Aman

The land beyond the sea

Aman lay across the whole width of the Great Sea, Belegaer, west of Middle-earth, running from the ice of the far north to the shadowed south; on its western side it looked out on the Outer Sea, Ekkaia, and the Walls of Night that bounded the world. The Valar came to it when Melkor cast down the Lamps and broke their first dwelling at Almaren, and to guard it they raised the Pelóri, the highest mountains in Arda, along its eastern coast. Behind that wall in Valinor lay everything the Valar loved: their city Valmar, the Ring of Doom at Máhanaxar, and the Two Trees on Ezellohar, whose light was the only light of the world save the stars through the Years of the Trees.

Outside the mountains, on the eastern shore, lay the narrow coastlands. To the north stretched Araman, bleak and cold; to the south Avathar, where Ungoliant hid. Between them, where the Valar had cut the Calacirya through the mountains so that the light could reach the sea, lay Eldamar, the Bay of Elvenhome, with the city of Tirion in the mouth of the pass, the haven of Alqualondë to its north, and the island of Tol Eressëa anchored in the bay.

The Undying Lands

Aman was called the Undying Lands because the deathless dwelt there, not because it made its inhabitants deathless. The Valar and Maiar were immortal by nature; the Eldar who came there did not age or sicken as in Middle-earth, though even in Valinor an Elf could die of grief or violence, as Míriel and Finwë did. For mortals the land held no such gift. The Númenóreans were forbidden to sail there, and the messengers of Manwë told them plainly that a mortal in Aman would only wither the faster. The blessedness of the land lay in the Valar themselves and in the memory of the Trees; it did not change the nature of those who came.

Who dwelt there

The Valar and Maiar lived in Valinor. The Vanyar under Ingwë dwelt nearest them, on the slopes of Taniquetil and the plains about Valmar; the Noldor held Tirion under Finwë and, after the exile, under Finarfin; the Teleri under Olwë kept the coast at Alqualondë. Elves returning from Middle-earth in later ages settled mostly on Tol Eressëa at Avallonë.

The making of the Blessed Realm

When Melkor destroyed the Lamps and the seas and lands were broken, the Valar withdrew to the western continent and fortified it. Yavanna sang the Two Trees into being before the gate of Valmar, and by their light the Valar lived in bliss while Middle-earth lay in starlit darkness under the shadow of Utumno. Varda, foreseeing the Elves, kindled new stars over Middle-earth from the dew of the silver Tree, and Oromë, hunting in the east, found them at Cuiviénen.

The summoning of the Elves

The Valar debated in the Ring of Doom whether to leave the Elves free in Middle-earth or bring them to Aman under their protection. Mandos foretold that the choice would have consequences, but the summons was issued, and the Valar first made war on Melkor and broke Utumno so that the journey might be safe. Three ambassadors, Ingwë, Finwë and Elwë, were shown the light of Valinor and returned to persuade their peoples. The Eldar who accepted were ferried across the sea by Ulmo on the island that became Tol Eressëa: first the Vanyar and Noldor, and much later the Teleri, who lingered long on the island before Ossë taught them to build ships.

The Noontide and the Darkening

The long age that followed was the height of Valinor's bliss: the Noldor learned from Aulë, the Vanyar from Manwë and Varda, the Teleri from Ulmo and Ossë, and Fëanor made the Silmarils. Then Melkor, released after three ages in Mandos, spread lies among the Noldor and set the sons of Finwë against each other, and when he was found out he fled. He returned with Ungoliant out of Avathar, destroyed the Trees, slew Finwë at Formenos, stole the Silmarils and escaped over the Helcaraxë. Fëanor led most of the Noldor out of Aman in pursuit, slaying the Teleri at Alqualondë for their ships, and Mandos pronounced their Doom on the coast of Araman. The Valar then raised the Pelóri sheer, set the Enchanted Isles in the sea, and closed the Blessed Realm; from the last fruit and flower of the dying Trees they made the Sun and Moon, and the First Age began.

The Ban and the Downfall

For five centuries the exiles in Beleriand fought Morgoth alone, and the ships they sent west were lost. Only Eärendil, bearing a Silmaril, came through the shadows and pleaded before the Valar for Elves and Men together. The Host of the West then crossed the sea, overthrew Morgoth in the War of Wrath and cast him out of the world. The Valar pardoned the exiles, and those Eldar who left Middle-earth settled on Tol Eressëa. To the Edain they gave Númenor, within sight of Eressëa but under a Ban never to sail west out of sight of their own shores.

The Númenóreans kept the Ban for a long age and broke it at the last. Ar-Pharazôn, persuaded by Sauron, landed an army in Aman itself and encamped about Túna. Manwë called on Eru Ilúvatar, and the world was changed: Númenor was drowned, the seas were bent, and Aman with Eressëa was taken out of the circles of the world, beyond the reach of mortal ships, though the Elves might still find the Straight Road that left the curve of the earth and came to it across the sky.

The Straight Road

Through the Second and Third Ages the Elves of Lindon sailed west from the Grey Havens and did not return. At the end of the War of the Ring the ship of Círdan carried Gandalf, Galadriel, Elrond and the Ring-bearers Bilbo and Frodo to the West, the hobbits admitted by special grace for their healing. Samwise followed long after, and in the Fourth Age Legolas sailed with Gimli, the only Dwarf said to have been received in the Undying Lands.

Aman was a continent as long from north to south as the whole of Middle-earth's western coast, separated from it by the width of Belegaer. Its eastern face was the unbroken wall of the Pelóri, running from the Helcaraxë in the north to the southern ice, with only the Calacirya as a gap. West of the mountains lay the wide land of Valinor; east of them the coastal strips of Araman, Eldamar and Avathar; and beyond the western shore the Outer Sea and the end of the world. Tol Eressëa stood in the Bay of Eldamar within sight of the coast, and beyond it eastward, after the Flight of the Noldor, lay the Enchanted Isles and the Shadowy Seas. After the Downfall the whole continent was lifted out of the bent world, and the seas that had bordered it flowed around the new-made globe.