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27Tolkien in the Lord of the Rings took a lot of inspiration from his work on philology in the Germanic languages, specifically Old English. In Old English, sunne is a feminine noun and mōna is a masculine noun. So in fact, there is no reversal: Tolkien is using the more traditional Germanic gender for the sun and moon. I would guess that this is the reason he assigns them these genders in the Silmarillion. It is (some) modern English speakers that have reversed gender associations with the sun and moon, probably under the influence of Romance languages and Greek and Latin mythology.– wyvernCommented May 19, 2015 at 4:41
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9Your initial presupposition is also fairly arguable. See this section of your linked article: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_deity#Male_and_female– wyvernCommented May 19, 2015 at 4:50
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7@sumelic Please write this as an answer, not as a comment.– Paŭlo EbermannCommented May 19, 2015 at 12:18
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2@sumelic - you have my permission, but you never really needed it. "He didn't reverse anything, and your question makes assumptions that don't hold up, dummy!" is a valid answer, and seems to be the truth as well. :)– Wad CheberCommented May 19, 2015 at 18:59
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5As a German I live in middle Europe and our languages love to place articles to nouns. For the languages I know the sun is female (German "Die Sonne") and the moon is male (German "Der Mond"). As Tolkien heavily based his universe on European mythology, he may just have been used to these languages. //EDIT: Note to myself, read answers before wisenheimering (in German you say "Klugscheißer", what translates to "pooping wisely")– TrollwutCommented May 20, 2015 at 10:30
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