The Unfinished Earendel Tale

It might be said that the mysterious Anglo Saxon word éarendel as Tolkien was struck by the beauty of the word when he first began the study of language. Given the form of the word and various uses in other Germaniac tongues Tolkien had a strong sense that it was a proper name: "To my mind the Anglo Saxon uses seem plainly to indicate that it was a star presaging the dawn (at any rate in English tradition): this is what we now call Venus: the morning star as it may be seen shining brilliantly in the dawn, before the actual rising of the Sun. That is at any rate how I took it...I adopted him into my mythology--in which he became a prime figure, as a mariner, and eventually as a herald star, and a sign of hope to men" (p. 266, The Book of Lost Tales - Volume II).

The Tale of Eärendel was to be a long tale; itself half the length of all the Tales we've previously explored combined. But Tolkien never really finished it. Christopher Tolkien runs through a serious of outlines and scattered notes that piece together a skeleton of the Tale but it was quite unfinished. I will highlight the seven main points for our purposes:

1. The Tale of the Nauglafring. My post on that story is found here; so we learn that this was really the first part of Eärendel's story not meant to be a stand alone tale. This also explains the flight of Elwing. 
2. Dwelling at Sirion: including the love of Eärendel and Elwing; departure of Tuor. Eärendel's first sea journey's.
3. More sea journey's; departure of Idril and farewell to Elwing, building of the great ship Wingilot.
4. Eärendel's search for Valinor and years of adventure on the sea.
5. News of Gondolin's fall reaches Valinor, ruin of Sirion, captivity of Elwing, march of the Elves, vanishing of Valinor, capture of Melko, curse of the Nauglafring and death of Elwing.
6. Eärendel reaches Kôr and finds it empty, returns to find Sirion destroyed, searches the ruin of Gondolin, back to the sea and Tol Eressëa.
7. Eärendel sales to the firmament of the world.

There are extra tidbits here and there: such as Eärendel appears to have a run-in with Ungweliantë in one of his journeys, Ulmo has some encounters with the mariner, and mermaids were quite fond of him.  But perhaps the most interesting thing is Eärendel was not journeying to Valinor as desperate last plea for help on behalf of Elves and Men (for he carried the blood of both) in the desperate war against Melko. While reading the scant details on what could have been some very cool adventures the weight of the journey is simply not there early on in these outlines dated approximately 1914-1917.