Anar

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(See also Anar the Dwarf)

Anar is Quenya for sun or The Fire-Golden (root nar) and during the Years of the Trees, Valinor was lit for many thousands of years by the light of the Two Trees, Telperion the Silver and Laurelin the Gold. When these were destroyed by Melkor and Ungoliant, Arda was plunged into darkness. Through the power of Nienna and Yavanna, though, Laurelin produced a single fiery fruit before it died. This golden fire was set in a vessel, and steered into the sky by the Maia Arien. The Vanyar gave it the name Anar the fire-golden: this was the origin of the Sun. The Sindarin name for the Sun is Anor.

Valinor was in the West of the World, and so the first sunrise was in the west, not the east. Originally, Arien was to have steered Anar ceaselessly from west to east and back again, always remaining in the sky, but the Valar changed this counsel, so that each evening Anar would descend into the distant western seas, and re-emerge each morning in the east.