Ná alya i vinya loa - Happy New Year (from the Elvenesse blog)
Do you feel like you could use a do-over of your New Year? It’s not too late! As our friends at the Elvenesse blog reminded me this morning – it’s Elvish New Year! March 28 is Yestarë, which is equivalent to New Year’s Day. Now, I don’t know what Elvish New Year’s Eve is like – I imagine that there is probably a lot of singing…maybe some tra-la-la-lally, down in the valley? Who knows. But Elvenesse does tell us, as part of their wonderful Today in Middle-earth History feature, a few things that have happened on Yestarës past:
Third Age 2983: Samwise Gamgee is the fifth child born to proud parents Hamfast Gamgee and Bell Goodchild.
Third Age 3019: Celeborn and Thranduil meet and rename Mirkwood, Eryn Lasgalen.
And on the day of the New Year of the Elves, Celeborn and Thranduil met in the midst of the forest; and they renamed Mirkwood Eryn Lasgalen, The Wood of Greenleaves. Thranduil took all the northern region as far as the mountains that rise in the forest for his realm; and Celeborn took the southern wood below the Narrows, and named it East Lórien; all the wide forest between was given to the Beornings and the Woodmen.
[The Lord of the Rings, Appendix B, The Tale of Years: The Third Age]
Third Age 3020: The mallorn tree given to the hobbits by Lady Galadriel flowers for the first time in the Party Field.
The little silver nut he planted in the Party Field where the tree had once been; and he wondered what would come of it. …
Spring surpassed [Sam’s] wildest hopes. … In the Party Field a beautiful young sapling leaped up: it had silver bark and long leaves and burst into golden flowers in April. It was indeed a mallorn, and it was the wonder of the neighbourhood. In after years, as it grew in grace and beauty, it was known far and wide and people would come long journeys to see it: the only mallorn west of the Mountains and east of the Sea, and one of the finest in the world.
[The Return of the King, LotR Book 6, Ch 9, The Grey Havens]
Isn’t that lovely? If you enjoy this sort of thing, do subscribe to the Elvenesse blog, because they are wonderfully full of this kind of information. Happy Elvish New Year, everyone! Ná alya i vinya loa!
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