The 'wing' in the name 'Sea-Wing' originally had a literal meaning, as names for the ship in earlier versions of Tuor's story were 'Swan-wing' and 'Eagle-wing'. In the final form, these references to birds were lost, but the 'wing' element remained as part of the ship's name. These details come from the early Lost Tales, which, it should be noted, is our only source for the description of the ship's purple sails (no colour is mentioned in later descriptions).
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