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.

History

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 of the First Age, 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, 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.

The Years of the Sun of the First Age 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.

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. 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
• Anar ("The Fire-golden") is the name given by the Vanyar elves of Valinor.
• Anor is the Sindarin rendition of Anar, and more commonly used in Middle-earth
• Daystar, a poetic name
• Yellow Face, a name given by Gollum
• Qorinómi, in earlier versions; it means "Drowned in the Sea"

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. 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, 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.

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. There is another instance where Legolas stated that he had "not brought the Sun. She is walking in the blue fields of the South". 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

• Arien
• Of the Sun and Moon and the Hiding of Valinor
• Minas Ithil
• The Tale of the Sun and Moon
• Tilion / Moon

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