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Unhappiness spread far and wide throughout the Undying Lands after Melkor and Ungoliant so utterly slew the Two Trees of the Valar and all light other than fire and stars was lost to its inhabitants.  Urgently the Valar sent to Fëanáro, urging him to offer up the three Silmarils so that their light might serve to undo the evil done, but he utterly refused.  Instead he uttered ugly threats and curses against any who thought to usurp his right to the creations of his hands, which he sealed within his vaults.  At last he was formally summoned, and only his father remained within the walls of his keep.

There Melkor repaired in utter secrecy.  He laughed at Finwë’s defiance, and utterly destroyed him with but the utter least of his power, leaving the ugly remains outside the vault from which he took the three Silmarils.  At that he and Ungoliant fled urgently away, crossing the Helcaraxë to Middle Earth where Ungoliant continued unto the uttermost south, finally hiding herself within a cave overlooking the Sea, while Melkor, now named Moringotto or Morgoth, raised his fortress of Angband over the pits of Utumno, stubbornly wearing an Iron Crown in which he set the three Silmarils even though its weight and the heat of the stones on his unworthy head were an utter torture for him.

But the Valar has saved a unique fruit from each of the two trees, and of the one from Telperion they made a craft to sail the Seas of Night to offer silver illumination to all of Arda equally.  Their servant Tilion sailed it, and under his captaincy it offered a light that could be utilized by those who dwelt particularly within the Mortal lands.  The greater vessel they created from the fruit of golden Laurelin offered both warmth and light, and Arien accepted its rule.  And so both the Undying Lands and Middle Earth now received proper light once more under the vessels of the Moon and Sun.

When Eärendil the Mariner came unto his manhood, he decided it was time indeed for those who had suffered since the deaths of the Two Trees to be avenged, and on taking counsel with his wife he set sail southward, following up on rumors that of old Ungoliant had fled that way.  He found her lair and uttered his challenge, and in the ensuing fight he slew her.

He returned unto his home again to take counsel with Elwing.  Over the utterly exhausting centuries of battle against Morgoth untold numbers of Men, Elves, and Dwarves had lost their lives.  As Morgoth was of a different nature from the Eruhini, it was decided he must seek the aid of Morgoth’s equals to defeat him utterly.  And so he set sail again, now westward, hoping to come to the Uttermost West to enlist the strength of the Valar against their unruly and now unwanted brother.  But until Elwing came to him in the shape of a sea-bird, he could not find his way.  Only by utilizing the light of the Silmaril she brought unto him did he at last come unto those distant shores.

His own ship the Valar refashioned, and with the Silmaril bound now upon his brow he, too, sailed the Seas of Night to herald the hope of his successful voyage, descending only to fight the Lord of Dragons in the final battle with Morgoth.  And the estel he offers fills us yet when we look up to behold his Light.