Sil Study Ch 11

[Androga Erindalant]

Sil Ch11: Of the Sun and Moon and the Hiding of Valinor

After Melkor escaped the Valar sat long on their thrones, counselling what to do next. They could not battle Melkor openly like they did before, because the time for mortal Men was near, and they would be too weak to survive such violence. But they didn’t remain workless. Yavanna and Nienna used all their powers to heal the Two Trees. But Telperion and Laurelin gave but one silver flower and one golden fruit, after which they died. Aulë made plates for these last gifts, and Varda set them into the sky. Arien was given the task to ride the golden fruit through the sky, which was called Anor (the sun). Tilion rode the silver flower, Isil, (the moon).
At first they were always in the sky, moving from Valinor to the east and back, but both at different times, so their light would spread as the light of the Two Trees had done. Their light was much brighter of those of the stars, and Melkor hated them. But Tilion always tried to reach Arien. Therefore, and because they hid starlight, their course was changed. Since then they moved from the east to Valinor, from where they were pulled back to the east underneath the earth, and there they rose again. Since then the days were counted on Arien’s passing.
Furthermore, the Valar strengthened the borders of Valinor, by raising the Pelori even higher and steeper. Just one opening was left, at Tírion, so the Elves could still wander to the great Sea of their homeland. In the sea islands were raised in which all sailors who tried to reach Valinor would get lost.

[Androga Erindalant]

Questions for chapter 11:

Why do the Valar keep the Two Trees standing, even while they are dead?

Melkor fears Anor, while he was the most powerful of the Ainur. How is his power waning? Is he doing wise to divide his powers? Would you do the same, or something different, if you were him?

Why did Tolkien describe a first course of Sun and Moon?

[Andorinha]

1. "Why do the Valar keep the Two Trees standing, even while they are dead?"

I wonder if at first, the Trees are left standing because there was still some hope of their ressurection? There is a pause (of several days or longer?) while the Valar search for Morgoth, and wait until Feanor has had time to gather those Elves who will leave Valinor.

"But when at last the Valar learned that the Noldor had indeed passed out of Aman and were come back into Middle-earth, they arose and began to set forth in deeds those counsels which they had taken in thought for the redress of the evils of Melkor. Then Manwe bade Yavanna and Nienna to put forth all their powers of growth and healing; and they put forth all their powers upon the Trees." (Sil, hb version, p. 98)

But, if there is even a vague hope of healing the Trees, why do the gods sit about so long before actually trying to cure them? Maybe, in our own world we are used to the common understanding that time is of the essence in situations of patient revival -- a drowning victim whose heart and breath have both stopped, may yet be saved if resuscitation is applied promptly. Does this dictum hold true for the Trees? If revival methods had been applied at once, could they have been saved?

The apparently belated measures of Yavanna and Nienor do at least force a last reproductive act upon both Trees, so that something of their legacies might continue, eventuating in the birth of Moon and Sun.

Within the confines of The Silmarillion, I can find no stated reason for leaving the Trees standing after this act of generation, but I note that in LotR, the "sacred" White Tree has died, and its skeletonized form remains standing as a revered monument. Even after Aragorn finds a new White Tree, the old one is not chopped up into "useful timber", nor burnt -- but is laid to rest in Rath Dinen, as if it were a king of old. Perhaps the Two Trees of Valinor are seen in this same light, as "persons" of immense value/ importance, and are left standing as monuments of past times?

Today, we do not often value our trees so highly, nor share so absolutely in the joy and wonder of their existence as do the gods, Elves, Men, and Hobbits of Arda, Middle-earth.

[Andorinha]

3. "Why did Tolkien describe a first course of Sun and Moon?"

Why indeed! I can see that JRRT eventually alterred the original courses of Sun and Moon to make them coorespond with the current tracks they follow in our own world, but why did he ever have them rising in the west and setting in the east in the first place? Is there something I'm missing here, some quote from either JRRT or Christopher T. that explains this issue?

"These vessels [to hold the Moon and the Sun] the Valar gave to Varda, that they might become lamps of heaven, outshining the ancient stars, being nearer to Arda: and she gave them power to traverse the lower regions of Ilmen, and set them to voyage upon appointed courses above the girdle of the Earth from the West unto the East and to return." (Sil., p. 99 hb)

"Now Varda purposed that the two vessels should journey in Ilmen and ever be aloft, but not together; each should pass from Valinor into the east and return." (Sil chpt. 11, p. 100)

From these two passages, I understand that the Sun and Moon would both be rising in the west, then would leave Valinor, travelling eastward to Middle-earth, and then set eastward beyond Middle-earth and travel under the world back into the farthest west. This is, I think, a flat earth model, Arda being conceived as a pizza pan rather than as a sphere. But, without an explanation, JRRT soon reverses this course, and now has the Sun being pulled down under the pizza-pan of the world "and went then in haste under the Earth, and so came unseen to the east and there mounted the heaven again..." (Sil. chpt 11, p. 101)

This alteration did at least put the Sun and Moon of Arda onto the same general east to west course that we see in our own world, but why did JRRT not simply edit-out his first version of the contrary motion of these heavenly bodies?

In The Shaping of Middle-earth, HOME vol. 4, an early version of the Silmarillion tales, shows us, I believe, the first version of this story:

"The Gods fashion the Moon and Sun from these [flower and fruit] and set them to sail appointed courses from West to East, but afterwards they find it safer to send them in Ylmir's care through the caverns and grottoes beneath the Earth, to rise in the East and come home again high in the air over the mountains of the West, to sink after each journey into the waters of the Outer Seas." (HOME IV, pp. 21-22)

Here again, except for the unexplained phrase "they find it safer," we have no real reason given for reversing the course of the Sun and Moon. We do have in this volume IV, some comments by Christopher Tolkien, but they do not do much, I think, towards explaining why JRRT kept both West-to East, and East-to-West versions in his mythology.

"The making of the Sun and Moon is here compressed into a couple of phrases. ... The change in the celestial plan now takes place because the Gods 'find it safer to send [the Sun and Moon] in Ylmir's care through the caverns and grottoes beneath the Earth'. This is wholly different from the old story (I. 215), in which the original plan of the Gods was that the Sun and Moon should be drawn beneath the earth; ... the Gods now made the Door of Night in the West and the Gates of Morn in the East ... The astronomical aspect of the mythology has thus undergone a profound shift, an entire re-making." (HOME IV, pp. 57-58)

It is interesting to note that JRRT actually passed up the chance to correct this situation in his last version of the Silmarillion, written in the 1960s and published in HOME vol. X Morgoth's Ring, pp 131-33. Even here, JRRT still maintained the two conflicting versions. Why? Certainly with all the other examples in his vast corpus of writings, where he did abandon entire episodes as unsuitable, he could just as easily have struck out the original West-to-East motion of the Sun and Moon and then left the corrected East-to-West version?

[Stormrider]

I think the first reaction of anyone be they god or lesser being should have been to try to keep the trees alive--at least those who had the skills and knowledge of growing things and stars/light.

The others who were more warrior-like or police-like could have gone after Morgoth while the others tended to the trees. It is as if JRRT allowed the trees to die as part of his plan. It may have been to give his world a sun and moon as we know them.

Who is Ylmir? I dug out my Shaping of Middle Earth book and found out that it is the Gnomish form of Ulmo, the Lord of Waters. Weren't the Valar afraid that the sun and moon would extinguish when they sunk into the waters of the Outer Seas?

While reading the early manuscripts of LOTR, I see how JRRT went back over and over again on each of his chapters and still there were a few things he overlooked changing when he finally published the story. I guess he may have overlooked changing the direction of the rising and setting of the sun and moon, too.

The switch in the risings and settings must have confused the children! It would have gotten us all in an uproar if it happened to us today! Can you imagine!