The Two Trees of Valinor aren't just important to Amazon's Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power is set during the Second Age of J.R.R. Tolkien's mythology, the big-budget TV series will occasionally reach further back, and trailer footage shows two ancient glowing trees - one golden, one silver - standing tall over an idyllic landscape. These impressive creations are Telperion and Laurelin, known as the Two Trees of Valinor.
When Arda - the name given to Tolkien's entire fictional world - was in its infancy, two giant lamps in the north and south served as sources of light. When Morgoth destroyed these lamps, the angelic Valar created two shining trees instead. Representing day and night, Laurelin and Telperion would glow alternately, but that pesky Morgoth conspired to destroy these too. The last remaining flowers from each tree were used to create the sun and moon hanging in the sky.
The Two Trees of Valinor were killed long before The Rings of Power's main timeline, and even longer before The Lord of the Rings. Their importance, however, never completely fades, and even during Frodo's quest to destroy the One Ring, he can't escape the shadow Valinor's trees cast over Middle-earth. Here's how the legacy of Laurelin and Telperion endures even during The Lord of the Rings.
The Two Trees Stoked Conflict In Middle-earth
By far the biggest legacy left by the Two Trees of Valinor is a long history of war and conflict. Laurelin and Telperion didn't bring evil into Arda, Morgoth - the original darkness - was corrupted far earlier, but the trees' innocent light inadvertently triggered a domino effect of violence. Those of a dark disposition were jealous of the bright warmth and sought to extinguish it. Morgoth finally succeeded in this insidious goal before fleeing to Middle-earth, and the ensuing conflict between him and the Valar would be inherited by the villain's successor, Sauron.
The trees' glow was so glorious, many who beheld it developed a burning desire to possess it. So it was that the elven king Fëanor successfully captured the trees' light inside three jewels - the Silmarils. Morgoth exploited Fëanor's obsession to sow division between the elves and Valar, which then spread among the elves themselves. The Silmarils' beauty would later capture dwarven hearts, and violence erupted between them and the elves for possession of the Silmaril-loaded necklace Nauglamir. Many of these conflicts are still rumbling in The Lord of the Rings, and though Valinor's trees can't be held wholly responsible, many great tragedies grew from those wooden roots.
The Two Trees Determined Each Race's Status In Lord Of The Rings
To varying degrees, Middle-earth's races of men, elves and dwarves are each in the positions they're in during The Lord of the Rings because of Fëanor's tree-jewels. Lust for the Silmarils drove elves away from Valinor and into Middle-earth, and Lord of the Rings finds them slowly migrating back across the sea, tails firmly between legs. Because men helped fight Morgoth in the First Age, meanwhile, they were gifted the island kingdom of Númenor as a home, which was ultimately succeeded by the Kingdom of Gondor. Dwarves were less affected by the trees' legacy, but their relationship with the elves never quite recovered following the Nauglamir incident.
Gondor's White Tree Is A Descendent Of Telperion
The Two Trees of Valinor have been dead for thousands of years when The Lord of the Rings begins, but their presence still lingers during Frodo Baggins' era... sort of. The White Tree of Gondor stands atop Minas Tirith in The Lord of the Rings, and is a distant ancestor of the silver Telperion. Back when the trees still existed, the vala Yavanna made a lesser sibling to Telperion especially for the elves. This tree had many descendants, and a seed from one was gifted to the Númenoreans. Isildur then took a fruit from the Númenorean tree and planted it in Gondor. Hence, the famous White Tree of Gondor was born, keeping the original Two Trees' spirits alive in The Lord of the Rings.
Galadriel's Power Comes (Partly) From The Two Trees
As written in The Silmarillion, anyone lucky enough to witness the Two Trees of Valinor grew in power, wisdom, and divinity - almost as if they'd been blessed. By the time The Lord of the Rings rolls around, Galadriel is one of precious few living elves who still re seeing Laurelin and Telperion in the bark. This explains why, even among elves, Galadriel is treated with such lofty status and possesses such formidable magic.
Frodo Uses The Trees' Light To Fight Shelob
The small glowing phial that Galadriel gifts Frodo Baggins in The Lord of the Rings bears its own distant connection to the Two Trees of Valinor. The Trees' light was captured within the Silmarils, then the light from one Silmaril was captured within the Mirror of Galadriel - the basin she uses to see the past and future in The Lord of the Rings. Water from the basin is contained within the Phial of Galadriel, which means, in the most roundabout way possible, Frodo carries Valinor's blessed light with him during The Lord of the Rings. This light is then used to repel Shelob, who has her own connection to the past. As The Rings of Power may end up showing, Shelob's ancient ancestor Ungoliant was Morgoth's accomplice in destroying the Two Trees of Valinor.