Tilion
the Maia of the Moon; the silver hunter
Name and Office
Tilion — the Maia of the Moon — the spirit who bears the last flower of Telperion through the heaven. The Valaquenta records that he was “a hunter before, in the following of Oromë, and loved the silver light… of Telperion above all things”. When the Tree died and its last flower remained, the Valar gave it to Tilion to carry as the Moon.
The Moon
The Moon was made of the last flower of Telperion, and Tilion guides it in its vessel. Unlike Arien’s steady course, the Moon is inconstant: “he is a wanderer… and his light waxes and wanes, for Tilion was not faithful to his course, and his love of Arien led him now near, now far” — he pursued the Sun, “and the Valar spoke of the affection of Tilion for Arien, and how he left his own paths to follow the golden”. His failure to hold true path is why the Moon has its many changes and wanderings. The Moon rose first, in the mythology, “ere the Sun”, and its silver light was the first light seen by the exiled Noldor as they returned — In the tale, the Moon rose over the sea as the Noldor came, and “the Elves saw the reflected light of Telperion in the west” The shadow: the Moon is “less terrible” than the Sun to the creatures of Morgoth — the wolves and werewolves fear both; but the Moon’s light is softer, “and many that hated the Sun loved the Moon”.
In the Texts
The inconstancy of Tilion — a Maia who would rather chase another’s light than tend his own — is one of the quiet sorrowful motifs of the elder world, and Christopher Tolkien traces in his commentary how Tolkien struggled with the physics of the Moon’s waxing and waning before settling on Tilion’s wandering as its in-world cause.