Valinor

**Valinor** or the land of the Valar is the western continent of Middle Earth. It is the home of the Valar, and of the High-Elves: Vanyar, Noldor and some Teleri.

At the end of the Years of the Trees, some of the Noldor went back to Middle Earth after the Dark Lord Morgoth. By the end of the third, these Elves and their descendants would have to return to Valinor. Some members of other races, namely Frodo, Bilbo and later Sam and Gimli, would join them, sailing out of the Grey Havens.

## Description

Valinor was encircled by the Pelóri mountains to the east, which were raised by the Valar as a defense against Melkor. To the west was Ekkaia, the encircling sea which surrounded both Valinor and Middle-earth.

Everything in the realm, from the stones to the waters, were hallowed and stainless and there was no sickness, corruption or withering. In Valinor the Valar brought what beauty and light they salvaged from the Spring of Arda before the marring, and they created new things, making Valinor even fairer than Almaren.

Its major city was Valmar of many bells, built in the midst of the plain, where the Vanyar and the Valar reside. To the west of Valmar was a green mound called Ezellohar and from this mound grew the Two Trees that lit the land.

Two other cities are Alqualondë and Tirion, the respective homes of the Teleri and the Noldor. It also had an island, Tol Eressëa, just off its east coast.

## Lay of the land

The major city of Valinor was Valmar, where the Vanyar and the Valar resided. Two other cities were Alqualondë and Tirion, the respective homes of the Teleri and the Noldor. It also had an island, Tol Eressëa, just off its east coast.

Valinor as explained was the home of the Valar, the Powers of Middle-earth. The sea to the west of the island was called Ekkaia, or the Encircling Sea; it surrounded both Valinor and Middle-earth.

Each of the Valar had their own region of the land where they resided and altered things to their desire. Yavanna, the Vala of nature, growth, and harvest, resided in the Pastures of Yavanna in the south of the island. Orome, the Vala of the hunt, lived in the Woods of Orome to the north-east of the pastures. The forest was home to many creatures which Orome could track and hunt. Nienna, the lonely Vala of sorrow and endurance lived cut off in the far west of the island in the Halls of Nienna where she spent her days crying, looking out to sea. Just south of the Halls of Nienna and to the north of the pastures there were the Halls of Mandos. Also living in the Halls of Mandos was his spouse Vairë the weaver, who wove the threads of time.

To the east of the Halls of Mandos was the Isle of Estë, which was situated in the middle of the lake of Lorellin which in turn was situated to the north of the Gardens of Lórien (not to be confused with Lothlórien in Middle-earth which was created by the same Valar, Lórien also known as Irmo, the Vala of dreams). Este and Lórien being husband and wife lived close together. To the north of this were the Mansions of Aule the smith Valar who was spouse to Yavanna. In the north-east lay the Mansions of Manwe and Varda, the two most powerful Valar, also married. To the west of them stood the Trees of Valinor, Telperion and Laurelin. The entire great island of Valinor was surrounded on three sides (excluding the north which was instead protected by ices flows) by a huge mountain range called the Pelóri mountains. In the extreme north-east, past the mountain range was the pass of Helcaraxë, a vast and treacherous ice sheet which in the beginning, before the fall of Númenor, joined the two continents of Valinor and Middle-earth. In the beginning, the Noldor, tricked by the evil Vala Melkor passed along this pass to go back to Middle-earth, among those was Galadriel. Those who took this pass were not allowed back to Valinor for many years, as of the Hiding of Valinor, but in the end pity was taken on them when Middle-earth began to fade and pass into the age of Men, and Elves were allowed to pass back to the Undying Lands of their own accord when they felt ready to do so.

Also, for a time after the exile of the Noldor and before the ruin of Númenor, a long chain of small islands called the Enchanted Isles ran the full length of the east coast to the continent. The enchanted islands and a bewildering shadow created the Shadowy Seas, which to prevent mariner, mortal or immortal, from reaching the land by sea (by the Belegaer, the Great Sea which separated Middle-earth and Valinor. (Until the Changing of the World, the isle of Númenor was in the center of this Sea.) The enchantments protecting Valinor lasted centuries until Eärendil was guided through the Shadowy Seas by the light of the Silmaril, brought on board by his wife Elwing. They sailed on Vingilot, said to be the fairest ship ever fashioned, constructed by Eärendil and Cirdan the shipwright.

## History

In Year of the Lamps 3450 the Spring of Arda ended when Melkor cast down the Two Lamps and destroyed the original dwelling of the Valar upon the isle of Almaren. The Valar departed from Middle-earth and settled in Aman. There they established the realm of Valinor.

After the destruction of the Lamps came the Years of the Trees and in Y.T. 1050 the Elves awoke. At first the Elves were unwilling to heed the summons of the Valar to come to Valinor. The Vala Oromë selected three ambassadors, Ingwë, Finwë, and Elwë in 1102 who were swiftly brought to Aman and beheld the light of the Trees. These three Elven-kings persuaded many of the elves to journey to Aman. In 1132 the Vanyar and Noldor departed from Middle-earth upon an island that was drawn across the Sea to Aman. The third group of the Elves, the Teleri remained in Middle-earth until 1149 when many of them were brought to Aman.

The Elves who arrived to Aman in the Years of the Trees were called Amanyar or Calaquendi because they saw the light of the Two Trees. The Valar opened a cleft between the Pelóri, the Calacirya, so that the Light reached the Elves in their lands and cities, Eldamar, Tirion, Alqualondë and Tol Eressëa.

After the Exile of Feanor, the Noldor were not allowed to return to Valinor, and it was hidden from Mortal lands. The Valar heightened the Pelóri even more, fortified Calacirya and raised the Enchanted Isles in the Shadowy Seas. There were many attempts to reach the Undying Lands from Beleriand by ship, of which only Voronwë Aranwion survived; it is told that maybe Tuor was, alone of the mortals, allowed to find Aman before his son Eärendil.

Eärendil was the first known navigator to succeed in passing the Isles of Enchantment, guided by the light of the Silmaril, who came to Valinor to seek the aid of the Valar against Melkor, now called *Morgoth*. His quest was successful and the Valar went to war again.

After the War of Wrath and the destruction of Beleriand, Aman was no more connected to Middle-earth by the Helcaraxë but could be reached by the ships of the Elves.

Soon after this, the great island of Númenor was raised out of Belegaer, far from the shores of Aman, and the Three Houses of the Edain were brought to live there. Henceforth, they were called the Dúnedain, and were blessed with many gifts by the Valar and the Elves of Tol Eressëa.

The Valar feared—rightly—that the Númenóreans would seek to enter Aman to gain immortality (even though a mortal in Aman remains mortal), so they forbade them from sailing west from Númenor.

In time, and not without some corrupting help from Sauron, the Númenóreans violated the Ban of the Valar, and sailed to Aman with a great army under the command of Ar-Pharazôn the Golden. A part of the Pelóri collapsed upon this army, trapping it but not killing it. It is said that the army still lives underneath the pile of rock in the Caves of the Forgotten.

In light of this development, the land of Aman was decisively and forever isolated from the other lands. The flat Arda was cloven in two, and the rest was made round, so that a mariner sailing west along Eärendil's route would simply emerge in the far east. For the Elves, however, a Straight Road remains that peels away from the curvature of the earth and passes to Aman. A very few non-Elves are known to have passed along this road, including Frodo Baggins, Bilbo Baggins, and possibly Samwise Gamgee and Gimli.