Uinen

Nature

Uinen is a Maia in the service of Ulmo and the spouse of Ossë. The Valaquenta describes her hair as spreading through every water beneath the sky, an image of how completely she is present in the seas. Her care is for the living things of the salt water and the weeds that grow in it, and where Ossë loves the storm, she loves calm. Mariners call on her, because she alone can lay Ossë's wildness to rest and quiet the waves.

The recovery of Ossë

When Melkor tempted Ossë with the promise of Ulmo's whole realm, and Ossë's storms wrecked the coasts, it was Uinen who, at the urging of Aulë, went to her husband and brought him back to his allegiance. Ulmo pardoned him, and the histories credit Uinen with the peace of the shores ever after.

The Teleri and the Kinslaying

Uinen came with Ossë to the Teleri who waited on the shores of Beleriand and befriended them, and the Sea-elves loved her. The friendship had a bitter sequel. When Fëanor and the Noldor seized the swan-ships at Alqualondë and killed the Teleri who resisted, Uinen wept for the drowned and the slain, and the Sea rose in anger against the stolen fleet. Many of the Noldor were lost on the voyage north, and this is remembered as the first stroke of the Doom of Mandos against them.

Númenor

In the Second Age, when the Númenóreans became the greatest mariners of the world, they held Uinen in particular reverence. The Guild of Venturers founded by Tar-Aldarion named itself for her, the Uinendili, and a shrine to her stood in the haven of Rómenna. Númenórean sailors believed that Ossë's tumults were held back by her grace, and Unfinished Tales records that the Valar permitted this devotion, though in that account it is also noted that the Venturers' lady Erendis, who lost her husband to the Sea, regarded the cult with little love.

Legacy

Uinen appears in no battle and speaks no recorded word, yet she is one of the most fondly remembered of the Maiar: the calm after the storm, the friend of the Teleri, the protector invoked by every sailor of Númenor, and the one who wept when the Sea was first stained with Elvish blood.

Uinen remains in the seas of Middle-earth in the service of Ulmo.