Valar

Nature and rank

The Valar, the Powers of Arda, are those Ainur of greatest might who chose to enter the World when Eru Ilúvatar gave it being. The Elves count fourteen of them: seven lords and seven queens. They are of the same kind as the Maiar, but of vastly greater stature, and each carries a particular understanding of some part of Eru's design. They are not the makers of the World, only its shapers and guardians, and their authority is delegated. They cannot create life, they cannot override the free will of the Children of Ilúvatar, and they are subject to the judgement of Eru, whom they call upon only in the direst need.

Men in later ages called them gods, but the Elves, who knew them face to face, never did. The Valar took visible forms resembling the Children of Ilúvatar because they had loved the Children in the Vision before they existed; a Vala unclothed is a presence, not a body, and even in their chosen shapes they can be terrible.

The fourteen

The lords of the Valar, in the order the Elves gave them, are Manwë, Ulmo, Aulë, Oromë, Mandos, Irmo and Tulkas. The queens, the Valier, are Varda, Yavanna, Nienna, Estë, Vairë, Vána and Nessa.

Manwë is the Elder King, lord of the airs and winds and the one who understands Eru's mind best; Varda, his spouse, made the stars and is the Vala the Elves love above all others. Ulmo, lord of all waters, dwells apart from the rest and never abandoned Middle-earth. Aulë is the smith and master of all crafts, and his spouse Yavanna is the giver of fruits and lady of all growing things. Oromë the huntsman, who first found the Elves, is wed to Vána, the ever-young. Mandos, the judge and keeper of the dead, is wed to Vairë the weaver, who records all time in her tapestries. His brother Irmo, master of dreams, is wed to Estë, the healer. Their sister Nienna weeps for the griefs of the World and teaches endurance and pity. Tulkas, the strongest and last to come, delights in contest and is wed to Nessa, the dancer, sister of Oromë.

The Elves also speak of the Aratar, the eight of highest majesty: Manwë, Varda, Ulmo, Yavanna, Aulë, Mandos, Nienna and Oromë. Nine were once counted, but Melkor has been removed from the reckoning.

Melkor and his expulsion

Melkor was in origin the mightiest of all the Ainur, a brother in thought to Manwë and endowed with some share of every other Vala's gifts. But he desired to bring things into being of his own, and when he could not, he turned to dominion over what others had made. From the Music onward he opposed the will of Eru, and in the World he fought the Valar's labours at every step, threw down the Lamps, corrupted Elves into Orcs, and stole the Silmarils. The Valar therefore no longer count him among their number, nor even name him with the rest; the Noldor called him Morgoth, the Black Enemy, and by that name he is chiefly known. He is treated at length in his own entry.

The shaping of Arda

When the Valar first entered the World they found it unformed, and they laboured through uncounted ages to build the lands, seas and airs that the Vision had shown them. Melkor undid their work as fast as they made it, until Tulkas came and drove him out. The Valar then raised two great Lamps on pillars at the north and south of the world, and the first growth of Arda sprang up in their mingled light. They dwelt on the island of Almaren in the midst of a great lake. Melkor returned in secret, built Utumno in the far north, and cast down the Lamps, ruining the shape of the world. The Valar withdrew to the western continent of Aman and there founded Valinor, walled about by the Pelóri. Yavanna sang the Two Trees into being, and their light became the measure of the Years of the Trees.

The Valar and the Elves

When Oromë found the newly awakened Elves at Cuiviénen, the Valar resolved to make war on Melkor for the Children's sake. They broke Utumno and carried Melkor in chains to Valinor. Then, fearing for the Elves in a dark and wounded Middle-earth, they summoned them to Aman. The summons split the Elves into the Eldar who followed and the Avari who refused, and it remains one of the most debated of the Valar's decisions; Ulmo opposed it, believing that the Children should heal Middle-earth rather than abandon it.

In Valinor the Valar taught the Eldar all they were able to receive, and Aulë in particular gave the Noldor the skills that made them the greatest craftsmen of the Elves. But the Valar also released Melkor after his sentence of three ages, and he used his freedom to poison the Noldor's minds. The Darkening of Valinor, the flight of the Noldor and the Doom of Mandos followed. The Valar then hid Aman behind the Enchanted Isles and for a long age did nothing directly for Middle-earth beyond making the Sun and Moon.

The Wars against Morgoth

Throughout the First Age the Valar's aid to Beleriand came chiefly through Ulmo, who sent counsel to Turgon and guided Tuor to Gondolin, and through Thorondor and the Eagles whom Manwë sent to watch. Only when Eärendil came to Valinor as ambassador of both kindreds did the Valar move openly. The host of the West, led by Eönwë and joined by the Vanyar and Noldor of Aman, overthrew Angband in the War of Wrath, and Melkor was bound and thrust out through the Door of Night.

The Second and Third Ages

The Valar rewarded the Edain with the island of Númenor but forbade them to sail west. When Ar-Pharazôn at last broke the Ban and landed in Aman, the Valar laid down their guardianship and appealed to Eru, who drowned Númenor and took Aman out of the circles of the world. From then on the Blessed Realm could be reached only by the Straight Road, open to the Elves alone.

In the Third Age the Valar acted only through emissaries. About the year 1000 they sent the Istari, five Maiar in the bodies of aged men, to stir resistance against Sauron. Manwë's Eagles under Gwaihir intervened at critical moments, and the Valar received Gandalf, Frodo and Bilbo into the West at the end of the age.

Fate

By the Fourth Age the Valar have withdrawn entirely from mortal sight. The Elves believe they will remain in Arda until its end, and that they will take part with the Children in a Second Music that will remake the World rightly.

The Valar have no bodies of their own but clothe themselves in forms of their own choosing. Most often they appear as tall, majestic figures resembling the Elves, though of far greater presence; Manwë and Varda robed in blue and white, Aulë like a mighty smith, Tulkas golden-haired and laughing, Oromë as a hunter with his horn. Ulmo, when he shows himself, rises from the sea in a form of towering height, crowned with foam and clad in a mail-like coat of shifting greens and silvers. The Valar can also go unclad and unseen, or take the shapes of things of the World, and their true nature is better understood as a presence and a power than as a shape. Melkor, having spent his native power in malice, was at last unable to change the dark, kingly, terrible form he had taken.

The Valar dwell in Valinor in mansions suited to their natures: Manwë and Varda in Ilmarin on the summit of Taniquetil, Aulë in his workshops, Yavanna in the pastures and orchards, Mandos in his Halls on the western shore, Irmo and Estë in the gardens of Lórien, Nienna in her house near the Halls of Mandos, Tulkas and Nessa in Valmar. Their council is the Ring of Doom, Máhanaxar, where they debated the fates of Elves and Men. They take counsel among themselves, with Manwë as the final voice, but they are not always of one mind: Ulmo often dissented, and Aulë and Yavanna argued over the fates of their respective children, the Dwarves and the trees. They speak Valarin among themselves and used Quenya with the Eldar, whom they taught freely. Their festivals, notably the harvest feast at which Melkor struck the Trees, were shared with the Elves of Aman.

The Valar were among the Ainur who sang the Great Music and beheld the Vision of the World. When Eru gave the World being, they chose to enter it and were bound to it. They came in at the beginning of Time, before anything had taken shape, and the youngest of them, Tulkas, arrived later when the others were hard pressed by Melkor. Their first home was Almaren; after Melkor destroyed the Lamps they founded Valinor in Aman.

The Valar remain in Aman, hidden since the Downfall of Númenor from all but the Elves who sail the Straight Road. After the departure of the last Ring-bearers and of Gandalf they play no visible part in the affairs of Middle-earth. According to the Elves, they will endure until the end of Arda and share in the Second Music that will remake it.