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This article contains spoilers for The Silmarillion.
The One Eru Ilúvatar may not be known to all as Middle-earth's God, but he lay behind the scenes of The Lord of the Rings, pulling the strings and occasionally intervening directly. High fantasy pioneer J.R.R. Tolkien, the creator of The Lord of the Rings, was always clear that the story was not an allegory, but that it had allegorical elements (The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien). As such, while LotR is not an allegory of Tolkien's Catholic faith, Eru Ilúvatar had much in common with the Christian God and was a benevolent entity of omniscient power.
It is easy to forget Eru's presence throughout The Lord of the Rings book, as he is really only briefly suggested. He is fleshed out far more in The Silmarillion. It is even easier to miss his presence watching Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings movies, where Arwen's mention of the Valar may be the story's closest reference to the divine will in effect. The Valar are likewise mentioned in The Rings of Power but with slightly more context. But Eru himself was the start of it all, having a far bigger role in Middle-earth's events than the Valar, overall.
10 Eru Ilúvatar Created Ainur, Elves, And Men
Before Time In The Timeless Halls
Eru created Ainur, Elves, and Men - three of Middle-earth's most powerful species, while all other species needed Eru's input to really take off. The most famous Ainu (the singular of Ainur) may be The Lord of the Rings' titular villain, Sauron the Abhorred, although he may be rivaled by Gandalf. Eru created the Valar and the Maiar first in the Timeless Halls. These were the two orders of the Ainur race, with the 15 Valar the most powerful Ainur and the Maiar lesser beings.
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The Ainur sang among themselves until Eru led them in a huge symphony that visualized a new world. While the Ainur supplied most of the visuals, Eru put his children into the vision - Elves and Men. And, as Eru ordained, Elves and Men awoke in Middle-earth many distant years ahead, all of Eru's making. As such, Elves and Men are commonly referred to as the Children of Ilúvatar.
9 Eru Directed The Ainulindalë, Planning Middle-Earth
Before Time In The Timeless Halls
After creating the Ainur in the Timeless Halls, Eru gave them a theme, and they sang the Music of the Ainur, or the Ainulindalë in the Elvish language of Quenya. Music was more than just music in Middle-earth. Once the theme finished, Eru revealed the fruits of the Ainur's labor; he unveiled the Vision of Ilúvatar. This was basically some kind of cosmic video showing the formation and history of the universe until a certain point, which was what the Ainur had sung into being.
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The Vala Morgoth, then known as Melkor, sang against Eru's theme, wanting to bring in other ideas, but this only created discord, necessitating Eru to stop and restart the Ainulindalë twice. Eru confirmed that "no theme may be played that hath not its uttermost source in [him], nor [could] any alter the music in [his] despite." Clearly, the Ainur were subcreating, while Eru was the first and only true creator. Eru and the Ainur then created the universe together and watched over it as it grew, letting the music unfold and only directly intervening when they really had to.
8 Eru Brought Middle-Earth, Arda, & Eä To Life
Before Time In The Timeless Halls
Once the Vision of Ilúvatar ended, Eru confirmed that the Ainur would have to then build what they had visualized. Outside the Timeless Halls was the Void. Only Eru had the ability to bestow life, so he sent the Imperishable Flame - life itself - down into the Void and within that was created Eä, the universe in which The Lord of the Rings is set. Within Eä was Arda - the world. And, in Arda, despite the changing landscapes of multiple ages, Middle-earth eventually came to be one continent.
Before time | Indeterminate | Indeterminate | Indeterminate |
Days before Days | The Ainur entered Eä | 1 - 3,500 Valian Years | 33,537 |
Pre-First Age Years of the Trees (Y.T.) | Yavanna created the Two Trees | Y.T. 1 - 1050 | 10,061 |
First Age (F.A.) | Elves awoke in Cuiviénen | Y.T. 1050 - Y.T. 1500, F.A. 1 - 590 | 4,902 |
Second Age (S.A.) | The War of Wrath ended | S.A. 1 - 3441 | 3,441 |
Third Age (T.A.) | The Last Alliance defeated Sauron | T.A. 1 - 3021 | 3,021 |
Fourth Age (Fo.A) | Frodo, Bilbo, Gandalf, Elrond, & Galadriel sailed to Valinor | Fo.A 1 - unknown | Unknown |
Although many Ainur chose to remain in the Timeless Halls, many chose to enter Eä and build it, and these were bound to its confines until it ended, as Eru decreed. Some of the most powerful Ainur entered Eä, those being the Valar - the Powers of the World - along with many Maiar. Despite his discord, Melkor was one of these. But the discord foreshadowed Melkor's turn to further arrogance, and he tried to assert his rule. The Valar opposed him and everything Melkor couldn't rule, he sabotaged. This conflict was the Battle of the Powers.
7 Eru Created The Laws Of Middle-Earth, Arda, & Eä
Before Time In The Timeless Halls
Little-known Tolkien apocrypha published in Morgoth's Ring reveals that Eru Ilúvatar created laws of the universe that were ingrained into the very fabric of being. These functioned in the same way that fundamental laws of physics do in the real world. Tolkien discussed these laws in an essay called "Ósanwe-kenta," describing Eru's breakable decrees as axani and the insurmountable limitations of being as únati. An example of an únat is the barrier of "Unwill" in telepathy - a deliberately closed mind can't be breached by another.
Morgoth's Ring was book 10 of The History of Middle-earth, a serialized compilation of Tolkien's work, edited and published posthumously by Tolkien's son. Some of it was inconsistent with the previously published Tolkien works (The Hobbit, LotR, and The Silmarillion) in accordance with its time of writing and state of completion. Tolkien's son always clarified how this differed in notes throughout the series.
One example of an axan (the singular of axani) was that begetting or conceiving would bind an Ainu to its physical incarnation, had it chosen to take a physical form. Although in-universe, this essay was the lore of the Elvish Eldar, who theorized that this binding effect could be a "necessary consequence" rather than an axan. The lore was clearer on axani as they related to telepathy - "it is an axan universal that none shall directly by force or indirectly by fraud take from another what he has a right to hold and keep as his own."
6 Eru Had A Plan, Including Gollum Tripping In Mount Doom
Always
Eru's omniscience facilitated his constant direction of events in Middle-earth, from their start to their end. Men had “a virtue to shape their life, amid the powers and chances of the world, beyond the Music of the Ainur, which is as fate to all things else,” confirming that part of Eru's gift to Men was a certain level of exemption from the history pre-planned in the Ainulindalë. However, all of history and the beings in it were subject to a level of divine providence - even the Valar, as Melkor demonstrated through his discord. Even Gollum, falling into Mount Doom:
Frodo deserved all honour because he spent every drop of his power of will and body, and that was just sufficient to bring him to the destined point, and no further. Few others, possibly no others of his time, would have got so far. The Other Power then took over: the Writer of the Story (by which I do not mean myself), 'that one ever-present Person who is never absent and never named.'
This extract from a letter written by J.R.R. Tolkien confirmed that Eru was behind much of what appeared as strange coincidences or chance meetings in Middle-earth. The ever-wise Elrond pointed out the same fact of the "coincidence" of the Fellowship of the Ring arriving in Rivendell around the same time - “You have come... by chance as it may seem. Yet it is not so. Believe... that it is so ordered.” Gandalf also spoke about the "coincidence" of Bilbo finding the One Ring: "there was something... at work, beyond any design of the Ring-maker... Bilbo was meant to find the Ring."
5 Eru Gave His Creations Free Will To Act As They Chose
Always
The Tolkien fandom has long debated whether fate or free will preside over Middle-earth, but Tolkien was always quite clear that the answer was both. This takes some digging into the legendarium and Tolkien's letters to confirm, so the debate is understandable. Just as The Silmarillion confirmed that the Ainulindalë was "fate to all things," with some exceptions applied to Men, Tolkien confirmed in a letter that Elves and Men "were rational creatures of free will in regard to God." According to Tolkien scholars Tom Shippey and Corey Olsen, Tolkien was heavily influenced by a Roman philosopher called Boethius.
Eru functioned outside time like Boethius asserted that God did. To Boethius and Tolkien, this solved the riddle of the conflict between fate and free will - it is only the human concept of time that renders fate and free will contradictory. Eru and his plan function constantly, at all times, fluid rather than pre-planned, so determinism is obsolete and free will is possible. Or, as Tolkien stated in a letter - “Free Will is derivative and is only operative within provided circumstances; but in order that it may exist, it is necessary that the Author should guarantee it, whatever betides.”
4 Eru Brought Aulë's Dwarves and Yavanna's Ents To Life
The Days Before Days
Eru breathed the sigh of life into Dwarves and Ents after they were made by Aulë and Yavanna, respectively. After the Valar went down into Arda and started building it, the wayward Aulë made the race of Dwarves in secret, fearing the Valar's response, knowing that only Eru was supposed to create life. They would have no consciousness of their own without Eru, which Eru didn't hesitate to point out to Aulë.
Aulë demonstrated repentance for his hasty act and this was enough to grant Eru's forgiveness and assistance. If Melkor had been capable of the seemingly simple act of contrition, things could have gone differently, but he never once admitted he was wrong. Yavanna, Aulë's wife, was concerned about all the damage the Dwarves could do to her creations, including the earth and forests. And thus, the Ents were born - "Shepherds of the Trees."
3 Eru Offered Beren New Life And Made Lúthien Mortal
First Age
Eru reunited the lovers, Beren and Lúthien, after their deaths. This was a unique case. Although invulnerable to age or illness, Elves could be killed or die of grief or weariness. In the event of a death like this, Elves went to the Halls of Mandos where they could be reincarnated into their physical forms if they had earned it. Men, however, stopped over at the Halls of Mandos before going somewhere unknown.
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Lúthien went to see Beren in the Halls of Mandos, but allowing this was far beyond Mandos' paygrade as a Vala. Mandos asked the Vala Manwë, who asked Eru, who offered Lúthien the choice of immediate reincarnation or one mortal lifetime, taking Beren back with her. Of course, she chose Beren, losing her immortality but sealing her fate as one of Middle-earth's most legendary Elves - she already had one Sauron defeat under her belt.
2 Eru Sunk Númenor When Pharazôn Threatened The Valar
Second Age
One of the only instances of Eru's direct intervention was in the Second Age of Middle-earth when he sunk Númenor in response to Pharazôn's attack. Since his creative efforts in the Timeless Halls, Eru left the governance of Arda to the Valar and his various children, but Pharazôn's threat was too great for him to ignore. The Men of Númenor were banned from sailing West so that they didn't start envying Elvish and Valarin immortality. Nonetheless, as centuries passed, Númenóreans grew envious, creating bad blood between them and the Elves. Eventually, Elves were banned from their shores.
By the time the power-hungry Pharazôn came to power, Númenor was vulnerable to Sauron's manipulations. Unfortunately, Pharazôn made the wrong move in attacking Sauron and taking him captive. Sauron persuaded Pharazôn to break the Ban of the Valar, sail to Valinor and demand immortality. Sauron thought the Valar would destroy Pharazôn's fleet, neutralizing his enemy - Númenor. But the Valar called on Eru, and he went further than Sauron expected, sinking the island and removing Aman from the Circles of the World, killing Sauron and leaving him unable to take a fair form again.
1 Eru Resurrected Gandalf After His Balrog Battle
Third Age
Eru's next moment of divine intervention was resurrecting Gandalf the Grey into Gandalf the White, following his battle with the Balrog. Gandalf was one of the Istari, five Wizards sent to Middle-earth by the Valar to oppose Sauron, in an Eru-sanctioned move. However, Gandalf was the only Istar still doing his job by the end of the Third Age, so Eru's support was understandable.
The Istari were actually all Maiar and were therefore immortal, but they were uniquely sent by the Valar in bodies "as of Men, real and not feigned," so as not to incite awe and worship with displays of magic and power. It wasn't easy for an Ainu to simply rebuild a body after its death and time was of the essence in The Lord of the Rings. Therefore, Eru intervened to get Gandalf back to Middle-earth and better than ever, with enhanced abilities.
The Lord of the Rings
The Lord of the Rings is a multimedia franchise consisting of several movies and a TV show released by Amazon titled The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power. The franchise is based on J.R.R. Tolkien's book series that began in 1954 with The Fellowship of the Ring. The Lord of the Rings saw mainstream popularity with Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit trilogies.
Created by J.R.R. Tolkien
English (US) ·