The Old Norse together with the Anglo-Saxon evidence point to an astronomical myth, the name referring to a star, or a group of stars, and the Anglo-Saxon in particular points to the morning star as the herald of the rising Sun (in Crist Christianized to refer to John the Baptist).
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Tolkien's legend of Eärendil has elements resembling the medieval Celtic Immram legends or the Christian legend of St. Brendan the Navigator.
He was great-grandson of Eärendil the Mariner (Eldarion is descended from Eärendil on both sides of his family and in him the two genealogical lines of the Half-elven are reunited), through his Half-elven mother Arwen; he was also the nephew of the Half-elf lords Elladan and Elrohir.
He appeared before Tuor and urged him to go to Gondolin as a messenger to Turgon; when he got there he eventually married Turgon's daughter Idril and fathered Eärendil; Ulmo saved Eärendil's wife Elwing from the sack of the Havens of Sirion, allowing her to take a Silmaril to her husband, which allowed him to gain admittance to Valinor and plead for aid.
Eärendil |
The name is Sindarin, and has the elements beleg ("might") and aer or eär ("sea"), the latter also present in the name Eärendil ("sea-lover").
This was so difficult that he never wrote another poem again in this style, though he later did develop another style from this, and the result, through long evolution from Errantry, was Eärendil the Mariner as published in The Fellowship of the Ring (cf Eärendil).