The common name of the White Tree of Valinor, the one of the Two Trees which shone with silver light (S/38). The exact meaning of this name is unclear, but its initial element is the word telpë “silver” (SA/celeb, UT/266). The original Quenya name of this tree was †Tyelperion, but it became Telperion when Quenya speakers adapted older †tyelpë into telpë under the influence of Telerin telpe (UT/266, Let/426).

Conceptual Development: In the earliest Lost Tales, this tree was usually called ᴱQ. Silpion (LT1/73). The name ᴹQ. Telperion first appeared in Silmarillion drafts from the 1930s as an alternate name of Silpion (LR/209, 211). In Silmarillion revisions from the 1950s-60s, Telperion became its primary name and while Silpion became a secondary name (MR/59, note §5).

Possible Translations: This name is glossed “Silver Tree” in the index of the 50th anniversary edition of The Lord of the Rings (LotRI/Silver Tree), but I cannot find this translation anywhere else. In their Reader’s Companion, Hammond and Scull tentatively translate Telperion as “?silver-white” (RC/637), and in a 1964 interview (https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p021jx7j), Tolkien also described Telperion as “White Silver” as opposed to Laurelin “Golden Song” (hat-tip to Vyacheslav Stepanov for the reference to the interview). In English the tree is usually referred to as the “White Tree”, but this was also applied to the earlier name Silpion and is perhaps a better translation of that name (given its incorporation of the root √SIL “shine white or silver”). Absent any other information, “Silver Tree” seems to be the most straightforward translation, although probably not strictly correct.