Creation of the World
Swiftly did Manwë then advance a-front the others, and unto Melkor, he decried: “O vain-glorious Prince of the Void! O fallen bruteful Lord of the Dark! Is death your bountiful harvest upon Arda? Canst thou wrestle with us all? Canst thou subdue Varda’s light or Ulmo’s waters? Shall thou aspire to even grapple with the winds of Arda about you?” But Melkor had no words for the King and Queen he hated, and his smoldering glare unto Manwë was yet borne with a greater fury to Varda. But the Elder King remained closest in thought to Eru his maker, and in that silence saw within Melkor’s darkling gaze a Void far darker than that beyond Arda’s bounds, and the Elder King saw not Melkor’s triumph but his ruin, and a loss borne of Varda’s rejection long before. The ruinous passions of his wayward brother did Manwë thereby ken, and he returned Melkor’s stare with sadness; yet Melkor neither understood nor desired any pity, for pity is beyond Melkor’s comprehension, and beyond any knowledge worth pursuing.
Naught more was there to be said by the Elder King. Eyes of sky-blue fixed upon Melkor’s fiery-red eyes, the King of the Airs imbibed deeply of Arda’s flurries, and from Manwë’s lips issued forth a mighty squall, yet unto a fierce windstorm that grew into a maelstrom. And Melkor’s grasp upon Menelmacar was no more; for within the lifting breath of the Elder King, the fallen Menelmacar ascended high and higher into the heavens, and beyond Melkor’s reach. Stepping forward, it was now the Star-Queen’s turn to confront the one she had so long ago spurned; and she placed her left hand over her King’s heart while flinging Starfire into the heavens with her right; and Menelmacar was preserved forever aloft within her starry embalming embrace. Menelmacar was and is forever preserved in starry memory; and in later ages, Melkor’s skyward gaze could not avoid that spirit who feared him not, and without forgetting the Star-Queen who remained defiant to his rule over Arda.
Until the end of Arda does Varda reject Melkor, and in return, Melkor forever chafes at her rejection while grasping not her sentiments; and thereby was Melkor ever doomed to pursue dark realms in spite, be they either upon Arda or within the endless Void of his tortured heart. Men to this day witness the Swordsman’s belted stars brighter than any other constellation, and yet know not why they find joy and wonder to see him above in the nightly dark. Yet some few of the Fair-Elves know this ancient most tale, and they are the Vanyar of Ingwë, who is the Highest Elven King; because Varda has told them, and the Valar with grief forget not that one amongst their kin who first grappled with their Enemy, and whose battle first taught the Valar the eternal grief that is Death.
Then all was again silent. But a small rumble soon crept down from far beyond the skies of Arda, and the sound became akin to an avalanche, growing with both magnitude and fury; and neither Melkor nor the Valar knew its source. Then thrice did the World shake. For the stars that preserved Menelmacar in the skies were seen not only from the Little Kingdom below, but as well beyond the Void, and even unto the Timeless Halls of Eru. At once did the empyrean realms become alighted with both flashes and dazzling glow, and the airs were overcome with laughter howls that called aloud Melkor’s name, and that was the first time the ground shook with fury. For Tulkas the Strong had witnessed the fall and rise of Menelmacar his First, and Tulkas then thundered down unto Arda, and the World shook a second time. Tulkas’s mirthful clamor is eternal, as is within his nature, and it ceased not when he first stepped upon the World; and he sped towards Melkor, calling out Melkor’s name aloud; and the World to shook yet a third time. Melkor realized that Tulkas sought to avenge the slaying of his First, and threw up his circlet of Mountains of Iron even higher into the skies; but Tulkas slowed not, his feet shaking the earth in quaking strides with each running step, and his hands grasp to overcome the Adversary of the Valar. But Melkor’s mountains stayed Tulkas not, and in one effortless leap did Tulkas vault over them to face his adversary; and Tulkas issued his own challenge, as Menelmacar had done before him.
Then did Melkor first know fear, and asudden he fled Arda; and ever Melkor hated Tulkas, who became now numbered as one of the Valar, and who brought with him the Maiar named Arquendo the Noble, Sartáquen the Steadfast, and Zélaz the Last. It was therefore the turn of Melkor to brood long in the outer darkness, and for Tulkas to become one with the Valar upon Arda. And if the Valar first feared the Strong One, dreading yet another Power to claim Arda, their worries were laid to rest when he proclaimed his loyalty to the Elder King, and in his ruddy face did they know a steadfast friend. The World thereafter enjoyed peace for many a long age, unhindered by Melkor’s disruptions, and the might of Tulkas was enjoined with the other Valar to lift the mountains of Aulë, to delve the riverbeds and the oceans of Ulmo, and to prepare the lands upon which Yavanna sought to create life. Mountains stayed lifted, valleys remained undisturbed, and rivers were set to flow into the seas as well did the highlands and plains prevail for those future abodes where both beasts and flowers would thrive at the devising of the sisters Yavanna and Vána. Finally was a giant inland ocean created for the Valar’s own land of dwelling, and within it, the lost island realm of Almaren was raised for their halls and palaces to be built.
But Melkor never forgot the World he declared his own from its very beginning, and to which he held as his rightful domain. His many marks upon the World, despite most long forged in defiance and destruction of the Valar’s toils, was the proof to which he adhered that Arda, and the future Children of Ilúvatar, were his alone to control. Thus the World began with Melkor playing an unwitting role in its creation, and as Eru had always intended. After fleeing Tulkas did Melkor toil no less than the Strong One outside the World than did the Valar labor within it, and Melkor drew power from the Timeless Halls, where he reunited with those among the Ainur he had drawn before to his side during the First Music. Those who were corrupted with promises of fire and glory, and those promised the opportunity to appease their insatiable hunger, became drawn to him as his spies and allies against the Valar; and he promised that they someday would declare themselves the new lords ruling over Arda.
Yet Manwë it remained, and still does remain, the first to challenge Melkor and the one to resist Melkor’s mark upon the World. And at last did the first realm of the Elder King, nestled upon the island of Almaren, become established and a-lit by the two tall and mighty Lamps named Illuin the Blue and Ormal the Gold; and Lamps were built higher than any mountain, and in tribute to Eru. And Melkor saw the Lamps, and knew whereby they had been lit; for Varda was the source of their lights, and the more he witnessed their brilliance the darker his heart became.
As well was it Manwë’s queen Varda who ever remembered Melkor and his schemings, and while the Valar remained bound to the World it remained unto her keeping to guard Arda from the threats that lay Outside. Hence at Manwë’s side does Varda watch against any threat to the Children of Ilúvatar, no matter which part of Arda those Children of Ilúvatar dwell. It is therefore remembered by the Elves, and some few among Men, that long before the fall of Troy and the rise of Aeneas, and ere the arrival of Elves and Men, did Varda protect the World with the works of her own fashioning; and these were the first sources of light upon the World, which are her Stars.