In the mingling of the light of the Two Trees, in the days before the arrival of the Latecomers from Tol Eressea, Aule worked long and hard in his smithies and workshops. He was teaching his beloved Noldor the many ways in which they might work the precious metals and gems of the earth, and at the same time, he secretly worked upon a present for his Spouse Yavanna. For he knew that she was saddened at times that he saw so little of her, even though she herself had much to teach the Vanyar who came to her so that they might learn about the trees and other olvar.

Now before the Noldor one bright day he brought out the finished presents, and the elves gasped with delight; “Statues made of mithril and gold! Fashioned to resemble in every detail the Two Trees!”

Aule smiled; “It is most fitting as a gift to Kementari who has worked so hard in her own right.”

In the days that came, the Noldor fashioned their own representations of the Two Trees, inspired it is said by the work of Aule, but never reaching to the awe-inspiring verisimilitude of the original sculptures of the master Smith.

Now came Yavanna to the smithies, hearkening to the whispers of her beloved trees that something was afoot. Great was her wonder when she saw these two statues, perfect in every detail.

“Such as my hands might make I have fashioned for you, Kementari - for in my thoughts you always are and always shall be.”

She was caught in delight, though she smiled and said; “Great is the artificers’ skills, oh my husband! And wondrous is this gift that you give to me and much to my pleasing. But yet like unto the Two Trees these can never truly be, for they lack life itself.”

“I would not presume that they should ever be so, my wife,” responded Aule solemnly. “But only that they might remind you of the light that you brought into being, that greatest work that ever you set hand to - the Two Trees that give life and bounty to Valinor.”

She gazed now outside the smithies and seemed saddened.

“Even though I love these two representations of the Two Trees that you have made with such exquisite skill and craft, I yet see in them the seeds of my loss. Behold husband, the work of thy hands brings about a despoiling of the land around your workshops. Not a tree nor a blade of grass might suffer to thrive here in this place for the surfeit of metals that you smelt and fashion.”

Aule agreed; “It has not been without great concern that I have watched the olvar in this place fail. If it be due to my workings, then what am I to do? I must teach the Children of Iluvatar what they will need to know. How can this be mended?”

“Then leave it to me to find you an answer to this, Aule,” said she.

In the days that followed, Yavanna set to work, her skill in the nature of the olvar unsurpassed, and so she came to the trees and they listened to her words as she sought to find a way to answer Aule’s needs.

“The soils about Aule’s smithies have a heavy contamination of mithril and gold. Olvar do not grow there willingly, most especially trees which are most beloved of me. I would bethink myself of a species of tree that might thrive under such unique conditions, and yet be a tree of great marvel. For Aule to respect it, this new tree must remind him of the things that he loves. Therefore I would that it in some way reflected the gleam of silver and gold within its bark and leaves.” Then she paused and it was as if she remembered now the earliest times and a small and unheeded part of the Song of Iluvatar; “Behold then a wonder of which I had forgotten until this moment. The silver-boughed and golden-flowered ones shall arise out of the unending generosity of Eru, to whom all praise I give.”

In that way came about the nurturing of the first Mallorn trees, and these were not only able to withstand the mithril and gold traces within the soil near the smithies of Aule, but positively thrived upon them, and the trees cleaned the soil of such traces by locking the tiny particles in the network of their roots. When Yavanna planted the small seedlings there she chose a time when Aule went off to visit the elves in their own dwellings, and then she exerted her powers of bounteousness upon them so that a score of years’ of growth were achieved in a single night’s space and more on the following days.

Aule returned to his smithies after seven days, and with him came Finwe and his son Feanor, and all three stood quite still and silently marvelled at the tall silver boughed trees with golden flowers and leaves, and from behind them stepped out Yavanna with a smile.

“In the battle between the works of Aule and those of Yavanna, here at least let there be found a truce!”

“Kementari! Your skills know no bounds!” exclaimed Finwe at last, falling to his knees and raising his hands towards the trees.

Aule stood for a moment without speaking and then embraced his spouse warmly, going with her to examine the new trees.

“And what wondrous name have you given to these?” he asked.

“Mallorn I have named them, for so Iluvatar revealed them to me, and they will only grow where you site your smithies and work with mithril and gold, for these trees need those substances to thrive,” she explained.

So it was that about the smithies of Aule the most wondrous of forests sprang up, and wherever the waters of his works took small particles of mithril and gold, these trees nuts would germinate and a new Mallorn stand would appear.

Most beloved of Galadriel were these trees, for she found that they combined the very best of Yavanna’s skill and Aule’s, and when she left Valinor secretly after the death of the Two Trees, a small casket she took filled with nuts from the Mallorn trees harvest, set in a soil enriched with mithril and gold. These Mallorn she first planted in Middle earth, and when after seven years the young trees produced their own crop of nuts, and thereafter upon each seventh year as was their nature, Galadriel husbanded the nuts and planted them elsewhere, always with a grain of mithril and a grain of gold at their roots to give them the vitality they required. In time, the Mallorn trees were planted elsewhere, and came even to Numenor, and when Beleriand was Drowned, Galadriel brought out of the wreck of the War of Wrath yet more caskets of Mallorn nuts and gave some of these to Gil Galad. But the trees would not take in Lindon, for the High King of the elves did not realise that mithril and gold were needed for the nuts to germinate, and therefore only in Lothlorien where Galadriel tended them herself did the Mallorn trees succeed and thrive.