[j. d. worthington]

Originally Posted by The Procrastinator

My own personal ways have taken me on occasion to the house of Pedantry, but I think that particular deity really was not mentioned in the Silmarillion.

Procrastinator: which particular deity? Nienna? If, so she is very much mentioned in The Silmarillion; quite a bit, in fact. She is the sister of Mandos and Lorien. Perhaps my favorite passage mentioning her is in the "Valaquenta":

Mightier than Estë [the spouse of Lorien] is Nienna, sister of the Fëanturi; she dwells alone. She is acquainted with grief, and mourns for every wound that Arda has suffered in the marring of Melkor. so great was her sorrow, as the Music unfolded, that her song turned to lamentation long before its end, and the sound of mourning was woven into the themes of the World before it began. But she does not weep for herself; and those who hearken to her learn pity, and endurance in hope. Her halls are west of West, upon the borders of the world; and she comes seldom to the city of Valimar where all is glad. She goes rather to the halls of Mandos, which are near her own; and all those spirits who wait in Mandos cry to her, for she brings strength to the spirit and turns sorrow to wisdom. The windows of her house look outward from the walls of the world.

Which sounds very much like the sort of spirit that informs Gandalf; and in fact is echoed by many things he says from time to time....

One correction, Boaz: that should be the first half of The Two Towers, not the second half (which is the story of Frodo and Sam in their trek through the Emyn Muil, Ithilien, and to the Pass of Cirith Ungol....