The Silmarillion,
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FOREWORD
The Silmarillion, now published four years after the death of its author, is an account of the
Elder Days, or the First Age of the World. In The Lord of the Rings were narrated the great
events at the end of the Third Age; but the tales of The Silmarillion are legends deriving from a
much deeper past, when Morgoth, the first Dark Lord, dwelt in Middle-earth, and the High
Elves made war upon him for the recovery of the Silmarils.
Not only, however, does The Silmarillion relate the events of a far earlier time than those of
The Lord of the Rings; it is also, in all the essentials of its conception, far the earlier work.
Indeed, although it was not then called The Silmarillion, it was already in being half a century
ago; and in battered notebooks extending back to 1917 can still be read the earliest versions,
often hastily pencilled, of the central stories of the mythology. But it was never published
(though some indication of its content could be gleaned from The Lord of the Rings), and
throughout my father's long life he never abandoned it, nor ceased even in his last years to work
on it. In all that time The Silmarillion, considered simply as a large narrative structure,
underwent relatively little radical change; it became long ago a fixed tradition, and background
to later writings. But it was far indeed from being a fixed text, and did not remain unchanged
even in certain fundamental ideas concerning the nature of the world it portrays; while the same
legends came to be retold in longer and shorter forms, and in different styles. As the years
passed the changes and variants, both in detail and in larger perspectives, became so complex,
so pervasive, and so many-layered that a final and definitive version seemed unattainable.
Moreover the old legends ('old' now not only in their derivation from the remote First Age, but
also in terms of my father's life) became the vehicle and depository of his profoundest
reflections. In his later writing mythology and poetry sank down behind his theological and
philosophical preoccupations: from which arose incompatibilities of tone.
On my father's death it fell to me to try to bring the work into publishable form. It became
clear to me that to attempt to present, within the covers of a single book the diversity of the
materials – to show The Silmarillion as in truth a continuing and evolving creation extending
over more than half a century – would in fact lead only to confusion and the submerging of
what is essential I set myself therefore to work out a single text selecting and arranging in such a
way as seemed to me to produce the most coherent and internally self-consistent narrative. In
this work the concluding chapters (from the death of Túrin Turambar) introduced peculiar
difficulties, in that they had remained unchanged for many years, and were in some respects in
serious disharmony with more developed conceptions in other parts of the book.
A complete consistency (either within the compass of The Silmarillion itself or between
The Silmarillion and other published writings of my father's) is not to be looked for, and could
only be achieved, if at all at heavy and needless cost. Moreover, my father came to conceive The
Silmarillion as a compilation, a compendious narrative, made long afterwards from sources of
great diversity (poems, and annals, and oral tales) that had survived in agelong tradition; and
this conception has indeed its parallel in the actual history of the book, for a great deal of earlier
prose and poetry does underlie it, and it is to some extent a compendium in fact and not only in
theory. To this may be ascribed the varying speed of the narrative and fullness of detail in
different parts, the contrast (for example) of the precise recollections of place and motive in the
legend of Túrin Turambar beside the high and remote account of the end of the First Age, when
Thangorodrim was broken and Morgoth overthrown; and also some differences of tone and
portrayal, some obscurities, and, here and there, some lack of cohesion. In the case of the
Valaquenta, for instance, we have to assume that while it contains much that must go back to
the earliest days of the Eldar in Valinor, it was remodelled in later times; and thus explain its
continual shifting of tense and viewpoint, so that the divine powers seem now present and
active in the world, now remote, a vanished order known only to memory.
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The book, though entitled as it must be The Silmarillion, contains not only the Quenta
Silmarillion, or Silmarillion proper, but also four other short works. The Ainulindalë and
Valaquenta, which are given at the beginning, are indeed closely related with The Silmarillion;
but the Akallabêth and Of the Rings of Power, which appear at the end, are (it must to
emphasised) wholly separate and independent. They are included according to my father's
explicit intention; and by their inclusion is set forth the entire history is set forth from the
Music of the Ainur in which the world began to the passing of the Ringbearers from the havens
of Mithlond at the end of the Third Age.
The number of names that occur in the book is very large, and I have provided a full
index; but the number of persons (Elves and Men) who play an important part in the narrative
of the First Age is very much smaller, and all of these will be found in the genealogical tables. In
addition I have provided a table setting out the rather complex naming of the different Elvish
peoples; a note on the pronunciation of Elvish names, and a list of some of the chief elements
found in these names; and a map. It may be noted that the great mountain range in the east,
Ered Luin or Ered Lindon, the Blue Mountains, appears in the extreme west of the map in The
Lord of the Rings. In the body of the book there is a smaller map: the intention of this is to
make clear at a glance where lay the kingdoms of the Elves after the return of the Noldor to
Middle-earth. I have not burdened the book further with any sort of commentary or annotation.
There is indeed a wealth of unpublished writing by my father concerning the Three Ages,
narrative, linguistic, historical, and philosophical, and I hope that it will prove possible to
publish some of this at a later date.
In the difficult and doubtful task of preparing the text of the book I was very greatly
assisted by Guy Kay, who worked with me in 1974-1975.
-Christopher Tolkien
AINULINDALË
The Music of the Ainur
There was Eru, the One, who in Arda is called Ilúvatar; and he made first the Ainur, the Holy Ones, that were the
offspring of his thought, and they were with him before aught else was made. And he spoke to them, propounding to
them themes of music; and they sang before him, and he was glad. But for a long while they sang only each alone, or
but few together, while the rest hearkened; for each comprehended only that part of me mind of Ilúvatar from which
he came, and in the understanding of their brethren they grew but slowly. Yet ever as they listened they came to
deeper understanding, and increased in unison and harmony.
And it came to pass that Ilúvatar called together all the Ainur and declared to them a mighty theme,
unfolding to them things greater and more wonderful than he had yet revealed; and the glory of its beginning and
the splendour of its end amazed the Ainur, so that they bowed before Ilúvatar and were silent.
Then Ilúvatar said to them: 'Of the theme that I have declared to you, I will now that ye make in harmony
together a Great Music. And since I have kindled you with the Flame Imperishable, ye shall show forth your powers
in adorning this theme, each with his own thoughts and devices, if he will. But I win sit and hearken, and be glad
that through you great beauty has been wakened into song.'
Then the voices of the Ainur, like unto harps and lutes, and pipes and trumpets, and viols and organs, and
like unto countless choirs singing with words, began to fashion the theme of Ilúvatar to a great music; and a sound
arose of endless interchanging melodies woven in harmony that passed beyond hearing into the depths and into the
heights, and the places of the dwelling of Ilúvatar were filled to overflowing, and the music and the echo of the
music went out into the Void, and it was not void. Never since have the Ainur made any music like to this music,
though it has been said that a greater still shall be made before Ilúvatar by the choirs of the Ainur and the Children
of Ilúvatar after the end of days. Then the themes of Ilúvatar shall be played aright, and take Being in the moment of
their utterance, for all shall then understand fully his intent in their part, and each shall know the comprehension of
each, and Ilúvatar shall give to their thoughts the secret fire, being well pleased.
But now Ilúvatar sat and hearkened, and for a great while it seemed good to him, for in the music there were
no flaws. But as the theme progressed, it came into the heart of Melkor to interweave matters of his own imagining
that were not in accord with the theme of Ilúvatar, for he sought therein to increase the power and glory of the part
assigned to himself. To Melkor among the Ainur had been given the greatest gifts of power and knowledge, and he
had a share in all the gifts of his brethren. He had gone often alone into the void places seeking the Imperishable
Flame; for desire grew hot within him to bring into Being things of his own, and it seemed to him that Ilúvatar took
no thought for the Void, and he was impatient of its emptiness. Yet he found not the Fire, for it is with Ilúvatar. But
being alone he had begun to conceive thoughts of his own unlike those of his brethren.
Some of these thoughts he now wove into his music, and straightway discord arose about him, and many that
sang nigh him grew despondent, and their thought was disturbed and their music faltered; but some began to attune
their music to his rather than to the thought which they had at first. Then the discord of Melkor spread ever wider,
and the melodies which had been heard before foundered in a sea of turbulent sound. But Ilúvatar sat and hearkened
until it seemed that about his throne there was a raging storm, as of dark waters that made war one upon another in
an endless wrath that would not be assuaged.
Then Ilúvatar arose, and the Ainur perceived that he smiled; and he lifted up his left hand, and a new theme
began amid the storm, like and yet unlike to the former theme, and it gathered power and had new beauty. But the
discord of Melkor rose in uproar and contended with it, and again there was a war of sound more violent than
before, until many of the Ainur were dismayed and sang no longer, and Melkor had the mastery. Then again Ilúvatar
arose, and the Ainur perceived that his countenance was stern; and he lifted up his right hand, and behold! a third
theme grew amid the confusion, and it was unlike the others. For it seemed at first soft and sweet, a mere rippling of
gentle sounds in delicate melodies; but it could not be quenched, and it took to itself power and profundity. And it
seemed at last that there were two musics progressing at one time before the seat of Ilúvatar, and they were utterly at
variance. The one was deep and wide and beautiful, but slow and blended with an immeasurable sorrow, from which
its beauty chiefly came. The other had now achieved a unity of its own; but it was loud, and vain, and endlessly
repeated; and it had little harmony, but rather a clamorous unison as of many trumpets braying upon a few notes.
And it essayed to drown the other music by the violence of its voice, but it seemed that its most triumphant notes
were taken by the other and woven into its own solemn pattern.
In the midst of this strife, whereat the halls of Ilúvatar shook and a tremor ran out into the silences yet
unmoved, Ilúvatar arose a third time, and his face was terrible to behold. Then he raised up both his hands, and in
one chord, deeper than the Abyss, higher than the Firmament, piercing as the light of the eye of Ilúvatar, the Music
ceased.
– 3 –
– 4 –
Then Ilúvatar spoke, and he said: 'Mighty are the Ainur, and mightiest among them is Melkor; but that he
may know, and all the Ainur, that I am Ilúvatar, those things that ye have sung, I will show them forth, that ye may
see what ye have done. And thou, Melkor, shalt see that no theme may be played that hath not its uttermost source
in me, nor can any alter the music in my despite. For he that attempteth this shall prove but mine instrument in the
devising of things more wonderful, which he himself hath not imagined.'
Then the Ainur were afraid, and they did not yet comprehend the words that were said to them; and Melkor
was filled with shame, of which came secret anger. But Ilúvatar arose in splendour, and he went forth from the fair
regions that he had made for the Ainur; and the Ainur followed him.
But when they were come into the Void, Ilúvatar said to them: 'Behold your Music!' And he showed to them a
vision, giving to them sight where before was only hearing; arid they saw a new World made visible before them, and
it was globed amid the Void, and it was sustained therein, but was not of it. And as they looked and wondered this
World began to unfold its history, and it seemed to them that it lived and grew. And when the Ainur had gazed for a
while and were silent, Ilúvatar said again: 'Behold your Music! This is your minstrelsy; and each of you shall find
contained herein, amid the design that I set before you, all those things which it may seem that he himself devised or
added. And thou, Melkor, wilt discover all the secret thoughts of thy mind, and wilt perceive that they are but a part
of the whole and tributary to its glory.'
And many other things Ilúvatar spoke to the Ainur at that time, and because of their memory of his words,
and the knowledge that each has of the music that he himself made, the Ainur know much of what was, and is, and
is to come, and few things are unseen by them. Yet some things there are that they cannot see, neither alone nor
taking counsel together; for to none but himself has Ilúvatar revealed all that he has in store, and in every age there
come forth things that are new and have no foretelling, for they do not proceed from the past. And so it was that as
this vision of the World was played before them, the Ainur saw that it contained things which they had not thought.
And they saw with amazement the coming of the Children of Ilúvatar, and the habitation that was prepared for
them; and they perceived that they themselves in the labour of their music had been busy with the preparation of
this dwelling, and yet knew not that it had any purpose beyond its own beauty. For the Children of Ilúvatar were
conceived by him alone; and they came with the third theme, and were not in the theme which Ilúvatar propounded
at the beginning, and none of the Ainur had part in their making. Therefore when they beheld them, the more did
they love them, being things other than themselves, strange and free, wherein they saw the mind of Ilúvatar reflected
anew, and learned yet a little more of his wisdom, which otherwise had been hidden even from the Ainur.
Now the Children of Ilúvatar are Elves and Men, the Firstborn and the Followers. And amid all the
splendours of the World, its vast halls and spaces, and its wheeling fires, Ilúvatar chose a place for their habitation in
the Deeps of Time and in the midst of the innumerable stars. And this habitation might seem a little thing to those
who consider only the majesty of the Ainur, and not their terrible sharpness; as who should take the whole field of
Arda for the foundation of a pillar and so raise it until the cone of its summit were more bitter than a needle; or who
consider only the immeasurable vastness of the World, which still the Ainur are shaping, and not the minute
precision to which they shape all things therein. But when the Ainur had beheld this habitation in a vision and had
seen the Children of Ilúvatar arise therein, then many of the most mighty among them bent all their thought and
their desire towards that place. And of these Melkor was the chief, even as he was in the beginning the greatest of the
Ainur who took part in the Music. And he feigned, even to himself at first, that he desired to go thither and order all
things for the good of the Children of Ilúvatar, controlling the turmoils of the heat and the cold that had come to
pass through him. But he desired rather to subdue to his will both Elves and Men, envying the gifts with which
Ilúvatar promised to endow them; and he wished himself to have subject and servants, and to be called Lord, and to
be a master over other wills.
But the other Ainur looked upon this habitation set within the vast spaces of the World, which the Elves call
Arda, the Earth; and their hearts rejoiced in light, and their eyes beholding many colours were filled with gladness;
but because of the roaring of the sea they felt a great unquiet. And they observed the winds and the air, and the
matters of which Arda was made, of iron and stone and silver and gold and many substances: but of all these water
they most greatly praised. And it is said by the Eldar that in water there lives yet the echo of the Music of the Ainur
more than in any substance else that is in this Earth; and many of the Children of Ilúvatar hearken still unsated to
the voices of the Sea, and yet know not for what they listen.
Now to water had that Ainu whom the Elves can Ulmo turned his thought, and of all most deeply was he
instructed by Ilúvatar in music. But of the airs and winds Manwë most had pondered, who is the noblest of the
Ainur. Of the fabric of Earth had Aulë thought, to whom Ilúvatar had given skin and knowledge scarce less than to
Melkor; but the delight and pride of Aulë is in the deed of making, and in the thing made, and neither in possession
nor in his own mastery; wherefore he gives and hoards not, and is free from care, passing ever on to some new work.
And Ilúvatar spoke to Ulmo, and said: 'Seest thou not how here in this little realm in the Deeps of Time
Melkor hath made war upon thy province? He hath bethought him of bitter cold immoderate, and yet hath not
destroyed the beauty of thy fountains, nor of my clear pools. Behold the snow, and the cunning work of frost!
– 5 –
Melkor hath devised heats and fire without restraint, and hath not dried up thy desire nor utterly quelled the music
of the sea. Behold rather the height and glory of the clouds, and the everchanging mists; and listen to the fall of rain
upon the Earth! And in these clouds thou art drawn nearer to Manwë, thy friend, whom thou lovest.'
Then Ulmo answered: 'Truly, Water is become now fairer than my heart imagined, neither had my secret
thought conceived the snowflake, nor in all my music was contained the falling of the rain. I will seek Manwë, that
he and I may make melodies for ever to my delight!' And Manwë and Ulmo have from the beginning been allied,
and in all things have served most faithfully the purpose of Ilúvatar.
But even as Ulmo spoke, and while the Ainur were yet gazing upon this vision, it was taken away and hidden
from their sight; and it seemed to them that in that moment they perceived a new thing, Darkness, which they had
not known before except in thought. But they had become enamoured of the beauty of the vision and engrossed in
the unfolding of the World which came there to being, and their minds were filled with it; for the history was
incomplete and the circles of time not full-wrought when the vision was taken away. And some have said that the
vision ceased ere the fulfilment of the Dominion of Men and the fading of the Firstborn; wherefore, though the
Music is over all, the Valar have not seen as with sight the Later Ages or the ending of the World.
Then there was unrest among the Ainur; but Ilúvatar called to them, and said: 'I know the desire of your
minds that what ye have seen should verily be, not only in your thought, but even as ye yourselves are, and yet
other. Therefore I say: Eä! Let these things Be! And I will send forth into the Void the Flame Imperishable, and it
shall be at the heart of the World, and the World shall Be; and those of you that will may go down into it. And
suddenly the Ainur saw afar off a light, as it were a cloud with a living heart of flame; and they knew that this was no
vision only, but that Ilúvatar had made a new thing: Eä, the World that Is.
Thus it came to pass that of the Ainur some abode still with Ilúvatar beyond the confines of the World; but
others, and among them many of the greatest and most fair, took the leave of Ilúvatar and descended into it. But this
condition Ilúvatar made, or it is the necessity of their love, that their power should thenceforward be contained and
bounded in the World, to be within it for ever, until it is complete, so that they are its life and it is theirs. And
therefore they are named the Valar, the Powers of the World.
But when the Valar entered into Eä they were at first astounded and at a loss, for it was as if naught was yet
made which they had seen in vision, and all was but on point to begin and yet unshaped, and it was dark. For the
Great Music had been but the growth and flowering of thought in the Tuneless Halls, and the Vision only a
foreshowing; but now they had entered in at the beginning of Time, and the Valar perceived that the World had been
but foreshadowed and foresung, and they must achieve it. So began their great labours in wastes unmeasured and
unexplored, and in ages uncounted and forgotten, until in the Deeps of Time and in the midst of the vast halls of Eä
there came to be that hour and that place where was made the habitation of the Children of Ilúvatar. And in this
work the chief part was taken by Manwë and Aulë and Ulmo; but Melkor too was there from the first, and he
meddled in all that was done, turning it if he might to his own desires and purposes; and he kindled great fires.
When therefore Earth was yet young and full of flame Melkor coveted it, and he said to the other Valar: 'This shall be
my own kingdom; and I name it unto myself!'
But Manwë was the brother of Melkor in the mind of Ilúvatar, and he was the chief instrument of the second
theme that Ilúvatar had raised up against the discord of Melkor; and he called unto himself many spirits both greater
and less, and they came down into the fields of Arda and aided Manwë, lest Melkor should hinder the fulfilment of
their labour for ever, and Earth should wither ere it flowered. And Manwë said unto Melkor: 'This kingdom thou
shalt not take for thine own, wrongfully, for many others have laboured here do less than thou.' And there was strife
between Melkor and the other Valar; and for that time Melkor withdrew and departed to other regions and did there
what he would; but he did not put the desire of the Kingdom of Arda from his heart.
Now the Valar took to themselves shape and hue; and because they were drawn into the World by love of the
Children of Ilúvatar, for whom they hoped, they took shape after that manner which they had beheld in the Vision
of Ilúvatar, save only in majesty and splendour. Moreover their shape comes of their knowledge of the visible World,
rather than of the World itself; and they need it not, save only as we use raiment, and yet we may be naked and
suffer no loss of our being. Therefore the Valar may walk, if they will, unclad, and then even the Eldar cannot clearly
perceive them, though they be present. But when they desire to clothe themselves the Valar take upon them forms
some as of male and some as of female; for that difference of temper they had even from their beginning, and it is
but bodied forth in the choice of each, not made by the choice, even as with us male and female may be shown by
the raiment but is not made thereby. But the shapes wherein the Great Ones array themselves are not at all times like
to the shapes of the kings and queens of the Children of Ilúvatar; for at times they may clothe themselves in their
own thought, made visible in forms of majesty and dread.
And the Valar drew unto them many companions, some less, some well nigh as great as themselves, and they
laboured together in the ordering of the Earth and the curbing of its tumults. Then Melkor saw what was done, and
that the Valar walked on Earth as powers visible, clad in the raiment of the World, and were lovely and glorious to
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