*** among the exiles many believed that the summit of the meneltarma , the pillar of heaven , was not drowned for ever , but rose again above the waves , a lonely island lost in the great waters ; for it had been a hallowed place , and even in the days of sauron none had defiled it and some there were of the seed of earendil that afterwards sought for it , because it was said among loremasters that the far-sighted men of old could see from the meneltarma a glimmer of the deathless land .