Lord of the Rings: The Animated Musical | Races: Valar, Part 1

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A black, white, and dark blue striped header image with the text Lord of the Rings: The Animated Musical Races: Valar, Part 1

I previously created illustrations for some Maiar, who act as a combination of angels and minor gods in the Legendarium. This week and for the next two weeks, I will talk about Valar, similar to archangels and major gods. This is a slight deviation from what I originally mentioned at the end of “Appendix F, II On Translation” but between the essays getting a bit too long of late, the end-of-year holiday season in full swing, and having an actual job plus side business, I thought a more relaxed pace would be a decent course of action.

While only a few members of this race were mentioned in The Lord of the Rings, much information on Valar comes from “Valaquenta” in The Silmarillion. Some groups of Valar considered themselves siblings, perhaps because they were made by Ilúvatar at the same time or with a similar appearance. Spouses apparently did not consider themselves siblings, unlike Greco-Roman gods who had no issue with incest. The top eight Valar were called the Aratar, or “High Ones of Arda” (The Silmarillion, 29); much like the “lesser” Maiar, they had a definitive ranking system. In order, the Aratar were Manwë, Varda, Ulmo, Yavanna, Aulë, Mandos, Nienna, and Oromë. This week will focus on the top five Aratar, and subsequent weeks will focus on the other Aratar and their spouses, plus one detractor. While Tolkien considered giving children to Valar in earlier drafts, he ultimately decided that they would be childless, although they would assist in the creation of races, including Elves, Men, Dwarves, Ents, and likely Orcs, but apparently not Hobbits.

Manwë

Commander of the Eagles and king of the Ainur, the word for both Valar and Maiar, Manwë was the most powerful of the Valar, making him #1 of the Aratar. His name in Quenya meant “blessed one”, and like most famous people in the Legendarium, he had several additional names, including the epithet Súlimo meaning “Breather”, a suggestion that he controlled the wind or air. This is similar to the Judeo-Christian concept of God breathing life into the world (Genesis 1:30) including humans (Genesis 2:7). For appearance, Manwë had blue eyes, wore blue robes, and carried a scepter of sapphire made by Ñoldor Elves (Silmarillion, 40), but Vanyar were still his favorite. The Maia Eönwë was the personal attendant for Manwë and his wife Varda, while Olórin who became Gandalf was their messenger.

A tall man with long blond hair and beard wearing blue robes and holding up a sapphire septre against a starry night sky

Manwë was considerably more relaxed and forgiving than most god-kings in Western mythology. Zeus or Jupiter of Greco-Roman mythology was famous for his many wives, concubines, and other women who caught his attention, not to mention that he would throw lightning bolts at anyone in his way. Both god-kings lived at the top of a mountain with Zeus’ mountain being Mount Olympus, and Manwë’s mountain being Mount Taniquetil in Arda (Silmarillion, 26).

Odin or Wotan (with a myriad of spelling variants) of Norse-Germanic mythology was another god-king. While many Tolkien scholars believe this god had more influence on Gandalf, his rule over the other gods as a one-eyed wise man from his palace of Valhalla bore resemblance to Manwë’s rule from Oiolossë, “the uttermost tower of Taniquetil” (Silmarillion, 26). Similar to Zeus, Odin liked the ladies and had many children.

Kings of gods exist in other mythologies, although they likely had a lesser influence on Tolkien’s writing. In Ancient Mesopotamia, and later in Babylon and Assyria, Marduk was the final king of gods and a co-creator god. The Enuma Elish, a creation myth, described how he ended a war between the gods by assassinating his rivals. In Ancient Egypt, Amun-Ra was the official king of gods along with his work as the morning sun, last mentioned in “Races: Maiar, Environment & Craft”, while Canaanites famously worshipped the cattle god Baal-Hadad as the king, referenced frequently in the Old Testament of the Bible (Numbers 25:3).

Outside of the West, Indra was the king of gods in Vedic religions including Hinduism and Buddhism. Like Zeus, he is a god of storms, including thunder and lightning, which is called vajra in Sanskrit. Unsurprisingly, Indra had numerous affairs and used disguises to win over unsuspecting women. In China during the Shang dynasty from 1660 to 1046 BC, the god of heaven Shangdi was the greatest deity and also controlled the weather, hence the similar names. Beginning in 1007 AD during the Song Dynasty, the Jade Emperor or Yu-huang Shandi took on this role, and he had several wives to act as patron goddesses for various aspects of daily life.

For Polynesia religion, Hawaii has Kāne who formed the universe. Nearby Tahitians and Māori of New Zealand call this god Tāne, where he appeared in a family. Papatūānuku the Mother Earth and Ranginui the Father Sky were his parents, while Tangaroa the sea god and Rongo the agrarian god were his brothers. Over in South America, Maya had a plethora of gods who might be considered kings. Itzamná was one candidate from before Spanish colonization, as he ruled the heavens and was sometimes split into a quartet of gods symbolizing the four directions. After the introduction of Catholicism, Hunab Ku became a syncretic god of the Maya pantheon, combining aspects of Itzamná with the Christian God.

For people of modern-day Mexico, Quetzalcóatl or the Feathered Serpent was similar to a king of gods. The characterization of the god underwent radical changes from his beginnings as an agrarian god for Teotihuacán people from the 3rd to 8th centuries AD to a war and human sacrifice god for Toltec people during the 9th to 12th centuries AD and a priest-king symbolizing death and resurrection for Aztec people by the 14th to 16th centuries AD. The final aspect fit nicely into the Catholicism brought by Spanish colonists.

Varda

Varda was “Queen of the Valar, maker of the stars” (Silmarillion, 40) and called Elbereth in Sindarin. While her husband Manwë was technically in charge, making her #2 of the Aratar, one has the impression that Varda was actually in charge, in contrast to the abused wives of king gods in other pantheons. Varda shows the syncretism of Tolkien’s invented religion, as her aspects include the powers of a queen goddess found in pantheons along with the benevolence of the Virgin Mary who is venerated in Catholicism and Orthodox Christianity, although less recognized in Protestant Christianity.

A tall woman with long brown hair covered by a translucent shawl wearing a light blue dress and dark brown robe with a star pattern. Between her outstretched hands are seven stars.

In Greco-Roman mythology, Hera or Juno was the queen goddess and patron to mothers and families. She lived on Mount Olympus with the other major gods and rightfully harangued her cheating husband but frequently turned her wrath towards his victims. Hera’s exploits also included throwing her newborn son Hephaistos off Mount Olympus because he was ugly. In Norse-Germanic mythology, Frigg was the queen goddess and a fertility goddess, somewhat similar to Hera. Odin was much more respectful to Frigg than Zeus was to Hera, and while Hera was always faithful to Zeus, Frigg evidently liked the boys as much as Odin liked the ladies, so she kept her own palace apart from Odin.

Over in Ancient Mesopotamia, the Sumerian goddess Inanna was the “Queen of Heaven”, while she later merged with the Babylonian and Assyrian goddess Ishtar and the Phoenician goddess Astarte or Asherah. She appeared in the Old Testament due to Asherah poles (Exodus 34:13) erected by her devotees, which included some Israelites. In some mythologies, she was the twin sister of the sun god Utu or Shamash, while in The Epic of Gilgamesh, she was the more powerful sister of the hero.

Returning again to cultures beyond the West, Indrāni is the wife of Indra in Hinduism. Similar to Odin and Frigg, the pair apparently had an open relationship. Besides her position as a seer and enchantress, Indrāni spent much of her time casting spells against her husband’s lesser wives. Over in China, the Jade Empress was the head wife of Jade Emperor and seemed to have played a supporting role to her superior husband. In Polynesia, a true queen goddess is absent, as Tāne or Kāne struggles to maintain healthy relationships. Quetzalcóatl of the Aztecs likewise did not have a wife. For Maya, the moon goddess Ixchel may have been the female aspect of the king god Itzamná, who became conflated with the Virgin Mary.

One epithet of Mary in the Catholic and Orthodox churches is “Queen of Heaven” or Regina Caeli in Latin. The Catholic Church published an official explanation about the title in October 1954, the same year that The Fellowship of the Ring and The Two Towers were published. Their rationale was that her son Jesus was the heavenly king of the universe, so Mary would rule heaven. Not to be forgotten was Mary’s toughness, emphasized through Medieval manuscripts and Renaissance paintings that depicted her fighting demons. I imagine Varda was more of this persuasion than the more serene depictions found in the post-medieval period.

A tall blond man and a woman with a blue dress standing against a starry night sky. Between the man and the woman is a person half their height with long brown hair and a dark blue robe. To the right of the woman is another smaller person with a grey robe and white hair. In the background is an eagle standing on a rock.

Ulmo

My commentary on Ulmo, Aratar #3, will be fairly brief, as I have written quite a bit about the sea and water gods during “Perspectives on the Sea” and during my installments on Maiar when talking about his two favorite Maiar, Uinen and Ossë. For a quick review, Poseidon or Neptune was the Greco-Roman god who ruled over the sea, while Okeanos or Oceanus was the sea itself. For Egyptians, the watery chaos before creation and the annual flooding of the Nile River was because of Nu or Nun while the contemporary Mediterranean Sea was Wadj-wer or Uat-ur (https://www.worldhistory.org/Uat-Ur/). Sumerians, Babylonians, and Assyrians had a pair of water gods: fresh water Apsu and salt water Tiamat. For Norse-Germanic mythology, the jötunn Ægir, also called Gymir, was the personification of the sea, while the god Njörðr ruled over the sea along with the wind.

A tall man with blue skin, green seaweed hair and beard, and a kilt with an ocean wave pattern. In the background is the sea and a clear blue sky.

In Western Africa, Yoruba worship the orisha spirit Olokun as ruler of the sea. In Vedic Hinduism, also known as Brahmanism and an earlier phase of the religion that developed between 1100 BC and 500 BC, Lord Varuna was god of both sea and sky. Today, he is not considered as important but still protects the waters. Wrapping up sea gods, Mazo is a deified lifeguard from coastal China, Nāmaka is a vengeful water goddess from Hawai’i, and Tangaroa is the Māori sea god.

For the ruler of the waters in the Catholic tradition, look no further than Mary, who has the epithet of “Our Lady, Star of the Sea”. This title arose from what we historians call “an oops” sometime in the European medieval period. Theologian Jerome of Stridon, called Saint Jerome by the Catholic Church, lived from the mid-4th century AD to the early 5th century AD and was known for his translations of older theological writing. He translated Liber de Nominibus Hebraicis [Book of Hebrew Names] written by Philo of Alexandria, a Hellenistic Jewish man, or one who had adopted some aspects of Greek culture, who lived in the early 1st century AD in Egypt while the region was under Roman occupation.

With so many layers of culture influencing both the handwritten original work, the handwritten translation, and the handwritten copies of that work, something was bound to get confused. Philo thought the name Miryam came from the uncommon Hebrew element “mar” meaning “drop” and very common Hebrew element “yam” meaning sea; I personally would have gone with “mar” meaning “bitter”, since this Hebrew element by itself was a woman’s name (Ruth 1:20). Modern scholars actually believe this is an Egyptian name, since the original Miriam was born in Egypt, and the name sounds like the Ancient Egypt word for “beloved”. At any rate, Jerome offered the Latin translation stilla maris, meaning “drop of the sea”, for the Philo interpretation. A subsequent transcriber misread stilla maris as stella maris, “star of the sea”, and an epitaph was born.

For whatever reason, no one thought to double check this for a very long time. Consequently, many songs written in admiration of Mary were written with this incorrect title. “Ave maris stella” was written in the 9th century by an unknown author, although credit had previously gone to 12th century saint Bernard of Clairvaux, not to be confused with 11th century saint Bernard of Menthon for whom the dogs are named. “Hail, Queen of Heaven, the Ocean Star” was written in English by Catholic priest and historian John Lingard and seems to have inspired Tolkien in writing his recurring Elvish hymn “A Elbereth Gilthoniel”.

Three people with matching blue skin and green seaweed hair. The large male figure is twice the size of the small figures, one male and one female. They wear matching kilts and stand on the shore next to the ocean.

Yavanna

Aratar #4 was Yavanna Kementári, “the Giver of Fruit” (Silmarillion, 27). She was tall and wore green while in a humanoid form, and she appeared as a tree by the waters of Ulmo. This made her the original model for what I call “human to tree theory”, that people and plants in Arda existed on a continuum, with Men being the closest to anatomically modern humans, Elves sharing the longevity of trees and the ability to be “born of the woods”, Ents being tree-like giants, Huons being sentient and moving trees, and at last were the plants we know in the real-world. Since Yavanna appeared both as a giant woman and a tree, she encompassed the entire continuum.

Yavanna even worked with Ilúvatar to create the Ents, “Shepherds of the Trees” (Silmarillion, 46). Her favorite Maia was Melian, described as “akin before the World was made to Yavanna herself” (Silmarillion, 55). While the word “akin” literally means “related by blood”, the text was more likely implying the figurative meaning, that they were “allied by nature” and had the same personality. Melian married Thingol, a Sindar Elf of Doriath whose kin Legolas would be born of the woods many generations later.

A tall, muscular, barefoot woman with green hair wearing a green and brown dress with fruit appliqué on the hem. Pink flower petals flutter in the background.

Since Melian was an agrarian deity, Yavanna must have been a level higher, making her an earth deity or personification of nature. Ancient cultures were split over whether the earth was masculine (A400.0.1 in Thompson’s Motif Index) or feminine (A400.1), although most cultures chose the latter. In the masculine category was Geb of Ancient Egypt, who separated from Nut the sky, as seen in motif A625.1 “Heaven-mother—earth-father”. With him was the Green Man motif, which appeared in Gothic architecture throughout England and France. Lady Raglan, also known as Julia Hamilton Somerset, incorrectly supposed these carvings to be of ancient, pagan origin, and the theory persists in modern folklore. He even appears in the motifs A430 “God of vegetation” and F440.1 “Green vegetation spirit”.

In the feminine category was Gaia or Terra of Greco-Roman Mythology; the Mesopotamian goddess Kishar; the Norse goddess Jörð; the Vedic Hindu goddess call Prithvi, Madhavi, or Bhoomi; the Chinese Taoist goddess Hòutǔ; and the Polynesian goddess Papa. All of these goddess fall into the motif A401 “Mother Earth”, a concept that has been revitalized in modern neo-paganism.

Aulë

I have decided that Aulë, Aratar #5, is my favorite Vala, even though his inability to schedule and plan at his smithy led his employees to have mental breakdowns (which is relatable) and turn to evil (which is not). While his chaotic workshop was filled with Maiar, the best known were Mairon who became Sauron and Curumo who became Saruman. Aulë loved making crafts to share or solve problems. One of his crafts were Dwarves, who call him Mahal or “Maker” in Khuzdul. He made them out of earth and stone (Silmarillion, 44), exemplifying my “human to stone” theory, with a continuum including Men as anatomically modern humans, Dwarves as “stone-hard” people, Trolls as people made of stone, sentient stones who talk in “night speech” and antagonistic mountains, and real-world stones.

A tall man with braided hair and beard decorated with metal beads. He wears a leather apron and holds a hammer in one hand and a piece of metal in the other hand.

Unfortunately, Aulë was not supposed to make Dwarves. Although he loved them very much, he did not have the power of Ilúvatar to create life, and his children had no free will. He was about to destroy them until Ilúvatar stopped him, granted free will to the Dwarves, and insisted they take a long nap under the mountains until the Elves got established. Other projects included a chain to bind the wicked Vala Melkor and sky boats for Arien the Sun Maia and Tilion the Moon Maia.

The connections on being an early smith god, sharing fire, and creating humanity — I consider all the Races of Arda to be human—most aligned with the Greco-Roman god Prometheus. This type of character is so distinct and yet so prevalent in mythology that he receives his own motifs: A1071.2 “Forging of chain for fettered monster” and A1414 “Origin of fire”, especially A1414.4 “Origin of fire—gift from god”. While Aulë did not need to steal fire (A1415), this was a major element in other Promethean type myths. In fact, this is the major difference between him and others of his type, including the Mesopotamian trickster god Enki, the Polynesian trickster god Maui, the Chinese sage Suiren or “Fire Maker”, and the Vedic Hindu hero Mātariśvan.

The concept of Prometheus has greatly attracted Western writers for thousands of years. The Boeotian epic poet Hesiod wrote an early version of the story into his Theogony in the 8th century BC, while the Athenian playwright Aeschylus altered parts of the storyline and produced Prometheus Bound in the 5th century BC. Closer to the modern era, Percy Bysshe Shelley wrote the lyrical drama Prometheus Unbound in 1820 based on Aeschylus’ work, and his wife Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin Shelley wrote a more popular version, Frankenstein; or, the Modern Prometheus in 1818 to found the science fiction genre. Opera composer Richard Wagner even took inspiration from Aeschylus’ Prometheus Bound when creating Der Ring des Nibelungen. The Rhinemaidens did not originate in the oldest Norse mythology; instead, they mirror the Oceanids or water nymphs of Greek mythology who sang in a chorus for Prometheus Bound.

A tall man with braided hair and beard next to a taller, strong woman with green hair. The man holds two dwarves while one hangs on his shoulder, another hugs his leg, and two others look up at him. To the left of the man, a person with long blond hair looks up at him aghaust. In front of the woman, a smaller woman or girl stands in a similar position. To the right and behind the tall woman is another smaller figure with black hair.

Conclusion

The pantheon of Valar in Tolkien’s Legendarium bears strong similarities to pantheons in real-world religions but was strongly influenced by the author’s Catholic faith. The worship of Varda is closer to the veneration of Mary than any goddess, while the values of the pantheon are distinctly Christian. Even with the Christianization of Greco-Roman and Norse-Germanic myths throughout the medieval period and Victorian era, these ancient stories did not come as close to expressing the values of progressive Western Christians during the early 20th century. Through close comparative analysis, the reader can see how Tolkien attempted to construct a national or international legend based on his ideology and that of his peers. While not all of his stories were politically correct by modern standards, neither were the stories upon which they were based.

A group portrait with the blond man in the blue robes, the brown haired woman in the dark blue star coat, the man with the braided hair and beard, the woman with green hair, and the man with blue skin plus green seaweed hair and beard.

Next week, I will discuss five more Valar: Mandos, Vairë, Nienna, Oromë, and Vána. The final week will feature Lórien, Estë, Tulkas, Nessa, and Melkor. After that, I will be on break for two weeks. Stay tuned for new types of media coming to the blog in the new year!


Read past installments of Lord of the Rings: The Animated Musical