Then some of the Gods said them nay, fearing a trick (even perhaps of Melko), and others would grant their request, and such was the counsel that in the end prevailed because of the great perplexity of the time. Then did those three Danuin and Ranuin and Fanuin beg that a room might be set apart for them; and this was done in Aulл’s house. There did they spin and weave in secret, and after a space of twice twelve hours Danuin came forth and spake to Manwл, saying: “Behold my handicraft!” and none knew his intent, for his hands were empty. But when the Ship of the Sun returned then went Danuin to her stern, and laying his hand thereon he bid Ulmo draw her, as was his wont, over the waters to the Door of Night; and when Ulmo was gone a little way from the further shore of Valinor Danuin stepped back, and behold Ulmo might not draw the Sunship further, not though he put forth all his strength. Then were Manwл and Ulmo and all that beheld afraid, but Danuin after released the Sun and went from among them, and they might not find him; but after twenty nights and eight came forth Ranuin and he said also: “Behold my handicraft!” and yet no more could be seen in his outstretched hands than before in those of Danuin. Now Ranuin waited until Ilinsor brought the Rose of Silpion unto Valinor, and then going he set his hands against a jag of glass upon that isle, and thereafter might no man stir Ilinsor’s bark far from Ranuin against his will; but again Ranuin spake no word and went from among them; then Rбna was released, but Ranuin no man could find.
Now the Gods pondered long what this might portend, but nought more betid until thirteen times had Rбna waxed and waned. Then came forth Fanuin, and he bid the Gods detain Ilinsor that at Sбri’s coming both ships might stand in Valinor at once. But when this was done he begged aid of the Gods, “for,” said he, “I have fashioned somewhat of great weight that I would fain show to you, yet cannot of my own strength1 hale it forth.” And seven of the stoutest from the halls of Tulkas went to the place of Fanuin’s labouring and could not see aught therein; but he bid them stoop, and them seemed they laid hands upon a mighty cable and staggered beneath it as they laid it upon their shoulders, yet could they not see it.
Then going unto Sбri and to Rбna in turn Fanuin moved his hands as though he were making fast a great rope to each of those vessels; but when all was done he said to Manwл: “Lo, O Sъlimo Lord of the Gods, the work is wrought and the ships of light are set in the unbreakable fetters of time, which neither ye, nor they, may ever break, nor may they escape therefrom, albeit these fetters are invisible to all beings that Ilъvatar has made; for nonetheless are they the strongest of things.”
Then suddenly behold Danuin and Ranuin stood beside him, and Danuin going to Manwл placed in his hand a slender cord, but Manwл saw it not. “Herewith,” said Danuin, “O Manwл Sъlimo, canst thou govern the goings and comings of the Sun, and never may she be brought beyond the guidance of your hand, and such is the virtue of this cord that the goings and returnings of the Sun shall be accounted the most timely and inevitable of all things on Earth.” Thereafter did Ranuin in like manner, and behold Manwл felt a stout rope within his palm invisible. “Herewith,” said Ranuin, “shalt thou hold and steer the wayward Moon, as well as may be, and so great is the virtue of the ‘thong of Ranuin’ that even the fickle and untimely Moon shall be a measure of time to Elves and Men.” Lastly did Fanuin bid bear his mighty cable’s end to Manwл, and Manwл touched it, and it was made fast to a great rock upon Taniquetil (that is called therefore Gonlath), and Fanuin said: “Now doth this mightiest cable hold both the Moon and Sun in tow; and herewith mayest thou coordinate their motions and interweave their fates; for the rope of Fanuin is the Rope of Years, and Urwendi issuing through the Door of Night shall wind it all tangled with the daycord’s slender meshes, round and about the Earth until the Great End come—and so shall all the world and the dwellers within it, both Gods and Elves and Men, and all the creatures that go and the things that have roots thereon, be bound about in the bonds of Time.”
Then were all the Gods afraid, seeing what was come, and knowing that hereafter even they should in counted time be subject to slow eld and their bright days to waning, until Ilъvatar at the Great End calls them back. But Fanuin said: “Nay, it is but the Music of the Ainur: for behold, who are we, Danuin, Ranuin, and Fanuin, Day and Month and Year, but the children of Aluin, of Time, who is the oldest of the Ainur, and is beyond, and subject to Ilъvatar; and thence came we, and thither go we now.” Then did those three vanish from Valinor; but of such is the framing of the moveless courses of the Sun and Moon, and the subjection of all things within the world to time and change.
But as for the Ships of Light themselves, behold! O Gilfanon and all that hearken, I will end the tale of Lindo and Vairл concerning the building of the Sun and Moon with that great foreboding that was spoken among the Gods when first the Door of Night was opened. For ’tis said that ere the Great End come Melko shall in some wise contrive a quarrel between Moon and Sun, and Ilinsor shall seek to follow Urwendi through the Gates, and when they are gone the Gates of both East and West will be destroyed, and Urwendi and Ilinsor shall be lost. So shall it be that Fionwл Ъrion, son of Manwл, of love for Urwendi shall in the end be Melko’s bane, and shall destroy the world to destroy his foe, and so shall all things then be rolled away.’19
And thus ended Vairл, and the great tale fell silent in the room.
NOTES
1 ‘they’: original reading ‘the Solosimpi’.
2 The rejected draft text of the tale to this point is remarkably brief, and reads as follows (following on from Ailios’ remarks given on p. 197, note 20):
‘That is easy told,’ said Lindo; ‘for the murmurings that I have spoken of grew ever louder, and came to speech at that council which was now summoned to fix the courses of the Sun and Moon; and all the ancient grievance that had flamed before at Melko’s instigation concerning the freedom of the Elves—even that strife that ended in the Exile of the Noldoli—grew sore again. Yet were few now in pity of the Gnomes, and such of the Eldar whom the newlit world allured dared not for the power of Melko break from Valinor; wherefore in the end the enemies of the Gnomes, despite all that Ulmo might say or plead, and despite the clemency of Manwл, carried the counsels of the Gods—and so came that which stories name the [Closing >] Hiding of Valinor. And the Gods went not at that time forth to fight Melko, and their greatest opportunity for glory and eternal honour was let slip, [even as the Music of Ilъvatar had foreboded—and they little understood it—and who knows if the salvation of the world and the freeing of Men and Elves shall ever come from them again? Some there are who whisper that it is not so, and hope dwelleth only in a far land of Men, but how so that may be I do not know.]
The concluding passage is thus bracketed in the manuscript, with a question-mark against it.
3 The word looks like ‘east’. The word ‘eastward’ was added to the text, and it may be that my father intended to change ‘east’ to ‘eastward edge’ or something similar.
4 Here ‘Earth’ is clearly used, if strangely so, in the same way as is ‘the world’, to mean the Great Lands as distinguished from the Outer Lands of the West.
5 The Teleri (i.e. the later Vanyar) had not in the old story departed from Kфr (see p. 159).
6 Originally уwen and then Уnen, the name of Ossл’s wife has already appeared in the final form Uinen (p. 1211, 192); but Oinen here is clear, and clearly intended.
7 In the draft text the account of the Hiding of Valinor is very brief, and moves on quickly to the Path of Dreams. The webs of darkness laid on the eastward slopes of the mountains were not those ‘sloughed in Valinor’ by Ungweliantл, but are merely compared to ‘the most clinging that ever Ungweliantл wove’. Helkaraksл and the Magic Isles are only mentioned in a marginal direction that they are to be included.
8 ‘Earth’ is again used in the sense of the Great Lands (see note 4). The draft has here ‘Children of the World’.
9 While there are no differences of any substance in the account of the Olуrл Mallл in the two texts, in the first there is no mention of Oromл’s Path of the Rainbow.—An isolated note, obviously written before the present Tale, says: ‘When the Gods close Valinor…Lуrien leaves a path across the mountains called Olуrл Mallл, and Manwл the Rainbow where he walks to survey the world. It is only visible after rain, for then it is wet.’