Light in the West

Long before the making of the Sun and the Moon, the land of the Valar in the West of the World had been filled by the Light of the Two Trees. Telperion the elder Tree filled the land with silver light, while the light of Laurelin the younger was golden. The Two Trees waxed and waned, mingling their silver and golden lights every six hours. While the Two Trees shone in the West, the rest of Arda lay in darkness under the stars, and so things stood for millennia.

The Elves of the Great Journey were brought into Valinor during the time when the Two Trees shone, and these Elves were therefore known as the Calaquendi, the Elves of the Light, who had seen the Light of Laurelin and Telperion with their own eyes. Fëanor was born in Aman under the Light, and he captured a part of it within the three famous Jewels known as the Silmarils. When Melkor stormed into Valinor and destroyed the Two Trees, he not only ended the Light of Valinor, but also stole the Silmarils and carried them back to Middle-earth.

Fëanor led his people in pursuit of Melkor, swearing to recover the Silmarils from the Dark Lord, and thus many of the Elves of the Light returned to Middle-earth. The Light they had seen in Valinor still shone in their eyes for a time, and they were held in awe by the Men they later encountered, who revered them as having seen the Light in the West, now long lost.

In Valinor, the Valar took the last fading Light of the dying Trees and used it to create two new great lights. The last flower of silver Telperion was used to make the Moon, and the last golden fruit of Laurelin became the Sun. Sending these new lights into the sky, the Valar thus created light for the whole of Arda, illuminating the lands of Middle-earth for the first time since the fall of the Lamps of the Valar many ages earlier.