Valar Guild

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AIM: Valar Guild Meetingplace

VardaValar1: Before its (Valmar's) western gate there was a green mound, Ezellohar, that is named also Corollairë; and Yavanna hallowed it and she sat there long upon the green grass and sang a song of power, in which was set all her thought of things that grow in the earth.
VardaValar1: (sorry, spaces unexpected :-( )
VardaValar1: But Nienna thought in silence, and watered the mould with tears. In that time the Valar were gathered together to hear the song of Yavanna,
VardaValar1: and they sat silent upon their thrones of council in the Máhanaxar, the Ring of Doom near to the golden gates of Valmar; and Yavanna Kementári sang before them and they watched.
ArPharazonV: Nienna the fountain.
VardaValar1: And as they watched, upon the mound there came forth two slender shoots; and silence was over all the world in that hour, nor was there any other sound save the chanting of Yavanna.
VardaValar1: (interesting, good point, Phar)
VardaValar1: Under her song the saplings grew and became fair and tall, and came to flower; and thus there awoke in the world the Two Trees of Valinor.
VardaValar1: Of all things which Yavanna made they have most renown, and about their fate all the tales of the Elder Days are woven.

VardaValar1: But as the ages drew on to the hour appointed by Ilúvatar for the coming of the Firstborn, Middle-earth lay in a twilight beneath the stars that Varda had wrought in the ages forgotten of her labour in Eä.
VardaValar1: And in the darkness Melkor dwelt, and still often walked abroad, in many shapes of power and fear,
VardaValar1: and he wielded cold and fire, from the tops of the mountains to the deep furnaces that are beneath them; and whatsoever was cruel or violent or deadly in those days is laid in his charge.

VardaValar1: But Manwë Súlimo, highest and holiest of the Valar, sat upon the borders of Aman, forsaking not in his thought the Outer Lands. For his throne was set in majesty upon the pinnacle of Taniquetil, the highest of the mountains of the world,
VardaValar1: standing upon the margin of the sea. Spirits in the shape of hawks and eagles flew ever to and from his halls; and their eyes could see to the depths of the seas, and pierce the hidden caverns beneath the world.
VardaValar1: Thus they brought word to him of well nigh all that passed in Arda; yet some things were hidden even from the eyes of Manwë and the servants of Manwë, for where Melkor sat in his dark thought impenetrable shadows lay.

VardaValar1: Manwë has no thought for his own honour, and is not jealous of his power, but rules all to peace. The Vanyar he loved best of all the Elves, and of him they received song and poetry; for poetry is the delight of Manwë,
VardaValar1: and the song of words is his music. His raiment is blue, and blue is the fire of his eyes, and his sceptre is of sapphire, which the Noldor wrought for him;
VardaValar1: and he was appointed to be the viceregent of Ilúvatar, King of the world of Valar and Elves and Men, and the chief defence against the evil of Melkor.

VardaValar1: And thus it was by the power of Ulmo that even under the darkness of Melkor life coursed through still by many secret lodes, and the Earth did not die; and to all who were lost in that darkness or wandered far from the light of the Valar the ear of Ulmo was ever open;
VardaValar1: nor has he ever forsaken Middle- earth, and whatsoever may since have befallen of ruin or of change he has not ceased to take thought for it, and will not until the end of days.

VardaValar1: And in that time of dark Yavanna also was unwilling utterly to forsake the Outer Lands; for all things that grow are dear to her, and she mourned for the works that she had begun in Middle-earth but Melkor had marred.
VardaValar1: Therefore leaving the house of Aulë and the flowering meads of Valinor she would come at times and heal the hurts of Melkor;
VardaValar1: and returning she would ever urge the Valar to that war with his evil dominion that they must surely wage ere the coming of the Firstborn.

VardaValar1: And Oromë tamer of beasts would ride too at whiles in the darkness of the unlit forests; as a mighty hunter he came with spear and bow, pursuing to the death the monsters and fell creatures of the kingdom of Melkor,
VardaValar1: and his white horse Nahar shone like silver in the shadows. Then the sleeping earth trembled at the beat of his golden hooves, and in the twilight of the world Oromë would sound the Valaróma his great horn upon the plains of Arda;
VardaValar1: whereat the mountains echoed, and the shadows of evil fled away, and Melkor himself quailed in Utumno, foreboding the wrath to come.

VardaValar1: For it is said that after the departure of the Valar there was silence, and for an age Ilúvatar sat alone in thought. Then he spoke and said: "Behold I love the Earth, which shall be a mansion for the Quendi and the Atani!
VardaValar1: But the Quendi shall be the fairest of all earthly creatures and they shall have and shall conceive and bring forth more beauty than all my Children; and they shall have the greater bliss in the world.
VardaValar1: But to the Atani I will give a new gift." Therefore he willed that the hearts of Men should seek beyond the world and find no rest therein; but they should have a virtue to shape their life,
VardaValar1: amid the powers and chances of the world, beyond the Music of the Ainur, which is as fate to all things else; and of their operation everything should be, in form and deed, completed, and the world fulfilled unto the last and the smallest.

VardaValar1: And Manwë said, "O Kementári, Eru hath spoken, saying: 'Do then any of the Valar suppose that I did not hear all the Song, even the least sound of the least voice? Behold! When the Children awake,
VardaValar1: then the thought of Yavanna will wake also, and it will summon spirits from afar, and they will go among the kelvar and the olvar, and some will dwell therein, and be held in reverence,
VardaValar1: and their just anger shall be feared. For a time: while the Firstborn are in their power, and while the Secondborn are young.
VardaValar1: But dost thou not remember, Kementári, that thy thought sang not always alone? Did not thy thought and mine meet also, so that we took wing together like great birds that soar above the clouds?
VardaValar1: That also shall come to be by the heed of Ilúvatar, and before the Children awake there shall go forth with wings like the wind the Eagles of the Lords of the West."
VardaValar1: "Of Aulë and Yavanna", Silmarillion

VardaValar1: And she (Yavanna) set a sleep upon many things that had arisen in the Spring, so that they should not age, but should wait for a time of awakening that yet should be.
VardaValar1: But in the North Melkor built his strength, and he slept not, but watched, and laboured; and the evil things that he had perverted walked abroad, and the dark and slumbering woods were haunted by monsters and shapes of dread.
VardaValar1: And in Utumno he gathered his demons about him, those spirits who first adhered to him in the days of his splendour, and became most like him in his corruption;
VardaValar1: their hearts were of fire, but they were cloaked in darkness, and terror went before them; they had whips of flame. Balrogs they were named in Middle-earth in later days.

VardaValar1: But at the bidding of Manwë Mandos spoke, and he said: "In this age the Children of Ilúvatar shall come indeed, but they come not yet. Moreover it is doom that the Firstborn shall come in the darkness,
VardaValar1: and shall look first upon the stars. Great light shall be for their waning. To Varda ever shall they call at need."
VardaValar1: Then Varda went forth from the council, and she looked out from the height of Taniquetil, and beheld the darkness of Middle-earth beneath the innumerable stars, faint and far.
VardaValar1: Then she began a great labour, greatest of all the works of the Valar since their coming into Arda. She took the silver dews from the vats of Telperion, and therewith she made new stars and brighter against the coming of the Firstborn;
VardaValar1: where fore she whose name out of the deeps of time and the labours of Ea was Tintallë, the Kindler, was called after by the Elves Elentári, Queen of the Stars.

Eonwe Valar: "But Sauron could not discover them, for they were given into the hands of the Wise, who concealed them and never again used them openly while Sauron kept the Ruling Ring." (my emphasis added)