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In the fiction of J. R. R. Tolkien, the sun of Middle-earth was created by the Vala Aulë; he and his people made a vessel to hold the radiance of the last fruit of Laurelin. The vessel of the sun was guided by Arien, a Maia.

"...and Anar the Fire-golden, fruit of Laurelin, they named the Sun. But the Noldor named [it] Vasa, the Heart of Fire, that awakens and consumes; for the Sun was set as a sign for the awakening of Men and the waning of the Elves..."

Names of the Sun amongst the Elves included Anar or The Fire-golden, a name given to it by the Vanyar; Anor, the common name for the Moon in Sindarin, as seen in Minas Anor (later Minas Tirith) and the Gondorian province of Anórien; and Vása, or Heart of Fire, a name given to the Sun by the Ñoldor.

A poetic name for the Sun was The Daystar, and Gollum referred to it as The Yellow Face.

The Sun was seen by the Elves as made in memory of MenThe race of Men in J. Tolkien's Middle-earth books, such as The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings refers to humanity and does not denote gender. They are distinct from the various humanoid races, though some, like hobbits, are probably human in origin, and, and they valued the MoonIn the fiction of J. Tolkien, the moon of Middle-earth was created by the Vala Aule. A vessel was made, by him and his people, to hold the radience of the last flower of Telperion, the elder of the Two Trees of Valinor. The Maia Tilion was chosen to guide higher. MorgothMorgoth Bauglir Morgoth means "The Dark Enemy", Bauglir is "The Constrainer"), originally named Melkor ("He Who Arises in Might"), is a fictional character of Middle-earth, created by J. He was — at the creation of Tolkien's world — the most powerful of t's creatures, the OrcOrc or Ork an Old English word ('orc-neas' from Beowulf) for the zombie-like monsters of Grendel's race was revived by J. Tolkien in his Middle-earth legendarium. For the origin of the word and its usage in other fantasy works, see: Orc. In Tolkien's writs, feared the Sun, and with the exception of the Uruk-Hai, they did not travel while it was in the sky.

The Trolls of Middle-earth feared the Sun even more, and with great reason: they turned to stone under its light. Only the later Olog-haiTolkien's fictional realm of Middle-earth, the Olog-hai were a fierce breed of Trolls that appeared during the last days of the War of the Ring in Sauron's service. They had none of the old Troll vulnerabilities: they were very intelligent and able to mov were able to move under the Sun.

Other versions of the legendarium

In the early versions of The SilmarillionThe Silmarillion is a collection of J. Tolkien's works, edited and published posthumously by his son Christopher, with the assistance of fantasy fiction writer Guy Gavriel Kay. The Silmarillion comprises five parts: # The Ainulindal the creation of Ea, To as described in The Book of Lost Tales I, a part of the History of Middle-earth series, the Sun was described in great detail as an immense island of fire. It was also said there that the youth Tilion, who guided the Moon, was said to secretly be in love with Arien, and that because he steered the Moon too close to the Sun the Moon was burned.

In writings not included in the Silmarillion tradition, Morgoth at one point was infatuated with Arien, and wanted to claim her as his wife: he is at one point even described as ravishing her, so she abandoned her body and 'died': the Sun after this for a while left its course, burning a large part of Arda the world (apparently creating the deserts of Far Harad). It is not clear if this would have been included in the Silmarillion had Tolkien lived to publish it himself.

In the Round World version of the legendarium, the Sun and the Moon were not the fruit of the Two Trees, but actually preceded the creation of the Trees. Instead, the Trees preserved the light of the Sun before it was tainted by Melkor when he ravished Arien.