Who are the Valar?

[Raynor]

Actually, Tolkien calls them both angels and gods in the letters - he didn't have a problem with either; in his essay "On fairy stories", he quoted Andrew Lang as saying that mythology is devoid of religion. He also said in letter #131 that whatever religious elements are present in a fairy story must not be explicit in the terms of the real world.

Originally Posted by Letter #131

God and the Valar (or powers: Englished as gods) are revealed. These latter are as we should say angelic powers, whose function is to exercise delegated authority in their spheres (of rule and government, not creation, making or re-making). They are 'divine', that is, were originally 'outside' and existed 'before' the making of the world.

Originally Posted by Letter #153

The immediate 'authorities' are the Valar (the Powers or Authorities): the 'gods'. But they are only created spirits – of high angelic order we should say, with their attendant lesser angels – reverend, therefore, but not worshipful

Maji, I agree with your interpretation on Tom; Tolkien did actually meant him to be an enigma; as to your first question, the answer is yes.

[Majimaune]

I guessed it by your avatar.

Wooooh someone agrees with me!!!

Also do you know where I might be able to get my hands on a copy of the letters?

[Commonmind]

Originally Posted by Raynor

Actually, Tolkien calls them both angels and gods in the letters - he didn't have a problem with either; in his essay "On fairy stories", he quoted Andrew Lang as saying that mythology is devoid of religion. He also said in letter #131 that whatever religious elements are present in a fairy story must not be explicit in the terms of the real world.


Maji, I agree with your interpretation on Tom; Tolkien did actually meant him to be an enigma; as to your first question, the answer is yes.

Well, either way, it may be a matter of subjectivity. Even Tolkien’s own words suggest as much. The only real answer for the question is to point the topic creator toward other Tolkien works and maybe then he/she can make their own assessment. We may be thinking a bit too deeply about the question too, and in that case I would still point him/her in the direction of some of the other works, so they can get a straight-laced answer of who the Valar are in relation to the world and not who we perceive them to be from a theological standpoint...

[j. d. worthington]

Originally Posted by Majimaune

Also do you know where I might be able to get my hands on a copy of the letters?

Well, Amazon over here has it in both the trade pb and original hardbound... in fact, the hardbound is considerably cheaper (USD $3.25 and up as opposed to $10.65 and up), so I'd imagine you could get it through Amazon, period, or the other online book sites. The trade pb is still in print, I believe, so you should be able to order it through any local bookstore, as well.