Everything about Eru Il Vatar totally explained
Eru Ilúvatar is the name of
God, the single omnipotent creator in the
legendarium of
J. R. R. Tolkien. However, he's delegated most actions within
Eä to the
Ainur, including the shaping of
Arda (the Earth) itself. Eru is an important figure in Tolkien's
Silmarillion but isn't mentioned by name in Tolkien's most famous works,
The Hobbit and
The Lord of the Rings (he is alluded to as "the One" in the part of
The Lord of the Rings, Appendix A that speaks of the downfall of
Númenor).
Eru as Creator
The Quendi (ie.
Elves) and the Atani (ie.
Men) were created by Eru. In
The Silmarillion both are synonymously referred to as the
Children of Ilúvatar. The
Dwarves were "adopted" by Eru in the sense that they were created by
Aulë but given
sapience by Eru. Animals and plants were fashioned by Manwë and Varda after themes set out by Eru in the
Music of the Ainur, Manwë asked Eru to give them sapience, as in the case of
Huan, or the Eagles in
The Lord of the Rings and
The Hobbit. There is a case to be made that the
Eagles of Manwë are actually
Maiar. Also, since Huan was initially a Hound of Oromë and was able to overcome
Sauron (himself a Maia), it's possible that he too was one of the Maiar. Another possibility is that Huan's sentience represents the limits of the gifts of the
Valar to creatures, endowing them with purpose and cleverness that may nevertheless be something other than true sapience in the sense of independent existence before Eru.
Melkor was able to instil some semblance of free will into his mockeries of Eru Ilúvatar's creations (
Orcs,
Dragons,
Trolls). While Orcs were possibly ruined Elves, and thus possibly derived from the initial Children of Ilúvatar, the other races mentioned — particularly dragons — seem to lack this correspondence, or any particular connection with the Music of the Ainur.
Eru is the sole being to possess the
Flame Imperishable, and hence the only being in Tolkien's world able to truly create independent life. All beings not created directly by Eru, (for example Dwarves), still need to be blessed by Eru through the Flame Imperishable in order to be more than mere puppets of their creator. Melkor desired the Flame Imperishable and long sought for it in vain, but failing to find it because it was within Eru himself, Melkor could only twist that which had already been given life.
Eru in Arda's History
Eru exercized his power within Arda if completely necessary. He did, of course, create Arda. He also laid the Seven Lords of the Dwarves in their respective places. He also created and awakened
Elves and
Men. Eru also buried
Ar-Pharazôn and his men when they landed at
Aman in
SA 3319. He also caused Arda to take a round shape, drowned
Númenor, and caused the
Undying Lands to be taken "outside the spheres of the earth".
Tolkien on Eru
Tolkien understood Eru not as a fictional deity but as a name in a
fictional language for the actual
monotheistic God of
Christian faith, although in a fictional context. A clear explanation of this appears in a draft of a letter that Tolkien wrote in
1954 to Peter Hastings, manager of the Newman Bookshop (a Catholic bookshop in
Oxford). In the letter, Tolkien, a devout
Catholic, defended the non-orthodox portrayal of God (Eru) in his writing as rightly within the scope of his legendarium, as an exploration of the infinite "potential variety" of God.
Regarding the possibility of
reincarnation of
Elves, Hastings had written:
» God hasn't used that device in any of the creations of which we've knowledge, and it seems to me to be stepping beyond the position of a sub-creator to produce it as an actual working thing, because a sub-creator, when dealing with the relations between creator and created, should use those channels which he knows the creator to have used already.
Tolkien's reply contains an explanation of his view of the relation of (divine) Creation to (human) sub-creation:
» We differ entirely about the nature of the relation of sub-creation to Creation. I should have said that liberation "from the channels the creator is known to have used already" is the fundamental function of "sub-creation", a tribute to the infinity of His potential variety [...] I'm not a metaphysician; but I should have thought it a curious metaphysic — there isn't one but many, indeed potentially innumerable ones — that declared the channels known (in such a finite corner as we've any inkling of) to have been used, are the only possible ones, or efficacious, or possibly acceptable to and by Him!
Hastings had also criticised the description of
Tom Bombadil by
Goldberry:
"He is", saying that this seemed to imply that Bombadil was God.
Tolkien replied to this:
» As for Tom Bombadil, I really do think you're being too serious, besides missing the point. [...] You rather remind me of a Protestant relation who to me objected to the (modern) Catholic habit of calling priests Father, because the name father belonged only to the First Person.
Inspiration and development
The title
the Father of All is thought by some to be borrowed from the god
Odin in
Norse mythology (the name itself is probably based on the
Old Norse Alfóðr, a name for Odin), though the
New Testament also refers to God as the
one God and Father of all. Tolkien, as a devout
Catholic and with an interest in northern
European mythologies, was probably influenced by both sources. As Tolkien was also professionally and personally interested in
Finnish mythology, the name "Ilúvatar" may be also influenced by "
Ilmatar", 'Maid of Air', one of the primal spirits of creation mentioned in the
Kalevala.
In earlier versions of the legendarium, the name Ilúvatar meant "Father for Always" (in
The Book of Lost Tales, published as the first two volumes of
The History of Middle-earth), then "
Sky-father", but these etymologies were dropped in favour of the newer meaning in later revisions. Ilúvatar was also the only name of God used in earlier versions — the name Eru first appeared in "The Annals of Aman", published in
Morgoth's Ring, the tenth volume of
The History of Middle-earth.
Further Information
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