The Age of the Ring (Lord of the Rings) Forum
Tolkien only Section => Books - LOTR & The Hobbit => Topic started by: Taurendil on May 31, 2008, 08:49:03 PM
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A question. When Frodo spends his time in Rivendell before setting out for Mordor he sees a red star in thе south like a 'watchful eye'. I wonder what Tolkien meant by it. It's seems unlikely that that had something to do with Sauron, cause he didn't like the stars as we know, plus if that was a reference to his eye, Mordor isn't exactly south of Rivendell. Perhaps it's just one of thosу 'unexplained vistas' Tolkien speaks of in his comment to the appendices.
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For those unaware of this quote, it comes about 4 pages into The Ring Goes South and says (emphasis mine):
"So the days slipped away as each morning dawned bright and fair, and each evening followed cool and clear. But autumn was waning fast; slowly the golden light faded to pale silver, and the lingering leaves fell from the naked trees. A wind began to blow chill from the Misty Mountains to the east. The Hunter's Moon waxed round in the night sky, and put to flight all lesser stars. But low in the South one star shone red. Every night, as the Moon waned again, it shone brighter and brighter. Frodo could see it from his window, deep in the heavens, burning like a watchful eye that glared above the trees on the brink of the valley."
It could be, but, Tolkien did a fair bit of writing on Middle-earth's cosmology. It is possible that it is Carnil, which is equivalent to our Mars; it is also claimed that it could be Borgil, which is often equated with either Betelgeuse in the constellation of Orion, or Aldebaran in the constellation of Taurus. To be honest, though, we can't know and I don't know if I can help you any more than I what I've said here.
There was a discussion about this on The Barrow Downs a few years ago which you can view here (http://forum.barrowdowns.com/showthread.php?t=2233). Similarly Mellonath Daeron have done a bit about Celestial Objects in Middle-earth (http://www.forodrim.org/daeron/md_astro.html). Another link of interest might be The Astronomy of Middle-earth (http://www.physics.ccsu.edu/larsen/astronomy_of_middle.htm).