The Creation of Middle-earth | The Beginning of Days : Silmarillion Explained - Part 1 of 4

Alitalia maldonia al-haram re sa and welcome dear friends to our first ever episode of Tolkien untangled now in this series what I want to do is take the hundreds of thousands of words that Tolkien wrote detailing his legendarium and I want to well untangle them I want to make them accessible and I want to try and tell some of Tolkien's tales now I'm sure all of you watching this are going to be familiar with the Lord of the Rings but what I want to illustrate is the extent to which the Lord of the Rings is just the absolute tip-top of the iceberg that is Tolkien's legendarium like the entire events of the Lord of the Rings only take place over the span of just nine months in the 3019 year of the Third Age so there is so much to talk about before Frodo ever set off on his fateful quest to Mordor and so in this episode I'm gonna start at the very beginning and when it comes to Tolkien that doesn't mean the beginning of our main characters or the beginning of a city or anything like that it means the beginning of the universe itself now I'm sure when you guys think about middle-earth you think of elves and Men and dwarves and orcs right and of course they are the racers that we're most familiar with and I'm gonna spend a lot of time talking about them in the future in fact in the next episode or maybe the one after actually we're going to dive right into the genesis of the elves but at this very early point in our story those races do not exist yet and so in this video we're going to deal exclusively with gods and angels and demons and the first character who begins the entire legendarium is the one arrrooo Aluva Tarr now arrrooo eluveitie is for all intents and purposes got as in capital G God the one the all-powerful the creator of all things and erhu Aluva thar dwells in the timeless halls with the flame imperishable now of the flame imperishable also known as the secret fire is the aspect of Aluva tars power that deals with creation okay so it's with this that erhu eluveitie creates all the sentient life that we'll see throughout the entire legendarium and this is important right because only erhu Aluva tar can create life now we know the Dark Lord's can corrupts life in two different forms such as walks and other things but only erhu can create and especially only erhu can create free will which orcs don't have but if this secret fire sounds familiar it's because you've definitely heard Gandalf mention it on the bridge of Qasr doom you mem he says to the Balrog oh and what Gandalf is basically saying here is that I am a servant of erhu eluveitie the one true God and you a Balrog have no power next to him anyway the first thing that area louver Todd does in with the story is create the hirer and the I know are the holy ones they are the divine spirits created as an offspring of Aluva ters thought now we don't know exactly how many iron were there are but we know there's a lot and we know that because erhu eluveitie is an omni benevolent god the i noah are also all good except for one in fact the mightiest of all the einer and the most powerful being in existence after aerial avatar from the very beginning came to resent his creator and he went rogue and his name is Melkor and there's a good chance that some of you will have heard of Melkor big despite being less than delightful person Melkor is the one character who will keep on showing up again and again and again in the story of The Silmarillion for he is destined to become the first Dark Lord now as I say Melkor is dissatisfied with the fact that he cannot create life as erhu can and so even before the universe is made Melek or journeys off on his own into the void in search of the secret fire but he never finds it right because what Melek or does not know is that the secret fired was solely inside erhu eluveitie anyway we're not gonna have much of a story are we if we don't eventually get to the creation of the universe so without any further ado let's talk about Tolkien's equivalent of the Big Bang now very much unlike our own universe the universe of talking does not begin with chaos but instead with music for erhu eluveitie teaches the ein or his music and he gathers all the I know and instructs them to sing together in harmony and he told them to weave into the music their own thoughts and ideas because as the INA are created with the secret fire they all have free will but as I guess is always the case with free well as and then it comes at a cost because into the theme Melkor weaves discord and darkness which clashes with the theme of Arif now as I say Malik Allah did this because he was dissatisfied with only being the second mightiest being in existence and so he used the music to try and increase his own power and glory now a talking writes that when melkor did this the other owner were dismayed and many of them faltered but a few were so overcome by Melkor theme that they actually achieved their own music to his which basically means right here still before the universe is even may some of the einer defect away from erhu Aluva Tarr and they join melkor now we'll talk about these a dark I know in just a minute but to the surprise of well everyone really erhu Aluva tah doesn't get mad he simply stands and smiles and raises his left hand to begin a second theme of music now at all keen tells us that this second theme is both like and unlike the first but it too is soon corrupted and defiled by Melkor and the other inner are completely disheartened they don't know what to think but at this point erhu eluveitie becomes Stern and he begins a third theme and when this theme is also tarnished by Melkor erhu ends the whole music with one note that is deeper than the abyss higher than the firmament and as piercing as the light of Aluva tar that's Tolkien's exact words there now this music of the Einar this Mirage talked about is called the I knew and Linda Leigh and if you open up the silver really on this is the first chapter or rather the first book and I feel like quite a lot of people read this and it's just it's just to conceptualize just a bit too weird and it's certainly not what you'd expect if you've just come from the Lord of the Rings or The Hobbit or something like that but it would be such a shame if we stopped the story here because after this things begin to get insanely cool you see when the music is finished arrow says behold your music and each of the I Noah gets a vision of a world unfolding within the music and even the discord of Melkor contributes in some way to the beauty and glory of this creation so after that vision arrow says the word ayar which is the name of the universe and as he says it AR bursts into being now straight away arrow send the secret fire into the universe into air and it's for this reason Melkor immediately becomes obsessed with airs Dominion but as the INA look into air they see that it's empty for although they've been shown a vision of the world it's now up to them to make it so it's at this point that most although not all but most of the iron ore descend and they leave the timeless halls forever and they enter into the universe of air and to do this they have to take raiment they have to take bodies now the INA are effectively shapeshifters you know they can take any body they choose but in order to interact with the world they do need some kind of physical form now it's here that we meet a few more very important characters you see in the mind of Aluva Tarr melkor has a brother called man way and it's man way along with two other ánewá called ullam oh the lord of waters and owl a the lord of stone who thirst descend and begin building the planet of ardour now ardor is a word I'm going to use quite a lot because at this point it's not really enough just to talk about middle-earth now I know obviously middle-earth is the place where most of this story is going to happen but middle-earth is just one continent upon the planet that is order and it's man way Allah mo and owl a who forged this planet into existence but it's very important to note that even from the very beginning Melkor is there sewing his discord and darkness into the very fabric of order for Melkor hobbits this planet and he tells man we tell his brother that he names the whole world unto himself and thus begins the first war of our story and it is a war for the very creation of Arda itself now there are no armies or anything like that and Melkor fights his brother in the other eye nor with the fabric of Arda itself so we're a lay forges mountains Melkor throws them down and we're all mo creates oceans melkor spills them over the land and so this is the reason why our des is not a perfect and symmetrical world it was created in violence and the realm that will one day be middle-earth was originally archers first battleground anyway the first war does eventually come to an end when the final one of the iron ore descends from the timeless halls and enters a ax and his name is bulla caster champion and to Lucas is the physically strongest of all the Einar like he's not the most powerful we know Melkor is the most powerful but tulkus is the strongest I guess he has like the biggest muscles and when Melkor hears his mighty laughter he flees beyond the walls of night and for a long time Melkor is gone so with an imperfect but nevertheless pretty awesome world the I nor settle and in order they build a kingdom of paradise for themselves to dwell in and this era of beauty and peace is known as the spring of Arda now before I go on with a story at this point in the seal am I really on tokine does swing a little bit weird he takes a break from the narrative and gives us this whole little sections a little book called the VALIC winter and this isn't really a story it's just sort of an introduction to some of the most important einar and so I think I'm gonna take a leaf out of Porkins book and do the same thing now because although I've used the word I inure quite a lot already throughout the rest of the story the I Noah are split into two different groups the Valar and the Maya now the Valar are the most powerful all right and there were only 14 of them you're I mean technically that's 15 including Melkor but he's immediately cast out and so he's no longer counted among them so really there's 14 and of Allah a sort of the gods of Arda now I know I said erhu Aluva tar is the capital G God but he lives in the timeless halls he never enters air and so ardor is ruled by a pantheon of little G gods and goddesses and these are the fourteen Valar so starting I guess with the king of the Valar we have man way you know the brother of Melkor and man way is the Lords of the wind and the sky and man ways wife is the lady vara de the queen of the Valar and the lady of light now vada is a really important character because when we finally do get to the elves we'll see how she's sort of their number one deity to the elves vara des will be known as le baretsky thorny l but I should say the elves aren't the only ones who were in love with vada you see from the very beginning before aya Melkor looked upon vada and he loved her but when Raja witnessed the discord and his part of the theme she came to despise melkor and because vada is the embodiment of all this I know a light Melkor actually fears her more than anyone else now next up we have uh LUMO and as I said he is the lord of waters and so he's in charge of all the rivers and the seas and the lakes in ardha and all ammo' is a little unusual among the valla for two reasons one unlike the others he tends not to dwell on the land and instead he spends most of his time alone within Ardas great oceans but the other reason he's unusual is that he is one of only two Valar who isn't married now I mentioned Allah mo when I talked about the creation of Arda and the other Vala who played an important role is owl a the lord of stone and the craftsman the smith the creator of the Valar and owl A's wife is the lady yvonna the giver of fruits and I guess the goddess of all grow things so she's all about animals and nature and trees and things like that but Giovanna also has a sister called Varna and she is the lady of I guess lesser parts of nature you know Varna is all about flowers and blossom and singing birds and I guess it's her duty to decorate her older sisters natural world now Varna is also married and her husband is called or ma and he is the lord of the hunt and he rides atop a great white steed called Nahar and he carries a mighty hunting horn called the valor aroma and just one little fun fact about Nahar he is actually the direct ancestor of some of the great horses that we will meet later in the Lord of the Rings especially the mire us especially Shadowfax who is I guess a very distant descendant of Nahar the first great horse anyway just like vana or ma has a sister and her name is Nessa and Nessa is the ever young she is the swiftest of the valar and it's written by Tolkien that she's quick enough to outrun a deer although it's also written by talking that Nessa is the least powerful of the 14 and just like almost everyone else Nessa has a spouse called tool Cass the champion although at this point actually they're not technically married yet but you'll all remember Tully Cass as the champion the wrestler the one who frightened of Melkor in the first war with just the sound of his laughter so that's nine of the Valar but there are five left and they are the Fae and Tory the Masters of spirits so three of them are related two brothers and a sister and the oldest of the brothers is known as man DOS now man das is the dooms 'men of the Valar he is in charge of judgment and fate but he also has another very important duty you see man dose is the keeper of the dead he resides over the halls of mandos which is where the souls of dead elves will eventually end up so in some ways I guess you could sort of compare mandus to someone like Hades or Pluto but I have to clarify mandus is in no way evil and he's very stern everyone describes a fun guy but he is entirely fair you know just because he's in charge of the dead that doesn't make him a bad guy anyway the wife of man das is called via ray and she is the weaver of the Valar just like the fates I guess in a few different real-world european mythologies and vie ray is in charge of weaving the tapestry of the world and recording all the deeds of era de now the younger brother of man das is one of my favorites his name is Guillermo and he is the lord of sleep and dreams and visions and I guess this makes him the most psychedelic of all the Valar but yo Mo's wife is called este and she's great too she's the lady of rest and healing and so I feel there's any Valar that you'd want to hang around with even moment s they are by far the most chilled out but anyway the sister of man docent emo her name is Nina and she's possibly the most unusual of all the Valar see for one thing she's the other one who isn't married but more interestingly she is the lady of grief and sorrow and you might think oh that makes it pretty depressing right but I have to say she is also one of my favorites because jnana represents such a profoundly beautiful sentiment that Tolkien put right at the heart of his legendarium for jnana is not just the lady of grief and sorrow but also of mercy and hope for talking believed that in mourning and suffering there is courage and beauty and nienna doesn't weep for herself but for all the woes in and so all those who know her come to learn compassion and wisdom and it seems that to tokine compassion is the mightiest of all virtues in fact of Nina's many pupils of the most famous is the Einar who will one day become known as Gandalf and he's about as compassionate as they come [Music] but anyway that is all 14 that is the 14 Valar but I did also mention the Maya now if the Valor are a pantheon of gods then the Maya are kind of more like demigods or angels or in some cases demons and unlike the 14 Valar toki never tells us how many my are there are but it seems like the loads and many of them are never given names by tolki but some of them the most important ones and the first one talking tells us about is the most skilled in arms of all the Maya so I guess he's the best fighter and he is a dude called a on way and a on way is the herald of manwë which I guess gives him the highest authority of all the Maya and a on ways wife is called Elim RA and just as her husband is the herald of man way she is the handmaiden of voda but there are quite a few other Maya the talking tells us about he tells us about our en who's a spirit of fire who's destined to one day guide the Sun and her counterpart is T Leon a hunter of aura may who again one day is destined to guide the moon but I suppose the most famous of all the Maya is a guy that you've probably never heard of called alluring but in many many many many many thousands of years a Lauren will be given a task by the Valar and he will be bound into the humble and weakened body of an old man dressed in gray and to the elves of middle-earth this old man will be known as the grey pilgrim Mithrandir but to the men he will simply be Gandalf but it does need to be said that of all the Maya not all of them are good you remember I said at the beginning that some my artwork erupted by Melkor and they attuned their music to his well one of Allah most Maya is a dude called si and just as Allah mo is the lord of waters oh say is the Lord of coastal water and specifically coastal storms now this is pretty interesting because hace was actually drawn to Melkor and at first he joined him but hace was eventually redeemed and brought back to the side of good by his wife Booya nen and whereas hace creates these violent storms who we MN calms them and so to all sailors and maritime people of Middle earth oh say and we NN are two of the most important maya however it is said by Tolkien that the mightiest of all the Maya is a spirit of creation called Maya now Myron was a pupil of owl a back in the day the craftsman and Myron is arguably the greatest craftsmen ever to live in middle-earth and Myron that name what it means is the beloved but like so many other formerly beloved things Myron is corrupted by melkor and eventually he becomes the Dark Lord's chief disciple and of all the dark Maya Myron becomes the darkest now I know I just said that Myron means that beloved but once he falls in league with Melkor his name is changed to mean the AB horde and in the Elvin tongue the abhorred translates into Sauron and so this is the origin of Sauron the creator of the One Ring and the great enemy of the second and third ages but right here at the very beginning of time Sauron is simply a servant to an even greater Dark Lord and Sauron is not the only Maya that Melkor has working for him no he has a few others and among the most powerful are these demons of shadow and flame known by some as the Valor alka but known by most as the Balrogs now we all know the Moorea don't we but in the beginning Melkor has many balrog serving him but the Lord of the balla rocks the most powerful one is called gothmog and he is the commander of Mel Cole's evil army now just think for a second I just think how terrifying and badass the Balrog of more is but now consider he was only one of many and gothmog was his king now guys I've gotta be honest I'm afraid this video has gone on a little bit longer than I thought it was going to and I I really feel like I can't justify the first ever video being like 3540 minutes long and I guess honestly the truth is I probably just underestimated how much cool stuff talking gave us to talk about so I think I'm gonna end this video here but next week we'll return to the story and explore the years of the lamps which is this primeval era where the gods of middle-earth ruled and we'll also see how with a little help from Melkor even the paradise of the Valar cannot last forever but thank you all very much for watching dear friends and because you beautiful people have made it all the way to the end of the episode I thought I'd finish these videos up with a little fun fact about either Tolkien or his legendarium because if there's one thing you gonna learn about me it's that I absolutely love fun facts so our first fun fact is a little fact concerning hobbits so there was once a lady hobbit called laelia clay hanger and she was married to a guy called 14 brass Tookie who happened to be the Thane of the shire which is effectively the closest thing the hobbits have to royalty except that things don't really do anything they just kind of sit there and look good now laelia clay hanger or player took that she became when she was married was not a very popular Hobbit and she was considered immensely annoying by her family in fact for most of her life she was known as laelia the fat and the reason she was so unpopular is that when her husband Fortinbras died laelia became the matriarch of the took family and she effectively ruled a stain for 22 years you see even though Leila had a son called fair embrace he was not allowed to take power until he married and it said that he never found a wife because there was no woman in all the Shire who was willing to live in the same home as laelia so I reckon you guys could imagine Fair and brass would have a lot to gain if his mother suddenly Hanano died now this is the part with the actual fun fact because laelia did eventually die in her later years when she was so fat she couldn't even move and so she needed an attendant to wheel her around and this attendant was a young lady called pearl - now one day pearl accidentally and I'm saying that with air quotes tripped and dropped laelia down a flight of stairs to her death now after this fair embrace finally did succeed his mother and he became Fame but the took family never spoke of the accident again but this is where things get interesting because Perla took was later seen walking around the Shire wearing a priceless tube necklace which heavily implies Fame Ferrum brass may have rewarded her for offing his mother now the reason this fact is especially fun is that pearl has a younger brother and he is Pippin as him yeah that Pippin from Lord of the Rings so whenever you see Pippin in the movies think about the fact that his older sister is a type of Hobbit assassin who it seems straight up murdered laelia the fat on the orders of her son the new theme it's like a hobbit Game of Thrones or something Pippin sister is a little Hobbit Terminator isn't that crazy anyway as always dear friends until next time much love stay groovy and Nevaeh melanine [Music]

Channel: Tolkien Untangled

Views: 140,053

Keywords: Tolkien, Silmarillion, Ainulindalë, Lord of the Rings

Id: Pv-9G5qikzs

Length: 29min 11sec (1751 seconds)

Published: Wed Mar 25 2020