What are the Two Trees of Valinor in The Lord of the Rings?

Earlier this week, Amazon unveiled the first look at its tremendously expensive, very ambitious Lord of the Rings show. Take it in:

Now, if you just glance at that, you’ll probably think “That looks Lord of the Rings-y” and move on with your day. And indeed, it does look Lord of the Rings-y. There’s a sun-dappled skyline, a gleaming white city, a mysterious figure in medieval garb…it all looks very consistent with J.R.R. Tolkien’s vision of Middle-earth, and with Peter Jackson’s adaptation of Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings books back in the early 2000s.

But what exactly are we looking at here? At first glance, it kind of looks like the city of Minis Tirith, where Merry, Legolas, Gandalf, Éowyn and others fought the Battle of the Pelennor Fields in The Return of the King, before Aragorn showed up to end it with his ghost army. But that can’t be, because we know that Amazon’s show is set during the Second Age of Middle-earth, thousands of years before Frodo or Aragorn or any of those guys were born. Technically, Minis Tirith was around back then, back when it was called Minis Anor, but that was late on. That’s probably not what we’re looking at.

Maybe it’s another notable place from the Second Age? Minis Tirith was founded by men from the island of Númenor, which was populated by human beings gifted with especially long life — Aragorn is descended of these people. Without spoiling things too much, while some of its people live on, Númenor itself is destroyed during the Second Age, but for awhile it’s the most splendid place east of Valinor. Is that what we’re looking at?

Well, no, because of one detail. I draw your attention to the two trees in the background, the ones that are giving off all that light:

And yes, that is two trees there, one that’s pure white and one in dark silhouette. And if we’re seeing two trees, that means we’re looking at something even earlier. In fact, this is so early that we bypass the First Age entirely and go straight to a time called the Years of the Trees. We are looking at the Two Trees of Valinor.

The Two Trees of Valinor on Lord of the Rings Prime

Okay, there’s a lot of terminology here, so settle in.

J.R.R. Tolkien is an author who loves mythology, and The Lord of the Rings has an extensive one. According to that mythology, in the beginning, Ilúvatar — who is basically God — created angelic beings called the Valar. The Valar then shaped Arda, the world.

To light the new world they had formed, the Valar created two huge lamps — Illuin and Ormal — and positioned them at opposite ends of Arda. But Melkor, the most powerful of the Valar and a complete a**hole, destroyed the lamps in his bid for dominion over Arda, plunging the world into darkness.

Their world needed light, so the Valar went to plan B: the Valar Yavanna sang into existence the Two Trees: the Silver Tree Telperion and the Golden Tree Laurelin. Watered by the tears of the Valar Nienna, the trees lit Arda for many thousands of years. Each gave off their own source of light for about seven hours at a time; one would glow bright and then grow dim, and then the other. At dawn and dusk, they would both be lit, so their silver and gold light would commingle.

The Trees were located on the hill of Ezellohar outside the city of Valmar, where the Valar lived. This was in the land of Valinor on the continent of Aman, in the far west of Arda. When elves came into the world, many would come to live in Valinor as well.

And that is likely what we’re looking at in this image. But there’s a wrinkle: you see, Melkor also eventually destroys the Two Trees (really, I can’t stress how big an a**hole he is), and he does it long before the events of the Second Age. Seedlings of Laurelin and Telperion become the sun and moon.

If the show is set during the Second Age, and the Two Tree are destroyed long before the Second Age, how are they a part of the show? Perhaps the series stretches back further than we thought, or maybe this image is from a prologue or flashback of some kind. It’s open season on theories; feel free to give yours.

The descendants of the The Two Trees of Valinor

Although we’ve never seen the Two Trees of Valinor on screen before, we have seen their descendants, so to speak. You see, while the Two Trees still stood, the Valar Yavanna created the tree Galathilion, modeling it off the Silver Tree Telperion. It was an exact copy expect that it gave off no light of its own. She placed Galathilion in the city of Tirion, where many elves could enjoy it.

Galathilion had many seedlings. From one of them grew Celeborn, a white tree that grew on the island of Tol Eressëa, off the coast of Aman. Celeborn also produced seedlings. In the Second Age, elves from Tol Eressëa brought one to the men of Númenor as a gift. It blossomed into the tree Nimloth, a reminder of elven divinity in the heart of the mightiest kingdom of men.

Long story short: Melkor’s servant Sauron eventually corrupts the Númenóreans and convinces them to cut Nimloth down, but some loyal Númenóreans take a seedling across the sea to Middle-earth, where they plant it in the city of Minis Tirith. And this tree — or one of its descendants, anyway — we do see in The Lord of the Rings proper.

You see what I mean when I say that Tolkien loves mythology? You don’t have to know any of this stuff to enjoy The Lord of the Rings, but it’s all there, and it looks like Amazon’s show will explore it in more detail.

The Lord of the Rings (or whatever title they end up giving it) will premiere on Amazon Prime Video on September 2, 2022.

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