When the Gods heard of the flight of the Gnomes they
were aroused from their grief. Manwe summoned then to
his council Yavanna; and she put forth all her power, but it
availed not to heal the Trees. Yet beneath her spells Silpion
bore at last one great and single silver bloom, and Laurelin
a great golden fruit. Of these, as is said in the song of the
Sun and Moon, the Gods fashioned the great lamps of
heaven, and set them to sail appointed courses above the
world. Rana they named the Moon, and Ur the Sun; and the
maiden who guided the galleon of the sun was Arien, and
the youth who steered the floating island of the Moon was
Tilion. Arien was a maiden who had tended the golden
flowers in the gardens of Vana, while still joy was in the
Blissful Realm, and Nessa danced on
the lawns of never-fading green. Tilion was a hunter from
the company of Orome, and he had a silver bow. Often he
wandered from his course pursuing the stars upon the heavenly
fields.
At first the Gods purposed that the Sun and Moon should
sail from Valinor to the furthest East, and back again, each
following the other to and fro across the sky. But because
of the waywardness of Tilion and his rivalry with Arien,
and most because of the words of Lorien and Nienna, who
said that they had banished all sleep and night and peace
from the earth, they changed their design. The Sun and
Moon were drawn by Ulmo or his chosen spirits through
the caverns and grottoes at the roots of the world, and
mounted then in the East, and sailed back to Valinor, into
which the Sun descended each day at time of Evening. And
so is Evening the time of greatest light and joy in the land
of the Gods, when the Sun sinks down to rest beyond the
rim of earth upon the cool bosom of the Outer Sea. Tilion
was bidden not to mount until Arien was fallen from the
sky, or far had journeyed to the West, and so it is that they
are now but seldom seen in the heaven together.
Still therefore is the light of Valinor more great and fair
than that of other lands, because there the Sun and Moon
together rest a while before they go upon their dark journey
under the world, but their light is not the light which came
from the Trees before ever Ungoliant's poisonous lips
touched them. That light lives now only in the Silmarils.
Gods and Elves therefore look forward yet to a time when
the Magic Sun and Moon, which are the Trees, may be rekindled
and the bliss and glory of old return. Ulmo foretold
to them that this would only come to pass by the aid, frail
though it might seem, of the second race of earth, the younger
children of Iluvatar. Little heed did they pay to him at
that time. Still were they wroth and bitter because of the ingratitude
of the Gnomes, and the cruel slaying at the Haven
of the Swans. Moreover for a while all save Tulkas feared
the might and cunning of Morgoth. Now therefore they fortified
all Valinor, and set a sleepless watch upon the wall of
hills, which they now piled to a sheer and dreadful height -
save only at the pass of Kôr. There were the remaining
Elves set to dwell, and they went now seldom to Valmar or
Tindbrenting's height, but were bidden to guard the pass
ceaselessly that no bird nor beast nor Elf nor Man, nor anything
beside that came from the lands without, should approach
the shores of Faerie, or set foot in Valinor. In that
day, which songs call the Hiding of Valinor, the Magic Isles
were set, filled with enchantment, and strung across the
confines of the Shadowy Seas, before the Lonely Isle is
reached sailing West, there to entrap mariners and wind
them in everlasting sleep. Thus it was that the many emissaries
of the Gnomes in after days came never back to
Valinor - save one, the mightiest mariner of song.
The Valar sit now behind the mountains and feast, and
dismiss the exiled Noldoli from their hearts, all save
Manwe and Ulmo. Most in mind did Ulmo keep them, who
gathers news of the outer world through all the lakes and
rivers that flow into the sea.
At the first rising of the Sun over the world the younger
children of earth awoke in the land of Eruman in the East
of East, for measured time had come into the world, and the first of days;
and thereafter the lives of the Eldar that remained in the Hither
Lands were lessened, and their waning was begun. But of Men little is told in these tales, which concern
the oldest days before the waning of the Elves and the
waxing of mortals, save of those who in the first days of
Sunlight and Moonsheen wandered into the North of the
world. To Eruman there came no God to guide Men or to
summon them to dwell in Valinor. Ulmo nonetheless took
thought for them, and his messages came often to them by
stream and flood, and they loved the waters but understood
little the messages. The Dark-elves they met and were
aided by them, and were taught by them speech and many
things beside, and became the friends of the children of the
Eldalie who had never found the paths to Valinor, and knew
of the Valar but as a rumour and a distant name. Not long
was then Morgoth come back into the earth, and his power
went not far abroad, so that there was little peril in the
lands and hills where new things, fair and fresh, long ages
ago devised in the thought of Yavanna, came at last to their
budding and their bloom.
West, North, and South they spread and wandered, and
their joy was the joy of the morning before the dew is dry,
when every leaf is green.