Eru Ilúvatar

From the One Wiki to Rule Them All, the Lord of the Rings Encyclopedia.

Eru (the One), also called Ilúvatar (the All High or the Father of All as defined in the index of name elements in The Silmarillion), was the supreme God of Middle-earth. He is the single creator, but has delegated most direct action within Eä to the Ainur, including the shaping of the Earth (Arda) itself. Eru is an important part of the stories of The Silmarillion but is not mentioned by name in Tolkien's most famous works, The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings (he is alluded to as "the One" in the part of LotR's Appendix A that speaks of the downfall of Númenor).

[edit] Eru as Creator God

Elves and Men were created by Eru directly, without delegation to the Ainur, and they are therefore called "Children of Ilúvatar" (Eruhini), and are thus the equals of the Ainur. The Dwarves were created by Aulë with the belated approval of Ilúvatar, though they would be second to the Children of Ilúvatar.

The first thing thar Iluvatar created was the Ainur, from his thought. He then bade the Ainur to sing to him, which was called the Ainulindalë, or the music of the Ainur. Melkor created a discord to the music, and Iluvatar added three themes to the Ainulindale, which talked about the fate of Arda.

The next thing he made was Ea, the World and All That Is, and Ea was in the Void (Melkor was drawn to the Void, and so at the beginning of Arda, he lay in the Void, or the Outside as it was sometimes called). He then gave the Ainur the option to go into Ea and fashion as they will. The Ainur who chose to do so were called the Valar, and they cotrolled the shaping of the Arda. They could not make life, however, except for Aulë, who made the dwarves. The elves and men, however, came directly from Iluvatar's thought, and were referred to in The Silmarillion as The First Children of Iluvatar and the Second Children of Iluvatar, respectfully.