Máhanaxar

The council of the Valar

Just outside the golden gate of Valmar, next to the mound of Ezellohar, the Valar set their thrones in a ring. This was Máhanaxar, the Ring of Doom, where they gathered whenever a matter touching the whole of Arda had to be decided. Manwë presided as Elder King, and Mandos spoke the judgments and the dooms that came from his foresight, for he alone of the Valar pronounced sentence, and did so only at Manwë's bidding. The Ring stood in the direct light of the Two Trees, so that every council of the Valar in the Years of the Trees was held in the silver or the gold, and the Eldar who were summoned there came into the presence of both the Powers and the light together.

Judgments

The first great debate held there concerned the Elves: when Oromë brought word of their awakening at Cuiviénen, the Valar sat in Máhanaxar and resolved to summon them to Aman, over the misgivings of Ulmo, and to make war on Melkor first. Melkor himself was brought there in chains after the fall of Utumno and sentenced to three ages in the Halls of Mandos; and three ages later he knelt in the same circle, feigned repentance, and was pardoned. When Fëanor drew his sword on Fingolfin he was summoned to the Ring, and there Melkor's lies were laid bare and Fëanor was exiled for twelve years. After the Darkening, the Valar sat there in the dark to hear Fëanor's refusal of the Silmarils, and there the Sun and Moon were planned.

The last and greatest judgment of the Elder Days was given in Máhanaxar when Eärendil came to Aman. Manwë ruled that he and Elwing should not die for having trespassed, since Eärendil had come for the sake of Elves and Men and not for his own, and gave them and their sons the choice of kindreds; and the Valar resolved on the War of Wrath.

Máhanaxar lay immediately west of Valmar in the plain of Valinor, beside the green mound of the Trees, with Taniquetil rising to the east and the whole realm of the Valar spread out around it.