Summary
During the shaping of Arda, Melkor had the upper hand for a long time, until Tulkas descended to Arda and chased him off. With Melkor gone, the Valar shaped Arda according to their design. Yavanna planted seeds all over Middle-earth, and Aulë crafted two great Lamps, one in the north of Middle-earth, one in the south, to give light. The Valar made their dwelling on the Isle of Almaren in the middle of the Great Lake at the center of Middle-earth and held a feast to celebrate their work. But Aulë (due to his skill) and Tulkas (due to his strength) had done most of the work, and were very weary. And when he saw that Tulkas slept, Melkor slipped back into Arda and built a vast underground fortress far in the north of Middle-earth named Utumno, and darkness began to spread in Middle-earth again. The Valar knew Melkor must have returned, but before they could discover his hiding place Melkor attacked the Lamps and cast them down.
In the tumult and destruction brought about by the fall of the Lamps Melkor escaped back to Utumno, and the Valar were too preoccupied in containing the damage to pursue him. Even after the chaos was calmed, they were afraid to make war against Melkor, because they did not know when and where the Children of Ilúvatar would awaken. They did not dare start such a destructive conflict with that uncertainty. Instead, the Valar withdrew from Middle-earth to the western continent of Aman, which they fortified with the great encircling mountains of the Pelóri.
Safe within the Pelóri the Valar made the realm of Valinor. Most of Arda was in darkness and under the dominion of Melkor, but Valinor remained as a blessed land and a vision of the Spring of Arda that was now destroyed forever. And there Yavanna created the Two Trees, Laurelin and Telperion. Valinor was lit by their light, and they were the greatest of all Yavanna’s creations.
But Middle-earth was dark, and largely under the dominion of Melkor. Ulmo still gave thought to Middle-earth, and Oromë would ride there and hunt Melkor’s creatures, and Yavanna would walk there and put her trees and plants to sleep against the time when light would come again, but whenever they would leave Melkor’s dominion would resume.
Regarding the Children of Ilúvatar, Ilúvatar told the Valar (who did not fully understand the Children) that the Firstborn, the Elves, would be the wisest and fairest beings on Arda, and would endure as long as Arda did. They would not die, though they could be killed, at which point they would go to the Halls of Mandos and in time be re-embodied. The younger Children of Ilúvatar, Men, were very strange to the Valar, and Ilúvatar gave them strange gifts. They would have freedom to shape their lives beyond the Song of the Ainur, and would not be content within Arda, and would always seek beyond. And after a brief time in Arda they would pass beyond the world. And when Arda was eventually no more, their voices would be part of the Second Song of the Ainur. What would happen to the Elves after Arda was destroyed Ilúvatar did not say.
Commentary
First thing I want to point out: despite Melkor being the greatest of the Ainur, he is no match at all for Tulkas, who is reasonably far down the Ainur power rankings. In case one needed further evidence that Tolkien did not equate greatness with martial might.
For some help with geography, allow me to present these maps, from Karen Wynn Fonstad’s Atlas of Middle-earth. Note that the world is flat - it’s going to be a long time before it becomes round. The destruction of the Lamps greatly changed the landscape, but even after (the two inland seas formed in the spots where the Lamps had stood) you can see there is a great deal of symmetry to the world, if not quite as much as before. So ends the Spring of Arda, when all of Middle-earth was essentially the Garden of Eden.
The Valar withdrawing to Valinor never sat well with me. I get that they don’t want to rip the world apart when the Elves could be arriving at any time, but even so, they’re basically ceding most of Arda to Melkor’s uncontested dominion. Valinor as a remnant of the Spring of Arda is great and all, but it is very irresponsible stewardship to just let Melkor have his way with the rest of it.
The creation of the Two Trees is hugely significant - much of what happens in the Ages to come arise from that moment when Yavanna brings them forth. It is their light that would be the light of the Silmarils, and would be the source of the light in the Sun and Moon, and on down to Frodo’s Phial. And the White Tree of Gondor is a descendant of them as well:
Then Aragorn cried: ‘Yé! utívienyes! I have found it! Lo! here is a scion of the Eldest of Trees! But how comes it here? For it is not itself yet seven years old.’ And Gandalf coming looked at it, and said: ‘Verily this is a sapling of the line of Nimloth the fair; and that was a seedling of Galathilion, and that a fruit of Telperion of many names, Eldest of Trees. Who shall say how it comes here in the appointed hour? But this is an ancient hallow, and ere the kings failed or the Tree withered in the court, a fruit must have been set here. For it is said that, though the fruit of the Tree comes seldom to ripeness, yet the life within may then lie sleeping through many long years, and none can foretell the time in which it will awake. Remember this. For if ever a fruit ripens, it should be planted, lest the line die out of the world. Here it has lain hidden on the mountain, even as the race of Elendil lay hidden in the wastes of the North. Yet the line of Nimloth is older far than your line, King Elessar.’
Overall, what struck me most here was how dense this was in terms of story. Tulkas chasing off Melkor, the creation and destruction of the Lamps, the construction of Utomno, the retreat to Aman, the raising of the Pelóri, the creation of the Trees, the Gifts of Men - if you'd asked me before I picked the book up for this readalong (not having really read the Sil for several years) I would have said this would have been several chapters worth of stuff. Yet Tolkien packs it into one.
In part this is simply because his telling of them doesn't match their importance - he goes through all of this quickly and with little detail, especially when one considers coming chapters such as Túrin's. But their outsized presence in my mind reflects just how weighty these matters are.
So now we're past the prologue-ish material, and into the Sil proper. Thoughts? I'm especially curious to hear from first timers, and from people who have tried before but never managed to really get into it.
Next up, we learn that Dwarves and Ents be the way they be because “Of Aulë and Yavanna.”
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