Creation of the World
A mighty theme did Ilúvatar declare to the offspring of his thought, and the Holy Ainur were silenced in amazement, for in awe did they behold Eru’s vision foretelling of glories and splendors greater than ever they could have imagined; and Ilúvatar willed the Ainur to use their combined talents into a Great Music to fulfill that vision with a definition of their own making. So it was and ever is, and ever will be, the Songs of Power from that First Music that reverberate through the World’s design; and only Eru the One knows the full plenitude of those Songs, for while he called for the Ainur to create their Music unrestrained, their hymns and ballads emanate only from the One.
Thence did the First Music of the Ainur, and the World it envisioned, began with a polyphony of many melodies and choruses from the spirits that blended into a crescendo of beauty and sadness, and that polyphony was one of lyrical water and mighty fire, and of gusting airs and the rugged earth; and those Songs of Power remain unto Arda’s End without parallel in their greatness, and can be sung by few, save Ilúvatar and those most powerful among the Ainur who sprang from his thoughts. Unto the Ainur did Ilúvatar grant the greater knowledge of these Songs to Melkor, and unto Melkor was granted more than any other of the Ainur Eru’s gifts of power and knowledge.
But thrice did Melkor respond to the polyphony of the Ainur with his own cacophony, and thrice did Melkor arise in might against the harmony within the Timeless Halls with discord of his own urgings; and thrice did Ilúvatar end the themes sung forth by the Ainur, leaving the Ainur in turmoil behind which Music to unite. Some were strong and close in loyalty to their maker, while others clove instead to the violence and vanity of Melkor’s own Music, until the loyalty of many among the Ainur towards Melkor, superseded that unto Eru. Some few even converged emboldened upon the Flame Imperishable, seeking to extract some of that Flame at Melkor’s urgings; and the price of their aspirations left them charred, and able only to bear the fire that Melkor granted unto them as whips devised during his sojourns into the Void; and these are the Valaraukar, or Balrogs as they were later named by the Elves. Too did the essence of Ungoliant draw near to Melkor, and she beheld him through eight eyes with a hunger borne of the Void, and he beheld her in turn as a kindred but dubious spirit, and one who would know no master. But Melkor’s clangor was more than a parody of the Ainur’s Music, for he knew not that the chaos of his blaring was, too, a vital part of those three themes of the Ainur.
But not all of the Ainur were adjoined to the uprising of Melkor. For Manwë was scarce less empowered than Melkor by his maker and was akin to Eru’s thoughts of pity, mercy, and fearlessness than any other spirits in the Timeless Halls, for which the Holy Ainur had been purposed. Thus did Manwë arise in loyalty, and not revolt, to lead the second theme in response to the discourse of Melkor’s peals, and bold was Manwë’s canticling that returned the Music to its former power, but with newer beauty, and unto Manwë was then appointed his title by Ilúvatar as the Elder King of Arda. Thus it was that Melkor ever sought to rule, yet Manwë it was who was granted that rule out of devotion to their creator. Then did Melkor resist Manwë to drown out and silence those who sang that second theme; but those who followed Melkor could not overcome the third and final theme of the Ainur. Melkor’s last apostasy became reduced to a feeble, repetitious bluster, and the Ainur united carried the final victory over Melkor.
Yet did Melkor’s Music again endure, for his and the voices of those who followed him became blended and woven into the purity of the Music of the rest of the Ainur; and such interweaving, painful to behold, was ever the intent of the Lord of the Timeless Halls. As much did others among the mightiest of the Ainur came to the aid of Manwë with their own vital Songs of Power. First among them was Varda the Star-Queen, whose light Melkor could not overcome; and Melkor hated her more than any other of the Ainur. For Varda saw early his dark nature, and rejected him, thereby driving Melkor away from her radiant light that shone throughout the Timeless Halls. Varda’s light was second in brilliance only to Ilúvatar, for she as well understood her creator and the Elder King of Eru’s appointing. Thus did Melkor long before taking flight into the dark Void, both outside the Timeless Halls and within the gloom that resided within his own spirit. Varda’s refusal drove Melkor’s yearnings to create a light of his own, but the Void afforded naught any fulfillment of his lusts of his own darkling isolation. As well did the wave melodies of Ulmo, the Lord of Waters with powers nigh that of Manwë, intermingle with those of Manwë the Wind-Lord to achieve a power replete with beautiful authority. Ever did and does neither light nor water Melkor ever overcome or shape to his own making, and he bears unto those elements his greatest enmity.
Forthwith did Ilúvatar of a-sudden end the Music, and there was silence. In that quietude of the Ainur was proclaimed the rebuke of the One to Melkor his most powerful; and Melkor knew both shame and anger. For Eru’s light was even greater than that he had before granted Varda the Star Queen, and the attention of the Ainur was focused all upon the great shine that fell upon Melkor. But the One dwelt not upon his censure, reminding all of the Ainur that they all played a part of their combined Music, including Melkor, in both polyphony and cacophony and regardless of their intent. Ilúvatar turned then from the Ainur and faced the Void so that Manwë and Melkor and those who followed each could then witness the first light ever conceived within the outside Void; and Ilúvatar proclaimed, “Behold your Music!”
Thus the astonished Ainur witnessed a Vision of the World that heretofore they could have predicted not, with its own history, elegance, and grandeur. In humble awe, they beheld the product of their three themes, and as well the purpose that heretofore was unknown to them: for they had prepared a habitation for the Children fathered by Ilúvatar alone, and those Children are Elves and Men who are the Firstborn and the Followers, respectively. But as the Ainur were frozen agaze in adoration, and sought to learn the history of Ilúvatar’s Children, their Vision vanished before them ere they could discover the Later Ages of the World. Yet if the World was hidden from them, within many of the Ainur was uncovered a mighty yearning to see that World exist, and even to become part of it; and there was unrest among the Ainur until Ilúvatar declared: “Eä! Let These things Be!”
Thereupon did Eru deliver forth the Flame Imperishable into the Void; and the World was created by that Flame, which was granted by the One to then Be. Arising as a light amidst the darkness, the World was truer than a mere Vision, and Arda inhabited its very center. At once did many of the greatest of the Ainur fulfill the yearnings of their spirits to become as tangible and real as the World before them; and those Ainur who chose to descend into Eä became adjoined to Eru’s Creation forever until its final completion; and they are the Valar, the Powers of the World. But if these Valar forsook the Timeless Halls out of love for Ilúvatar and his Children, Melkor saw only a realm that he could subdue, and coveted the World where he alone could control to rule.
Thusly Melkor remained an entity aloof from the Valar, despite entering at Eä’s very beginnings, for he did so seeking only to dominate Elves and Men as an ironclad tyrant. But others among the Ainur, such as Thuringwethil who sought Eru’s Children not out of love but of a consuming hunger, hearkened to Melkor’s call to remain in the Void while he descended firstmost before the Valar to enter Arda. Yet Melkor and the Valar were not the first to dwell upon Arda, for despite not yet entering into these tales, one was born directly from the Flame Imperishable; and he is named by Elves and Men as the Eldest of the Eld.
Upon entering into the World, and arraying themselves now informs that emulated Ilúvatar’s Children, the newly-arrived Valar now assumed bodies that befit their essences aforetime within the Timeless Halls. Yet they were astounded and confounded to witness now a World unshaped, dark, and unlike all that they had witnessed before in the Vision of their Music; but if surprised they were of the unformed World they now dwelt, they were not overwhelmed. For the nature of Ilúvatar was to inspire, but yet require, both the Valar and Eru’s Children to make real their inspirations by their own volition. Hence did the Valar commence their labors in myriad and untold ages, for Time had now begun in earnest; and the responsibility of their toils was eclipsed only by the delight discovered by their shaping Arda consistent with their Vision. Hence is Ilúvatar, who is beyond embodiment and gender, held by the Valar to be paternal; for while Eru’s love was to both genders, his original nurturing was and remains one that demands all sentient creations achieve their own bloom.
And therefore did the Valar choose their own genders after descending into Arda, consistent with their original temperaments that came alive during the First Music. Manwë the Elder King it was who became the first to assume male form among the Valar; in turn, it was the Star-Queen Varda who loved him to become his queen and thus the first female. Manwë cherished always her love and aid during the First Music, and held dear her wisdom and strength, and bearing a male raiment of his own choosing, he treasured her not only as his Star-Queen but as his own queen, while she embraced him as a king not only of Arda but within her own heart. True it is that the Valar bear no children with but an extraordinary exception, for that Gift, was granted primary to Ilúvatar’s Children; but those among the Valar who was espoused dwelt most always together, as did Manwë and Varda, for they thirsted ever to witness the unfolding of Arda as two spirits connected together, and in a union of thought created therefrom.
Manwë’s greatest ally, Ulmo the Lord of Waters, chose also a masculine form; yet Ulmo chose to dwell alone, and without a spouse, as a great power of force and yet as well a greater power of love and devotion to Eru’s Children. Ulmo it was who beholds regions at the bottom of the seas, and in the depths of the earth, and to places where even Varda and Manwë’s eyes cannot discern. Ulmo’s realm is of both unstoppable oceanic waves and as well the rippling beauty of gentle rivulets, and the sound of his waters echo most that of the First Music. Unto the World did blessed life-giving rain get sent each day by Manwë Súlimo, Lord of the Breath of Arda, to lands and oceans watched and overseen by Ulmo; and to this day these two great allies shape Arda as they have done since its very beginnings. Robust as well had been the verses of Aulë the Smith in the First Music, who perhaps most of the Ainur yearned to forge into existence works of glory to extend the realm of Ilúvatar, and to thereby replacing the emptiness of the Void; and his masculine power bore creations great and small, and both strange and mighty. Aulë chose no lordship over Arda but sought rather build the lands that Manwë would rule from above, and the lands where Ulmo would bespeak to any and all who would listen.
Behind Manwë, Ulmo, and Aulë entered into Arda those minor powers among the Ainur, named the Maiar, who were drawn to those three who had remained loyal to Eru, and greatest in power; and those Maiar stood with them during the opposing refrains of the First Music. Unto the skies of the World did the Maiar of Manwë arrive as zephyred breezes, and most notable among them were Eönwë the Herald, Olórin the Wise, and Ómar the Songmaster; and with Varda came Ilmarë, her handmaiden and advisor. As well did Ulmo’s Maiar arrive, among them Ossë, master of the waves who crash into the shores of Arda’s lands, and who had hearkened briefly to Melkor; but Ossë’s violent nature was overcome by the restraint of Uinen, who loved Ossë, and to whom Ossë is ever grateful; thus did Ossë take Uinen to wife, and the two controlled seas, rivers, and lakes of Arda at Ulmo’s call. With Aulë came those who had stood by him during the Great Music, who had been Mairon the Admired at his right hand, and Curumo the Skilled at his left; and for ages was Melkor jealous of Aulë and his followers, as they forged lands of stone and iron that Melkor time and again shattered to design Arda of his own contrivance.