Ainulindalë

Ainulindale by Alystraea
Chapter of The Silmarillion
Ainulindalë
Information
Number	1
Synopsis
Event	Creation of the Ainur
Date	Music of the Ainur
Location	Arda
Navigation
Followed by	Valaquenta

Ainulindalë: The Music of the Ainur is the first part of The Silmarillion, edited by Christopher Tolkien from his father's later texts.

It narrates the creation of the world which was to be the scene of all the following tales of the Quenta Silmarillion and The Lord of the Rings.

Synopsis

In the beginning Ilúvatar creates the Ainur ("Holy Ones"), spirits that are made from but independent of his thought. He teaches them music and the Ainur sing, but only alone or a few together. Ilúvatar calls together all the Ainur and teaches them a theme: he asks them to sing the theme together, but for each to adorn it with their own thoughts. This begins the Music of the Ainur.

Ilúvatar sits back and listens to the music, but Melkor, the mightiest of the Ainur, who is jealous of Ilúvatar's power of creation, breaks with Ilúvatar's theme and introduces discord to the music. Ilúvatar rises and introduces a second theme, but Melkor's discord contends with it and gains mastery. Ilúvatar introduces a third theme that cannot be quenched, and the two musics progress against each other. Ilúvatar rises for a third time and the music ceases. He then shows the Ainur a vision of the world, Arda, that their music has created, and many of the things that will happen there including the coming introduction of the Children of Ilúvatar: the Elves and Men.

Melkor weaves opposing Music by Ted Nasmith

Ilúvatar speaks the creation, Eä, into existence and many of the Ainur enter and become bound to it. The greatest among them are called the Valar, the "Powers of the World". They are joined by lesser spirits called Maiar. They take forms like those of the coming Children of Ilùvatar.

The world is empty and formless, and the Valar begin the work of forming the world as the vision of Ilúvatar showed them. The chief part of this work is done by the Valar Manwë, Ulmo and Aulë. They are opposed by Melkor, who wishes to subdue and control the creation for himself, and corrupts whatever the other Valar create. This is the First War. As the Valar battle Melkor for dominion, Earth slowly takes form.

Etymology

	File:Ainulindale.mp3
	By Ardamir. (Media help)

The meaning of Ainulindalë (pronounced [ˌaɪnuˈlindale], eye-noo-leen-dahl-eh) is given in the same chapter title: "The Music of the Ainur". It is a Quenya compound: Ainu(r) + lindalë (verb linda- with abstract noun suffix -lë: "music, singing").

History of composition

Tolkien rewrote many times the Ainulindalë. To read about each version, see the article Ainulindalë (Rúmil's work).

For his edition of The Silmarillion, Christopher used the last and most complete version, lettered as Ainulindalë D, written in 1951, which was later published in Morgoth's Ring. The text itself was not changed very much, but it was mainly restructured, as Christopher decided to remove the fictional authorship and the narrative frame. In all the versions of the Ainulindalë, it was presented as a work of Rúmil, and in the last versions, Pengoloð the Sage expanded his work narrating the Spring of Arda and describing the main Valar. Removing this frame, Christopher had also to remove all the narrator's words, finishing the tale with the First War, so he moved the second part to the chapter "Of the Beginning of Days".

Christopher also changed some names to make them match with the mature versions, like "habitation set within the vast spaces of the World" is changed from "habitation in the halls of Aman", as Aman was no longer the Elvish name for the World, but Eä (although Christopher didn't use that term in this case).