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Things of Middle-earth

Emblem of Arnor

Type: Heraldry

Description:

The emblem of the realm of Arnor was a star, symbolizing Gil-Estel, the Star of Eärendil. We know of two artifacts from Arnor that represented the star: the Elendilmir, worn only by the Kings of Arnor, and the Stars of the Dúnedain, worn by the Rangers of the North:

The Elendilmir
Star, as emblem:... Star of Elendil,... the Elendilmir,... as emblem of the North Kingdom... had five [rays]... [was] of diamond and represented the Star of Eärendil 1....

The Lord of the Rings, Index

After the fall of Sauron, Isildur, the son and heir of Elendil... assumed the Elendilmir as King of Arnor, and proclaimed his sovereign lordship over all the Dúnedain in the North and in the South....

Unfinished Tales, Part 3, Ch 1, The Disaster of the Gladden Fields

At the Battle of the Pelennor, Aragorn displayed tokens of his royalty from both Arnor and Gondor: the Elendilmir and the banner of the Kings of Gondor:

But before all went Aragorn with the Flame of the West, Andúril...: and upon his brow was the Star of Elendil....

There came... Halbarad with the standard, and Elladan and Elrohir with stars on their brow....

The Return of the King, LoTR Book 5, Ch 6, The Battle of the Pelennor Fields

[In Orthanc] lay a treasure without price, long mourned as lost for ever: the Elendilmir itself, the white star of Elvish crystal upon a fillet of mithril that had descended from Silmarien to Elendil, and had been taken by him as the token of royalty in the North Kingdom. Every king and the chieftains that followed them in Arnor had borne the Elendilmir down even to Elessar himself; but though it was a jewel of great beauty, made by Elven-smiths in Imladris for Valandil Isildur's son, it had not the ancientry nor potency of the one that had been lost when Isildur fled into the dark and came back no more.

Elessar took it up with reverence, and when he returned to the North and took up again the full kingship of Arnor Arwen bound it upon his brow, and men were silent in amaze to see its splendour.

Unfinished Tales, Part 3, Ch 1, The Disaster of the Gladden Fields

The Elendilmir is called by several names: the Star of Elendil, the Star of the North, the Star of the North-kingdom....

Unfinished Tales, Part 3, Ch 1, The Disaster of the Gladden Fields: Notes, Note 33


Stars of the Dúnedain
Thorongil men called [Aragorn] in Gondor, the Eagle of the Star, for he was swift and keen-eyed, and wore a silver star upon his cloak....

The Lord of the Rings, Appendix A, Annals of the Kings and Rulers: Gondor and the Heirs of Anárion: The Stewards

A little apart the Rangers sat... clad in cloaks of dark grey.... [Their] riders [did not] bear any badge or token, save only that each cloak was pinned upon the left shoulder by a brooch of silver shaped like a rayed star.

The Return of the King, LoTR Book 5, Ch 2, The Passing of the Grey Company


Notes
1Gil-Estel, the skybound ship that functions as the Evening Star, is doubly significant to all Dúnedain, because its captain Eärendil is the father of Elros Tar-Minyatur, the first King of Númenor, and also because Gil-Estel had served as a beacon to guide the Edain to Númenor:

[Of] Beren and Lúthien was born Dior...; and of him Elwing the White whom Eärendil wedded, he that sailed his ship out of the mists of the world into the seas of heaven with the Silmaril upon his brow. And of Eärendil came the Kings of Númenor, that is Westernesse.

The Fellowship of the Ring, LoTR Book 1, Ch 11, A Knife in the Dark

[The] Star of Eärendil shone bright in the West as a token that all was made ready, and as a guide over the sea....

Then the Edain set sail upon the deep waters, following the Star.... [So] bright was Rothinzil that even at morning Men could see it glimmering in the West, and in the cloudless night it shone alone, for no other star could stand beside it. And setting their course towards it the Edain came at last over leagues of sea and saw afar the land that was prepared for them.... And they called that land Elenna, which is Starwards....

The Silmarillion, Akallabêth

Contributors:
Elena Tiriel 10Aug04, 15Aug04, 1Sep04, 26Dec09

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