Pop Quiz - Jeopardy
- Thread starter Eruonen
- Start date
Otaku-sempai
Immortal
If not Melian, I don't know who this could be.
Eruonen
Half-elven
Who was Arien - assigned to pilot the Sun and who was Tirion who was assigned to pilot the Moon.
https://www.glyphweb.com/arda/t/tilion.html
https://www.glyphweb.com/arda/a/arien.html
https://www.glyphweb.com/arda/t/tilion.html
https://www.glyphweb.com/arda/a/arien.html
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Eruonen
Half-elven
"Too bright were the eyes of Arien for even the Eldar to look on, and leaving Valinor she forsook the form and raiment which like the Valar she had worn there, and she was as a naked flame, terrible in the fullness of her splendor."
― Quenta Silmarillion, "Of the Sun and Moon and the Hiding of Valinor"
Arien was originally a spirit of fire whom Melkor failed to corrupt.[1]
In Myths Transformed, which changed the timing of the Sun to have been primordial to Arda's inception, Melkor wanted to claim Arien as a wife,[7]:380-1 but when she refused him, he attempted to ravish her.[7]:405 However, she released her spirit and burned Melkor leaving him ashen and grey. The Sun was then left without a guide and caused uneven seasons and periods of excessive heat or cold in Arda.[7]:381 In other abandoned writings, she was a Maia of Varda.[7]:380
Arien was chosen by the Valar to carry the vessel of the Sun because she was the only one who was not afraid and could bear the heats of the great Tree Laurelin and so was unhurt by it.[1]
The History of Middle-earth, Vol.5: The Lost Road and Other Writings, VI. Quenta Silmarillion, Chap.6: "Of the Sun and Moon and the Hiding of Valinor"
― Quenta Silmarillion, "Of the Sun and Moon and the Hiding of Valinor"
Arien was originally a spirit of fire whom Melkor failed to corrupt.[1]
In Myths Transformed, which changed the timing of the Sun to have been primordial to Arda's inception, Melkor wanted to claim Arien as a wife,[7]:380-1 but when she refused him, he attempted to ravish her.[7]:405 However, she released her spirit and burned Melkor leaving him ashen and grey. The Sun was then left without a guide and caused uneven seasons and periods of excessive heat or cold in Arda.[7]:381 In other abandoned writings, she was a Maia of Varda.[7]:380
Arien was chosen by the Valar to carry the vessel of the Sun because she was the only one who was not afraid and could bear the heats of the great Tree Laurelin and so was unhurt by it.[1]
The History of Middle-earth, Vol.5: The Lost Road and Other Writings, VI. Quenta Silmarillion, Chap.6: "Of the Sun and Moon and the Hiding of Valinor"
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Eldy
Tol Eressea
Thorondor, speculated to be a Maia in Myths Transformed Text VIII, "marred [Morgoth's] face" while retrieving the body of Fingolfin. And Fingolfin himself had (implicitly) struck fear in Morgoth when issuing his challenge, and wounded Morgoth seven times before dying. Of course, it must be admitted that Morgoth was far weaker by this time than at his attack on Arien—if one acknowledges that concept, as opposed to the 1977 Silmarillion's notion that Melkor was too afraid to challenge her. (The two concepts reflect very different myths of the Sun, and are not compatible.) It's not my intention to denigrate Arien in any way, but I chafe against "power rankings," and Maia are especially tricky to try to rank this way, since we know so little about them as a class.
Besides me being a brat? I'm used to asking for citations when I don't recognize a quote. Call it a bad habit I picked up in my misspent youth of frequent, overly self-serious Lore debates.
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