Where Did the Elves Go in the Lord of the Rings

Fictional localisation in J. R. R. J.R.R. Tolkien's legendarium

Valinor
Tolkien's legendarium location
Introductory visual aspect	The Lord of the Rings
Created by	J. R. R. John Ronald Reuel Tolkien
Info
Character	Celibate
Ruler	Manwë
Characters	Valar, Elves
Other name(s)	The Undying Lands, Eressëa, The Deathless Lands, The Blessed Realm, The Uttermost Westmost, Aman
Placement	On the west of The Great Sea, farther to the West of Middle-globe

Valinor (Quenya: Land of the Valar) or the Blessed Realms is a fictional location in J. R. R. Tolkien's legendarium, the dwelling house of the immortal Valar on the continent of Aman, FAR to the west of Midriff-earth; atomic number 2 used the name Aman mainly to mean Valinor. Information technology enclosed Eldamar, the bring of the Elves, who atomic number 3 immortals were permitted to sleep in Valinor.

Aman was known somewhat misleadingly as "the Immortal Lands", but the demesne itself does not cause mortals to live forever.^{[T 1]} However, only immortal beings were generally allowed to reside there. Exceptions were successful for the surviving bearers of the Unmatched Ring, Bilbo and Frodo Baggins and Sam Gamgee, who dwelt there for a time.^{[T 2] [T 3]}

Scholars have delineate the similarity of Tolkien's myth of the attempt of Númenor to entrance Aman to the biblical Pillar of Babel and the Ancient Greek Atlantis, and the resulting demolition in both cases. They preeminence, too, that a mortal's bide in Valinor is only temporary, not conferring immortality, just as in Dante's Paradiso, the Earthly Paradise is only a preparation for the Celestial Paradise that is above.

Others have compared the account of the beautiful Elvish part of the Undying Lands to the Middle English verse form Pearl, stating that the closest literary equivalents of Tolkien's descriptions of these lands are the imrama Celtic tales much as those or so Saint Brendan from the future Middle Ages. The Christian theme of good and light (from Valinor) anti evil and dark (from Mordor) has also been discussed.

Geography [redact]

Map of Valinor, the Blessed Kingdom, happening Arda

Valinor lies in Aman, a continent on the west of Belegaer, the ocean to the west of Middle-earth. Ekkaia, the encircling sea, surrounds both Aman and Halfway-dry land. Tolkien wrote that the name "Aman" was "chiefly old as the name of the land in which the Valar dwelt" [i.e. Valinor].^{[T 4]} The commonwealth has a cordial climate in general, though coke falls on the peaks of the Pelóri mountains. Tolkien created nobelium careful maps of Aman; those drawn by Karen Wynn Fonstad, based on Tolkien's rough sketch of Arda's landmasses and seas, appearance Valinor about 800 miles comfortable, west to east (from the Good Seafaring to the Outer Shipboard), and about 3000 miles eternal north to south – similar in size to the United States. The entire Continent of Aman runs from the Arctic latitudes of the Helcaraxë to the subarctic meridional region of Intervening-earth – about 7000 miles.^[1]

Eldamar is "Elvenhome", the "coastal domain of Aman, settled by the Elves", wrote Tolkien.^{[T 5] [2]} Eldamar was the true Eldarin name of Aman.^{[T 6]} In The Hobbit it is referred to as "Fay". The land was recovered-wooded, Eastern Samoa Finrod "walk[ed] with his father under the trees in Eldamar" and the Teleri had timber to build their ships. The city of the Teleri, on the due north shoring of the Bay is Alqualondë, or Haven of the Swans, whose halls and mansions are made of pearl. The harbour is entered through a natural patronising of rock, and the beaches are strewn with gems given away the Noldor. In the bay, and contribution of Eldamar, is Tol Eressëa. This island was at one time adrift, until the Vala Ulmo, Creator of waters, (or with a pod of whales led by Uin the great right whale)^{[T 7]} ran it aground in the bay.

Calacirya (Quenya: "Light Crack", for the friable of the Two Trees that streamed through the come about into the worldwide on the far side) is the pass in the Pelóri mountains where the Elven city Tirion was set. After the hiding of Valinor, this was the only gap through the mountains of Aman. The Valar would have got closed the mountains entirely but, realizing that the Elves needed to be able to breathe the outside air, they kept Calacirya open. They likewise did not neediness to wholly separate the Vanyar and Noldor from the Teleri on the coast.^[3]

The city of the Noldor (and for a time the Vanyar also) is Tirion, which was built on the hill of Túna, raised inside the Calacirya pass, only north of Taniquetil, facing both the 2 Trees and the starry seas. The city had a exchange square at the top of the hill and a tower called the Mindon Eldaliéva, a beacon visible from the seashore miles to the Orient.

Alqualondë (meaning Swanhaven in Quenya) is the chief city and port of the Teleri on the eastern shores of Valinor, northeast of Tirion. The city was walled and built in a natural Rock harbour. It housed the tower of Olwë, brother of Thingol. The city was covered with pearls which the Teleri found in the seas and jewels obtained from the Noldor. It was the site of the first Kinslaying as recounted in The Silmarillion.^{[T 8]}

Residents [delete]

Valinor is the domicile of the Valar (singular Vala), John Barleycorn that frequently take humanoid form, sometimes named "gods" by the Men of Middle-earth. Opposite residents of Valinor include the enatic but less regnant John Barleycorn, the Maiar, and most of the Eldar.

Each Vala has his operating theater her possess region of the land. The Mansions of Manwë and Varda, ii of the most influential spirits, stood upon Taniquetil, the highest mountain of the Pelóri. Yavanna, the Vala of Earth, Development, and Harvest home, resided in the Pastures of Yavanna in the S of the land, Mae West of the Pelóri. Near-aside were the mansions of Yavanna's spouse, Aulë the Smith, World Health Organization made the Dwarves. Oromë, the Vala of the Hunt, lived in the Woods of Oromë in the north-east of the pastures. Nienna, the lonely Vala of Sorrow and Endurance, lived in the far-off west of the island where she spent her days flagrant about all the evil of the world, looking bent sea. Just south of Nienna's plate, and to the north of the pastures, were the Halls of Mandos. Mandos was the Vala of the After-lifetime. Also realistic in the Halls of Mandos was his spouse Vairë the weaverbird, who weaves the threads of time. To the east of the Halls of Mandos is the Isle of Estë, which is located in the middle of the lake of Lórellin, which in turn lies to the north of the Gardens of Lórien.^[a] Estë and Lórien were married.

In east-center Valinor at the Waistclot of Arda (the Equator of Tolkien's universe) is Valmar, the capital of Valinor (also named Valimar or the City of Bells), the residence of the Valar and the Maiar in the realm of Valinor. The first house of the Elves, the Vanyar, built-up there as well. The mound of Ezellohar, on which stood the Two Trees, and Máhanaxar, the Reverberate of Fate, are outside Valmar. Further due east is the Calacirya, the only well-situated pass direct the Pelóri, a vast mountain range fencing Valinor on three sides, created to keep Morgoth's forces unstylish. In the pass is the city Tirion, built on a hill, the urban center of the Noldor Elves.

In the Union inner foothills of the Pelóri, hundreds of miles north of Valmar, was Fëanor's city of Formenos, shapely upon his banishment from Tirion.

Access [blue-pencil]

In the extreme north-eastmost, beyond the Pelóri, was the Helcaraxë, a vast internal-combustion engine sheet that joined the ii continents of Aman and Middle-dry land before the Warfare of Wrath. To prevent anyone from reach the main divide of Valinor's east seacoast by offshore, the Valar created the Shadowy Seas, and within these seas they go under a long chain of islands titled the Enchanted Isles or Conjuring trick Isles.

After the destruction of Númenor, the Deathless Lands were remote from ARDA so that Men could not reach into them. The Elves could go game there alone by the Straight Road and in ships capable of release out of the spheres of the earth.

History [edit]

Years of the Trees [edit]

Valinor in the Years of the Trees, lit by the Two Trees; the rest of Arda, including Middle-earth, lay in duskiness. The outlines of the continents are strictly schematic.

Valinor was established on the midwestern continent Aman when Melkor (a Vala subsequent onymous Morgoth, "the black foe", by the Elves) spoilt the Valar's original domicile on the island Almaren in primeval Central-worldly concern, ending the Years of the Lamps. To defend their new home from assault, they lifted the Pelóri Mountains. They also brought about Valimar, the bright Deuce Trees, and their abiding places. Valinor was same to feature surpassed Almaren in beauty. Later, the Valar heard of the awakening of the Elves in Eye-earth, where Melkor was unopposed. They proposed to bring the Elves to the safety of Valinor, but to fare that, they needed to get Melkor out of the way. A state of war was fought, and Melkor's stronghold Utumno was ruined. Then, umteen Elves came to Valinor, and established their cities Tirion and Alqualondë, beginning Valinor's age of glory. But Melkor had total back to Valinor as a prisoner, and after three Ages was brought before the Valar and helium sued for free pardon, vowing to assist the Valar and stimulate reparation for the hurts helium had finished. Manwë granted him pardon, merely confined him within Valmar to continue under watch. After his release, Melkor started planting seeds of dissent in the minds of the Elves (peculiarly, the Noldor – the Vanyar would not hear him, and Melkor considered the Teleri weak), locution that the Valar had brought them to Valinor to control them and seize their lands in Middle-earth. He likewise created protest betwixt Fëanor and his brothers Fingolfin and Finarfin.

The Darkening of Valinor [cut]

Late, the Valar learned what Melkor had cooked. Knowing that atomic number 2 was discovered, Melkor went to the home of the Noldorin elves' High King Finwë, killed him and stole the prized jewels, the Silmarils. He then destroyed the Cardinal Trees with the aid of Ungoliant, seemingly bringing an dateless darkness to Valinor, called the Daylong Night, relieved only past stars. Melkor and Ungoliant fled to Middle-earth.

The majority of the Noldor, light-emitting diode by Fëanor son of Finwë, the maker of the Silmarils, declared their rebellion and decided to pursue Melkor, afterwards called Morgoth, to Midsection-solid ground to win back their jewels and avenge their king. The Noldor would not take heed to Manwë, the lord of the Valar, telltale them that they had themselves come to Valinor of their own free will and that the Valar had no more trust to rule operating theater control any of them. Simply Manwë's messenger said also that if they chose to leave and to crusade Melkor on their own, the Valar would not help them and that they would stand great pain and grief on their journey.

New light [edit]

The Downfall of Númenor and the Dynamic of the World.^[4] The outlines of the continents are purely schematic.

The Ii Trees, which had been the primary beginning of light in Valinor, were dead. But the Valar managed to save one last luminous flower from Telperion, and unrivaled last luminous fruit from Laurelin. Each efflorescence was kick in a celestial send on steered aside a Maia, and these ships began to sail over the cosmos at different times of the daytime so that neither Valinor nor Middle-earthly concern would be in shadow. Single was called the Sun, and it shone a bright sensationalistic. The other was known as the Moon and it shone with a pale white airy.

The Hiding of Valinor [edit]

Following the creation of the Moon and the Sun, the Valar carried out various titanic labours to further improve the defences of Valinor. They raised the Pelóri mountains to even greater and sheerer heights. Turned the coast, eastwards of Tol Eressëa, they created the Shadowy Seas and their Enchanted Isles; both the Seas and the Isles presented numerous perils to anyone attempting to get to Valinor by sea.

Later history [delete]

For centuries Valinor took atomic number 102 part in the struggles between the Noldor and Morgoth in Middle-earth. Just almost the end of the First Age, when the Noldor were in summate defeat, the mariner Eärendil convinced the Valar to make a last attack on Morgoth. A mighty host of Maiar, Vanyar and the unexhausted Noldor in Valinor destroyed Morgoth's gigantic US Army and his fastness Angband, and mould Morgoth into the emptiness.

During the Second Age, the Valar created the island of Númenor as a honour to the Edain (Men who had fought alongside the Noldor). Centuries later the land of Númenor grew thusly powerful so arrogant that Ar-Pharazôn, the twenty-one-fifth (and parthian) king, dared to assay an invasion of Valinor. When Eru Ilúvatar was named upon past the Valar, Númenor sank into the sea, and Aman was removed on the far side the reach of the Workforce of Arda. Arda itself became spherical, and was left for Men to order.^[4]

During the Fractional Geezerhoo, recognizing that an outright encounter with the dark Maia Sauron would be disastrous, the Valar sent the Istari, Maiar whom Men called 'Wizards', to Middle-earth to give counsel to Men in their resistance to the growing power of the Dark Lord.

Psychoanalysis [edit]

Paradise [edit]

Keith Kelly and Michael Robert R. Livingston, written material in Mythlore, bank note that Frodo's final exam destination is Aman, the Immortal Lands. In Tolkien's mythology, they write, the islands of Aman were initially just the dwelling-places of the Valar (in the Ages of the Trees, piece the rest of the world lay in wickedness) who helped The One, Eru Iluvatar, to create the world, but gradually some of the amaranthine and eonian Elves were allowed to live there as well, sailing across the ocean to the West. After the fall of Númenor and the reshaping of the global, Aman becomes the place "between (set) Over-heaven and Middle-earth",^[6] accessible only in special circumstances like Frodo's, allowed to come to Aman through the offices of the Valar and of Gandalf, one of the Valar's emissaries, the Maiar. However, Aman is not, they write, exactly paradise: first, being there does non confer immortality, contrary to what the Númenoreans supposed; and secondly, those mortals like Frodo who are allowed to go there will eventually choose to conk. They note that in another of John Ronald Reuel Tolkien's writings, Leaf by Niggle, understood to be a journey finished Purgatory (the Catholic precursor stage to paradise), Tolkien avoids describing paradise in the least; they suggest that to the Broad-minded Tolkien, it is impossible to describe Heaven, and it power be desecration to make the attempt.^[6] The Tolkien scholar Michael D. C. Drout comments that John Ronald Reuel Tolkien's accounts of Eldamar "give U.S. a good idea of his conceptions of inalienable beauty,"^[5] and notes that these resemble the paradise represented midmost English poem Pearl.^[5]

Cosmogonies of John Ronald Reuel Tolkien, Catholicism, and Past poesy

Tolkien	Catholicism	Pearl, Dante's Paradiso
(not described)	Heaven	Celestial Heaven "beyond"
Undying lands of Aman (Elvenhome in Valinor)	Purgatory	Earthly Paradise (Garden of Eden)
Middle-dry land	Earth	Earth

The Tolkien critic Tom Shippey adds that in 1927 Tolkien wrote a poem, The Nameless Bring up, in the complex stanza-form of Pearl which radius of a land farther forth than paradise, and more beautiful than the Irish Tir Nan River Og, the deathless otherworld.^[4] Kelly and Livingston similarly pull down on Pearl, noting that IT states that "fair as was the hither shore, utmost lovelier was the further land"^[6] where the Dreamer could non drop dead. So, they write, each stagecoach looks like paradise, until the traveler realises that beyond it lies something even more paradisiacal, glimpsed and beyond description. The Earthly Paradise keister exist described; Aman, the Undying Lands, can thus be compared to the Eden, the Nirvana that the Bible says formerly existed upon Earth before the Nightfall of Valet de chambre, while the Celestial Paradise lies "on the far side (or above)", as information technology does, they short letter, in Dante's Paradiso.^{[6] [7]}

Good against evil [redact]

The bookman of English literature Marjorie Burns writes that unitary of the distaff Vala, Varda (Elbereth to the Elves) is sung to by the Elf-queer of Middle-earth Galadriel. Burns notes that Varda "sits far off in Valinor on Oiolossë",^[8] looking at from her mountain-top pillar in Aman towards Middle-earth and the Dark Towboa of Sauron in Mordor: in her view, the Edward Douglas White Jr benevolent feminine symbolisation anti the evil masculine symbolisation. Further, Nathan Birnbaum suggests, Galadriel is an Extremely low frequency from Valinor "in the Blessed Realm",^[8] bringing Varda's influence with her to Middle-earth. This is seen in the phial of light that she gives to Frodo, and that SAM uses to defeat the evil giant spider Shelob: Sam invokes Elbereth when he uses the phial. Burns comments that Surface-to-air missile's request to the "Lady" sounds clearly Catholic, and that the "female rule, corporate in Varda of Valinor and Galadriel of Middle-earth, almost clearly represents the charitable Christian heart."^[8]

Atlantis, Tower of Babel [edit]

Grace Kelly and Robert R. Livingston state that while Aman could be home to Elves as well as Valar, the same was non true of mortal Work force. The "prideful"^[6] Men of Númenor, imagining they could acquire immortality by capturing the physical lands of Aman, were punished by the destruction of their personal island, which is engulfed by the sea, and the permanent removal of Aman "from the circles of the world".^[6] Kelly and Livingston note the similarity to the antediluvian Greek myth of Atlantis, the greatest weak culture lost beneath the sea; and the resemblance to the biblical tale of the Tower of Babel, the hubristic and "sacrilegious" attempt away mortal men to climb into Deity's realm.^[6]

Celtic tempt [delete]

The scholar of English literature Saul of Tarsu H. Kocher writes that the Undying Lands of the Uttermost West including Eldamar and Valinor, is "so Army for the Liberation of Rwanda outside our experience that Tolkien can only postulate us to take information technology wholly on faith."^[9] Kocher comments that these lands have an integral rate both geographically and spiritually in Middle-earth, and that their closest literary equivalents are the imrama Celtic tales from the untimely Middle Ages. The imrama tales describe how Irish adventurers much atomic number 3 Nonpareil Brendan sailed the seas sounding for the "Land of Promise". He notes that information technology is certain that Tolkien knew these stories, since in 1955 he wrote a poem, eligible Imram, about Brendan's voyage.^{[9] [4]}

See also [cut]

• Asgard, a similar location in Norse mythology
• Álfheimr, another similar location in Norse mythology
• Elysian Fields and Olimbos from Greek mythology
• In Celtic accounts: Mag Mell, Tír Na nÓg

Notes [blue-pencil]

1. ^ Not to be confused with Lothlórien in Middle-earth.

References [edit]

Primary [edit]

This list identifies each point's location in Tolkien's writings.

1. ^ Letters #156.
2. ^ The Give of the Baron, "The Grey Havens", and Appendix B, introduction for S.R. 1482 and 1541.
3. ^ Letters #249.
4. ^ The War of the Jewels, "Quendi and Eldar".
5. ^ Kept in a folder labelled "Phan, Mbar, Bal and other Elvish etymologies", published in Parma Eldalamberon, 17.
6. ^ Determine Parma Eldalamberon, 17, p. 106.
7. ^ The Book of Lost Tales, Part 1: Part 1.
8. ^ The Silmarillion, ch. 9 "Of the Flight of the Noldor"

Secondary [edit]

1. ^ Fonstad 1991.
2. ^ Tyler 2002, pp. 307–308.
3. ^ Oberhelman 2013.
4. ^ ^{a b c d} Shippey 2005, pp. 324–328.
5. ^ ^{a b c} Drout 2007.
6. ^ ^{a b c d e f g} Kelly & Robert R. Livingston 2009.
7. ^ Dickerson 2007.
8. ^ ^{a b c} Burns 2005, pp. 152–154.
9. ^ ^{a b c} Kocher 1974.

Sources [edit]

• Nathan Birnbaum, Marjorie (2005). Perilous Realms: Celtic and Scandinavian language in Tolkien's Middle-earth. University of Toronto Press. pp. 152–154 (Elbereth/Varda in Valinor vs Galadriel in Middle-earth, formerly of Valinor). ISBN978-0802038067.
• Dickerson, Matthew T. (2007). "Paradise". In Drout, Michael D. C. (male erecticle dysfunction.). J.R.R. Tolkien encyclopedia: scholarship and critical assessment. CRC Press. pp. 502–503. ISBN978-0-415-96942-0.
• Drout, Michael D. C. (2007). "Eldamar". In Drout, Michael D. C. (ed.). J.R.R. Tolkien encyclopedia: scholarship and critical assessment. CRC Press. p. 145. ISBN978-0-415-96942-0.
• Fonstad, Karen Wynn (1991), The Atlas of Middle-worldly concern, Boston: Henry Oscar Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, Lothlórien, ISBN0-618-12699-6
• Kelly, A. Keith; Livingston, Michael (2009). "'A Far Commons Country: Tolkien, Paradise, and the End of All Things in Medieval Literature". Mythlore. Article 13. 27 (3). CS1 maint: location (link)
• Kocher, Paul (1974) [1972]. Master of Middle-Earth: The Accomplishment of J.R.R. Tolkien. Penguin Books. pp. 14–18 and 79–82 (Valinor, Eldamar, Undying Lands, origins in Celtic tales). ISBN0140038779.
• Oberhelman, David D. (2013) [2006]. "Valinor". In Drout, Michael D. C. (ED.). J. R. R. Tolkien Encyclopedia: Scholarship and Critical appraisal Assessment. Routledge. pp. 692–693. ISBN978-0-415-96942-0.
• Shippey, Tom (2005) [1982]. The Road to Middle-earth (Third ed.). The Forfeited Straight Itinerant: HarperCollins. pp. 324–328. ISBN978-0261102750.
• President Tyler, J. E. A. (2002). The Complete Tolkien Keep company. Pan off Books. ISBN978-0-330-41165-3.

Where Did the Elves Go in the Lord of the Rings

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valinor

Share this post