Manwë

Whine their way back to the cages of the Valar.

Three weeks ago, Manwe's herald answered that charge, "...as ye came hither freely, freely shall ye depart." Feanor heard it, didn't respond, and here he's still talking about cages, and probably thralled them too if we dig deep enough.

But then we get the burning, and this is another terrible, terrible evil.

Remember, Olaway told him what those ships were.

After all, they had only given that title before to one of the Valar or to the elder king himself.

That would, of course, be Manwe, and no mere man should try to take that title.

So then the persecution starts and the elves don't come to Numenor anymore.

They know they're not welcome and they definitely know they're not safe.

The Great Sea will not be too wide for its wings if it's suffered to come to full growth.

Manwë keep you under the One and send fair wind to your sails." [lips smack] What a letter.

Quite a letter.

Yeah.

However, the finished product is not entirely of her own design.

Varda, another feminine Vala and the spouse of Manwë, kindles the lamps.

Now, this is not just a kindling with the same fires that Melkor might have used.

This is a kindling by the fire of stars, for Varda is known as the Star-kindler.

Furthermore, Manwë hallows the lamps, makes them holy, so that what we have emanating from the great lamps is a holy starlight that fills the whole world.

However, Melkor returns and casts down the lamps, destroying not only the holy and glorious towers of light themselves, but also marring the landscape of Arda, the work of the other Valar.

Yet in keeping with the pattern of the music, out of this comes something new and perhaps even more glorious, the Two Trees of Valinor.

So what should we make of the dwarves and especially of the notion that they are Aulë's imperfect approximations of the children of Ilúvatar? Though it wouldn't seem right to call the dwarves evil beings by any means, they are in a number of ways discordant.

You can teach us some lessons over here.

Is there one of the Valar that you would want to be assigned to or to train under? And here, well, I'll just go over a quick list to kind of help you and people listening kind of go through like, okay, who is there again? So of course there's Manwe, right? King of the Winds, King of the Valar.

uh this is divided up in this is from the wiki so it's it's the males and the females and in that order uh melkor who's clearly not there hanging out unless he's imprisoned uh which hopefully you're not picking melkor uh olmo of the water aule the smith arome the huntsman uh mandos or namo uh the doomsman oh that would be that would be interesting Irmo, Master of Dreams, Visions, Desires.

Tolkis, the Wrestler.

Yeah, that's a great question.

Okay, so there's the preview version, there's the music version, that becomes the preview version, and then they enter into the world.

But then you also have statements like, when Manwe, and especially Manwe and Varda, were standing at the top of Tenequatel, they could see all distances and hear all things, that sort of thing.

So I would imagine that they would sometimes bring others up there too, in order to say like, Hey, look over there, check that out.

There they beheld suddenly a dark figure standing high upon a rock that looked down upon the shore.

Some say that it was Mandos himself, and no lesser herald of Manwe.

And they heard a loud voice, solemn and terrible, that bade them stand and give ear.

Then all halted and stood still.

And the shadows are lengthening, right? So the Valar realize they can no longer just simply observe from a distance.

So Manwe, who is the king of the Valar, convenes a council.

And this is, for all intents and purposes, a divine war cabinet gathering to address a catastrophic planetary threat.

Right, a literal boardroom of the gods.

Which is funny because these two will eventually just disappear into the east as the Blue Wizards.

Yeah, we'll touch on them later.

But then we arrive at the choice made by Manwe himself, the king.

Manwe singles out a Maya named Olarin.

Today, the Valar break their silence, and Feanor talks them down a little bit.

But even as the trumpet sang and Feanor issued from the gates of Tirion, a messenger came at last from Manwe saying, against the folly of Feanor shall be set my counsel only.

Go not forth for the hour is evil and your road leads to sorrow that you do not foresee.

No aid will the Valar lend you in this quest.

In Amon we have come through bliss to woe.

The other now we will try, through sorrow to find joy, or freedom at the least.

Then turning to the herald, he cried, Say this to Manwe Sulimo, high king of Arda.

If Feanor cannot overthrow Morgoth, at least he delays not to assail him, and sits not idle in grief.