minutes, focused on what was, for me, the most effective of the "arguments" that Lewis made (with Tolkien) - the argument from desire, as it is called: 

The final step was taken... It was like a man who, after a long sleep, has become aware that he is now awake. 

My conversion shed new light on my search for Joy. The overwhelming longings that emerged from reading MacDonald's Phantastes, and seeing my brother's toy garden when a child; were merely signposts to what I truly desired. They were not the thing itself. 

I concluded that; if I find in myself a desire that no experience in this world could satisfy  the most probable explanation? I was made for another world. 

At present we are on the outside of that world, the wrong side of the door. We cannot mingle with the splendours we see. 

But all the leaves of the New Testament are rustling with the news that it will not always be so; that one day, God willing, we shall get in.

Meanwhile: the cross comes before the crown. And tomorrow is another morning.  

A cleft has opened in the pitiless walls of this world. And we have been invited to follow our great Captain inside. 

Following Him is, of course, the essential point. 

What is our civilization's equivalent Age of Middle Earth?

The Tree of Woe author ("ToW"), who has commented here - and who I respect as a thoughtful (but IMO very over-optimistic!) reactionary thinker, influenced by Spengler, and with a strong interest in Tolkien - has written a big essay suggesting that Western Civilization is now at an crux analogous to the transformations between Tolkien's Second (Numenorean) Age, and the Third Age of the dwindling of Numenor (and elves and dwarves). 

Regarding the previous era of modernity and the Industrial Revolution as a Faustian Age; ToW presents a detailed argument that Elendil is the current equivalent cultural figure that Faust was for the era from which we are emerging. 

So that JRR Tolkien's fictional character of Elendil is (or could represent) a current analogy to what the historical figure figure of Goethe and his fictional/ legendary character of Faust represented for the late 1700s and early 1800 - and until recently. 

Tree of Woe's conclusion is as follows:

Yet this ought be no cause for despair. If the Aenean spirit [i.e. the spirit of Aeneas who in legend fled the defeated Troy to set in train the foundation of Rome - and indeed Britain) or Tolkien’s northern courage means anything, it means that the fight must be fought regardless of the likelihood of success. And Tolkien’s myths remind us that even in decline, there is beauty, heroism, and meaning. The Elendilian Age, if it were to come, might not shine as brightly as the Faustian, or even the Aenean; but it would still carry forward the light of what came before. And in the end, that light—however faint—will be enough to illuminate the path for those who follow.

 

I think ToW is mistaken, and that our culture is not at an analogous transition of Second to Third Age - but instead at a much later phase during or following Tolkien's Fourth Age (as, indeed, Tolkien himself said many times). 

There are indeed genuine similarities with Tolkien's Second to Third Age - but essentially we are at a far later stage of cultural decline; in which the mainstream, dominant a highest status official world view (widely shared by the masses, especially in The West) is atheist materialism. 

For the first time in history; we inhabit a world in which deity is regarded as unreal - ignored or ridiculed, and indeed opposed and inverted; in which "the material" is regarded as the only reality; and in which a kind of incoherent but moralistic hedonism is the global ideology.

In other words; here-and-now it is regarded as obvious and ethically imperative that the alleviation of suffering and promotion of gratification ought to be the underlying basis of all ideologies and policies. 

(Yet the ruling ideology of leftism is not coherent, precisely because it is essentially oppositional (and opposition to God, creation and The Good can and does take limitless and mutually-inconsistent forms): and that there is a strand of Leftism expressing indifference to human experience, and instead taking the side of The Planet Earth (or the Biosphere) against Men.)

The consequence is that we are in an era of established and increasing value-inversion: which means that what have been regarded throughout human history as the values of Goodness (roughly - truth, beauty, virtue, coherence); have been inverted so that Good is now regarded as evil, and sin as virtue. 

We are therefore in a fundamentally unprecedented situation - and in a far-more deeply corrupted and evil situation than was the case in Tolkien's Second, or Third, Age.

And a situation in which the ideal of preservation of this uniquely depraved culture has itself become aversive to the best of people, and the best within each person. 

Demotivation has become so prevalent and pervasive that even basic human survival (and reproductive) instincts have become diminished to the point of ineffectuality... That is, when they are not actually inverted into covert or explicit cultural and personal self-hatred, and an active desire for (suicidal) personal and cultural annihilation.   

My impression is that ToW recognizes this, and seeks for an antidote to the consequent Demotivation and Despair. 

D&D are indeed sins to a Christian - despair representing lack of faith in God's creative power and loving nature, and demotivation representing a giving-up on our destiny in this mortal life). 

But ToW is seeking to reconstruct a motivating and optimistic ideology from selected and secular aspects of the past - so that instead of passive (or active) acquiescence in terminal decline; a fight will be fought. 

The intent is that decline would be opposed, and a work of preservation and rebuilding begun; on the basis of the new Western spirit - analogous to the Elendil's creation of Arnor and Gondor in remembrance (as as lesser derivatives) of Numenor. 

I regard this optimism as mistaken for at least two reasons:

One reason why ToW is mistaken, is that human beings have changed, irrevocably (I call this "the development of consciousness"); such that they neither want, nor could sustain, past forms of human societies. 

The future must therefore be something that accepts the given-ness of current basic human nature; and adds to it to restore God, creation, and the world of spirit. The outcome will be something fundamentally unprecedented - not a restoration. But what that outcome shall be we cannot know until after enough individuals have personally changed. 

I believe that this developmental process must be conscious and voluntary, and come from the inner freedom of each individual. 

A worse society can indeed be imposed top-down, by the ruling class; by propaganda, brain-washing and external incentives (bribes and blackmail). This is indeed what we have seen, accelerating, over the past fifty years. 

But a better society can only arise bottom-up, from robust positive change in sufficient individual persons... 

That is; bottom-up in socio-political terms - but it is vital to remember that anything Good will be aided by God, via his continuing divine creation. Any Good an individual does (including in thought, in the spiritual realm) shall be incorporated into ongoing divine creation.    

The second reason why his proposals do not fly; is that ToW is applying a fundamentally secular analysis to history; whereas all historical societies were (IMO) primarily religious: i.e. they perceived and interpreted the world through the lens of their religions. 

Therefore ToW's selective version of history leaves-out that which was most important to historical societies; that upon-which both their coherence was based, and in which their core-motivation was rooted. 

This omission of that which was fundamental to past societies is a further reason why this kind of restoration cannot work.  

Finally; to add a specifically Christian perspective; ToW is basically mistaken to seek a solution to demotivation and despair in this mortal life and world. 

The human condition is (as the ancients all knew) essentially tragic, and anything we can do, even in theory, is merely palliative. 

What this means is that - while motivation and hope are necessary to mortal life - no fundamentally secular-material socio-political plan or destiny can provide sufficient motivation and hope.

"The Answer" is to start-with and build-upon a solid basis for hope that comes from the expectation of resurrected eternal life; and personal knowledge of the reality of the personal and loving God the Creator. 

Only after that perspective has been established can we attain that hope which overcomes despair.