The Silmarillion: Ch.2 Of Aulë and Yavanna

[Earniel]

First of all: sorry to have kept you all waiting. I remembered the wrong posting date until SGH kindly reminded me.

But Ilúvatar spoke again and said: ‘Even as I gave being to the thoughts of the Ainur at the beginning of the World, so now I have taken up thy desire and given it a place therein; but in no other way will I amend thy handiwork, and as thou has made it, so shall it be. […]’

(1) Ilúvatar gave the Dwarves ‘a place’. Would this signify that the Dwarves were not originally foreseen in the Song that the Ainur sung before Ilúvatar’s throne and are therefore not bound by the music? Or would they indeed be part of it since Ilúvatar gave them a place?

(2) On a more pleasant note: Aulë made only the Seven Fathers of the dwarves. How did they find the necessary Seven Mothers to start the race?

Aforetime it was held among the Elves in Middle-earth that dying the Dwarves returned to the earth and the stone of which they were made; yet that is not their own belief. For they say that Aulë the Maker, whom they call Mahal, cares for them, and gathers them to Mandos in halls set apart; and that he declared to their fathers of old that Ilúvatar will hallow them and give them a place among the Children in the End. Then their part shall be to serve Aulë and to aid him in the remaking of Arda after the Last Battle.

(3) It seems odd for Elves to hold such believes since they have knowledge of Valinor and the Valar. Would this be perhaps one of the first misunderstandings between Elves and Dwarves?

[…]When the Children awake, then the thought of Yavanna will awake also, and it will summon spirits from afar, and they will go among the kelvar and the olvar, and some will dwell therein, and be held in reverence, and their just anger shall be feared. For a time: while the Firstborn are in their power, and while the Secondborn are young.

(4) On Yavanna’s wish the forests and trees would not be undefended against the Children. This I believe led to the existence of Ents. Yet their power seemed to be limited to the period when the Men are still young. Does this means that Ilúvatar already knew that the entwives would disappear so that the Ents in time would disappear too?

That also shall come to be by the heed of Ilúvatar, and before the Children awake there shall go forth with wings like the wind the Eagles of the Lords of the West.

(5)It is interesting that after Yavanna’s wish for the Ents was granted, Ilúvatar also gave life to the Eagles who would be in Middle-earth before even the Children, the Ents or Dwarves. Any ideas on why this is?

‘Now let thy children beware! For there shall walk a power in the forests whose wrath they will arouse at their peril.’ ‘Nonetheless they will have need of wood,” said Aulë, and he went on with his smith-work.

(6) Such an odd couple these two are. While they represent two aspects of the earth they seem so extremely different that it is hard for me to imagine they stay together. They don’t even seem to mind that their children would fight when once awoken. What are your views on the relationship between Aulë and Yavanna?

I hope this will give enough fuel to start the discussion.