The Years of the Trees
light that was not the Sun, the world lit only by two trees
After the Lamps fell, the Valar withdrew west to Aman and there made two Trees, Telperion silver and Laurelin gold, which lit only their land. Middle-earth lay in starlight. The Eldar woke beside the lake at Cuiviénen, looked up, and saw the stars. Some came west to Aman in the Great Journey; some stayed; some fell to Melkor and were marred into orcs in the dark. In Aman, Fëanor crafted the Silmarils, three jewels that held the light of the Trees forever. Then Morgoth and Ungoliant came, and drank the Trees dry, and stole the Silmarils, and fled back to Middle-earth. Fëanor swore his Oath to recover them. The Noldor went into exile. The Trees are gone forever. The light of the Two Trees survives only in the Silmarils, and in the Sun and Moon, their last fruit and last flower, raised hastily by the Valar at the First Age's dawn.
