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Ted Nasmith -The First Dawn of the Sun

The First Dawn of the Sun, by Ted Nasmith


"...and Anar the Fire-golden, fruit of Laurelin, they named the Sun. But the Noldor named [it] Vása, the Heart of Fire, that awakens and consumes; for the Sun was set as a sign for the awakening of Men and the waning of the Elves"
The Silmarillion, "Of the Sun and Moon and the Hiding of Valinor"

The Sun was a heavenly creation of the Vala Aulë; he and his Maiar made a vessel to hold the radiance of the last fruit of Laurelin. The vessel of the Sun was guided across the skies by Arien, a Maia of Vána.[1]

History[]

Arien

Arien holding the Sun

In the Years of the Trees stood the Two Trees of Valinor in Aman, Telperion the Silver and Laurelin the Gold, which were the sources of light in Valinor. In YT 1495,[2] Melkor and Ungoliant arrived in Valinor and destroyed the Two Trees, plunging Arda in darkness. With the power of the Valier Yavanna, Nienna, and Vána,[3] Telperion produced a single flower, and Laurelin a single fruit. Aulë and his people made a vessel for the fiery fruit which was called Anar the Fire-golden, and Arien was chosen to steer the vessel of the Sun.[1]

The Years of the Sun began with the first rising of the Sun in the west, not the east, as Valinor was located west of the world. Yet the Valar changed this and from then on, Arien would descend the vessel of light into western sky and then ascend it into eastern sky. The Sun was seen by the Elves as the symbol of the rising of Men, and they valued the Moon higher.[1]

Morgoth's, Sauron's and Saruman's evil and corrupt creatures, never being able to stand light, feared it. The Orcs feared the Sun and were weakened by it and rarely travelled under it. The Uruk-hai were the exception to this and were not weakened by it and could travel while it was in the sky though they still hated it. The Trolls feared the Sun even more, with great reason: they turned to stone under its unimpeded light.[4] Only the later trolls known as Olog-hai were able to move under the Sun.

Etymology & other names[]

  • Vása ("The Heart of Fire") was a name given by the Ñoldor elves[5]
  • Anar ("The Fire-golden") is the name given by the Vanyar elves of Valinor.[5]
  • Anor is the Sindarin rendition of Anar, and more commonly used in Middle-earth[6]
  • Daystar, a poetic name[5]
  • Yellow Face, a name given by Gollum[7][8]

In other versions[]

In some texts, the Sun was described in great detail as an immense island of fire and it was steered thanks to the ropes made by Danuin and Ranuin.[9] Tilion, who guided the Moon, was said to secretly be in love with Arien, and that because he steered the Moon too close to the Sun, the Moon was burned.

In another, Melkor was at one time infatuated with Arien, wanting to claim her as wife. He would later ravish her, so she abandoned her body and "died", leaving the Sun on its own course. This burned some parts of Arda[9], particularly the deserts of Far Harad. It is unclear if this would have been included in The Silmarillion had Tolkien lived to publish it himself.

In the round-world version of the legendarium, the Sun and Moon were not the fruit of the Two Trees, but instead preceded the creation of the Trees. The Trees, in turn, preserved the light of the Sun before it was tainted by Melkor when he ravished Arien.[10]

Behind the scenes[]

In Old English, the word "Sun" is masculine. However, in the legendarium, the Sun is often referred to as feminine. In The Lord of the Rings, Elves and Hobbits always refer to the Sun as she.[11] There is another instance where Legolas stated that, "I have not brought the Sun. She is walking in the blue fields of the South..." [12] This is because the ancestral condition for Germanic languages as a whole is a feminine word, and at least Germanic and Norse mythologies feature female solar deities.

See also[]

Translations[]

Foreign Language Translated name
Afrikaans Son
Albanian Diell
Amharic ፀሐይ
Arabic الشمس
Armenian Արև
Azerbaijani Günəş
Bengali সূর্য
Bosnian Sunce
Breton Heol
Bulgarian Слънце
Cambodian ព្រះអាទិត្យ
Catalan Sol
Chechen Малх
Cornish Howl
Croatian Sunce
Czech Slunce
Danish Solen
Dari خورشید
Davehi އިރު
Dutch Zon
Esperanto Suno
Estonian Päike
Finnish Aurinko
French Soleil
Galician Sol
German Sonne
Georgian მზე
Greek Ήλιος
Gujarati સૂર્ય
Haiti Creole Solèy
Hebrew שֶׁמֶש (Sun)

ואסה (Vása)

Hindi सूरज
Icelandic Sólin
Indonesian Matahari
Irish Gaelic Ghrian
Italian Sole
Japanese 太陽
Javanese Srengéngé
Kannada ಸೂರ್ಯ
Kazakh Күн (Cyrillic) Kün (Latin)
Konkani सूर्य
Korean 태양
Kurdish خۆر
Kyrgyz Cyrillic Күн
Laotian ຕາເວັນ
Latvian Saule
Lithuanian Saulė
Luxembourgish Sonn
Macedonian Cyrillic Сонцето
Malayalam സൂര്യൻ
Malaysian Matahari
Marathi सन
Mongolian Cyrillic Нар
Nepalese सूर्य
Norwegian Solen
Old English Sunne
Pashto لمر
Persian آفتاب
Polish Słońce
Portuguese Sol
Punjabi ਸੂਰਜ
Romani Kham
Romansh Sulegl
Romanian Soare
Russian Солнце
Sanskrit सूर्यः
Scottish Gaelic Grian
Shona Zuva
Sicilian Suli
Sinhalese හිරු
Slovak Slnko
Slovenian Sonce
Somali Cadceed
Spanish Sol
Sundanese Panonpoe
Swahili Jua
Swedish Solen
Tajik Cyrillic Офтоб
Tamil சன்
Tatar Кояш
Telugu సూర్యుడు
Thai ดวงอาทิตย์
Turkish Güneş
Turkmen Gün
Ukrainian Cycillic Сонце
Urdu سورج
Uyghur قۇياش
Uzbek Қуёш (Cycillic) Quyosh (Latin)
Vietnamese Mặt Trời
Walloon Solea
Welsh Haul
Western Flemish Zunne
Yiddish זון
Yoruba Òrùn
Zulu Ilanga

References[]

  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 The Silmarillion, Quenta Silmarillion, Chapter XI: "Of the Sun and Moon and the Hiding of Valinor"
  2. The History of Middle-earth, Vol. X: Morgoth's Ring, The Annals of Aman
  3. The History of Middle-earth, Vol. I: The Book of Lost Tales Part One, VIII: "The Tale of the Sun and Moon"
  4. The Hobbit, Chapter II: "Roast Mutton"
  5. 5.0 5.1 5.2 The History of Middle-earth, Vol. XI: The War of the Jewels, Part One. The Grey Annals
  6. Parma Eldalamberon, Words, Phrases and Passages in Various Tongues in The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien
  7. The Lord of the Rings, The Two Towers, Book Four, Chapter II: "The Passage of the Marshes"
  8. The Lord of the Rings, The Two Towers, Book Four, Chapter III: "The Black Gate is Closed"
  9. 9.0 9.1 The History of Middle-earth, Vol. I: The Book of Lost Tales Part One, IX: "The Hiding of Valinor"
  10. The History of Middle-earth, Vol. X: Morgoth's Ring, "Myths Transformed"
  11. The Lord of the Rings, The Fellowship of the Ring, Book One, Chapter IX: "At the Sign of the Prancing Pony"
  12. The Lord of the Rings, The Fellowship of the Ring, Book Two, Chapter III: "The Ring goes South"
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