No Sun or Moon

[TheGreatElvenWarrior]

Going through the Christian beliefs, there was no sun before it was created in Genesis(duh), so the light that was there had to come from somewhere else. The Bible (to my knowledge) doesn't have any reference to what light was before the sun, but Tolkien could've gotten this particular idea from another source like was mentioned before or he could have gotten an idea from nowhere and that could have sparked his imagination to go somewhere else with it. But wherever he got the idea for the two trees, Tolkien probably had to change it somewhat...

[alatar]

This link has a huge list of creation myths from all over the globe. It reminded me that in Greek mythology, the sun (Apollo) and the moon (Artemis) are not born until well after Gaia's been though some ages. Marduk fought Tiamat before making the sun and moon from its corpse. Coyolxauhqui, moon goddess, was created/born before the sun-god Quetzalcoatl.

It would seem that light before the sun and moon is somewhat common, but from trees?

*Note that the moon is not a light source but just a big reflector.

[Eönwë]

Originally Posted by alatar

This link has a huge list of creation myths from all over the globe.

Did you notice this?

Originally Posted by wikipedia, Alatar's link, on the Ainu people

When the animals who lived up in the heavens saw how beautiful the world was, they begged Kamui to let them go and live on it, and he did. But Kamui also made many other creatures especially for the world. The first people, the Ainu, had bodies of earth, hair of chickweed, and spines made from sticks of willow. Kamui sent Aioina, the divine man, down from heaven to teach the Ainu how to hunt and to cook.

Sounds familiar....hmm....