Everyone Dies (Except Galadriel)

The Music of the Ainur, Part I

Eru Ilúvatar, who is some sort of celestial deity or being, created the Ainur from his mind. He then taught them some music, and they all sang, and he was pretty pleased with himself.

As a side note, you'll never hear them called "the Ainur" really...ever. Later on, they're just called "the Valar."

Tolkien tells us in a roundabout way that these people are basically gods. He never calls them gods, but that's basically what they are.

Anyhoo, these beings, the "Ainur", started to sing some pretty great music, but they sound like a zillion different instruments with a choir thrown in, so it's awesome. Because they all came different parts of Eru's mind, they're all different themselves, so they create all these different melodies and harmonies and whatnot, and when you put them together, it sounds amazing.

Tolkien says, "...and the echo of the music went out into the Void, and it was not void."

The Void has now become something that's not the Void anymore, but we don't know what, because that's all the details we're given right now. One can assume that we're making the world in this section and that's what's going into the Void, but it's not specified.

Now that I think about it, throughout this entire book, there's a ton that's not specified.

Among these Ainur, one of them named Melkor decides that he's not really satisfied with the music, so he starts going off script and making his part incredibly discordant and powerful and...more cool than the others. Because he's doing this, everything becomes very confused and tangled up, and the harmonies and melodies aren't fitting together anymore.

If you've ever played in an orchestra or band, Melkor is that one guy who thinks his part is so important that he plays really loudly the entire time, and it's really, really obnoxious, and it messes everyone else up.

Eru sits on his throne smiling creepily, and he and Melkor basically battle it out by trying to sing over one another.

Because that's a definitley a productive way to solve your problems.

One wonders--and by "one" I mean "I wonder"--why Eru didn't just tell Melkor to shut the hell up and then gone on with his life. He's like, the master of the entire universe. Was singing loudly at each other really necessary?

Logic aside, Eru wins the sing-off, and Melkor feels ashamed. Because he is embarrassed, he's also secretly mad, because obviously, he's not to blame for what just happened.

This is glossed over because it's time for Eru to show all the Ainur their cool new home, but they have to walk through the void for a while first. No idea why, but that's what the book says. Loosely, anyway. Considering there's a whole paragraph about walking in the Void I'm guessing it might be important.

Eru has created this entire world somewhere in the Void, and he tells the Ainur that they sorta helped create it with their singing. He also tells Melkor that he'll find his place in the harmonies and fit in with the rest to create more great stuff.

Basically, he's like the dad telling his teenage goth son that it's just a phase and one day he'll fit in with society.

And, just like with most teenage goth sons, Melkor thinks that's a load of crap. I probably would too.

Snark aside, the next like, three pages can all be summed up into a sentence or two. 

Eru has decided to create some really awesome kids to live on this new land, and they're called Elves, a.k.a the firstborn. They're going to be super cool, and so he chose a nice place to put them because of this, and it has a lot of pretty stars and shit. 

Bam. Two sentences. 

Until next time, Mellon-nîn.