TheAinur (sing. Ainu) are the immortal spirits existingbefore the Creation inJ. R. R. Tolkien'sfictional universe. These were the first beings made of the thought ofEru Ilúvatar. They were able to singsuch beautiful music that the world was created from it.[T 1]
Before the Creation,Eru Ilúvatar made the Ainur or "holy ones".[T 1] The Universe was created through the "Music of the Ainur" orAinulindalë, music sung by the Ainur in response to themes introduced by Eru. This universe, the song endowed with existence by Eru, was calledEä in Quenya. The Earth was calledArda.[T 1] Those of the Ainur who felt concern for the Creation entered it, and became theValar and theMaiar, the guardians of Creation.[T 2]
TheValar included both good and evil characters. The Vala Melkor claimed the Earth for himself. His brother,Manwë, and several other Valar decided to confront him. Melkor fell into evil and became known asMorgoth, the dark enemy. The conflict between the Valar and Morgoth marred much of the world. According toThe Silmarillion, the Valar and Maiar – with the aid of the ValaTulkas, who entered the Creation last—succeeded in exiling Morgoth into the Void, though his maleficent influence remained ingrained in the fabric of the world.[T 1]
Like the Valar, the Maiar included both good and evil characters. The Maiar were more numerous than the Valar, but less powerful individually. Among the good were theIstari or Wizards, sent toMiddle-earth.[T 3] Among the evil were theBalrogs or fire-demons, who were some of the Dark LordMorgoth's most powerful servants,[T 4] andSauron, the Dark Lord of the Third Age, a Maia who had been corrupted by Morgoth.[T 2]
Critics such asJohn Garth have noted that the Valar resemble theÆsir, the gods ofAsgard.[1]Thor, for example, physically the strongest of the gods, can be seen both in Oromë, who fights the monsters of Melkor, and in Tulkas, the strongest of the Valar. Manwë, the head of the Valar, has some similarities toOdin, the "Allfather",[2] while the wizardGandalf, one of the Maiar, resembles Odin the wanderer.[3]
The theologianRalph C. Wood describes the Valar and Maiar as being whatChristians "would callangels", intermediaries between the creator, named asEru Ilúvatar in theSilmarillion, and the created cosmos. Like angels, they havefree will and can therefore rebel against him.[4]
Matthew Dickerson, writing in theJ.R.R. Tolkien Encyclopedia, calls the Valar the "Powers of Middle-earth", noting that they are not incarnated, and quoting Tolkien scholar Verlyn Flieger's description of their original role as "to shape and light the world".[5] Dickerson writes that while Tolkien presents the Valar likepagan gods, he imagined them more like angels, and notes that scholars have compared the devotion of Tolkien's Elves to Varda/Elbereth as resembling theRoman Catholic veneration ofMary the mother of Jesus. Dickerson states that the key point is that the Valar were "not to be worshipped".[5] He argues that as a result, the Valar's knowledge and power had to be limited, and they could make mistakes and moral errors. Their bringing of the Elves to Valinor meant that the Elves were "gathered at their knee", a moral error as it suggested something close toworship.[5]
The Tolkien scholarMarjorie Burns notes that Tolkien wrote that to be acceptable to modern readers, mythology had to be brought up to "our grade of assessment". In her view, between his earlyThe Book of Lost Tales and the published bookThe Silmarillion, the Valar had greatly changed, "civilized and modernized", and this had made the Valar "slowly and slightly" more Christian. For example, the Valar now had "spouses" rather than "wives", and their unions were spiritual, not physical. All the same, she writes, readers still perceive the Valar "as a pantheon", serving as gods.[6]
Judith Kollmann wrote inMythlore that "the Valar are clearly the gods of Scandinavia, Greece, and Rome, and, as well, the angels and archangels of Judeo-Christianity."[7]
| Middle-earth | Christianity | Classical Mythology | Norse Mythology |
|---|---|---|---|
| Eru Ilúvatar | The one God | — | — |
| Ainur (Valar,Maiar) ofValinor | Archangels,Angels ofHeaven | Pantheon ofOlympian Gods | Æsir ofAsgard andVanir ofVanaheim |
| Manwë, a Vala | Michael the Archangel, an Angel | Zeus, one of theOlympian Gods | Odin, one of the Æsir |
| Morgoth, a fallen Vala Sauron, a fallen Maia | The Devil, a fallen Angel | — | Loki, a fallen member of the Æsir |
| Tom Bombadil,Goldberry,Elves, etc | — | Fauns,Satyrs,Dryads,Naiads, etc | Hulder,Nixies, etc ofScandinavian folklore |
Grant C. Sterling, writing inMythlore, states that the Maiar resemble the Valar in being unable to die, but differ in being able to choose to incarnate fully in forms such as men's bodies. This means that, like Gandalf and the Balrogs, they can be killed. He notes that Sauron's inability ever to take bodily form again after his defeat could be the result of having given his power to theOne Ring, but that the fate of killed Maiar remains unclear.[8]Jonathan Evans, writing inThe J. R. R. Tolkien Encyclopedia, calls the Maiar semidivine spirits, and notes that each one is linked with one of the Valar. He states that they have "perpetual importance in the cosmic order", noting the statement in theSilmarillion that their joy "is as an air that they breathe in all their days, whose thought flows in a tide untroubled from the heights to the deeps."[9][T 5] Evans notes, too, that Arien and Tilion are central in Tolkien's myth of the Sun and Moon.[9]
The Tolkien scholarTom Shippey discusses the connection between the Valar and "luck" on Middle-earth, writing that as in real life "People ... do in sober reality recognise a strongly patterning force in the world around them", but that while this may be due to "Providence or the Valar", the force "does not affectfree will and cannot be distinguished from the ordinary operations of nature", nor reduce the necessity of "heroic endeavour".[10] He notes that this exactly matches theOld English view of luck and personal courage, as inBeowulf's "Wyrd often spares the man who isn't doomed, as long as his courage holds."[10] The Tolkien criticPaul H. Kocher similarly discusses the role of providence, in the form of the intentions of the Valar or of the creatorEru Ilúvatar, in Bilbo's finding of theOne Ring and Frodo's bearing of it; as Gandalf says, they were "meant" to have it, though it remained their choice to co-operate with this purpose.[11]
In astronomy, theKuiper belt object385446 Manwë is named for the king of the Valar.[12]
385446 Manwë Discovered 2003 Aug. 25 by M. W. Buie at Cerro Tololo. Secondary (385446) I = Thorondor discovered in 2006 by K.S. Noll et al. using the Hubble Space Telescope. In J.~R.~R. Tolkien's mythology, Manwë is foremost among the deities who rule the world.