The Transit of Earendil

[jallanite]

Tolkien writes:

And it is said that Elwing learned the tongue of birds, who herself had worn their shape; and they taught her the craft of flight, and her wings were of white and silver-grey. And at times, when Eärendil returning drew near again to Arda, she would fly to meet him, even as she had flown long ago when she was rescued from the sea.

Elwing does not fly in a sky-craft like her husband Eärendil but flies like a bird on white and grey wings that the Elves have made for her and so naturally can be described as being “seen like a white bird”.

Kristine Larsen considers the story of Eärendil and Elwing to be based in part on discrepant Greek myths of Ceyx and (H)alyone. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ceyx and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alcyone . The same idea appears in The Keys of Middle-Earth by Stuart D. Lee and Elizabeth Solopova (Palgrave Macmillan: Basingstoke, 2005). In one fragment in The Book of Lost Tales: Part II (p. 255) Elwing never regains her human form but is destined to be unfound by Eärendil until the Faring Forth. It is possible that at this stage in the tale Elwing was conceived as actually being in the form of a seabird when she flew after her husband and Tolkien has later changed it to a disenchanted Elwing clothed and winged to appear somewhat like a seabird.

Note that while Tolkien’s Eärendil becomes the Dawn-star the Greek Ceyx is son of the Dawn-star.