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There was Eru, the One, who in Arda is called Iluvatar; and he made first the
Ainur, the Holy Ones, that were the offspring of his thought, and they were
with him before aught else was made. And he spoke to them, propounding to them
themes of music; and they sang before him, and he was glad. But for a long
while they sang only each alone, or but few together, while the rest hearkened;
for each comprehended only that part of me mind of Iluvatar from which he came,
and in the understanding of their brethren they grew but slowly. Yet ever as
they listened they came to deeper understanding, and increased in unison and
harmony.
And it came to pass that Iluvatar called together all the Ainur and declared to
them a mighty theme, unfolding to them things greater and more wonderful than
he had yet revealed; and the glory of its beginning and the splendour of its
end amazed the Ainur, so that they bowed before Iluvatar and were silent.
Then Iluvatar said to them: 'Of the theme that I have declared to you, I will
now that ye make in harmony together a Great Music. And since I have kindled
you with the Flame Imperishable, ye shall show forth your powers in adorning
this theme, each with his own thoughts and devices, if he will. But I win sit
and hearken, and be glad that through you great beauty has been wakened into
song.'
Then the voices of the Ainur, like unto harps and lutes, and pipes and
trumpets, and viols and organs, and like unto countless choirs singing with
words, began to fashion the theme of Iluvatar to a great music; and a sound
arose of endless interchanging melodies woven in harmony that passed beyond
hearing into the depths and into the heights, and the places of the dwelling of
Iluvatar were filled to overflowing, and the music and the echo of the music
went out into the Void, and it was not void. Never since have the Ainur made
any music like to this music, though it has been said that a greater still
shall be made before Iluvatar by the choirs of the Ainur and the Children of
Iluvatar after the end of days. Then the themes of Iluvatar shall be played
aright, and take Being in the moment of their utterance, for all shall then
understand fully his intent in their part, and each shall know the
comprehension of each, and Iluvatar shall give to their thoughts the secret
fire, being well pleased.
But now Iluvatar sat and hearkened, and for a great while it seemed good to
him, for in the music there were no flaws. But as the theme progressed, it came
into the heart of Melkor to interweave matters of his own imagining that were
not in accord with the theme of Iluvatar, for he sought therein to increase the
power and glory of the part assigned to himself. To Melkor among the Ainur had
been given the greatest gifts of power and knowledge, and he had a share in all
the gifts of his brethren. He had gone often alone into the void places seeking
the Imperishable Flame; for desire grew hot within him to bring into Being
things of his own, and it seemed to him that Iluvatar took no thought for the
Void, and he was impatient of its emptiness. Yet he found not the Fire, for it
is with Iluvatar. But being alone he had begun to conceive thoughts of his own
unlike those of his brethren.
Some of these thoughts he now wove into his music, and straightway discord
arose about him, and many that sang nigh him grew despondent, and their thought
was disturbed and their music faltered; but some began to attune their music to
his rather than to the thought which they had at first. Then the discord of
Melkor spread ever wider, and the melodies which had been heard before
foundered in a sea of turbulent sound. But Iluvatar sat and hearkened until it
seemed that about his throne there was a raging storm, as of dark waters that
made war one upon another in an endless wrath that would not be assuaged.
Then Iluvatar arose, and the Ainur perceived that he smiled; and he lifted up
his left hand, and a new theme began amid the storm, like and yet unlike to the
former theme, and it gathered power and had new beauty. But the discord of
Melkor rose in uproar and contended with it, and again there was a war of sound
more violent than before, until many of the Ainur were dismayed and sang no
longer, and Melkor had the mastery. Then again Iluvatar arose, and the Ainur
perceived that his countenance was stern; and he lifted up his right hand, and
behold! a third theme grew amid the confusion, and it was unlike the others.
For it seemed at first soft and sweet, a mere rippling of gentle sounds in
delicate melodies; but it could not be quenched, and it took to itself power
and profundity. And it seemed at last that there were two musics progressing at
one time before the seat of Iluvatar, and they were utterly at variance. The
one was deep and wide and beautiful, but slow and blended with an immeasurable
sorrow, from which its beauty chiefly came. The other had now achieved a unity
of its own; but it was loud, and vain, and endlessly repeated; and it had
little harmony, but rather a clamorous unison as of many trumpets braying upon
a few notes. And it essayed to drown the other music by the violence of its
voice, but it seemed that its most triumphant notes were taken by the other and
woven into its own solemn pattern.
In the midst of this strife, whereat the halls of Iluvatar shook and a tremor
ran out into the silences yet unmoved, Iluvatar arose a third time, and his
face was terrible to behold. Then he raised up both his hands, and in one
chord, deeper than the Abyss, higher than the Firmament, piercing as the light
of the eye of Iluvatar, the Music ceased. Then Iluvatar spoke, and he said:
'Mighty are the Ainur, and mightiest among them is Melkor; but that he may
know, and all the Ainur, that I am Iluvatar, those things that ye have sung, I
will show them forth, that ye may see what ye have done. And thou, Melkor,
shalt see that no theme may be played that hath not its uttermost source in me,
nor can any alter the music in my despite. For he that attempteth this shall
prove but mine instrument in the devising of things more wonderful, which he
himself hath not imagined.'
Then the Ainur were afraid, and they did not yet comprehend the words that were
said to them; and Melkor was filled with shame, of which came secret anger. But
Iluvatar arose in splendour, and he went forth from the fair regions that he
had made for the Ainur; and the Ainur followed him.
But when they were come into the Void, Iluvatar said to them: 'Behold your
Music!' And he showed to them a vision, giving to them sight where before was
only hearing; arid they saw a new World made visible before them, and it was
globed amid the Void, and it was sustained therein, but was not of it. And as
they looked and wondered this World began to unfold its history, and it seemed
to them that it lived and grew. And when the Ainur had gazed for a while and
were silent, Iluvatar said again: 'Behold your Music! This is your minstrelsy;
and each of you shall find contained herein, amid the design that I set before
you, all those things which it may seem that he himself devised or added. And
thou, Melkor, wilt discover all the secret thoughts of thy mind, and wilt
perceive that they are but a part of the whole and tributary to its glory.'
Now the Children of Iluvatar are Elves and Men, the Firstborn and the
Followers. And amid all the splendours of the World, its vast halls and spaces,
and its wheeling fires, Iluvatar chose a place for their habitation in the
Deeps of Time and in the midst of the innumerable stars. And this habitation
might seem a little thing to those who consider only the majesty of the Ainur,
and not their terrible sharpness; as who should take the whole field of Arda
for the foundation of a pillar and so raise it until the cone of its summit
were more bitter than a needle; or who consider only the immeasurable vastness
of the World, which still the Ainur are shaping, and not the minute precision
to which they shape all things therein. But when the Ainur had beheld this
habitation in a vision and had seen the Children of Iluvatar arise therein,
then many of the most mighty among them bent all their thought and their desire
towards that place. And of these Melkor was the chief, even as he was in the
beginning the greatest of the Ainur who took part in the Music.
And he feigned, even to himself at first, that he desired to go thither and
order all things for the good of the Children of Iluvatar, controlling the
turmoils of the heat and the cold that had come to pass through him. But he
desired rather to subdue to his will both Elves and Men, envying the gifts with
which Iluvatar promised to endow them; and he wished himself to have subject
and servants, and to be called Lord, and to be a master over other wills.
But the other Ainur looked upon this habitation set within the vast spaces of
the World, which the Elves call Arda, the Earth; and their hearts rejoiced in
light, and their eyes beholding many colours were filled with gladness; but
because of the roaring of the sea they felt a great unquiet. And they observed
the winds and the air, and the matters of which Arda was made, of iron and
stone and silver and gold and many substances: but of all these water they most
greatly praised. And it is said by the Eldar that in water there lives yet the
echo of the Music of the Ainur more than in any substance else that is in this
Earth; and many of the Children of Iluvatar hearken still unsated to the voices
of the Sea, and yet know not for what they listen.
Now to water had that Ainu whom the Elves can Ulmo turned his thought, and of
all most deeply was he instructed by Iluvatar in music. But of the airs and
winds Manwe most had pondered, who is the noblest of the Ainur.
Of the fabric of Earth had Aule thought, to whom Iluvatar had given skin and
knowledge scarce less than to Melkor; but the delight and pride of Aule is in
the deed of making, and in the thing made, and neither m possession nor in his
own mastery; wherefore he gives and hoards not, and is free from care, passing
ever on to some new work.
And Iluvatar spoke to Ulmo, and said: 'Seest thou not how here in this little
realm in the Deeps of Time Melkor hath made war upon thy province? He hath
bethought him of bitter cold immoderate, and yet hath not destroyed the beauty
of thy fountains, nor of my clear pools. Behold the snow, and the cunning work
of frost! Melkor hath devised heats and fire without restraint, and hath not
dried up thy desire nor utterly quelled the music of the sea. Behold rather
the height and glory of the clouds, and the everchanging mists; and listen to
the fall of rain upon the Earth! And in these clouds thou art drawn nearer to
Manwe, thy friend, whom thou lovest.'
Then Ulmo answered: 'Truly, Water is become now fairer than my heart imagined,
neither had my secret thought conceived the snowflake, nor in all my music was
contained the falling of the rain. I will seek Manwe, that he and I may make
melodies for ever to my delight!' And Manwe and Ulmo have from the beginning
been allied, and in all things have served most faithfully the purpose of
Iluvatar.
But even as Ulmo spoke, and while the Ainur were yet gazing upon this vision,
it was taken away and hidden from their sight; and it seemed to them that in
that moment they perceived a new thing, Darkness, which they had not known
before except in thought. But they had become enamoured of the beauty of the
vision and engrossed in the unfolding of the World which came there to being,
and their minds were filled with it; for the history was incomplete and the
circles of time not full-wrought when the vision was taken away. And some have
said that the vision ceased ere the fulfilment of the Dominion of Men and the
fading of the Firstborn; wherefore, though the Music is over all, the Valar
have not seen as with sight the Later Ages or the ending of the World.
Then there was unrest among the Ainur; but Iluvatar called to them, and said:
'I know the desire of your minds that what ye have seen should verily be, not
only in your thought, but even as ye yourselves are, and yet other.
Therefore I say: Ea! Let these things Be! And I will send forth into the Void
the Flame Imperishable, and it shall be at the heart of the World, and the
World shall Be; and those of you that will may go down into it. And suddenly
the Ainur saw afar off a light, as it were a cloud with a living heart of
flame; and they knew that this was no vision only, but that Iluvatar had made a
new thing: Ea, the World that Is.
Thus it came to pass that of the Ainur some abode still with Iluvatar beyond
the confines of the World; but others, and among them many of the greatest and
most fair, took the leave of Iluvatar and descended into it. But this condition
Iluvatar made, or it is the necessity of their love, that their power should
thenceforward be contained and bounded in the World, to be within it for ever,
until it is complete, so that they are its life and it is theirs. And therefore
they are named the Valar, the Powers of the World.
But when the Valar entered into Ea they were at first astounded and at a loss,
for it was as if naught was yet made which they had seen in vision, and all was
but on point to begin and yet unshaped, and it was dark. For the Great Music
had been but the growth and flowering of thought in the Tuneless Halls, and the
Vision only a foreshowing; but now they had entered in at the beginning of
Time, and the Valar perceived that the World had been but foreshadowed and
foresung, and they must achieve it. So began their great labours in wastes
unmeasured and unexplored, and in ages uncounted and forgotten, until in the
Deeps of Time and in the midst of the vast halls of Ea there came to be that
hour and that place where was made the habitation of the Children of Iluvatar.
And in this work the chief part was taken by Manwe and Aule and Ulmo; but
Melkor too was there from the first, and he meddled in all that was done,
turning it if he might to his own desires and purposes; and he kindled great
fires. When therefore Earth was yet young and full of flame Melkor coveted it,
and he said to the other Valar: 'This shall be my own kingdom; and I name it
unto myself!'
But Manwe was the brother of Melkor in the mind of Iluvatar, and he was the
chief instrument of the second theme that Iluvatar had raised up against the
discord of Melkor; and he called unto himself many spirits both greater and
less, and they came down into the fields of Arda and aided Manwe, lest Melkor
should hinder the fulfilment of their labour for ever, and Earth should wither
ere it flowered. And Manwe said unto Melkor: 'This kingdom thou shalt not take
for thine own, wrongfully, for many others have laboured here do less than
thou.' And there was strife between Melkor and the other Valar; and for that
time Melkor withdrew and departed to other regions and did there what he would;
but he did not put the desire of the Kingdom of Arda from his heart.
Now the Valar took to themselves shape and hue; and because they were drawn
into the World by love of the Children of Iluvatar, for whom they hoped, they
took shape after that manner which they had beheld in the Vision of Iluvatar,
save only in majesty and splendour. Moreover their shape comes of their
knowledge of the visible World, rather than of the World itself; and they need
it not, save only as we use raiment, and yet we may be naked and suffer no loss
of our being. Therefore the Valar may walk, if they will, unclad, and then even
the Eldar cannot clearly perceive them, though they be present. But when they
desire to clothe themselves the Valar take upon them forms some as of male and
some as of female; for that difference of temper they had even from their
beginning, and it is but bodied forth in the choice of each, not made by the
choice, even as with us male and female may be shown by the raiment but is not
made thereby. But the shapes wherein the Great Ones array themselves are not at
all times like to the shapes of the kings and queens of the Children of
Iluvatar; for at times they may clothe themselves in their own thought, made
visible in forms of majesty and dread.
And the Valar drew unto them many companions, some less, some well nigh as
great as themselves, and they laboured together in the ordering of the Earth
and the curbing of its tumults. Then Melkor saw what was done, and that the
Valar walked on Earth as powers visible, clad in the raiment of the World, and
were lovely and glorious to see, and blissful, and that the Earth was becoming
as a garden for their delight, for its turmoils were subdued. His envy grew
then the greater within him; and he also took visible form, but because of his
mood and the malice that burned in him that form was dark and terrible. And he
descended upon Arda in power and majesty greater than any other of the Valar,
as a mountain that wades in the sea and has its head above the clouds and is
clad in ice and crowned with smoke and fire; and the light of the eyes of
Melkor was like a flame that withers with heat and pierces with a deadly cold.
Thus began the first battle of the Valar with Melkor for the dominion of Arda;
and of those tumults the Elves know but little. For what has here been declared
is come from the Valar themselves, with whom the Eldalie spoke in the land of
Valinor, and by whom they were instructed; but little would the Valar ever tell
of the wars before the coming of the Elves. Yet it is told among the Eldar that
the Valar endeavoured ever, in despite of Melkor, to rule the Earth and to
prepare it for the coming of the Firstborn; and they built lands and Melkor
destroyed them; valleys they delved and Melkor raised them up; mountains they
carved and Melkor threw them down; seas they hollowed and Melkor spilled them;
and naught might have peace or come to lasting growth, for as surely as the
Valar began a labour so would Melkor undo it or corrupt it. And yet their
labour was not all in vain; and though nowhere and in no work was their will
and purpose wholly fulfilled, and all things were in hue and shape other than
the Valar had at first intended, slowly nonetheless the Earth was fashioned and
made firm. And thus was the habitation of the Children of Iluvatar established
at the last in the Deeps of Time and amidst the innumerable stars.
AINULINDALE