[Legendarium, The Silmarillion] – Background Information Lord of the Rings – Valar Manwe, Varda, Aule, Yavanna
Manwë – King of the Valar
Manwe was the king of the Valar, husband of the Valier Varda and the brother of Melkor, the dark lord. Manwe was the only Valar that could directly consult with Iluvatar. Thorondor, the king of the eagles and the great eagles were the messengers of Manwe and the watch scouts over Middle-Earth reporting to Manwe of the events of middle earth.
The great Eagles would intervene with events if the Middle-Earth upon Manwe’s will. Manwe’s roie was similar to Odin, Zeus and St. Michael the archangel in the Legendarium as the King of the Valar.
Manwe - Release of Morgoth, Silmarilon
After Morgoth was defeated by the First War, the War of the Valars, where he destroyed the Two Lamps of the Valar, Morgoth was locked up at the Halls of Mandos. Peace continued and Manwe who innately didn't understand the concept of evil, was deceived by the fake pledges of Morgoth.
Manwe released Morgoth from the Halls of Mandos and Morgoth started to defile and estrang the Noldor between the Valar.
This led to a eries of events such as the arrogance of the Noldor elves, death of Finwe, the king of the Noldor, corruption of the Two Trees of Valinor, theft of the three Silmarils by Morgoth and the great wars of the Silmarillion began.
Manwe's Fury on the Noldor and the Curse of Mandos
The Noldor elves have committed crime by murdering fellow Teleri elves that infuriated Manwe on their conquest of revenge on Morgoth. Feanor and the Noldor elves demanded ships to cross the sea fom the contiment Aman to middle earth.
Howver the Teleri elves attempted to persuade Feanor and the Noldor not to resist the will of the Valars. Eventually this led to the kinslaying of the Teleri by the Noldor elves.
The kinslaying by the Noldor infuriated the Valalrs. Mandos the Valar casted the Curse of Mandos or the Doom of the Noldor onto the Noldor elf race. Manwe declares that he shall not help the Noldor elves on their conquest against Morgoth.
The Valars didn’t help the conquest of Morgoth until Earendil ‘s voyage to Valinor when Morgoth almost took over Middle-Earth.
Varda
Varda was the Queen of the Valar and the partner of Manwë. Varda has created the stars in the skies and she was also known as Elbereth in the elvish Sindarin. Melkor once loved Varda, however Varda refused Melkor and chose Melkor’s brother Manwe as her companion.
Varda was one of the most recognized goddesses by the elves, humans and even the hobbits by her other name Elbereth.
During the Lord of the Rings, the hobbits Frodo, Samwise and Peregrin would sing a song that calls her name Elbereth and Aragorn also called out Varda’s name Elbereth when he warded off the Nazguls.
At Cirith Ungol Elbereth intervened with Middle Earth by shining the light of the starts through the Phail of Galadriel when Samwise was fighting against the spider Shelob.
Aulë
Aule was the master craftsman among the Valar, partner of Yavanna and he has created many masterpieces such as the Two Lamps of the Valar, dwarves and Angainor which was the chain that locked up Morgoth. Aule was the master of many disciples including many notable characters such as Sauron, Saruman and Feanor.
Aule and the disciples
The Ñoldor elves were especially great craftsman and possessed much interest in creation of masterpieces. Fëanor, the Noldor elf was also one of the students of Aule and with the craftsmanship he has learned from Aule, Feanor forges the Three Silmarils, jewels that were created by the light of the Two Trees of Valinor.
The Three Silmarils that were simply jewels of great beauty tempted and provoked the war of the elves, Valar with Morgoth’s dark forces.
Mairon who would later become Sauron was also a disciple of Aule where he uses the craftsmanship, he has learned to forge the rings of power and the One Ring. Curumo, who is more known as Saruman was also a disciple of the Valar Aule.
Aulë – Difference with Melkor
Unlike Melkor(Morgoth), Aule was only interested in the process of creation itself and the simplistic beauty of the results of his craftsmanship. However, Melkor and the corrupted disciples of Aule, Sauron and Saruman were interested in craftsmanship only to forge tools and methods to fulfill their own personal desires.
Aule and the creation of the Dwarves
Aule was curious of the children of Illuvatar before the elves had awakened and simply created the dwarves by the joy of imagining what children of Ilúvatar would look like.
Aule created the dwarves to be sheer willed individuals not to be dominated by other racesAs the creation of life was one of the authorities of Iluvatar, Aule was even willing to destroy the dwarves by Iluvatar’s will.
However, Iluvatar allowed the dwarves to exist and gave them a soul and embraced the dwarves as the adopted children of Iluvatar on the condition that dwarves were to awake after the elves.
As the creation of dwarves were out of plan, and Aule created the dwarves to never yield under domination of other beings, the dwarves would have conflict with the elves.
Yavanna
Yavanna was the partner of Aule and the queen of the earth who created all the plants and animals. After Melkor destroyed the Two Lamps of the Valar that used to light up Arda, the Ainur relocated from the continent Almaren to the Aman continent.
Valinor was located on the Amana continent and Valinor has become the lands where the Ainur (Valar and the Maia) and the elves would reside. Yavanna after the destruction of the Two Lamps of the Valar created a new great light to brighten Arda called the Two Trees of Valinor.
Creation of the Ents by Yavanna's prayer
After Iluvatar allowed the dwarves, the creation by Yavanna's husband Aule, Yavanna feared the dwarves would lumber all the trees and prayed to Iluvatar for guardians to protect the forests. Iluvatar has answered the prayers of Yavanna and created the Ents to protect the trees and forests.
Yavanna and the Two Trees of Valinor – Telprion and Laurelin - Sun, Moon
The Two Trees of Valinor Telperion and Laurelin that lit the Arda were slowly dying as Morgoth infiltrated Valinor with the spider Ungoliant.
The Ungoliant sucked the tree sap of the Two Trees and defiled then. Yavanna asked Feanor to use the Silmarils to recover the damaged Two Trees of Valinor. Feanor refused to give up the masterpiece Three Silmarils that he forged with the light of the Two Trees.
Yavanna inevitably asks her husband Aule to create the Moon and the Sun to light up Arda with the silver fruit of Telperion and the golden fruit of Laurelin.
Aule forged the Moon with the silver fruit of Telperion and the Sun with the golden fruit of Laurelin. Later on, Morgoth would murder the Noldor king Finwe, the father of Feanor and escape Valinor with the Three Silmarils alongside the Ungoliant. This infuriated Feanor and started the long war and tragedy of the Silmarillion.
Yavanna and the Silver Tree Telperion, Galathilion and the White Tree of Gondor
Yavanna has created the sacred white tree of Galathilion from the remnants of the Silver Tree Telperion. The elves have nutured the White Tree Celeborn from Galathilion. After the War of Wrath that remarked the end of the Great Jewel War over the Silmarils, the elves have presented Nimloth, the First White Tree as a gift to the humans, the Edain who fought for the Valars.
The Edain humans resided on the land of Andor and established the kingdom of Numenor(Númenor) and Nimloth was considered a sacred present from the Valars.
Later on as Numenor perished, the remaining Duendain, the descendants of the Numenorians loyal to the Valars have established Gondor and have presented Nimloth as the symbol of Gondor. Nimloth and the White Trees that descended from Nimloth were referred as the White Tree of Gondor.
