The beloved Mars helicopter Ingenuity took its ultimate flight in January, bringing its mission to an finish after a historic three-year run on Mars. The helicopter was the primary to fly on a planet apart from Earth, and it racked up many different accolades earlier than succumbing to rotor harm that prevented future flights, thus grounding the chopper. NASA has named the Martian airfield that serves because the Ingenuity’s ultimate resting place “Valinor Hills,” after a location within the fictional Middle-Earth, from Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings fantasy trilogy.
NASA took inspiration from Tolkien after the Perseverance rover photographed the Ingenuity on the location the place it final landed. To be sincere, the placement has a decidedly Lord Of The Rings really feel, albeit one nearer to Mordor than Valinor.
Valinor makes up a part of the “Undying Lands” within the novels, however I’ll let the beautiful geeks at Space clarify what these symbolize within the lore of J.R.R. Tolkien, the well-known WWI vet and University of Oxford professor who occurred to write down the Lord of the Rings and its prequel, The Hobbit. Per Space:
Tolkien (1892-1973), an Anglo-Saxon scholar on the University of Oxford, is finest recognized for his fantasy works that embrace “Lord of the Rings” (LOTR), “The Hobbit” and “The Silmarillion.”
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Valinor was part of the Undying Lands, a location cited usually in Tolkien’s mythology. The most-cited reference to these islands comes on the finish of LOTR. The elves granted a few of the fundamental characters refuge there, after the invitees performed key roles in a quest to destroy a strong finger-ring threatening the universe.
The islands of the Undying Lands had been the house of the elves and likewise the Valar, the latter referring to beings who performed a task in creating the world, in response to a 2009 paper within the peer-reviewed journal “Mythlore “ led by Keith Kelly, of Pennsylvania’s Kutztown University. While not quite equivalent to the Judeo-Christian concepts of heaven, according to Tolkien’s letters cited in the paper, the Undying Lands are a point of eternal refuge and rest.
Tolkien also wrote The Silmarillion, which is a collection of stories that serves as a loose prequel to The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. There are many more works that add to the lore of Middle-Earth, too. And now, thanks to NASA, Tolkien’s influence is interplanetary, having reached the surface of Mars.
To add to the Tolkien theme behind NASA’s inspired naming of “Valinor Hills,” it will be becoming to bid the Ingenuity helicopter a ultimate farewell with a music from Peter Jackson’s LOTR: The Return of the King (2003), the prolonged model of which options Howard Shore’s music, “The Houses of Healing.”
According to Genius annotators, the music comprises a poem written in Sindarin, the Elven language (and considered one of many) Tolkien invented to complement his novels. The music mentions not being “bound to the circles of the world,” which is a reference to crusing into the West — to Valinor and the Undying Lands.
Howard Shore’s music options the London Voices choir and Liv Tyler, whose phrases are ship off for the Ingenuity chopper: “And the trees are now turning from green to gold. And the sun is now fading. [We] wish [we] could hold you closer.” Goodbye, Ingenuity. And godspeed onto the West.
Source: jalopnik.com