Arien

A spirit of fire

Arien is one of the Maiar whose nature is fire, but unlike the fire-spirits whom Melkor drew into his service and made into Balrogs, she was never deceived by him. In the days of the Two Trees she served Vána, the Ever-young, and tended the golden flowers in Vána's gardens, watering them with the dew of Laurelin, the golden Tree. The Elves say that even then her eyes were too bright for their kind to meet.

The making of the Sun

When Melkor and Ungoliant killed the Two Trees, Yavanna drew from Laurelin a single last fruit before it died, and Aulë and his people made a vessel to hold it. The Valar intended it as a lamp for Middle-earth, to hinder the works of Melkor and to light the awakening of Men, and they needed a guide for it. Arien was chosen because no fire could harm her; indeed she was the fire. She set aside the form she had worn in Valinor, becoming a naked flame terrible in its brightness, and took the helm of the ship the Elves called Anar, the Sun. Varda then arranged the courses of the new lights.

The first sunrise

The Moon, guided by Tilion, rose first, and had crossed the sky seven times when Arien first lifted the Sun over the rim of the world in the west. The first dawn fell on the host of Fingolfin as it entered Middle-earth over the ice, and its light drove Morgoth's servants into hiding; from that hour the Elves counted the years of the Sun and the First Age of the Children began. In Hildórien, in the far east, Men awoke as the Sun first rose. Morgoth was dismayed. He assaulted Tilion with spirits of shadow, but he did not dare approach Arien, for by then his power had been so poured out into his servants and his works that he could no longer face her fire, and he veiled his fortress in reek and cloud instead.

The courses of the lights

Varda's first plan was that the Sun and Moon should be aloft in turn, one rising as the other set, so that the World would never again be dark. But Tilion was unsteady in his course and was drawn to the brightness of Arien, and Lórien and Estë pleaded for hours of dimness and rest. So the arrangement was changed: Arien now sails the Sun from east to west and rests a while beneath the world in the Outer Sea before returning, and Tilion follows her at his own erratic pace. The scorching of the Moon's face is the mark of his attempts to draw too near her.

Legacy

Arien never speaks and takes no part in any tale, but the histories reckon everything after her first voyage by her. She is the reason the Elves fade and Men flourish, for the Sun is the light of the Younger Children, and it is said that she will guide it until the world is remade.

Arien guides the Sun across the sky and will do so until the end of Arda.