The earliest conflicts between the Valar and Melkor were fought in darkness beneath the stars, but when Tulkas forced Melkor to withdraw from the world, Yavanna planted seeds that needed light to bring them to growth. Aulë the Smith thus fashioned two vast Lamps, and with the aid of Varda and Manwë he raised them up on two immense pillars like mountains, so that light shone across the world for the first time.

One of the Lamps, Illuin, was placed in the North of the world, and the other, Ormal, in the South.

These were the first great lights to shine on the world of Arda, and in their new light the living things set by Yavanna began to stir. This time was thus known as the Spring of Arda. Though the light of the two Lamps covered the entire world, it was at its strongest in the central regions where the light of the Lamps mixed together. It was there that the Valar made their first dwelling in Arda, on the island of Almaren within the Great Lake.

The Fall of the Lamps

Illuin and Ormal shone down on the lands of Arda for some fifteen thousand years,¹ as the Valar lived in peace on Almaren amid the great Spring. As time passed, however, the brilliance of the northern Lamp Illuin would prove as much a curse as a blessing.

In the dim and distant North of the world, where Illuin's light was faint on the dark mountains, Melkor returned from the Void. In secret, shrouded from the Valar by the brightness of Illuin that stood between them, he was able to excavate a great underground stronghold named Utumno. There he built up his forces, and plotted his revenge against those who had driven him from the world.

From his hidden northern fortress, Melkor launched a sudden and devastating attack. He plunged the world into darkness by breaking down the pillars that held both of the Lamps aloft. The Lamps themselves fell, spilling fire on the world beneath and ruining the shape of its lands. The great inland sea known as the Sea of Helcar was formed in the place where Illuin had once stood upon its great pillar.

The Valar did what they could to repair the destruction, but ultimately they abandoned Middle-earth to Melkor and his darkness, and departed for Aman in the distant West of the World. Those living things that had stirred in the Spring of Arda were placed beneath the Sleep of Yavanna, to await the time when light would come again to the lands east of the Sea. Thus the Long Night began in Middle-earth, a time of darkness that would not end until the first rising of the Moon, nearly fifteen thousand years later.²