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Ainulindal (Quenya; IPA: [a?nu'lindale]; Music of the Ainur, also known as The
Great Music, and The Great Song[1]) is the initial chapter of The Silmarillion,
edited and published by Christopher Tolkien after his father's death. As part of
the Tolkien Middle-earth cycle, Ainulindal plays the role of its cosmogony, or
creation story. Many of the themes and storylines revealed in the later histories
(in The Lord of the Rings, for example) find their first expression in Ainulindal.
Contents[show]
SummaryEdit
The Ainur and the Matter of their MusicEdit
The opening paragraphs of Ainulindal concern the time before the creation of the
World and before the beginning of Time. First to be named is Eru Ilvatar ('Father
of All', also called Eru 'the One, He that is Alone'). Ilvatar makes the Ainur
(meaning 'Holy Ones', singular form Ainu) by manifesting his concepts as living
beings. Upon their creation, when nothing else yet is made, Ilvatar teaches the
Ainur the art of 'Music', which becomes their life and work.
The next lines speak to the maturation of the Ainur and the cultivation of Heavens
Music into the First Theme. Heaven becomes filled with the making of Music. With
each Ainu comprehending at first only those secondary ideas and themes most closely
related to that primary idea-theme-thought of Ilvatars which pre-figured itself,
these creative musical elaborations only gradually, through exposure to each other,
become collaborative. The compositions revolve around themes given to each Ainu by
Ilvatar, which themes correspond respectively to those primary themes/concepts
embodied in each Ainu that indeed are each Ainu. Through listening and
contemplation, an Ainu becomes aware of other Ainur, other musics, and the
cultivation and adornment of other themes.

After a time of Music, Ilvatar proposes a first 'great' design/theme/plan to all

the Ainur at once. He charges them with the collective elaboration of this great
design/plan/theme.

While it is true that the Ainur are Ilvatars thoughts embodied, they each have a
life of their own, and are expected to utilize their 'freedom' by cultivating the
grand theme. Only in the future, at the 'end of days', will all the created beings
of Ilvatar fully understand not only the divinely provided concepts and themes
they each personally embody, but how each relates to all the others and fits (as
per Ilvatars intentions) in the entire greater scheme.

Melkor and the Great Music of the AinurEdit

1. Melkor is introduced, and the Ainur begin their Chorus. The first Ainu to be
named in the histories, Melkor ('Arises in Might') is described as the most
powerful of the Ainur and as knowing much of Ilvatars thoughts, including
something of each of the primary themes that prefigure the other Ainur. He develops
impatience with the schooling process of thematic elaboration: like a precocious
child, Melkor begins thinking of certain musical ideas and themes as being 'all his
own', and he feels compelled to develop them apace. Melkor even harbors the desire
to externally manifest his ideas (private ideas, as he thinks them) and to become a
creator of beings himself. When the choirs of the Ainur finally embark on the fully
collaborative elaboration of Ilvatars grand plan, Melkor participates with all
the others, yet he stands forth and inserts his very different thematic adornments,
which disrupts the harmony. One reason his music is so different is that he has
spent too much time alone, so his themes appear to have a singular, rather than
contextual, origin. The 'battle' in the choir of the Ainur rages back and forth
with the Music akin Ilvatar described as "deep and wide and beautiful, but slow
and blended with an immeasurable sorrow, from which its beauty chiefly came".
Melkors music, on the other hand, is said to have been "loud, and vain, and
endlessly repeated [...] and it essayed to drown the other music by the violence of
its voice " (Ibid.). But, despite Melkors best efforts to mar and utterly
overthrow the Great Music, his discordant music's "most triumphant notes were taken
by the other and woven into its own solemn pattern" (Ibid. [Compare Book of Lost
Tales Vol. 1, "One was very great and deep and beautiful, but it was mingled with
an unquenchable sorrow, while the other was now grown to unity and a system of its
own, but was loud and vain and arrogant, braying triumphantly against the other as
it thought to drown it, yet ever, as it essayed to clash most fearsomely, finding
itself but in some manner supplementing or harmonising with its rival". also
Compare The Lost Road "The other had grown now to a unity and system, yet an
imperfect one, save in so far as derived still from the eldest theme of
Ilvatar...").
2. The Great Music of the Ainur progresses thus: Ilvatar introduces a First Theme
to the choir of the Ainur and Melkor 'spoils' it, converting many of the Maiar to
his cause in later years (these fallen Maiar become in the later histories
characters like the Balrogs, Ungoliant and Sauron himself.) Next, Ilvatar imposes
a Second Theme, and again Melkor corrupts it. Ilvatar then proposes a Third Theme,
which is also infected by Melkor and devolves into a raging disharmonious conflict.
Ilvatar puts an end to the disharmony with the conducting of "one chord, deeper
than the Abyss, higher than the Firmament, piercing as the light of the eye of
Ilvatar" (Ibid.) After the Great Music stops, Ilvatar promptly chastises Melkor
and then leaves the room. This causes Melkor to be ashamed which in its turn causes
him to become angry.
The Great Vision: Water, Ulmo, the Music and FateEdit
1. Ilvatar next 'shows' the Ainur a 'Vision'. The Vision is of what the
transliteration of their collaborative Great Music into a material reality would be
like. They are shown that the Music has a point, has a result and effect beyond its
composition and singing: it amounts to no less than a highly detailed template
commensurate with the entire history beginning to end of a material, 'physical'
Universe that could exist inside 'time'. During this sneak preview of the Birth,
Life and Death of the Universe, the Ainur behold and contemplate all the aspects of
material reality, which aspects are each associated with themes associated with
particular Ainu. As the Ainur gaze out on this preview, Melkor sees now in detail
how even his most private ideas and themes, even his most disruptive and
destructive efforts, in the end serve only to fully elaborate Ilvatars master
plan, design, theme and will. Melkor is shown that his private themes (as Melkor
thought them) are in fact elements of that plan/design/will and "tributary to [its]
glory."
2. Now the Third theme and the Children (Eldar and Edain) are discussed. The Ainur
see in the Vision that there are things none of them remember composing, and things
they perhaps remember composing but did not at the time fully understand. The
Children of Ilvatar are first mentioned here, the future home of the Children
(Arda 'the Realm', i.e. the Earth) is spotted, and some positively fascinating
advice is given: dont read too much into the relative size of the Earth as
compared to the entire Universe, or be overly impressed with the immensity of Space
compared to, say, the delicacy and complexity of design in a mustard seed. Many of
the Ainur, including Melkor, become enamored of the Earth, though Melkor still
wants to dominate it and the Children. The Ainur, looking out at the preview of all
creation, come to believe that Water, of all the substances and energies of
material reality, most completely echoes the collaborative elaboration that was the
propounding and cultivating of Ilvatars entire creative plan (i.e., the Great
Music of the Ainur. ) The Ainur rejoice in Light, but at the sounds of the Sea,
they feel a great unquiet. (Ibid, p 19. [Compare and for the great roaring of
the ocean they {Ainur} were filled with longing. Book of Lost Tales, Vol. 1)

3. Ulmo is introduced. While Melkor is the first Ainu properly named, and the first
Ainu to whom Ilvatar directly speaks in the histories, Ulmo ('The Pourer' or 'The
Rainer') is the second on both counts: right after the point is made that Water is
the fullest echo of the Music of the Ainur, Ulmo is introduced as the Ainu most
identified with that element, and the Ainu most educated in the matter of Music.
Ulmo is the second Ainu to whom Ilvatar specifically speaks in the histories when
He points out to Ulmo that Water has from Melkors meddling benefited beyond Ulmos
earlier conceptions. Melkors attempts to disrupt with the use of fierce heat and
severe cold do nothing to ruin Water (as Melkor must have hoped), but rather leave
the World with the beauties of snow and frost and clouds and rain; this does no
less than push Manw and Ulmo more closely together. Ulmo, first of all the Ainur
(Melkor included), has his words quoted in the histories when he says, "'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 Manw, that he and I may make melodies for ever to thy delight!'"
(Ibid.), and so Ulmo and Manw are revealed as the two chief servants of Ilvatars
intentions.

GenesisEdit
The Vision ends: Ilvatars sneak preview is snatched away before any of the Ainur
can fully see or comprehend the whole work of their music-made-into-substance.
Because of this, and because of their nature as beings that must grow to an
understanding of themselves in the context of the interplay of all creation, the
Ainur know quite a bit of the past, present and future of the Universe and its
inhabitants, yet they dont know everything (the later days, especially, are hidden
from them). When the vision is taken away, the Ainur are restless, having fallen in
love with the Universe, the Earth and the Children. Even Melkor thinks that he
wants to be a benign part of their manifestation, though his tendencies must lead
more toward dominance than cultivation.
Time begins. In the end (of the Beginning), Ilvatar takes the entire musical work
of the Ainur, including Melkors destructive efforts, and makes it manifest,
material, real, objective and existing as E ('It is', or 'Let it Be'), or what can
be called the Universe. Many of the most powerful and influential Ainur enter into
E, but they enter on condition that the life of the Universe, which has a
beginning, middle and end, corresponding to the Great Music of the Ainu, will be
binding on them, and will become their lives as well. The Valar (The Powers, the
most powerful Ainur that enter into the Universe) enter into and became a part of
the World at the very beginning of Time, but Melkor is amongst them.
The Struggle to Fulfill FateEdit
The remaining paragraphs of Ainulindal summarize the first efforts of the Valar to
fulfill the destiny described in the vision of the Universe they have foreseen in
Heaven. The Valar enter into E only to find it at the very beginning of its
history unformed and embryonic. The history of the Universe has been only
'forsung'. The Valar must labor to unfold that history and to build its constituent
parts from scratch. The four Valar who are most involved in the crafting of the
Earth are Manw, Ulmo, Aul and Melkor. Melkor lays claim to the Earth as his own,
and makes the initial going very rough indeed. Manw collects those Valar and Maiar
(lesser Ainur who entered into E with the Valar) friendly to him and he sets up on
Earth a resistance to Melkor. At the moment of this act, a reminder is provided of
the fact that Manw was the chief instrument of Ilvatar in the Second Theme of the
Great Music. Melkor withdraws from Earth and Manws resistance, but later formally
(and quite impressively) reenters and makes open war on Manw's throne, but Manws
rule is established nonetheless: it sees the Earth finished and made habitable and
ready for Elves and Men.
The First War inside Time: The Valar assume physical forms as others wear clothes,
though the Valar do have temperaments commensurate with the genders these forms
reflect. Melkor re-enters the Earth in a form of terrible majesty, and the war for
Earth begins in earnest. The history of the first battles are little recorded, but
the reports point to Melkor trying to undo everything the Valar do, which things
the Valar do mostly to prepare the Earth for the Children. Melkor's actions can
change, but not destroy or wholly spoil, the original (as they were understood)
plans and intentions of the Valar. Despite Melkor, the Earth is made ready.
Dagor Dagorath and the second song of IlluvatarEdit
After the prophesied war of all wars, the Dagor Dagorath, the final war that will
decide the fate of all beings on Arda. It is said that the Ainur will sing the
second song of Eru Ilvatar, not knowing what will be created. Yet greater it will
be, more races borne of the melodies. Reforming life. It is said the the Dwarves
will assist Mahal (Aul) in recreating the materials of Arda, to rekindle the
flames that spark industry. To give birth to a new age.
AppearancesEdit
By type
Characters Species and creatures Locations Factions, groups and titles
Events Objects and artifacts Miscellanea
Characters
Aul
Eru Ilvatar
Manw
Melkor
Ulmo
Species and creatures
Ainur
Valar
Children of Ilvatar
Elves
Men
Locations
E
Arda
Timeless Halls
Abyss
Firmament
Void
Miscellanea
Darkness
Sea
Secret Fire

Translations around the WorldEdit

Foreign Language Translated name
Amharic ???????
Arabic ???????????
Armenian ????????????
Belarusian Cyrillic ???????????
Bengali ????????????
Bulgarian Cyrillic ???????????
Chinese ??????
Georgian ???????????
Greek ???????da?e
Gujarati ???????????
Hebrew ????????????
Hindi ???????????
Japanese ???????
Kannada ??????????
Kazakh Cyrillic ???????????
Korean ? ? ? ?
Kyrgyz Cyrillic ???????????
Laotian ???????????
Macedonian Cyrillic ???????????
Malayalam ??????????
Marathi ????????
Mongolian Cyrillic ???????????
Nepalese ???????????
Pashto ??????????? ?
Persian ???????????
Punjabi ???????????
Russian ???????????
Sanskrit ???????????
Serbian ??????????? (Cyrillic) Ainulindale (Latin)
Sinhalese ?????????
Tajik Cyrillic ???????????
Tamil ???????????
Telugu ??????????
Thai ???????????
Ukrainian Cyrillic ???????????
Urdu ???????????
Uzbek ??????????? (Cyrillic) Ainulindale (Latin)
Yiddish ?????????????
J. R. R. Tolkien's - The Silmarillion
Ainulindal | Valaquenta | Quenta Silmarillion | Akallabth | Of the Rings of Power
and the Third Age
The History of Middle-earth
(earlier versions of the story of The Silmarillion)
The one ring animated Lord of the Rings Wiki Featured articles The one ring
animated
People: Faramir Sauron Witch-king of Angmar Gollum Elrond Frodo Baggins
Samwise Gamgee Meriadoc Brandybuck Peregrin Took Gandalf Aragorn II Elessar
Legolas Gimli Boromir Galadriel Elves Hobbits
Locations: Middle-earth Gondor Mordor Rohan
Other: Mithril The Lord of the Rings Strategy Battle Game The Fellowship of the
Ring (novel) Works inspired by J. R. R. Tolkien The Lord of the Rings The
Lord of the Rings (1978 film) Ainulindal Tolkien vs. Jackson Tengwar
Quenya
ReferencesEdit
? The Children of Hrin: List of Names
Categories:
Quenya words Events The Silmarillion Chapters Before the First Age Add category
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