A music, two lamps, two trees, a sun made from a last fruit, and a world bent into a globe. Tolkien's cosmology is a story of light. Move the time control and watch Arda change shape — and switch to the late round-world thought that Tolkien sketched but never carried through.
The planetarium of Arda
Before Time
The Music
In the beginning there is Eru, the One, whom the Elves call Ilúvatar. He makes the Ainur from his thought and gives them a theme; from their singing grows the Great Music. Melkor, the mightiest of them, weaves thoughts of his own into it, and twice Ilúvatar raises a new theme against the discord, until the Music ends in a single chord.
Then Ilúvatar shows the Ainur what they have sung: a vision of the world and its history. With the word Eä it is given being. Those Ainur who descend into it to shape it are called the Valar, the Powers of Arda; Melkor descends with them and claims the world for his own.
In the round-world thought
Tolkien's late notes keep the Music, but change what it makes: Arda is to be an island in the void amid innumerable stars, and the Sun coeval with the Earth. Christopher Tolkien found the manuscripts marked "Old Flat World Version" and "Round World Version" in his father's hand.
The Valar shape the Earth as a flat world, enclosed by the Encircling Sea. Aulë forges two mighty lamps, Varda fills them with light, Manwë hallows them: Illuin stands on a pillar in the north, Ormal in the south. Where their light mingles, in the midst of the world, lies the lake with the isle of Almaren, the first dwelling of the Valar. Yavanna's seeds sprout; it is the Spring of Arda.
Melkor returns from the outer darkness and delves the fortress of Utumno in the north. From there he casts down the Lamps. Their fall ruins the Earth: fire and flood destroy Almaren; where Illuin's pillar stood the inland Sea of Helcar remains, in the south the Sea of Ringil. The Valar leave Middle-earth and go west, to Aman.
In the round-world thought
In the round-world thought there is no disc and no Encircling Sea: the Earth is a globe in the void, and the Sun already shines. The Lamps lose their task — the Spring of Arda would need another light.
Morgoth's Ring, Part Five, Myths Transformed„an island in the void 'amidst the innumerable stars'“
The Years of the Trees
The Trees
In Aman the Valar raise the Pelóri, the highest mountains of the world, and behind them Valinor. Before the western gate of Valmar lies the green mound Ezellohar; there Yavanna sings the Two Trees into being: Telperion with silver light, Laurelin with gold. Each tree wakes and wanes in seven hours, and from their alternating glow comes the first reckoning of time, the Years of the Trees.
Middle-earth stays in the twilight of the stars. Varda gathers Telperion's silver dew and sets new constellations in the sky, Menelmacar and the Sickle of the Valar. In that same hour the Elves awake by the lake of Cuiviénen, on the eastern shore of the Sea of Helcar. In the north, though, Melkor's fortresses grow: Utumno deep under the earth and Angband near the western coast, commanded by Sauron.
In the round-world thought
With a Sun from the beginning, the Trees can no longer be the world's first light. Tolkien's late notes make them a keeping-place of a light older than Melkor's marring — a thought he sketched, never carried through.
The Silmarillion, Quenta Silmarillion, ch. 1, Of the Beginning of Days„In seven hours the glory of each tree waxed to full and waned again to naught“
The Silmarillion, Quenta Silmarillion, ch. 3, Of the Coming of the Elves„That stronghold was commanded by Sauron, lieutenant of Melkor; and it was named Angband“
Melkor, now named Morgoth, and the spider Ungoliant poison the Trees; Valinor is darkened, the Silmarils are stolen. From Telperion's last flower and Laurelin's last fruit the Valar make two vessels. The Maia Arien steers the Sun, Tilion the Moon. The Moon rises first and crosses the sky seven times before the Sun rises in the West; with its first rising begin the Years of the Sun, and in the East, in Hildórien, Men awake.
The Valar hide Valinor: they raise the Pelóri higher, set the Enchanted Isles into the Shadowy Seas and leave only one gap open, the Calacirya. The world remains flat, but the West is now closed.
In the round-world thought
A Sun that has always been there needs no making from a last fruit. In the late thought the Darkening is an assault on a light already old — and the Moon alone remains the younger of the two.
Ar-Pharazôn, the last king of Númenor, leads his fleet against Aman to seize everlasting life by force. The Valar lay down their guardianship and call upon Ilúvatar. He changes the fashion of the world: Númenor founders, Aman and Tol Eressëa are taken out of the circles of the world, new lands and seas are made, and the Earth becomes round.
For mortals every way west now leads back to where it began. Only the Elves may still sail on: their ships find the Straight Road, which leaves the curved sea and reaches Aman.
In the round-world thought
A world round from the start needs no bending. In the late retelling of the Downfall the Earth is not remade — Númenor drowns, and the West becomes a memory no ship can reach.
Fourteen seats in the Máhanaxar before the gates of Valmar, where the Valar sit in council: seven Lords, seven Queens, spouses side by side. One seat stands empty — Melkor is no longer counted among them. Touch a seat to read who sits there; the eight Aratar, the mightiest, are marked.
Manwë is the mightiest of the Valar and was appointed by Ilúvatar to hold chief rule over Arda. Together with his spouse Varda he dwells atop Mount Taniquetil, watching over the world through the winds and the eagles that serve him. Though bound to Melkor as brethren in the thought of Ilúvatar, he claims no dominion over evil and instead upholds Ilúvatar's design for the whole world.
Queen of the Valar; Star-Kindler, most beloved of the Elves
Varda, called Elbereth by the Elves, is the greatest of the Valier and the spouse of Manwë; together they dwell atop Taniquetil, the highest mountain in Valinor. She wrought the stars of the sky, including the ancient constellations and, later, new stars kindled for the awakening of the Elves, who revere her above all the Valar. Her name is invoked as a ward against fear and darkness, most famously in the hymn sung at Rivendell and by hobbits facing Shelob and the Nazgûl.
Ulmo is one of the Valar, the mighty Lord of Waters who dwells in the Outer Sea and governs every river and ocean of Arda. Second in might only to Manwë, he loves the Children of Ilúvatar and often works in secret to guide and warn Elves and Men against Morgoth's designs, speaking to them through dreams, visions, and the voice of running water.
Aulë is one of the Valar, the great smith and craftsman among the Powers of Arda, whose skill shaped the very substance of the world. Husband of Yavanna, he taught lore and craft to the Noldor, above all Fëanor, and out of longing for pupils of his own secretly fashioned the Dwarves before the Elves awoke.
Yavanna is one of the Valier, the great female Valar, known as the Giver of Fruits and Queen of the Earth. She is the spouse of Aulë and holds dominion over all things that grow, from the mightiest trees to the smallest plant. It was Yavanna who sang the Two Trees of Valinor into being, whose light illumined the Blessed Realm before the making of the Sun and Moon. Fearing for the safety of trees and living things, she also moved Manwë to send guardians to watch over the wild lands of Middle-earth.
Oromë is one of the Aratar, the eight mightiest of the Valar, and the great hunter among them. He alone of the Lords rode often into Middle-earth while it lay in darkness, hunting the monsters of Melkor; it was on such a ride that he came upon the newly awakened Elves at Cuiviénen and summoned them west. He rides the horse Nahar and blows the horn Valaróma. Less strong than Tulkas, he is more terrible in anger.
Vána bears the title Ever-young and ranks among the seven Valier. She is wedded to Oromë and sister to Yavanna. In the Elvish of Valinor her name stands in the roll of the Queens beside Varda, Yavanna, Nienna, Estë, Vairë, and Nessa. Together with the Lords those Queens make up the Valar, the great Powers of Arda whom Men have often treated as deities; Melkor is no longer numbered with them.
sister of Oromë, spouse of Tulkas; lithe and fleetfooted
Nessa is the sister of Oromë and the spouse of Tulkas. She is lithe and fleetfooted, swifter than any living thing; deer are dear to her, and they gather about her when she goes out into the wild. She delights in dance, and dances on the never-fading green of Valimar.
surnamed Astaldo, the Valiant; greatest in strength
Tulkas is the greatest of the Valar in strength and deeds of prowess, surnamed Astaldo, the Valiant. Of all the Powers he reached Arda last, entering the earliest struggles against Melkor, and it was his arrival that turned them. He delights in wrestling and contests of strength, has no need of steed, and holds no grudge; neither what has been nor what is to come occupies him, and counsel is not his gift, but no friend stands firmer. His spouse is Nessa.
Estë is the spouse of Irmo and the gentlest of the Valier. She is the healer of hurts and of weariness; grey is her raiment, and rest is her gift. By day she does not walk, but sleeps upon an island in the lake Lórellin, and from her fountains all who dwell in Valinor draw refreshment.
master of visions and dreams, called Lórien after his gardens
Irmo is the younger of the two Fëanturi, the masters of spirits, and the brother of Námo (Mandos). He is the master of visions and dreams, and his gardens in Valinor — Lórien, after which he is most often named — are the fairest place in the world and a refuge of rest and healing. His spouse is Estë the gentle.
Vairë the Weaver is the spouse of Námo, called Mandos. Everything that has happened in Time goes into the webs she weaves, and the halls of Mandos are hung with them — a record of the world's history that grows as the history itself grows.
Doomsman of the Valar, keeper of the houses of the dead
Mandos, whose true name is Námo, is one of the Aratar, the mightiest of the Valar, and serves as their doomsman, pronouncing judgments at the bidding of Manwë. He dwells in the halls named for him in western Valinor, where the spirits of dead and weary Elves are gathered to await release. His spouse is Vairë the Weaver, who records all that comes to pass. He is best remembered for uttering the Doom of the Noldor after their rebellion against the Valar.
Nienna is one of the Valier, the queens of the Valar, and ranks among the Aratar, the mightiest of her order. She grieves for every hurt that Melkor's discord has brought into the world, and from her sorrow she draws pity, patience, and the wisdom to turn mourning into hope. She dwells apart from the other Valar, on the western borders of Aman near the halls of Mandos, and it was she who taught these virtues to the Maia Olórin, later known in Middle-earth as Gandalf.
The Maiar are Ainur of lesser might who came into the world with the Valar and serve them. The Valaquenta names a few of them, the tales more. Each court below shows who belonged to whom in Valinor; the switch shows what became of them — 7 of them left their court: to Melkor, or as messengers and queens to Middle-earth.
The Valar were not always fourteen. In The Book of Lost Tales, written from 1916, they are "Gods" with children, a war-god and his sister, a singer who knows all tongues. Sixty years of revision pared them down. Left, the earliest layer; right, what the published Silmarillion made of it.
Lost Tales
Manwë and Varda have children, Fionwë-Úrion and Erinti; a host of fair spirits dwells about them.
The Book of Lost Tales, Part One, The Coming of the Elves and the Making of Kôr (commentary)„Here Nornorë is the Herald of the Gods; afterwards this was Fionwë (later Eönwë)“
Lost Tales
Makar and his fierce sister Meássë, spirits of quarrelsome mood, keep a grim hall of iron near Mandos.
Both vanish without trace; the Valar have no gods of strife.
The Book of Lost Tales, Part One, The Coming of the Valar and the Building of Valinor„Makar and his fierce sister Meássë built them a dwelling of themselves“
Lost Tales
Ómar, called Amillo, youngest of the great Valar, knows all songs in all speeches.
The Book of Lost Tales, Part One, The Coming of the Valar and the Building of Valinor„Last of all came Ómar who is called Amillo, youngest of the great Valar“
Lost Tales
Fui Nienna is the spouse of Vefántur Mandos; the brothers are the Fánturi.
The Book of Lost Tales, Part One, The Coming of the Valar and the Building of Valinor„The one was the spouse of Mandos, and is known to all as Fui Nienna“
Everything on this page carries a canon mark. The published cosmology comes from The Silmarillion, edited after Tolkien's death; the round world is a thought from his late papers, printed in Morgoth's Ring — sketched, argued with himself, never carried into the tales.