Das Silmarrion
By J. R. R. Tolkien
Distribooks
Copyright © 2001
J. R. R. Tolkien
All right reserved.
ISBN: 9783608932454
Chapter One
The Music of the Ainur
There was Eru, the One, who in Arda is called Iluvatar; 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 the mind of Iluvatar 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 Iluvatar 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 Iluvatar and were silent.
Then Iluvatar 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 will 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 Iluvatar 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 Iluvatar 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 Iluvatar by the choirs of the Ainur and
the Children of Iluvatar after the end of days. Then the themes of
Iluvatar 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
Iluvatar shall give to their thoughts the secret fire, being well
pleased.
But now Iluvatar 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
Iluvatar; 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 Iluvatar took no thought for the Void, and he was impatient
of its emptiness. Yet he found not the Fire, for it is with
Iluvatar. 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 straight-way
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 Iluvatar 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 Iluvatar 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 Iluvatar 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 Iluvatar, 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 Iluvatar shook and
a tremor ran out into the silences yet unmoved, Iluvatar 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 Iluvatar, the
Music ceased.
* * *
Then Iluvatar 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 Iluvatar, 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 Iluvatar 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, Iluvatar said to them:
'Behold your Music!' And he showed to them a vision, giving to them
sight where before was only hearing; and 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, Iluvatar 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 Iluvatar 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 Iluvatar 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 Iluvatar, 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 Iluvatar
were conceived by him alone; and they came with the third theme, and
were not in the theme which Iluvatar 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 Iluvatar
reflected anew, and learned yet a little more of his wisdom, which
otherwise had been hidden even from the Ainur.
Now the Children of Iluvatar 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, Iluvatar 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 Iluvatar 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
Iluvatar, 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 Iluvatar
promised to endow them; and he wished himself to have subjects 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 Iluvatar 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 call Ulmo turned his
thought, and of all most deeply was he instructed by Iluvatar in
music. But of the airs and winds Manwe most had pondered, who is the
noblest of the Ainur. Of the fabric of Earth had Aule thought, to
whom Iluvatar had given skill and knowledge scarce less than to
Melkor; but the delight and pride of Aule 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 Iluvatar 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 thy clear
pools. Behold the snow, and the cunning work of frost! 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 Manwe, 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
Manwe, that he and I may make melodies for ever to thy delight!' And
Manwe and Ulmo have from the beginning been allied, and in all
things have served most faithfully the purpose of Iluvatar.
Continues...
Excerpted from Das Silmarrion
by J. R. R. Tolkien
Copyright © 2001 by J. R. R. Tolkien.
Excerpted by permission.
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