Seven Stars and Seven Stones

[Saurondil]

Originally Posted by Huinesoron

So which is it? Are the stars on the flag of Gondor five- or six-pointed? The five-ray version appears to be from the 50th Anniversary edition, which this thread suggests featured an all-new, non-Tolkien index. So... is this simply a mistake, or is it a reversion to Tolkien's original intent? Is there anyone with a copy of the Readers' Guide who can shed any light on the question?

About the Tolkien Companion - it contains this passage, on p.516, beginning at the second line from the top:

“In regard to many-pointed stars, in the 1966 Index as first published each of the seven stars of Elendil (see note for p.597) is said to have six points. But in the Allen & Unwin de luxe edition of 1969 this was changed to five points, possibly because the binding art of that book is an adaptation of Tolkien’s dust-jacket design for The Return of the King (see ‘Preliminaries’, above), in which each of the stars has five points.”

Page 597 is not p.597 of the Guide, but p.597 of the continuously paginated edition of 2004, reprinted with corrections in 2005.