The Creation Story
The
Silmarillion….basically the history of J.R.R. Tolkien’s world. The Silmarillion talks about Middle
earth before it was created. The book
starts off with a supreme being known as Ilúvatar who eventually created an elf
like race known as the Ainur who created beautiful music. The Ainur were the “offspring of Ilúvatar’s
thought” and they would, constantly, create flawless music. There was one among the Ainur who believed
that he deserved more power than he was given.
Melkor was his name, and he already possessed some of the best gifts of
knowledge and power. He wanted more and
he wished to create his own beings and share these gifts with them. Melkor spread hostility or discord among the
Ainur, but Ilúvatar rose up against the angry Ainur and settled down the strife. Sound familiar yet? No….ok let’s keep going. Ilúvatar, to be blunt, showed Melkor who was
boss and it made Melkor feel very angry and ashamed. Later on in the story Ilúvatar creates the
world and the most fair and the greatest of the Ainur descended to the world. After some time and more very detailed events
some of the great and fair Ainur (who are also referenced to as The Valor) took
form, some male and some female. They
could not decide for themselves for the difference in their “temper” was in
them from the beginning. When Melkor had
seen this change and that the Valor were beautiful and glorious he was filled
with envy. Melkor took form, but since
he was filled with hatred and anger when he took form he was terrible and
dark. The Valor and Melkor fought, but
the Valor won. That is a summary of the first
chapter of The Silmarillion. Do
you see anything familiar with this story?
Good, but if you don’t I will explain the similarity to you.
“In the
beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” Genesis 1:1 The first chapter and verse in
the The Holy Bible. One of the
many similarities between the Bible and The Silmarillion is that the books
start with a creator who creates a race and a world. Even though the creations where made at different
points they were still created. Ilúvatar’s
Ainur were beautiful creatures and God’s angels were beautiful and humans were
also beautiful and good. “Then God said,
“So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male
and female he created him.” Genesis 1:27 “God saw all that he had made, and it was
very good.” Genesis 1:31 God said that we were good and that we were
made beautifully and individually.
Now,
you might be wondering how Melkor fits into all this. Melkor was evil and he wanted more power than
was given to him. Satan also wanted more
power than God and he wanted to be like God.
So God cast Satan out of Heaven. “He
replied, ‘I saw Satan fall like lightning from Heaven.’” Luke 10:18 Satan will one day battle God’s angels and be
defeated, but until that day comes he will continue to try and tempt us each day
of our lives. Without Jesus we are
nothing and if we do not accept him as our savior we will be lost forever.--Smaug
Ilúvatar
