[ Daily Tolkien / Lord Of The Rings ] A Tolkien Virgin: Ainulindalë/Valaquenta

Tolkien Online ^ | August 06, 1999 | Mark-Edmond

[JameRetief]

If the Ainulindalë is the most primal story of ""the beginning,"" the Valaquenta is a quaint recap and cast of characters. The Valaquenta touches on the important events of the Ainulindalë, with further description of the four primary characters--Melkor, Manwe, Ulmo, and Aule--followed by the expanded cast of characters in Tolkien's cosmology. And I'll be honest, at first, I found these ""Powers"", the Valar--those of the Ainor who entered into Ea--flat, uninteresting, stereotypical rip-offs. I mean, really. Melkor is your typical evil deity. He loves fire and tries to undo anything good that the others create. Sadly, he's not even as complex as Hades in Greek mythology. Manwe is the god of the air, the ruler of the other gods--or Zeus. Ulmo is Poseidon, and Aule is Hephaestus, the smithy/earth god. Right? Well, I soon came to realize that the similarities between the Greek gods and Tolkien's equivalent Valar are little more than skin deep--ultimately because the Valar have very little beneath their skin. They lack personality almost altogether and remain largely boring and two-dimensional. Therefore the Valar are totally unlike the Olympians who, although they were constantly naughty (Zeus especially), were far from boring.

But where Greek mythology's very beginnings are murky and twisted--only arriving at the Olympians generations after Chaos, Gaea, and Tartarus--Tolkien takes a decidedly Christian approach to ""the beginning""...or does he? Of course it's not too big of a surprise that his story starts with one god, Ilúvatar, who exists before and outside his creation: Tolkien was staunchly Catholic. With that in mind, I was expecting further similarities between Ilúvatar and the God of the Bible. You can imagine my surprise when Ilúvatar has little to do with the rest of the story--at least up to the point in the Silmarillion that I'm currently at. Ilúvatar is an impersonal creator, who more closely resembles the Deist watchmaker-god than Yahweh of Christianity (who comes to earth himself as Jesus Christ to fix his children's problem). Ilúvatar interacts only with his angels--the god-like Ainor, and never directly with his creation. Ilúvatar is a god at-a-distant who has created the world and it's entire history from beginning to end and then hits play, sits back, and watches everything unfold as planned/foreseen.

In the end, Tolkien's Cosmology/Theogony is unique (if that's possible). We can't even call it a blending of Greek mythology with Christian sentimentalities. Tolkien clearly took elements of both traditions when he decided how his universe would be, but his version still stands apart. And perhaps I shouldn't complain that the Valar aren't very interesting. Since the story is soon to shift focus to Elves and Men (the Ainulindalë and Valaquenta are Elven lore, are they not?) perhaps Tolkien was right not to develop the Valar more than he did. It was important for him to tell us about the cosmology in it's grandest terms, but we're not to get bogged down by it and forget who the stars of the show really are. The Ainulindalë and Valaquenta together, in my version, are scarcely 23 pages. The history of the Silmarils is almost 350. You do the math.

Oh and you might want to write down all the Valar, Maiar, and Enemies, while you're here. Many of the Valar have two or more names and it can be confusing keeping track of them all in your mind. You don't want to have to be looking the names up in your Tolkien encyclopedia every time they're mentioned, now do you? Besides, the encyclopedia is bound to give too much away.

Author: Mark-Edmond
Published on: August 06, 1999

[JameRetief]

Join us again on Monday. For those who choose to read along, the next Tolkien Virgin article will continue with the next part of the book The Silmarillion: Of the Beginning of Days.

Happy reading!

[JameRetief]

Your Tolkien Virgin Ping!

Read along with a Tolkien Virgin as he discovers and comments on the history of Middle Earth as he reads it for the first time.  These articles start with The Silmarillion, they journey through The Hobbit and finish with Lord Of The Rings: The Return Of The King.  At the pace of 2 articles per week (Mondays and Fridays) the articles will wrap up about the same time that the final movie of the Lord Of The Rings story is released. 

If anyone would like for me to ping them directly when I post the Tolkien Virgin articles or my Daily Tolkien articles let me know. I hope that you enjoy them!

[JameRetief]

The Tolkien Virgin articles:

1) Pre-amble and The Ainulindalë

2) Ainulindalë/Valaquenta

[The Iguana]

The basic theology - or what we can decipher of it - is essentially Judeo-Christian, with a significant Catholic gloss.

The mythology has strong Odinic and (to a much lesser extent) Greek overtones.

A remarkable achievement all the way around.

[HairOfTheDog]

Oooops! I forgot! - I am on pinch-ping duty!

Ring Ping!!

[Gordian Blade]

To be honest, although I am a big fan of Tolkien, I found The Silmarillion to be a disappointment. It seemed flat to me, like looking at the scenery of a play and reading the lines instead of watching it acted.

[Lawdoc]

Thought you might be interested in the fact that FOX News just announced that today is Tolkien's eleventy first birthday.

Happy B-Day J.R.R.!

[Vast Buffalo Wing Conspiracy]

Thought you might be interested in the fact that FOX News just announced that today is Tolkien's eleventy first birthday.

To be celebrated here by One Gross of Freepers.

[BradyLS]

Thanks, JameRatief

Mark's summary is excellent and really shows how much distance Tolkien put between Iluvatar and his creations. It's kinda fun to read LOTR again and understand, finally, where figures like Gandalf, The Witch King, and even Shelob really fit in he heirarchy of beings.

[BradyLS]

To be honest, although I am a big fan of Tolkien, I found The Silmarillion to be a disappointment. It seemed flat to me, like looking at the scenery of a play and reading the lines instead of watching it acted.

Once I apporached it as if reading history, it came together much better for me. But I know many don't like to read histories. I think it is best to read The Silmarillion in distinct parts and read that same part again before reflecting on it in depth. Once the book has been tackled this way, you can go back to almost any point in it and read it with full(er) undersstanding and enjoyment.

[Dajjal]

Hi! Just wanted to shrink this map down to a printable size.

Found it at http://hemsidor.torget.se/users/f/Finwe/ but it's huge over there.

[Dajjal]

FYI: Those names on the map that are blurred on screen did print out legibly for me.

[Mo1]

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