"To build up and strengthen Elvenhome"

 This morning I woke up with the following phrase:

To build up and strengthen Elvenhome

I can't remember the dream it might have come from, or if it was just a set of words that entered my mind as I was coming out of sleep.  The phrase itself came across as extremely meaningful, so I did a little investigation.

I started with Elvenhome.  I had heard of this term before from Tolkien's writings, although to the best of my knowledge it hasn't appeared in any of my words - Elvish, English, or otherwise - at least in that form.  Thus, couldn't remember if Elvenhome was meant to refer to Valinor (specifically the Tirion portion where the High Elves lived) or Eressea.

It turns out both, meaning the region of Aman where the Elves settled, which would have comprised both Tirion and the surrounding areas including Alqualonde, as well as Eressea, which would have been in the bay off the shore of Valinor, but still considered part of Aman.  As a side note, there are other places in Middle-earth that were referred to as Elvenhome, such as Doriath, likely as a reference to the original Elvenhome that lay across the sea, but for reasons I will discuss in just a moment, I believe it is the Aman Elvenhome that is being referred to in my words from this morning.

The Elvish name for Elvenhome is Eldamar (literally "Elf-home").

Elvenhome = Tirion-Jerusalem and Eressea-New Jerusalem

When I looked up Elvenhome and saw that this referred to both Tirion-Valinor and also Eressea, my mind started turning a bit more.  As readers of this blog know, Tirion and Eressea (#1) represent Jerusalem and the New Jerusalem in my story.  Mormon readers might further recognize that the phrases in the rest of that sentence from this morning are used in Book of Mormon passages in referring to these Holy Places.

I did a quick search for the phrase 'built up' in the Book of Mormon and found a few instances.  A reference in Ether caught my eye.  In his account of the Jaredites, Moroni briefly summarizes Ether's prophecies regarding both Jerusalem and the New Jerusalem, namely that they will be 'built up':

Behold, Ether saw the days of Christ, and he spake concerning a New Jerusalem upon this land.

And he spake also concerning the house of Israel, and the Jerusalem from whence Lehi should come—after it should be destroyed it should be built up again, a holy city unto the Lord; wherefore, it could not be a new Jerusalem for it had been in a time of old; but it should be built up again, and become a holy city of the Lord; and it should be built unto the house of Israel—

And that a New Jerusalem should be built up upon this land, unto the remnant of the seed of Joseph, for which things there has been a type.  (Ether 13)

I've highlighted the phrase 'built up' in the passage above.  For Jerusalem it says built up 'again' since Jerusalem (Tirion) had once been before, and for New Jerusalem it simply says built up because it will have not previously existed - it will be a new thing.

It was encouraging for me to see this phrase again in this context, and I had the feeling that the words from my morning phrase pointed to this reference, at least in part.

I really felt like I was going out on a limb a few months back in proposing that the Jaredites and Lehites actually went to another world, with this thought then leading to its somewhat crazy, but only logical, conclusion that Jerusalem and New Jerusalem must not be on our world, either.  The search for those two places ultimately led me to the Tirion and Eressea #1 theory.  The word connections from the dream phrase this morning seem to add further support to this view.  Eldamar will be built up.  Jerusalem and New Jerusalem will be built up.  Jerusalem and New Jerusalem = Eldamar.  

Not an ironclad association by itself, definitely, but with the other things I have written about here, it just seems to me to be at least one more suggestion that we might be on the right path of thinking here.

"Strengthen", the other part of the phrase related to Elvenhome, is also an interesting word choice in relating to a place.   I did a search for this word also.  

In some of Moroni's final words that will end what we have now as the Book of Mormon, he writes:

And again I would exhort you that ye would come unto Christ, and lay hold upon every good gift, and touch not the evil gift, nor the unclean thing.

And awake, and arise from the dust, O Jerusalem; yea, and put on thy beautiful garments, O daughter of Zion; and strengthen thy stakes and enlarge thy borders forever, that thou mayest no more be confounded, that the covenants of the Eternal Father which he hath made unto thee, O house of Israel, may be fulfilled.

It is Jerusalem-Tirion and Zion, or the daughter of Zion, that will strengthen their stakes and enlarge their borders at a future time in which they are made free to enlarge their borders forever.

The words about strengthening stakes and enlarging borders (i.e., lengthening cords) are from Isaiah.  Moroni is pulling from them (or his words have been translated into them), but he isn't the only one to use these words.

In Jesus' visit to Bountiful, he also will quote extensively from Isaiah.  In 3 Nephi 21, though, he first mentions the building of this same New Jerusalem that Ether prophesied about.  It will be built, and it seems that there will be an initial gathering, which will ultimately result in Jesus himself living among them.  Following this, the work of the Father will begin in earnest, and all of Jesus' people will be gathered in from wherever they are scattered to.  In doing so, they 'shall go out from all nations' (including the U.S. and all other nations of this world) and return to the land of their 'inheritance' (see 3 Nephi 21:23-29, specifically, but the whole chapter seems relevant).

Following this gathering, it appears that all of Jesus' people will be in one of two Holy Places (at least as I have interpreted it):  Jerusalem and New Jerusalem, or as we can now refer to, Eldamar or Elvenhome... Xanadu.  This is the land of their inheritance going back to the beginning - they will have returned home.

There is some stuff that will then happen afterward which involves the lengthening of the cords of Zion and the enlarging of its borders, such as other worlds, including our own, being once again being remade and repopulated (after being burned and cleared of tares).

Anyway, I am not sure where I am exactly in this thought-train, but the important point is that the phrase from this morning seemed, to me at least, to at least support this notion that Jerusalem and New Jerusalem are in fact Tirion and Eressea, which are collectively known as Eldamar/ Elvenhome - the Home of the Eldar and their land of inheritance.

Faramir and Elvenhome

There is another interesting connection with the phrase from this morning, and that is Faramir.  I should also note or remind readers that I have Faramir as also Ether, who we covered earlier in this post as prophesying about Eldamar and its future.

Faramir, in an understated moment of LOTR, actually uses the phrase Elvenhome in explaining to Frodo and Sam why his men stand and look to the West before sitting down to eat.  Here is part of the scene:

They [Frodo and Sam] were led then to seats beside Faramir; barrels covered with pelts and high enough above the benches of the Men for their convenience.  Before they ate, Faramir and all his men turned and faced west in a moment of silence.  Faramir signed to Frodo and Sam that they should do likewise.

'So we always do,' he said, as they sat down: 'we look towards Numenor that was, and beyond to Elvenhome that is, and to that which is beyond Elvenhome and will ever be.  Have you no such custom at meat?'

'No,' said Frodo, feeling strangely rustic and untutored.  'But if we are guests, we bow to our host, and after we have eaten we rise and thank him'

'That we do also,' said Faramir.

Faramir is basically outlining our Atalante Highway leading out to the West that I alluded to in the Love Shack song post from a couple days ago.  At that time, as now, Numenor is no more.  Elvenhome exists then in likely a more complete form than now (at least with respect to Jerusalem).  Only the place he mentions as being beyond Elvenhome is as it has always been.  In this blog, we have referred to it as Eru-Place, perhaps the same thing as Eru's Timeless Halls.  This is where Eowyn would have proceeded onto, I believe, among other places in her journey.

Anyway, I looked up this passage after having read the Book of Mormon references because I remembered this scene where Faramir and all the men faced to the West (it comes from the chapter titled "The Window on the West"), and I thought he made a reference to Aman or Eressea, but I couldn't remember which or what he called it.  So, this was also a bit encouraging to see that he used the name Elvenhome, which again, was the same name used in the phrase that had come to me this morning.

So, what does this all mean?  

Well, I guess first off, it seems to corroborate some of the earlier guesses with respect to Jerusalem and New Jerusalem and their location on Aman.

Second, it seem to suggest that Elvenhome remains 'unbuilt up' - this is a work yet to do, perhaps, and there can't be any large gathering to these places until they are actually ready for that gathering.  

Third, the fact that Elvenhome is the word specifically used in the phrase from this morning, and this is the same word used by Faramir in his interaction with Frodo and Sam could be seen as just a coincidence, but could also be viewed as support to the picture painted in this blog as to his future role involving Elvenhome.  

Interestingly, and to close this post off, the only other place I know for sure that the term Elvenhome is used in the LOTR (there may be others, perhaps many others, but I don't know or remember them) is by Galadriel, where she refers to it by the Elvish translation Eldamar.  I have covered this in an earlier post titled "What ship will bear you back across so wide a sea?".  Galadriel sings a song when she comes to say goodbye to the Fellowship on her Swan Boat:

I sang of leaves, of leaves of gold, and leaves of gold there grew:
Of wind I sang, a wind there came and in the branches blew.
Beyond the Sun, beyond the Moon, the foam was on the Sea,
And by the strand of Ilmarin there grew a golden Tree.
Beneath the stars of Ever-eve in Eldamar it shone,
In Eldamar beside the walls of Elven Tirion.
There long the golden leaves have grown upon the branching years,
While here beyond the Sundering Seas now fall the Elven-tears.
O Lorien! The Winter comes, the bare and leafless Day;
The leaves are falling in the stream, the River flows away.
O Lorien! Too long I have dwelt upon this Hither Shore
And in a fading crown have twined the golden elanor.
But if of ships I now should sing, what ship would come to me,
What ship would bear me ever back across so wide a Sea?