Act I, Part V: On the Moon and the Sun
The Dagor-nuin-Giliath was the last of the great battles fought under ever present starlight. The Noldor took great losses, including Fëanor himself, but the time for their departure from Middle-Earth was not nigh. Instead, the High Elves of Valinor took lands north of the southern mountain range of Dorthonion where they could settle and plot their revenge. Of these mountains much has been said, but all knew that it was here that the terrible spider Ungoliant had fled, and her evil brood infested the mountains and the land southward, now called Nan Dungortheb. Nan Elmoth lay secure still from this threat, removed from it by the plains of Dor Dínen and the wide lands of Himlad.
It was told that of all the horror Ungoliant had caused in her long lifetime, the darkening of Valinor was the deed most infamous, and even amidst the following of Eöl this tale brought unease. Aeglirion cared little for what happened across the great sea, but at the thought that even the greatest of designs of the Valar could be destroyed he grew fearful. Eöl did not share in such fear, for he thought himself secure in his own realm, removed from sight even from his own kin. But even he could not deny the sense of dread that befell him after, for something was about to happen that would change the world forever.
It first began with the rising of a great ball of white light in the sky. It seemed too close and daunting for Aeglirion, and he was afraid, for it seemed to him an eye unblinking, as if the eye of some great evil of Morgoth which had long been prepared. But then, he thought, much akin it had to the stars about it, and the light it cast upon wood and rock and water he thought fair, for things now glittered in the dark brighter than ever before. Aeglirion therefore thought it no longer something of evil making, but a sign of the might of the Valar and a thing of beauty, and this too thought many of the Elves of Beleriand and they called it Ithil.
But then Ithil began to move again, and to the horizon all eyes were drawn as the light of Ithil and Elin alike were burned away by a reddish glow, which had all the seeming of a smouldering fire. And Aeglirion's spirit dampened and he and his companions pulled back in great fear and sought the refuge of their great trees. Aeglirion said then:
'Something has awoken in the east. The time of our ending is nigh.'
And none doubted his words, for the flame had now set alight the great mountains of the dwarves and they burned. And brighter the light became as it engulfed all in flame. And Aeglirion despaired as his eyes were blinded and could see little more. He could already feel the warmth of his impending doom when he said at last:
'Our doom was decided by the Noldor, who have brought down the wrath of the Valar upon us by unspeakable deeds. May they burn the last!'
And then all was bright, and the world made a noise which it had not made in its long young years. But the noise was not dreadful as he had expected, and the warmth on his face did not turn to a blistering heat, and his companions were still beside him. It was then that his eyes could start to make out the mountains in the east again, and they did not seem to burn, but were a bleu-ish colour, much like the water under starlight. And Aeglirion wondered ever more, for about him the grass had turned a bright colour for which he had no name and bird and beast rejoiced in song.
The Teleri of Beleriand chanted a welcoming hymn and they called the great burning eye Anor and from then onwards the world knew day and night and only by the fall of night could the ancient light of the stars be seen, and Ithil who came in many forms.
However, Aeglirion fell into sadness, for the world had changed beyond what he desired, and eagerly he longed now for it to return to the way it was. For he missed greatly the comfort of eternal night and the ever glowing stars, and much he scorned the sun for it, who he called Tuilinoth, the Great Devourer, or simply Deloth, abhorrence. But by twilight his heart turned glad again, and thus like Eöl he embraced the night, and only then would he venture out of Nan Elmoth. Henceforth, he called himself Tinnurion, 'he who is crowned in twilight'.
And that was the second of the sorrows of Tinnurion, and perchance the greatest.
