Ainulindalë: Poly or Monotheist?

Tolkien was a devout Catholic his entire life. It seems almost impossible for a creation story from such a man, unique as it was, to have absolutely no influence from his religion. The Ainulindalë has heavy overtones from the first creation story in Genesis. Just as God first creates, so does Eru, “The One”, or Iluvatar, create. Of course, while God created the heavens and the earth, Iluvatar has created his thought children, the Ainur, or the Holy Ones. And here we arrive at the question: what, exactly, are the Ainur? They have sort of Godly powers, yet also angelic-like attributes. What exactly are they, and how exactly do they fit into the religion, so to speak, of the world of the Lord of the Rings?

Tolkien relies heavily on his belief that things in the world are spoken into creation. Part of this plays into the importance of his languages in his world, how his languages came to him, and then from there his world was created. Without his languages, there would be no Middle Earth, and no Lord of the Rings.

This idea that creation is spoken also appears in Genesis, chapter 1. In His creation of the heavens and the earth, God says, “Let there be light,” (Gen.1.3) and then light is created. God speaks, and only after He says out loud what He desires in His creation, is it then created. Without His words, there would be no light.

With this spoken power of creation, in Tolkien’s creation story, in the Ainulindalë, the central god figure, Iluvatar, uses his thought-children to create the world. An interesting detail in this story, however, is that Iluvatar, instead of speaking the Ainur, his first creation, into existance, he thinks them into existence. After that, he speaks to them, teaching them harmonies and music. The Ainur sing to him, and they are all in harmony, at least at first. They have all come from Iluvatar, and all that they know is from the part of his mind from which they came.

It is interesting that they come from him because it seems that, beyond teaching the Ainur all that they know, Iluvatar does not do much creating himself. He tells “to them things greater and more wonderful than he had yet revealed” (Silmarillion, p. 54-55), through a new and marvelous musical theme, however after he creates the theme, the Ainur, by singing, create the world instead. And then when they finally do go down onto the world, it has not actually been created according to how Iluvatar has dictated yet. In order for the world to become as splendid as Iluvatar revealed to them through song, they have to create it themselves.

The Ainur are perhaps part of Iluvatar, and they all carry a part of himself within them, however, are they simply extensions of himself? He created the plans for the world, and showed the plans to the Ainur, much like an architect with their designs, and then left it for the Ainur to create, like the architect to their builders. Does this count as creating it himself? Whether or not it does, this shows that the Ainur have within them some power of creation, or perhaps subcreation. They are able to create things themselves.

Angels, on the other hand, do not seem to possess this power of even subcreation. In the Bible, it is only God that creates things. Adam names things, but only God creates them. Even in the Jubilees, the angels that are created do not themselves create the specific aspects of the world that they are assigned to, they just seem to take care of or represent their part. Angels may come from God, but they do not seem to be as connected to Him, or as much a part of Him, as the Ainur are to Iluvatar.

Finally we have reached the question, what are the Ainur? Are they some sort of angel? Must an angel not have the power of subcreation for it to stay as an angel? The Ainur seem to be, perhaps, more powerful than an angel, simply because of their powers for subcreation, but they do not necessarily seem to be on the level of a God, simply because Iluvatar is so much more powerful and knowing than they are. They can only create within what they have learned from him, and within his designs. Even Melkor, who wanted to become as powerful as Iluvatar, and create his own independent universe for and by his own power, was not able to do so without Iluvatar somehow being more powerful, and creating a melody that even the dissonance of Melkor could not ruin.

So are the Ainur some more powerful form of an angel? Yet another similarity with angels is that they sing. What are angels most known for? They are most known for singing praises to God. The Ainur also sing, and through their singing create the world.

Iluvatar tells the Ainur, after he has unveiled to them the great musical themes, that “since I have kindled you with the Flame Imperishable, you shall show forth your powers in adorning this theme, each with his own thoughts and devices, if he will. But I will sit and hearken, and be glad that through you great beauty has been wakened into song,” (Silmarillion, p. 55). To some extent, he is leaving the Ainur to their own powers, which he has bestowed upon them. In this way they seem to be more than angels, with their power, yet less than full-fledged gods.

Whether or not they serve the purposes of minor gods is still uncertain, however, and so is the answer for if the Ainulindalë is a polytheist or monotheist story. The Ainur serve their purposes, those of creation, and of song. Through their creation, however, one thing is clear: that they are the thought-children of Iluvatar, and that he trusts them with the world.

-CS