The Constellations

[easterlinge]

I'm trying to list the constellations mentioned by Tolkien, and if possible, match them to our own:

1)Menelvagor, with the shining belt
Known as Orion, and said to be a son of Tulkas. I don't know the exact tale, though.

2)The Burning Briar
-The Big Dipper, or Ursa Major. Oddly, 7000 years ago the North Star would not be Polaris. The Celestial True North wanders around the sky in a circle due to precession. In Egyptian times the North Star was Thuban in Draco. So the Burning briar would be useless for finding North. Unless the First Age occurred about 32,000 years ago, when the Celestial True North was also Polaris?

The Egyptians referred to that very ancient time as "Zep Tepi", the First Time...... or the "First Age".........

3)Durin's Crown
Said to be identical with the Burning Briar, or Ursa Major. But I wonder if doesn't actually refer to the Northern Crown, near Bootes?

4)The Legions

"Beyond the bounds of Arda far
still shone the Legions, star on star,
memorials of their labour long,
achievement of Vision and of Song;
and when beneath their ancient light
on Earth below was cloudless night,
music in Doriath awoke,
and there beneath the branching oak,
or seated in the beech-leaves brown,
Dairon the dark with ferny crown
played on his pipes with elvish art
unbearable by mortal heart.
"
-the Lay of Leithian-

I don't know what constellation it refers to.

5)The Sickle of the Valar
-Said to be also the Big Dipper. But the head of Leo is also popularly known as the Sickle.

6)Remmirath, the Netted Stars.
It appears in the east before red Borgil, the first star of Menelvagor to rise from the horizon. If Borgil is Betelgeuse, then Remmirath would be the Pleiades in Taurus.

Did I leave out any Tolkienic constellations?

[Wayfarer]

The legions... Sounds like what we call the milky way.

[Ñólendil]

There are certainly more constellations to speak of. There's a very good website out there devoted to them, but I have lost the link. Anyone else have it?

[Comic Book Guy]

Here it is

http://website.lineone.net/~istari/me-stars.htm