Cosmology of Tolkien's legendarium


The cosmology of J. R. R. Tolkien's legendarium combines aspects of Christian theology and metaphysics, mythology and pre-modern cosmological concepts in the flat Earth paradigm with the modern spherical Earth view of the solar system.
Tolkien's cosmology is based on a clear dualism between the spiritual and the material world.
While the Ainur, the first-created but immaterial angelic beings, have the "subcreative" power of imagination, the power to create independent life or physical reality is reserved for Eru Ilúvatar ; this power of creation is expressed by the concept of a "Secret Fire" or "Flame Imperishable". The term for the material universe is Eä, "the World that Is", as distinguished from the purely idealist pre-figuration of creation in the minds of the Ainur. Eä contains our Earth in a mythical ancient past, of which Middle-earth is the main continent. Eä was the word "spoken" by Eru Ilúvatar to bring the physical universe into actuality.

Ontology and creation

Eru Ilúvatar

Eru is introduced in The Silmarillion as the supreme being of the universe, creator of all existence. In Tolkien's invented Elvish language Quenya, Eru means "The One", or "He that is Alone" and Ilúvatar signifies "Allfather". The names appear in Tolkien's work both in isolation and paired.
In earlier versions of the legendarium, the name Ilúvatar meant "Father for Always", then "Sky-father", but these etymologies were dropped in favour of the newer meaning in later revisions. Ilúvatar was also the only name of God used in earlier versions – the name Eru first appeared in "The Annals of Aman", published in Morgoth's Ring, the tenth volume of The History of Middle-earth.

Creation account

Eru first created a group of angelic beings, called in Elvish the Ainur, and these were co-actors in the creation of the universe through a holy music and chanting called the "Music of the Ainur", or Ainulindalë in Elvish. Eru alone could create independent life or reality by giving it the Flame Imperishable. All beings not created directly by Eru still needed to be accepted by Eru to become more than mere puppets of their creator. The evil Melkor, who had originally been Eru's most powerful servant, desired the Flame Imperishable and long sought for it in vain, but he could only twist that which had already been given life.
The "Flame Imperishable" or "Secret Fire" represents the Holy Spirit in Christian theology. It represents the creative activity of Eru, inseparable both from him and from his creation. In the interpretation of Christopher Tolkien, it represents "the mystery of authorship", the author both standing outside of his work and indwelling in it.
The abode of Eru and the Ainur outside of time or the physical universe is also called the "Timeless Halls". Tolkien made a point of keeping the ultimate fate of the souls of Men and the nature of their mortality open, and unknown to the Elves. In the tale of Adanel it is suggested that Men return to Eru after death.
The account of the "events" predating creation is not presented from an omniscient perspective but presented as a fictional tradition, purportedly a record of the account given by the Valar to the Elves in Aman, and from there transmitted to Middle-earth, and translated from Valarin at first into Quenya and later into human languages. It is understood that the Valar, who were present at the moment of creation as Ainur, gave an honest account to the Elves, but were constrained by the limitations of language, the description of the "Music" or of the words "spoken" by Eru, or his "Halls" and the secret "Flame" etc. are to be taken as metaphors.
In the First Age, Eru alone created Elves and Men. This is why in The Silmarillion both races are called the Children of Ilúvatar. The story of their creation is told in the Quenta Silmarillion. Elves are also named the Minnónar in Quenya and Men are the Apanónar because the Elves were the first of the Children of Ilúvatar to awake in Middle-earth, whereas Men were not intended to follow until the beginning of the First Age many years later.
The race of the Dwarves was created by Aulë, and given sapience by Eru. Animals and plants were fashioned by Yavanna during the Music of the Ainur after the themes set out by Eru. The Eagles of Manwë were created from the thought of Manwë and Yavanna. Yavanna also created the Ents, who were given sapience by Eru. Melkor instilled some semblance of free will into his mockeries of Eru Ilúvatar's creations.

Eru's direct interventions

In the Second Age, Eru buried King Ar-Pharazôn and his Army when they landed at Aman in the Second Age. He caused the Earth to take a spherical shape, drowned Númenor, and caused the Undying Lands to be taken "outside the spheres of the earth".
When Gandalf died in the fight with the Balrog in The Fellowship of the Ring, it was beyond the power of the Valar to resurrect him; Eru himself intervened to send Gandalf back.
Discussing Frodo Baggins' failure to destroy the Ring in The Return of the King, Tolkien indicates in Letter 192 that "the One" does intervene actively in the world, pointing to Gandalf's remark to Frodo that "Bilbo was meant to find the Ring, and not by its maker", and to the eventual destruction of the Ring despite Frodo's failure to complete the task.

Tolkien on Eru and subcreation

Peter Hastings, manager of the Newman Bookshop, had written to Tolkien objecting to his writing of the reincarnation of Elves, saying:
In a 1954 draft of a reply to Hastings, Tolkien, also a devout Roman Catholic, defended his creative ideas as an exploration of the infinite "potential variety" of God: that it need not conform to the reality of our world so long as it does not misrepresent the essential nature of the divine:
Hastings had also criticised the description of Tom Bombadil by Goldberry simply as "He is", saying that this seemed to be a reference to the Biblical quotation "I Am that I Am", implying that Bombadil was God. Tolkien denied this:

Fëa and hröa

Fëa and hröa are words for "soul" and "body" of the Children of Ilúvatar, Elves and Men. Their hröa is made out of the matter of Arda ; for this reason hröar are Marred.
When an Elf dies, the fëa leaves the hröa, which then "dies". The fëa is summoned to the Halls of Mandos, where it is judged; however as with death their free-will is not taken away, they could refuse the summons. If allowed by Mandos, the fëa may be re-embodied into a new body that is identical to the previous hröa.
The situation of Men is different: a Mannish fëa is only a visitor to Arda, and when the hröa dies, the fëa, after a brief stay in Mandos, leaves Arda completely. Originally men could "surrender themselves: die of free will, and even of desire, in estel" but Melkor made Men fear death, instead of accept with joy the Gift of Eru.

Unseen world

In The Lord of the Rings Tolkien justifies the nature of the Ring by explaining that Elves and other immortal beings dwell in "both worlds" at once and have great power in both, especially those who have dwelt in the light of the Two Trees before the Sun and Moon; and that the powers associated with "magic" were spiritual in nature. Mortals on the other hand are chained to their bodies, have less influence upon them, and their fëa depart the world without them. This posed a problem for immortal beings whose spirits do not wane over time, but become increasingly dependent on their physical bodies.
The Elves who stayed in Middle-earth where Melkor once was dominant, being in bodies and surrounded by things that are themselves marred and subject to decay by the influence of Melkor, created the Elven Rings out of a desire to preserve the physical world unchanged; as it were in the Undying Lands of Valinor, home of the Valar. Without the rings they are destined to eventually "fade", eventually becoming shadows in the physical world, prefiguring the concept of Elves as dwelling in a separate and often-underground plane in historical European mythology. Mortals who wear a Ring of Power are destined to "fade" much more rapidly, as the rings unnaturally preserve their life-span turning them into wraiths. Invisibility is a side-effect of this, as the wearer is temporarily pulled into the spirit-world. Immortal beings, however, became trapped in their bodies over long periods of time, subject to reincarnation only if their bodies were destroyed.

Evil in Middle-earth

Tolkien used the first part of The Silmarillion, the creation account, to describe his thoughts on the origin of evil in his fictional world, which he took pains to comport with his own beliefs on the subject, as accounted in Tolkien's Letters. These beliefs were elaborated on both early and late in life, and Tolkien sought to bring them consistently in line with his views on evil in the real world; in contrast to widespread critical reception of Tolkien's works as somehow depicting, or even fondly imagining, a binary clash between absolute good and evil.
In Tolkien's legendarium, evil represents a rebellion against the creative process set in motion by Eru. Evil is defined by its original actor, Melkor, a Luciferian figure who falls from grace in active rebellion against Eru, out of a desire to create and control things of his own that do not comport with the harmonies of the other angelic beings. As it originates with Melkor, whose ideas and conceptions are subservient to the will of Eru, his evil by definition constitutes a relative absence of good, in the Augustinian tradition, rather than an opposing force to the will of God in the Manichaean tradition. Eru explicitly denies Melkor's desire to be a demiurge, and his actions in defiance of the creative will of Eru are marked as evil in that sense; Tolkien rejected Gnosticism of the sort depicted in the mythopoeia of William Blake.
The "good" angels led by Melkor's brother Manwë are inspired directly by Eru's teachings, and seek to carry out his wishes directly, but lacking themselves the ability to create things not inspired by Eru, they do not necessarily understand the nature of evil; Manwë subsequently releases Melkor from imprisonment, seeking his redemption, as he is incapable of fully understanding Melkor's hatred. However, Eru takes one of the Ainur aside and shows him a vision of snow, ice and rain; things which Ulmo had not envisioned, which were made possible by the extremes of heat and cold imagined by Melkor. Thus, in describing the new Creation, Eru tells Melkor and the others that:
Through Manwë, Tolkien suggests that the plot of the main story itself, the 500-year war of the Silmarils, is an example of this principle in action:
This leads Melkor to envy the resulting creation and seek to destroy it, becoming the ultimate nihilist. Tolkien explains that Melkor would not be satisfied with control, for the very matter of creation would remain the vision of Eru, and thus, evil could not have the mastery in the end, even if the world were destroyed. Evil in Tolkien's world is thus, in and of itself, incapable of creative impulse:
However, Tolkien also emphasized that all beings with free will would be subject to a similar fall, due to being given the choice to reject the will of Eru or embrace the harmony of creation. In Morgoth's Ring and in his notes written late in life, Tolkien spent much time on issues of cosmology and theology within the fictional universe, and described how Melkor, as the original evil, represented the only "pure" evil in the story; all other beings were redeemable provided free will, and even Melkor himself was not evil in origin, being the creation of the fundamentally good supreme being. In an effort to subvert creation, Tolkien describes in these notes how Melkor poured his spiritual essence into the very fabric of matter, such that all of Middle-earth was the equivalent of Sauron's Ring for Melkor, hence the title of the volume.

The End of Days

Tolkien's world ends in Dagor Dagorath.

The physical universe

Eä

Eä is the Quenya name for the material universe as a realization of the vision of the Ainur. The word comes from the Quenya word for to be. Thus, Eä is the World that Is, as distinguished from the World that Is Not. "Eä" was the word spoken by Eru Ilúvatar by which he brought the universe into actuality.

The Void

The Void is the nothingness outside Arda. From Arda, it is accessible through the Doors of Night. The Valar exiled Melkor to the Void after his defeat in the War of Wrath. Legend foretells that Melkor will return to Arda just before the apocalyptic battle of Dagor Dagorath. Avakúma is not to be confused with the state of non-being that preceded the creation of Eä.

Stars

When Arda was created, "innumerable stars" were already in existence. To provide greater light, the Valar later created the Two Lamps in Middle-earth, and when these were destroyed they created the Two Trees of Valinor. These gave rise to the Ages of the Lamps and the Years of the Trees, however the Ages of the Stars did not conclude until the creation of the Sun.
During the Years of the Trees, shortly before the Awakening of the Elves, Varda created the Great Stars: "new stars and brighter" and constellations. The Elves venerated stars; one of the names of the Elvish race is Eldar: "People of the Stars".

Flat-earth cosmology

Arda

Ilúvatar created Arda according to a flat Earth cosmology. This disc-like Arda has continents and the seas, and the moon and the stars revolve around it. Arda was created to be the "Habitation" for the Children of Ilúvatar.
This world was, at first, not lit by a sun. Instead, the Valar created two lamps to illuminate it: Illuin and Ormal. To support the lamps, the Vala Aulë forged two enormous pillars of rock: Helcar in the north of the continent Middle-earth, and Ringil in the south. Illuin was set upon Helcar and Ormal upon Ringil. Between the columns, where the light of the lamps mingled, the Valar dwelt on the island of Almaren in the midst of a Great Lake.
When Melkor destroyed the Lamps, two vast inland seas and two major seas were created, but Almaren and its lake were destroyed.
The Valar left Middle-earth, and went to the newly formed continent of Aman in the west, where they created their home called Valinor. To discourage Melkor from assailing Aman, they thrust the continent of Middle-earth to the east, thus widening Belegaer at its middle, and raising five major mountain ranges in Middle-earth: the Blue, Red, Grey, and Yellow Mountains, plus the Mountains of the Wind. This act disrupted the symmetrical shapes of the continents and seas.

Ekkaia

Ekkaia, also called the Enfolding Ocean and the Encircling Sea, is a dark sea that surrounds the world before the cataclysm at the end of the Second Age. During this flat-Earth period, Ekkaia flows completely around Arda, which floats on it like a ship on a sea. Above Ekkaia is a layer of atmosphere. Ulmo the Lord of Waters dwells in Ekkaia, underneath Arda. Ekkaia is extremely cold; where its waters meet the waters of the ocean Belegaer on the northwest of Middle-earth, a chasm of ice is formed: the Helcaraxë. Ekkaia cannot support any ships except the boats of Ulmo. The ships of the Númenóreans that tried to sail on it sank, drowning the sailors. The Sun passes through Ekkaia on its way around the world, warming it as it passes.

Ilmen

Ilmen is a region of clean air pervaded by light, before the cataclysm at the end of the Second Age. The stars and other celestial bodies are in this region. The Moon passes through Ilmen on its way around the world, plunging down the Chasm of Ilmen on its return.

Spherical-earth cosmology

Tolkien's legendarium addresses the spherical Earth paradigm by depicting a catastrophic transition from a flat to a spherical world, in which Aman was removed "from the circles of the world".
This transition from a flat to a spherical Earth is at the center of Tolkien's "Atlantis" legend.
His unfinished The Lost Road suggests a sketch of the idea of historical continuity connecting the Elvish mythology of the First Age with the classical Atlantis myth, the Germanic migrations, Anglo-Saxon England and the modern period, presenting the Atlantis legend in Plato and other deluge myths as a "confused" account of the story of Númenor. The cataclysmic re-shaping of the world would have left its imprint on the cultural memory and collective unconscious of humanity, and even on the genetic memory of individuals. The "Atlantis" part of the legendarium explores the theme of the memory of a 'straight road' into the West, which now only exists in memory or myth, because the physical world has been changed.
The Akallabêth says that the Númenóreans who survived the catastrophe sailed as far west as they could in search of their ancient home, but their travels only brought them around the world back to their starting points. Hence, before the end of the Second Age, the transition from "flat Earth" to "round Earth" had been completed. New lands were also created in the west, analogous to the New World. The same idea is expressed in The Lost Road, via an alliterating line in Primitive Germanic is revealed to one protagonist, Westra lage wegas rehtas, nu isti sa wraithas "Westward lay a straight way, but now it is bent."
The same sentence is recorded in Adûnaic, the original language of "Atlantis" revealed to one of the protagonists in The Notion Club Papers, reading adûn izindi batân tâidô ayadda: îdô kâtha batîna lôkhî; this is glossed by the character who experienced the vision, within the fictional narrative, as: "west straight road once went now all roads crooked".
in the distant past. With the loss of all its peoples except Man, and the reshaping of the continents, all that is left of Middle-earth is a dim memory in folklore, legend, and old words.
A few years after publishing The Lord of the Rings, in a note associated with the unique narrative story "Athrabeth Finrod ah Andreth", Tolkien equated Arda with the Solar System; because Arda by this point consisted of more than one heavenly body.

Planets and constellations

Tolkien developed a list of names and meanings called the Qenya Lexicon. Christopher Tolkien included extracts from this in an appendix to The Book of Lost Tales, including mentions of specific stars, planets, and constellations in the entries: Gong, Ingil, Mornië, Morwinyon, Nielluin, Silindrin, and Telimektar. The Sun was called Anor or Ur. The Moon was called Ithil or Silmo.

Ethereal regions

Fanyamar, Cloudhome, was the upper air where clouds form.
Aiwenórë, Bird-land, was the lower air where the paths of birds are found.
Vista, Air, was the atmosphere, the breathable air.

Planets

Tolkien gave names which cannot all be assigned definitely to specific planets.
Silindo may be Jupiter; Carnil, Mars; Elemmire, Mercury; Luinil, Uranus; Lumbar, Saturn; and Nenar, Neptune.
Eärendil's Star, Gil-Amdir, Gil-Estel, Gil-Oresetel, and Gil-Orrain the light of a Silmaril, set on Eärendil's ship Vingilot, represents Venus. The English use of the word "earendel" in the Old English poem Crist I was found by 19th century philologists to be some sort of bright star, and from 1914 Tolkien took this to mean the morning-star. The line éala éarendel engla beorhtast "Hail, Earendel, brightest of angels" was Tolkien's inspiration. The Old English phrase is rendered in Quenya as Aiya Eärendil, elenion ancalima!

Individual stars

Secondary