Two Trees and Unnumbered Stars by DrummerWench

Two Trees and Unnumbered Stars

Now when Yavanna had sung the Two Trees into life, she sank swooning on the green grass, and there she lay long upon the earth, replenishing her power. Her maidens watched over her, and Varda came to lie beside her, holding her hand and stroking her hair.

When Yavanna awoke, she put her arms about Varda and kissed her, saying, “I thank thee, my dear one, for staying by me and lending me thy strength. Now let us arise, for there is much work to do and little time for it.

“While I lay drowsing on the earth, there came to me the voices of the growing things of Arda, mourning the loss of the light of the Lamps. Now the living things of Aman indeed rejoice in the light of the Trees, yet Middle-earth remains in darkness. And the time of the coming of the Firstborn of the Children of Ilúvatar draws near.

“They will need both olvar and kelvar for sustenance, and neither will grow without light.

“Therefore let us up and to work!”

Then said Varda, “Thy Trees shed much light here, but yonder in Middle-earth are naught but my stars, faint and far, for light. How may we bring thy light to the lands of darkness?”

“Seest thou the silver dew that falls from Telperion, and the golden rain likewise falling from Laurelin? Do thou bid thy maidens bring basins, and I shall also bid mine. We will collect the liquid of light that mayhap will be of use to bring light to the dark places.”

Thus did they, and when the basins had been brought, and set under the Trees to catch the flowing light, they sent away their maidens, charging them to let none enter the holy place of the Trees.

Then did Yavanna and Varda remove their garments to dance naked upon the grass, winding about the Trees, caressing the leaves, and singing softly.

As they sang and danced, the lights of the Trees waxed and waned and waxed again. The dew of light and the rain of light fell upon the basins but slowly, running thick as winter sap. The Trees flowered, then tiny fruits swelled in place of the flowers. Yavanna set her hands to the fruits, silver and gold, plucking them and piling them in heaps by the basins.

“See, my dear, these holy fruits, brought forth by our song and our dance and our love,” she said. “Keep them secret and safe, even from thy maidens. When thou hast created thy stars and placed them in the sky, imbuing them with the dew and rain of the Trees, take these fruits, and put them in the brightest stars.”

Then took Varda the fruits of the Trees from Yavanna and hid them amidst her garments, and they summoned again their maidens to retrieve the basins now full of light. And Varda returned to her dwelling. Then she undertook the labor for which the Eldar everywhere revere her, the making of the stars of heaven.

Within the brightest stars she placed in secret a fruit from the Trees, from Laurelin for Borgil and Morwinyon and others beside, and from Telperion for Helluin and Luinil and more. Hardly had she rested from her toil than the time appointed came for the arrival of the Firstborn, and her rising stars shone upon their awakening by the waters of Cuiviénen.

Now the stars that had been imbued with the waters of light shone steadily upon the face of Arda, but those that carried a fruit from one of the Trees, ah, those stars bloomed and dimmed and swelled and dwindled. They lit Middle-earth with the ever-cycling rhythms of their parent Trees, spilling Yavanna's life-giving light upon the trees and animals, birds and herbs. Though they shone not as bright as the later Sun and Moon, yet their beams suffused all they touched with Yavanna's divine strength.

As the first rays of starlight fell upon the earth, Yavanna stretched forth her power across all of Middle-earth, and woke from slumber the olvar and the kelvar, that they might provide sustenance and delight for the Eldar, waking singing by the waters under the stars.

Then rested she in content and peace on the green lawn about Laurelin the Golden and White Telperion.

End