Tilion

A hunter of silver light

Tilion was one of the Maiar who rode in the company of Oromë, a young hunter armed with a silver bow. He was less devoted to the chase than to the light of Telperion, the silver Tree of Valinor, and he would leave his companions to lie in the pools of Lórien, the gardens of Irmo, under the beams of the Tree. He also loved Arien, the Maia of fire, though she did not return his interest, and this attachment later shaped the sky.

The making of the Moon

When Melkor and Ungoliant killed the Two Trees, Yavanna drew a last flower from Telperion before it died, and Aulë and his folk made a vessel to hold it. Tilion asked to be its guide, and the Valar granted it. The ship of the Moon, called Isil by the Elves and Rána the Wayward, was the first of the new lights to be raised. Tilion took it into the sky, and it crossed the World seven times before the Sun first rose. The first moonrise fell on Middle-earth as Fingolfin led the Noldor over the grinding ice, and its light so troubled the servants of Morgoth that the host was able to enter Hithlum before the Enemy could respond.

The wayward course

Varda intended the Sun and Moon to cross the sky in turn, so that no darkness should ever again lie over Middle-earth. Tilion frustrated the plan. He steered erratically, sometimes hurrying and sometimes lingering, and he kept trying to approach Arien, whose fire scorched the vessel and left the dark marks that the Moon's face has borne ever since. Lórien and Estë also asked for hours of twilight, and so Varda changed her design: the Moon now follows the Sun at its own uncertain pace, and there is night. The Elves call the Moon a wanderer for this reason.

The assault of shadow

Morgoth hated the new lights. He was afraid of Arien and dared not go near the Sun, but he sent spirits of shadow against Tilion, and there was a struggle in the high airs. Tilion was victorious and the Moon continued on its way, but Morgoth's attempt is remembered as the first stroke of his war against the lights of the World, and it was in fear of further assaults that the Valar raised the Pelóri to their full height and set the Enchanted Isles in the Sea.

Legacy

Tilion continues to guide the Moon, and its phases, its late risings and its sudden absences are all laid to his charge. Every calendar in Middle-earth, from the reckoning of the Elves to the Shire's months, is built on the vessel he steers. He and Arien are the last of the Maiar whose work every creature under the sky sees each day.

Tilion guides the Moon on its wayward course and will do so until the end of Arda.