J. R. R. Tolkien: The Silmarillion
The Music of the Ainur
There was Eru, the One, who in Arda is called Ilúvatar; 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 the mind of
Ilúvatar 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 Ilúvatar 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 Ilúvatar and were silent.
Then Ilúvatar 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
will 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
Ilúvatar 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 Ilúvatar 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 Ilúvatar by the choirs of the Ainur and the Children
of Ilúvatar after the end of days. Then the themes of Ilúvatar
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
Ilúvatar shall give to their thoughts the secret fire, being
well pleased.
But now Ilúvatar 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 Ilúvatar; 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 Ilúvatar took
no thought for the Void, and he was impatient of its emptiness.
Yet he found not the Fire, for it is with Ilúvatar. 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 Ilúvatar 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 he assuaged.
Then Ilúvatar 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
Ilúvatar 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
Ilúvatar, 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 Ilúvatar
shook and a tremor ran out into the silences yet unmoved,
Ilúvatar 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 Ilúvatar, the Music ceased.
Then Ilúvatar 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 Ilúvatar, 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 wonderfull, 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 Ilúvatar 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, Ilúvatar said to them:
`Behold your Music!' And he showed to them a vision, giving to
them sight where before was only hearing; and 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, Ilúvatar 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.'
And many other things Ilúvatar spoke to the Ainur at that
time, and because of their memory of his words, and the knowledge
that each has of the music that he himself made, the Ainur know
much of what was, and is, and is to come, and few things are
unseen by them. Yet some things there are that they cannot see,
neither alone nor taking counsel together; for to none but
himself has Ilúvatar revealed all that he has in store, and in
every age there come forth things that are new and have no
foretelling for they do not proceed from the past. And so it was
that as this vision of the World was played before them, the
Ainur saw that it contained things which they had not thought.
And they saw with amazement the coming of the Children of
Ilúvatar, and the habitation that was prepared for them; and
they perceived that they themselves in the labour of their music
had been busy with the preparation of this dwelling, and yet knew
not that it had any purpose beyond its own beauty. For the
Children of Ilúvatar were conceived by him alone; and they came
with the third theme, and were not in the theme which Ilúvatar
propounded at the beginning, and none of the Ainur had part in
their making. Therefore when they beheld them, the more did they
love them, being things other than themselves, strange and free,
wherein they saw the mind of Ilúvatar reflected anew, and
learned yet a little more of his wisdom, which otherwise had been
hidden even from the Ainur.
Now the Children of Ilúvatar 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 Ilúvatar 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 s611
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 Ilúvatar
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 Ilúvatar, 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 Ilúvatar promised to
endow them; and he wished himself to have subjects 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 Ilúvatar 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 call Ulmo turned his
thought, and of all most deeply was he instructed by Ilúvatar in
music. But of the airs and winds Manwë most had pondered, who is
the noblest of the Ainur. Of the fabric of Earth had Aulë
thought, to whom Ilúvatar had given skill and knowledge scare
less than to Melkor; but the delight and pride of Aulë is in the
deed of making, and in the thing made, and neither in 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 Ilúvatar 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 thy 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 are drawn nearer to
Manwë, 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 Manwë, that he and I may make melodies for
ever to thy delight!' And Manwë and Ulmo have from the beginning
been allied, and in all things have served most faithfully the
purpose of Ilúvatar.
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 Ilúvatar 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: Eä! 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 Ilúvatar had made a new thing: Eä, the
World that Is.
Thus it came to pass that of the Ainur some abode still with
Ilúvatar beyond the confines of the World; but others, and among
them many of the greatest and most fair, took the leave of
Ilúvatar and descended into it. But this condition Ilúvatar
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 Eä 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 Timeless 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 Eä there came to be that
hour and that place where was made the habitation of the Children
of Ilúvatar. And in this work the chief part was taken by Manwë
and Aulë 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 Manwë was the brother of Melkor in the mind of Ilúvatar,
and be was the chief instrument of the second theme that
Ilúvatar 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 Manwë, lest Melkor
should hinder the fulfilment of their labour for ever, and Earth
should wither ere it flowered. And Manwë said unto Melkor: `This
kingdom thou shalt not take for thine own, wrongfully, for many
others have laboured here no 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
Ilúvatar, for whom they hoped, they took shape after that manner
which they had beheld in the Vision of Ilúvatar, 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 Ilúvatar; 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 Eldalië 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 Ilúvatar established at the last in the Deeps of
Time and amidst the innumerable stars.
The End