The Silmarillion: Ch.1 Of the beginning of days

[Earniel]

I think this is the first re-read I tripped over the name Salmar, the companion of Ulmo who made his conches. This is also the only part of the Silmarillion where he appears, he's left out of the part concerning Maiar in the Valaquenta, unlike his companion water-maiar Ossë and UÃ*nen, so he must have been of very little importance.

I got curious and I had a look in the HoME index and was rather surprised to find several entries for him and many names. Clearly Salmar is a remnant from older mythology where he has a brother and a harp, and even a fight with Melko together with Tulkas. In the Silmarillion his only remaining claim to fame is being the maker of Ulmo's conches.

Another thing I hadn't picked up on was Melkor actually leaving Arda in a huf. He's off to the Void, which means that the Valar weren't entirely tied to Arda as I had been led to believe. So it appears to be rather more an order of Ilúvatar that they're obeying to stay put after they entered Arda the first time. But Melkor seemed to be able to come and go with impunity. And he is apparently there also not bothered by the presence of the other Ainur and Ilúvatar who must still have been watching. (It's the only show in existance, so of course the Ainur were still watching. The best drama in the universe, that Eä.)

I am still struck by the rather baffling decision of the Valar to not engage Melkor directly for fear of the Children's coming. The Valar did not know when, but surely waiting and doing nothing about a problem is not going to make it go away when the Children do arrive. And they will come, the Valar know that much. And after the destruction of the Lamps the world was already in turmoil so much that the Valar needed their strenght to calm it. Everything was already broken.

It seems to me that's the perfect time to make more mess and root out the problem once and for all. Stabilise the place and then drag Melkor out before you go redecorating. If you're renovating a garden from the bottom up and there's this one tree that's leaning and eventually have to come out or it'll crash on your house, then you're not going to finish renovating the garden and installing fragile borders first if you're going to have to bring in a big digger to haul out the cut stump later. This wasnt' the first time they had to undo Melkor's mess so it wasn't like they never had to have done it before.

So I'm thinking either the Valar believed they couldn't deal with Melkor anyhow or they were really just sick of it all and wanted a little me-time away from their annoying sibling. I can understand that even the Powers of the World get fed up with siblings of that caliber...

But while I can understand that, I can't understand why they couldn't make new dwellings in Middle-earth. Almaren is utterly gone, okay, but they went on to make Valimar and dwellings for them each in darkness, before Yavanna made the Trees, so it is not like their creative home-making skills were depleted after calming the turmoil in the lands and seas. Was Aman spared from the destruction of the two Lamps and is that why they went there instead? If so, how? If the lands were in symmetry, and Aman was the twin of Middle-earth why was it not in the same state then? Or was it just for the defensive position with the Sea at their back? If so, why not make a new one in Middle-earth?

Why not recreate a fortress of their own in Middle-earth while they kept Melkor quaking and hiding in Utumno, with Tulkas standing guard at the gates? They could have twarthed Melkor a lot more from there than from across the Sea. By moving to Aman, the Valar effectively gave up on Middle-earth and providing a safe home for the Children. Wasn't that their task from the beginning? I'm not sure how they justified this for themselves. It feels off.

And barely anyone still bother with Middle-earth after their translocation. Just Ulmo, Oromë and Yavanna. Manwë still watches but that's all he does. Which is all more damning.

I'm also stril struggling in fitting these events in the three Themes. The Third is the Children, so these events are either the First Theme or the Second. But what event marks the beginning and end of each Theme? Is the destruction of Almaren and the definitive marring of the world's symmetry a defining point? Or merely one creshendo amids more? Is giving up on Middle-earth and moving to Aman the final moment? The destruction of the Lamps perhaps? Is that why Ilúvatar was no longer smiling at the end of the Theme? Still struggling with that one.

I also noticed that when the Trees arise it is the first time anything flowers on Arda. Of flowers is is said a little while earlier in the text that they 'waited still their time in the bosom of Yavanna'. Clearly the light of the Lamps alone were not enough to bring them forth. There is now also a rest-period with the Trees, the Lamps gave light continuously but the Trees wax and wane. Was Yavanna still learning, I wonder? Did she only realise after the destruction of the Lamps that they were not an ideal light-source, that her kelvar and olvar would have use of a rest period with lesser light? Basically she invented Time at this moment, because it was only with the Trees that Time could be reckoned. This seems like a greater achievement than it is given credit for.