ountless years of bliss went by before the beauty and light of the Two Trees of Valinor came to an end. The Elves had awoken beside the Lake of Cuiviénen and been summoned to Valinor to live near the mighty Valar. The Silmarils had been created by Fëanor (read more about that in Fëanor and the Silmarils), and the world was beautiful for Elves and Valar, for awhile. However, out there in Middle-earth, as always, sat Melkor, hating the beauty of the Valar and Valinor and despising the Elves, the Firstborn of the Children of Ilúvatar. Strife came again to Valinor through the awakening of evil in the hearts of some of the Elves, and Fëanor's lust for the Silmarils caused him and many of his kin to return to Middle-earth.

After the Elves awakened, they only saw darkness, and the evil of Melkor worked its way into their hearts, making them afraid. At this time, when the Valar realized that the Elves had awoken, they went back to retake Arda and release it from Melkor's domination. They managed to do this, though all of Middle-earth was changed; they brought Melkor back to Valinor and chained him and cast him into the prison of Mandos, where he would stay for three long ages before his case would be heard again and a new judgment made. Eventually, Melkor came again before the Valar and Manwë pardoned him, but made him remain in Valinor. His presence cast a shadow over the light of Valinor, spreading evil and strife. This strife reached the heart of Fëanor after he created the Silmarils, and he lusted after them and wanted them in his possession at all times. However, Melkor also lusted after them, and he used his evil ways and his honeyed tongue to spread distrust and malice in the heart of the Noldorin Elves. Finally, after he had spread the seed of evil, Melkor left Valinor and returned to his strongholds in Middle-earth, but the light of the Silmarils rested forever on his mind, and he thought only of ways to get them from Fëanor, whom he hated above all others.

Melkor left in shadow, and sought shadow for his return to Valinor to seize the Silmarils. He sought out Ungoliant, an evil being in the shape of a giant spider whose waste cast a piercing shadow around all that she came in contact with. Melkor sought her to wrap him in shadow so he could return unseen to Valinor. To convince her, he promised her as much as she could eat to satisfy her unquenchable hunger. She wove a cloak of darkness around them, and in this way he reached Valinor unseen and unexpected, for none of the Valar could see into that darkness that was as pitch as Void.

When Melkor finally returned to Valinor, it was a time of festival, so no one was watching nor expecting the coming of an enemy. In the very hour when the lights of Telperion and Laurelin were mingled and Valinor was radiant in its light, Melkor and Ungoliant came over the fields, and Melkor smote the trees with his black spear and Ungoliant sucked up their sap of light, poisoning the roots as she went. Valinor was darkened in a darkness that pierced them to the core. As Melkor and Ungoliant passed away, their vengeance achieved, they went to the home of Fëanor and stole the Silmarils while he was away at the festival. Such was the anger of Fëanor that eventually he and many of his kin passed back into Middle-earth to reclaim what was theirs.

The grief and sadness that came over all of Valinor cannot be put into words. The dying of the radiant lights of Telperion and Laurelin would only live on in the Silmarils and nowhere else. Finally, Yavanna and Nienna had to put all their powers into healing the hurts Melkor had caused. For a long time, the tears of Nienna and the song of Yavanna had no effect. "Yet even as hope failed and her song faltered, Telperion bore at last upon a leafless bough one great flower of silver, and then Laurelin a single fruit of gold." 11 When Yavanna took these, the trees died, but she gave the fruit to Aulë, and Manwë hallowed them. Aulë made vessels to bear the fruit and preserve the radiance of their light. The Valar gave these vessels to Varda to make them into lamps of heaven, and she set them to voyage on appointed courses from the West into the East and to return.

They named the moon Isil the Sheen, flower of Telperion in Valinor. The sun they named Anar the Fire-golden, fruit of Laurelin. They chose a maiden, Arien, from among the Maiar to guide the vessel of the sun. Tilion was a hunter who loved the bow and the silver light of Telperion, and he begged to be allowed to tend to the last silver fruit forever. As Telperion had been the first to wax and grow, so Isil was first made ready and put into the heavens, and Middle-earth was bathed in moonlight for a time. Tilion had traversed the heavens seven times before Anar, Arien's vessel was made ready. Varda wanted the vessels always to be aloft, but never together. However, Tilion was ever drawn to the splendour of Anar, and he would not stay to his appointed path. Finally, because night and rest had been banished from Middle-earth because of the constancy of the sun and the darkening of the moon, Varda decided that there would be a time when the world would be in shadow and half-light. Though Varda changed the appointed paths of sun and moon, allowing Anar to rest for a time on the Outer Sea, Tilion was still wayward and ever drawn towards Arien, going at uncertain pace, as he still does today.

**********************************************************

The Two Trees of Valinor were the precursors of the sun and moon, and the beauty of their light will never be matched again. The sun and moon are only lesser shadows of the previous radiance of Telperion and Laurelin, but they served to light up the world and give light to Middle-earth where before darkness and starlight reigned, making it much more difficult for Melkor to spread his evil purpose.

This myth is similar to many myths explaining where certain things came from. In the Bible, G-d created the sun and moon. In Greek mythology, Helios was the god of the sun, and he drove his golden chariot over the earth. Here, unlike most mythologies, the sun and moon are lesser beings. They are second best to what was once the most radiant and glorious light ever created. They are not first choice but last resort after a time of evil. This is a pretty significant departure from most mythologies where the first created is the best and everlasting. The story of the Sun and the Moon ends this section on Stories of the Valar. Though of course the Valar are always part of later stories, they take a lesser role of watchers and guides while Elves and Men take on the adventures and the keeping away of evil from Middle-earth.

This is the last story I am including in this section of Stories of the Valar. The next section, The Stories of Elves and Men, includes three of the many beautiful stories Tolkien wrote about in The Silmarillion . I felt these three of the most important; they are also three of my favorites!

 

Back to top