XPost: rec.arts.books.tolkien   
   From: Troels@ThisIsFake.invalid   
      
   In message    
   "Jim Heckman"  spoke these staves:   
   >   
   [...]   
   > the Elvish practice of referring to the Sun as "she" and the Moon   
   > as "he".   
   >   
   > My question is where did this Elvish practice come from?   
      
   Geza has already referred to the Elves (both Vanyar and Noldor) that   
   set foot on Beleriand in the War of Wrath, but I suspect that even   
   this may have been too late to affect a change if the linguistic   
   genders of the two had been wrong.   
      
   This is certainly the earliest known direct Elf-to-Elf communication   
   from Valinor to Middle-earth after the Flight of the Noldor, but we   
   do know also of other communications: particularly by Ulmo (in dreams   
   to both Turgon and Finrod, in person to Tuor, and possibly both to   
   others as well). In such communications Ulmo (and what other Valar or   
   Maiar that communicated with the exiles) may well have used the   
   genders of the Sun and the Moon, which the recipients may then have   
   copied.   
      
   Also Morgoth appears to have known the nature of these two new   
   heavenly lights:   
         But Morgoth hated the new lights, and was for a while   
       confounded by this unlooked-for stroke of the Valar. Then   
       he assailed Tilion, sending spirits of shadow against him,   
       and there was strife in Ilmen beneath the paths of the   
       stars; but Tilion was victorious. And Arien Morgoth feared   
       with a great fear, but dared not come nigh her, having   
       indeed no longer the power; [...]. With shadows he hid   
       himself and his servants from Arien, the glance of whose   
       eyes they could not long endure; and the lands near his   
       dwelling were shrouded in fumes and great clouds.   
   (/Silm/, QS ch. 11 'Of the Sun and Moon and the Hiding of Valinor')   
      
   Though communications were naturally extremely sparse, knowledge of   
   the natures of the Sun and the Moon may nonetheless have spread from   
   the servants of Morgoth to the Elves long before the arrival of the   
   Armies of Valinor on the shores of Beleriand.   
      
   --   
   Troels Forchhammer    
   Valid e-mail is    
   Please put [AFT], [RABT] or 'Tolkien' in subject.   
      
       If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded   
       gold, it would be a merrier world.   
    - Thorin Oakenshield, /The Hobbit/ (J.R.R. Tolkien)   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)