Know Your Valar: Ulmo

Last time we looked at a couple, the King and Queen of Arda. Today we look at a bachelor…

Ulmo

  • Type: Vala
  • Name meaning: “Pourer”/”Rainer”
  • Other titles: “Lord of the Waters”
  • Appearance: A gigantic king with silver and emerald armour. Has sea-shell horns (the Ulumúri).
  • Location: Ulmonan, his palace, on the bottom of Vaiya.
  • Biography:
    • Helped bring the Elves to the Undying Lands during the Age of Stars.
    • Taught the Elves music and seacraft.

Know Your Valar: Manwë and Varda

In an effort to establish more clearly in my mind the different Valar, I thought I would put together some memorable graphics and a short description for each of the main ones. Today’s post is about Manwë and Varda…

Manwë

  • Type: Vala
  • Name meaning: “The good”
  • Other titles: “King of Arda”, “Lord of the Air”
  • Appearance: His eyes and clothing are blue and his sceptre is made of sapphire.
  • Location: Lives in the mansions of Ilmarin atop the mountain of Taniquetil
  • Loves: All birds, particularly eagles, are sacred to him. He has a soft spot for the Vanyar Elves because of their skill in poetry.

Varda

  • Type: Vala
  • Name meaning: “Sublime”/”Lofty”
  • Other titles: “Queen of the Heavens”, “Queen of Light”, “Gilthoniel”, “Elbereth”, “Lady of the stars”
  • Appearance: Extremely beautiful
  • Location: Lives in the mansions of Ilmarin atop the mountain of Taniquetil
  • Loves: Light. She rekindled the stars, lit the Lamps of the Valar, and placed the Sun and Moon in the heavens.

Know Your Valar: Introduction

I’m going to be doing a series of posts here as I read The Silmarillion to help me keep all the Valar straight in my head. This is an introductory post, giving an overview of the Valar…

The Main Valar

Not all of the Valar come up that often in The Silmarillion. Here are the main ones to remember:

…and here’s a slightly larger collection:

Read more

Reading the Silmarillion

I’ve been reading the Silmarillion this year. I’ve found it really helpful to recap on the stories as I’ve progressed through the book, making sure that they’re firmly established in my head, as well as the geography, genealogies and all the different pronunciations! I’ve done this chiefly through podcasts and YouTube videos.

This post contains all the different videos which I’ve watched…

Tolkien Road Summaries

Detailed Level Overview

These videos are great because they include lots of maps…

High Level Overview

I’ll also soon post an article where I share the images I used to help keep the different Valor straight in my head.

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