Editor’s note: The below contains spoilers for The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power Season 2.
If you’ve been paying attention while watching Prime Video’s high-fantasy seriesThe Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, you’ve probably heard the term “Valar” once or twice. No, the characters aren’t talking about one’s valor, but ratheran angelic race of spirits who oversee not just Middle-earth, but all of Arda as well. In Season 2, Sauron (Charlie Vickers),posing as the “Lord of Gifts” Annatar, tells those nearest him that he has been sent on behalf of the Valar, giving him semi-divine authority over Celebrimbor (Charles Edwards). But who are the Valar really, and how do they impactThe Rings of Power?
The Valar Have Been Around Since Arda’s Creation in the First Age
Before the God ofJ.R.R. Tolkien’s legendarium, a being named Eru Ilúvatar, created the high-fantasy cosmos, the first group he brought into existence were the immortal spirits called the Ainur. InThe Silmarillion, Tolkien describes a creation account, called the “Ainulindalë,” in which Eru used the Ainur’s music (the Music of Ilúvatar) to form the whole universe, called Eä, including the Earth, named Arda. It is here at the beginning that Melkor, a Vala himself, began to sow his own seeds into Eru’s world, intending to usurp his Lord as a Satan-like figure later named Morgoth. Once creation is complete, Eru gives the Ainur a choice, offering the opportunity for some to enter into the physical world to aid in its care.The strongest of these were called the Valar (the Powers of Arda), while many of the lesser spirits were called the Maiar.
The Lord of the Valar, a being named Manwë, is the king of the fifteen Valar, while his brother Melkor is the most powerful. It’s what makes his turn to villainy so unfortunate. Eventually,Melkor is banished from the Valar, though he convinced many Maiar to follow him in his rebellion, including Mairon, who would be best known later as Sauron. It’s then that the war between light and darkness begins as the Valar aid the Elves and Men (the Children of Ilúvatar) against Morgoth and his vile, corrupted forces. In the First Age,the Valar also found Valinor on the westernmost continent of Aman. Only immortals, such as the Elves, are given permission to live there, though following Sauron’s defeat in the Third Age, a few exceptions are made in the forms of three Hobbits (Frodo, Sam, and Bilbo) and a Dwarf (Gimli). In Valinor, the Valar create the infamous Two Trees that we see in flashbacks onTheRings of Power, only for Morgoth’s forces to later destroy them.
Aside from Manwë —who has been mentioned by name already in Season 2— and Melkor, there are thirteen other Valar who each have different specialties. Only Eru Ilúvatar is all-powerful, and thusthe Valar each have specific roles to play in creation. Manwë is the King of the Winds while his wife, Varda is the Star Queen. Ulmo is the Lord of Water, Aulë the Smith is the Lord of Earth (also Sauron’s old master, and one of the few Valar to be mentioned by name inRings of Power), Yavanna the Fruit-Giver is the Lady of Earth (another indirectly mentioned on the show), Estë is the Lady of Healing and Rest, and so on. Some Valar represent dreams (Irmo), judgment (Námo), or beauty (Vána), while others are the embodiment of sportsmanship (Oromë), mercy (Nienna), and the arts (Vairë, Nessa). Given Tolkien’s own devout Catholic faith, the Valar could almost be considered angelic patron saints, with other academic interpretations comparing them to the Roman or Greek gods of old.
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The Valar Are Deeply Tied to the Fate of Númenor in the Second Age
One of the most important aspects of the Valar’s place in Middle-earth is their distinct connection to Númenor.In the Second Age,the Valar raise the island of Númenorfrom the depths of the seafor the sake of the Edain, the group of Men who fought valiantly in the First Age’s War of the Great Jewels. They, too, opposed Morgoth, who was banished by the Valar to a timeless Void seemingly never to return. (Though, Tolkien does offer up an apocalypse myth for Arda called “Dagor Dagorath,” where Morgoth is presumably released for one final conflict ala Satan at the end of the biblical Book of Revelation). Giving Númenor to the Edain, the Valar are not as involved in the happenings in Arda during the Second Age. With Sauron taking over Morgoth’s place in the hierarchy of evil, the Men and Elves (and Dwarves, of course) are essentially left to themselves to deal with the rising Dark Lord.
But all of this changed when the Númenóreans attacked. Though the Númenóreans originally held the Valar in high regard following the First Age, seeing them almost as gods,years of silence mixed with Sauron’s deceptions caused Númenor to turn its back on the old ways and traditions. This is exactly what’s happening inThe Rings of Power, where there’s a clear tension between those more agnostic Númenóreans who have no use for the Valar or the Elves, and the Faithful, such as Elendil (Lloyd Owen), who fight to stay true to their heritage. Under the Dark Lord’s influence, the Númenóreans — under the leadership of Ar-Pharazôn (Trystan Gravelle) — take the fight to Aman, the homeland of the Valar, which results in a horrific betrayal. Desperate, Manwë pleads with Eru Ilúvatar to intervene.
The Silmarillion’s “Akallabêth"details what happens next. Like the Great Flood found in the biblical Book of Genesis, Eru destroys Númenor with a Great Wave, sparing only the remaining Faithful, such as Elendil and his family. But Eru didn’t stop with Númenor’s destruction.He also remade the world, re-forging it from its original flat-earth appearance into a spherical globe, and removed Aman from it so that Man could never again sail there apart from a specific path. This path takes the Elves off Arda entirely, taking them to the Undying Lands that have been set apart by Eru Ilúvatar for the sake of his greatest servants.
The Istari Wizards Were Originally Sent by the Valar in the Third Age
By the time of the Third Age, the Valar rarely ever interact with Arda. A few sparing mentions inThe Lord of the Ringsaside, the Valar are largely absent from the picture. Following the destruction of Númenor, Sauron was eventually defeated at the end of the Second Age during the War of the Last Alliance, where Elendil’s son Isildur (Maxim Baldry) forcibly removed his One Ring of Power. But although the Dark Lord struggled to regain his physical appearance, he was still a looming threat over Middle-earth. In response to this, the Valar refused to let Middle-earth remain entirely independent of their influence, and thussent five valiant Maiar, called the “Istari,” into the world disguised as Men.
Olórin became Gandalf the Grey (later Gandalf the White), Curumo became Saruman the White, and Aiwendil became Radagast the Brown. There weretwo other “Blue Wizards” named Alatar and Pallandowho never actually appear in eitherThe Hobbit,The Lord of the Rings, or any other Tolkien-penned narrative. Through Gandalf and the other five Istari,the Valar aided in the continual resistance to Sauron’s influence. Unfortunately, not unlike Sauron himself, Saruman eventually turned against the other Wizards, the Valar, Eru Ilúvatar, and all of Middle-earth, allying himself with the Dark Lord.
In fact, inUnfinished Tales, Tolkien himself notes thatonly Gandalf ultimately remained faithful to his task, which is no doubt why Eru Ilúvatar resurrected him after his fatal battle with the Balrog inThe Fellowship of the Ring. Not much more is known about the Valar, but while Annatar/Sauron is claiming to be their messenger to Middle-earth inThe Rings of Power, we know that is not true. If anything, the Istari Wizards are the closest thing to that role, something we’ll hopefully see more of as this mysterious Stranger (Daniel Weyman)begins to uncover more of his own origins.
The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of PowerSeason 2 is now streaming on Prime Video.
The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power
Epic drama set thousands of years before the events of J.R.R. Tolkien’s ‘The Hobbit’ and ‘The Lord of the Rings’ follows an ensemble cast of characters, both familiar and new, as they confront the long-feared re-emergence of evil to Middle-earth.
