Vala (Middle-earth)

The Valar (['valar]; singular Vala) are characters in J. R. R. Tolkien's legendarium. They are "angelic powers" or "gods"^{[T 1]} subordinate to the one God (Eru Ilúvatar). The Ainulindalë describes how those of the Ainur who chose to enter the World (Arda) to complete its material development after its form was determined by the Music of the Ainur are called the Valar, or "the Powers of the World". The Valaquenta indicates that the Elves generally reserved the term "Valar" for the mightiest of these, calling the others the Maiar. The Valar are mentioned briefly in The Lord of the Rings, but were developed earlier in material published posthumously in The Silmarillion and The History of Middle-earth.

Scholars have noted that the Valar resemble angels in Christianity, but that Tolkien presented them rather more like pagan gods. Their role in providing what the characters on Middle-earth experience as luck or providence is also discussed.

Origin and acts[]

Eru Ilúvatar first revealed to the Ainur his great vision of The World through musical themes, unfolding a history whose vastness and majesty had never been equalled, as described in Ainulindalë, "The Music of the Ainur".^{[T 2]}

This World, fashioned from his ideas and expressed as the Music of Ilúvatar, was refined by thoughtful interpretations by the Ainur, who then created their own themes based on each unique comprehension. No one Ainu understood all of the themes that sprang from Ilúvatar. Instead, each elaborated individual themes, singing of mountains and subterranean regions, say, from themes for metals and stones. The themes of Ilúvatar's music were elaborated, and each of the Ainur added harmonious creative touches. Melkor, however, added discordant themes: he strove against the Music; his themes became evil because they sprang from selfishness and vanity, not from the enlightenment of Ilúvatar.^{[T 2]}

Once the Music was complete, including Melkor's interwoven themes of vanity, Ilúvatar gave the Ainur a choice—to dwell with him, or to enter the world that they had mutually created. Those that chose to enter the world became known as the Valar, the 'Powers of Arda', though the Elves generally reserved that term for the more powerful of them, calling the lesser Valar the Maiar. Among the Valar were some of the most powerful and wise of the Ainur, including Manwë, the Lord of the Valar, and Melkor, his brother. The two are distinguished by the selfless love of Manwë for the Music of Ilúvatar, and the selfish love that Melkor bore for himself and no other—least of all for the Children of Ilúvatar, as the Elves and Men became known.^{[T 2]}

Melkor (later named Morgoth, "dark enemy") arrived in the World first, causing tumult wherever he went. As the others arrived, they saw how Melkor's presence would destroy the integrity of Ilúvatar's themes. Eventually, and with the aid of the Vala Tulkas, who entered Arda last, Melkor was temporarily overthrown, and the Valar began shaping the world and creating beauty to counter the darkness and ugliness of Melkor's discordant noise.

The Valar dwelt originally on the Isle of Almaren in the middle of the world, but after its destruction and the loss of the world's symmetry, they moved to the western continent of Aman and founded Valinor. The war with Melkor continued: the Valar realized many wonderful subthemes of Ilúvatar's grand music, while Melkor poured all his energy into Arda and the corruption of creatures like Balrogs, dragons, and orcs. Most terrible of the early deeds of Melkor was the destruction of the Two Lamps, and with them the original home of the Valar, the Isle of Almaren. Melkor was captured and chained for many ages in the fastness of Mandos, until he was pardoned by Manwë.

With the arrival of the Elves in the world and later in Valinor, a new phase of the regency of the Valar began. Summoned by the Valar, many Elves abandoned Middle-earth and the eastern continent for the West, where the Valar concentrated their creativity. There they made the Two Trees, their greatest joy because it gave light to the beauty of Valinor and pleased the Elves.

At Melkor's instigation, however, the evil giant spider Ungoliant destroyed the Trees. Fëanor, a Noldorin Elf, had, with forethought and love, captured the light of the Two Trees in three Silmarils, the greatest jewels ever created. Melkor stole the Silmarils from Fëanor, killed his father, Finwë, chief of the Noldor in Aman, and fled to Middle-earth. Many of the Noldor, in defiance of the will of the Valar, swore revenge and set out in pursuit. This event, and the poisonous words of Melkor that fostered mistrust among the Elves, led to the exile of the greater part of the Noldor to Middle-earth: the Valar closed Valinor against them to prevent their return.

For the remainder of the First Age, the Lord of Waters, Ulmo, alone of the Valar visited the world beyond Aman. Ulmo directly influenced the actions of Tuor, setting him on the path to find the hidden city of Gondolin. At the end of the First Age, the Valar sent forth a great host of Maiar and Elves from Valinor to Middle-earth, fighting the War of Wrath in which Melkor was defeated. The lands were changed, and the Elves were again called to Valinor.

During the Second Age, the Valar's main deeds were the creation of Númenor as a refuge for the Edain, who were denied access to Aman but given dominion over the rest of the world. The Valar, now including even Ulmo, remained aloof from Middle-earth, allowing the rise of Morgoth's lieutenant, Sauron, to power as a new Dark Lord. Near the end of the Second Age, Sauron convinced the Númenóreans to attack Aman itself.

Then Manwë upon the Mountain called upon Ilúvatar, and for that time the Valar laid down their government of Arda. — Akallabêth, The Silmarillion.

With the Akallabêth, the destruction of Númenor, Aman was removed from Middle-earth (though not from the World, for Elvish ships could still reach it). In the Third Age the Valar sent the Istari (or wizards) to Middle-earth to aid in the battle against Sauron.

In the Ainulindalë, all the Ainur who entered Arda (the World) to complete its development according to the form given it by the Music of the Ainur are called "Valar".^{[T 2]} In the Valaquenta, Tolkien states that "The Great among these spirits the Elves name the Valar", and he names the Lords and Queens of the Valar.^{[T 3]}

The chief Valar[]

The names and attributes of the chief Valar, as they were known to the Elves in Valinor, are listed below. In Middle-earth, they were known by their Sindarin names: Varda, for example, was called Elbereth. Men knew them by many other names, and sometimes worshipped them as gods. With the exception of Oromë, the names listed below are not actual names but rather titles: the true names of the Valar are nowhere recorded. The males are called "Lords of the Valar"; the females "Queens of the Valar," or Valier. Of the seven male and seven female Valar, there are six married pairs: Ulmo and Nienna are the only ones who dwell alone. This is evidently a form of spiritual union, as in Tolkien's later conception they do not reproduce in a manner reminiscent of the classical Greek gods.

The Aratar [ˈaratar] (Quenya: Exalted) or High Ones of Arda are the eight greatest of the Valar: Manwë, Varda, Ulmo, Yavanna, Aulë, Mandos, Nienna, and Oromë. Lórien and Mandos are brothers and are referred to collectively as the Fëanturi [feˈanturi], "Masters of Spirits".

Ilúvatar brought the Valar (and all of the Ainur) into being by his thought, and may therefore be considered their father. However, not all of the Valar are siblings; where this is held to be so, it is because they are so "in the thought of Ilúvatar". It was the Valar who first practised marriage and later passed on their custom to the Elves; all the Valar had spouses, save Nienna, Ulmo and Melkor. Only one such marriage among the Valar took place within the world, that of Tulkas and Nessa after the raising of the Two Lamps.^{[T 4]}

Lords[]

Queens[]

Melkor[]

Morgoth or Melkor was the first Dark Lord. His name means "he who arises in might". He was the first of the Ainur to be created by Eru Ilúvatar and the one who created discord in the Music of the Ainur. The spiritual brother of Manwë, he was the most powerful of the Valar, as he was the only one who possessed all aspects of Eru's thought. He turned to evil, and was taken back to Valinor in the chain Angainor after the Awakening of the Elves in Cuiviénen. He remained on parole in Valinor for three Ages, but after the poisoning of the Two Trees and the theft of the Silmarils, he fled from Valinor. He was no longer counted among the Valar, and Fëanor, one of the leaders of the Noldorin Elves, called him "Morgoth Bauglir", The Great Enemy, and he was known by that in Middle-earth ever after. He was cast out of Arda at the end of the War of Wrath.

Language[]

External history[]

Tolkien at first decided that Valarin, the tongue of the Valar as it is called in Quenya, would be the proto-language of the Elves, the tongue Oromë taught to the speechless Elves. He then developed the Valarin tongue and its grammar in the early 1930s. Ten years later he decided to drop that idea, and the tongue he had developed became Primitive Quendian instead. He then conceived an entirely new tongue for the Valar, still called Valarin in Quenya.

Internal story[]

The Valar as spiritual immortal beings have the ability to communicate through thought, and had no need for a spoken language, but it appears that Valarin developed because of their assumption of physical, humanlike (or elf-like) forms. Valarin is unrelated to the other languages constructed by J. R. R. Tolkien. Only a few words (mainly proper names) of Valarin have been recorded by the Elves.

Valarin was alien to the ears of the Elves, sometimes to the point of genuine displeasure,^{[T 7]} and very few of them ever learned the language, only adopting some of the Valarin words into their own Quenya. The Valar knew Quenya, and used it to converse with the Elves, or with each other if Elves were present. Valarin contained sounds that the Elves found difficult to produce, and the words were mostly long;^{[T 7]} for example, the Valarin word for Telperion, one of the Two Trees of Valinor, Ibrîniðilpathânezel, has eight syllables. The Vanyar adopted more words into their Vanyarin Tarquesta dialect from Valarin than the Noldor, as they lived closer to the Valar. Some of the Elven names of the Valar, such as Manwë, Ulmo, and Oromë, are adapted loanwords of their Valarin names.

According to the earlier conception set forth in the Lhammas, the Valarin language family is subdivided into Oromëan, the Dwarves' Khuzdul (Aulëan), and Melkor's Black Speech. In this work, all Elvish languages are descended from the tongue of Oromë, while the Dwarves spoke the tongue devised by Aulë, and the Speech of the Orcs was invented for them by Melkor.^{[T 8]}

Concept and creation[]

In The Book of Lost Tales (the earliest form of Tolkien's legendarium), the Valar are frequently referred to as "Gods," indicating a polytheistic system in Tolkien's original cosmology. However, Ilúvatar is present as the supreme Creator God who brings the Valar into existence and is shown to be a being of a higher order. It is thus unclear whether the Valar are truly gods or simply thought of as such by the people of Arda. In any case, Tolkien eventually abandoned this description of the Valar, defining them simply as "Powers" in his later works.

In The Book of Lost Tales, Mandos was named Vefantur, and his halls Ve. His wife was Fui, who can be compared to Nienna (though in that context they were not married). He judged the elves, while Fui judged the men. He turned away Túrin and Nienori from his halls in the second volume.

A different Vairë appeared in some of Tolkien's earliest writings. In The Book of Lost Tales, she was an Elf of Tol Eressëa. She and her husband Lindo tell the stories that would become The Silmarillion to the human mariner Ælfwine/Eriol. Her role as storyteller may have influenced the naming of the Vala responsible for recording stories.

The Lost Tales also have two additional Valar, Makar and Meássë, who occupy roles similar to war gods of classical myth. These characters are dropped from Tolkien's later works.

Analysis[]

Norse Æsir[]

Some critics have noted the similarity of the Valar to the Æsir, the strong and combative Norse gods of Asgard.^[1][2] Painting by Christoffer Wilhelm Eckersberg, 1817

Critics such as John Garth have noted that the Valar resemble the Æsir, the gods of Asgard.^[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 to Odin, the "Allfather",^[2] while the wizard Gandalf, one of the Maiar, resembles Odin the wanderer.^[3]

Godlike power[]

Tolkien compared King Théoden of Rohan, charging into the enemy at the Battle of the Pelennor Fields, to a Vala of great power, and to "a god of old":^{[T 9]}

Théoden could not be overtaken. Fey he seemed, or the battle-fury of his fathers ran like new fire in his veins, and he was borne up on Snowmane like a god of old, even as Oromë the Great in the battle of the Valar when the world was young. His golden shield was uncovered, and lo! it shone like an image of the Sun, and the grass flamed into green about the white feet of his steed. For morning came ... and the hosts of Mordor wailed ... and the hoofs of wrath rode over them.^{[T 9]}

The Episcopal priest and author Fleming Rutledge comments that while Tolkien is not equating the events here with the Messiah's return, he was happy when readers picked up biblical echoes. In her view the language here is biblical, evoking Malachi's messianic prophecy "See, the day is coming, burning like an oven, when all the arrogant and all evildoers will be stubble ... And you shall tread down the wicked, for they will be ashes under the soles of your feet".^[4]

Pagan gods or angels[]

Other scholars have likened the Valar to Christian angels, intermediaries between the creator and the created world.^[5] Painting by Lorenzo Lippi, c. 1645

The theologian Ralph C. Wood describes the Valar and Maiar as being what Christians "would call angels", intermediaries between the creator, named as Eru Ilúvatar in the Silmarillion, and the created cosmos. Like angels, they have free will and can therefore rebel against him.^[5]

Matthew Dickerson, writing in the J.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".^[6] Dickerson writes that while Tolkien presents the Valar like pagan gods, he imagined them more like angels, and notes that scholars have compared the devotion of Tolkien's Elves to Varda/Elbereth as resembling the Roman Catholic veneration of Mary the mother of Jesus. Dickerson states that the key point is that the Valar were "not to be worshipped".^[6] 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 to worship.^[6]

Marjorie 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 early Book of Lost Tales and the published 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.^[7]

Luck or providence[]

The Tolkien scholar Tom 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 affect free will and cannot be distinguished from the ordinary operations of nature", nor reduce the necessity of "heroic endeavour".^[8] He notes that this exactly matches the Old English view of luck and personal courage, as in Beowulf's "Wyrd often spares the man who isn't doomed, as long as his courage holds."^[8] The Tolkien critic Paul H. Kocher similarly discusses the role of providence, in the form of the intentions of the Valar or of the creator Eru Ilúvatar, in Bilbo's finding of the One 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.^[9]

Rutledge writes that in The Lord of the Rings, and especially at moments like Gandalf's explanation to Frodo in "The Shadow of the Past", there are clear hints of a higher power at work in events in Middle-earth:^[10]

There was more than one power at work, Frodo. The Ring was trying to get back to its master ... Behind that there was something else at work, beyond any design of the Ring-maker. I can put it no plainer than by saying that Bilbo was meant to find the Ring, and not by its maker. In which case you also were meant to have it. [Tolkien's italics]^{[T 10]}

Rutledge notes that in this way, Tolkien repeatedly hints at a higher power "that controls even the Ring itself, even the maker of the Ring himself [her italics]", and asks who or what that power might be. Her reply is that at the surface level, it means the Valar, "a race of created beings (analogous to the late-biblical angels)"; at a deeper level, it means "the One", Eru Ilúvatar, or in Christian terms, divine Providence.^[10]

Impact[]

The planetoids 385446 Manwë and 174567 Varda are named for Manwë^[11] and Varda^[12] respectively.

See also[]

• Quenta Silmarillion

Notes[]

References[]

Primary[]

This list identifies each item's location in Tolkien's writings.

Secondary[]