Talk:Valinor

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Revision as of 21:55, 30 October 2006 by Ted C (talk | contribs) (follow up to last change)

"Valinor as explained was the home of the Valar, Tolkien's term for the gods of Middle-earth."

As I understand it, Tolkien did not consider the Valar gods: only Illuvatar was a god. The Valar were more like Archangels, with the Maiar a category of lesser angels. I'm not sure how I would rephrase the quoted statement, though. --Ted C 14:22, 30 October 2006 (EST)

Correct. Tolkien remarked on numerous occasions that Men mistakenly thought of them as gods. While they are similar to the Norse gods, they are in truth more like archangels with a larger role. Rephrase the statement to: "Valinor is explained as the home of the Valar, those spirits placed by Eru to govern Arda (often mistakenly called gods)." --Narfil Palùrfalas 16:42, 30 October 2006 (EST)

After some thought, I removed the line entirely; it was redundant because Valinor is described as the home of the Valar in the opening paragraph. I replaced "god" with "Vala" where it occurs in other places in the article. The whole thing could probably use a thorough review, since the geography is hard to follow and the tense isn't consistent. --Ted C 16:55, 30 October 2006 (EST)