Cosmology of Tolkien's legendarium
The fictional cosmology of J.R.R. Tolkien's legendarium combines aspects of Christian theology and metaphysics with pre-modern cosmological concepts in the flat Earth paradigm, along with the modern spherical Earth view of the Solar System.
The created world, Eä, includes the planet Arda, corresponding to the Earth. It is created flat, with the dwelling of the godlike Valar at its centre. When this is marred by the evil Vala Melkor, the world is reshaped, losing its perfect symmetry, and the Valar move to Valinor, but the Elves can still sail there from Middle-earth. When Men try to go there, hoping for immortality, Valinor and its continent of Aman are removed from Arda, which is reshaped as a round world. Scholars have compared the implied cosmology with that of Tolkien's religion, Catholicism, and of medieval poetry such as Pearl or Dante's Paradiso, where there are three parts, Earth, Purgatory or the Earthly Paradise, and Heaven or the Celestial Paradise. Scholars have debated the nature of evil in Middle-earth, arguing whether it is the absence of good or equally as powerful as good.
Ontology
Creation and destruction
Eru is introduced in The Silmarillion as the supreme being of the universe, creator of everything, including the world, Arda, and its central continent, Middle-earth. In Tolkien's invented Elvish language Quenya, Eru means "The One", or "He that is Alone" and Ilúvatar signifies "Allfather".Eru first created a group of godlike or angelic beings, the Ainur, consisting of the powerful Valar and their assistants, the Maiar. These assisted in the creation of the universe through a holy music and chanting called the Ainulindalë or "Music of the Ainur".
Tolkien stated that the "Flame Imperishable" or "Secret Fire" represents the Holy Spirit in Christian theology, the creative activity of Eru, inseparable both from him and from his creation. In the interpretation of Christopher Tolkien, it represents "the mystery of authorship", the author both standing outside of his work and indwelling in it. In the First Age, Eru alone created Elves and Men, the "Children of Ilúvatar". The race of the Dwarves was created by Aulë, a powerful Vala, and given sapience by Eru. Animals and plants were fashioned by Yavanna during the Music of the Ainur after the themes set out by Eru.
Arda ends in the apocalyptic battle of Dagor Dagorath, which Tolkien stated owed something to the Norse myth of Ragnarök.
Eru's direct interventions
In the Second Age, Eru buried King Ar-Pharazôn of Númenor and his army when they invaded Aman, trying to reach the Undying Lands, which they wrongly supposed would give them immortality. He caused the Earth to take a spherical shape, drowned Númenor, and caused the Undying Lands to be taken "outside the spheres of the earth".When Gandalf died in the fight with the Balrog in The Fellowship of the Ring, it was beyond the power of the Valar to resurrect him; Eru himself intervened to send Gandalf back.
Discussing Frodo's failure to destroy the Ring in The Return of the King, Tolkien indicates in a letter that "the One" does intervene actively in the world, pointing to Gandalf's remark to Frodo that "Bilbo was meant to find the Ring, and not by its maker", and to the eventual destruction of the Ring despite Frodo's failure to complete the task.
Fëa and hröa
Fëa and hröa are the "soul" and "body" of Elves and Men. Their hröa is made out of the matter of Arda; for this reason hröar are marred or as Tolkien wrote, contain a "Melkor ingredient". When an Elf dies, the fëa leaves the hröa, which then dies. The fëa is summoned to the Halls of Mandos in Valinor, where it is judged; however, as with death, their free will is not taken away, and they could refuse the summons. If allowed by Mandos, the fëa may be re-embodied into a new body identical to the previous hröa. The situation of Men is different: a Mannish fëa is only a visitor to Arda, and when the hröa dies, the fëa, after a brief stay in Mandos, leaves Arda completely.Unseen world
In The Lord of the Rings, Tolkien justifies the nature of the Ring by explaining that Elves in Middle-earth and other immortal beings dwell in "both worlds" at once and have great power in both, especially those who have dwelt in the light of the Two Trees of Valinor before there was a Sun or Moon. The powers associated with 'magic' were spiritual in nature.The Elves who stayed in Middle-earth where Melkor once was dominant, being in bodies and surrounded by things that are themselves marred and subject to decay by the influence of Melkor, created the Elven Rings out of a desire to preserve the physical world unchanged; as if it were in the Undying Lands of Valinor, home of the Valar. Without the rings they are destined to eventually "fade", eventually becoming shadows in the physical world, prefiguring the concept of Elves as dwelling in a separate and often-underground plane in historical European mythology.
Mortals who wear a Ring of Power are destined to "fade" more rapidly, as the rings unnaturally preserve their life-span, turning them into wraiths. Invisibility is a side effect of this, as the wearer is temporarily drawn into the spirit world.
Men, Elves, and Paradise
Men live only in the world, are able to die from it, have souls, and may ultimately go to a kind of Heaven, though this is left vague in the legendarium. The case of Elves is different. They may inhabit the "undying lands" of Valinor, home of the Valar, effectively, according to the Tolkien scholar Tom Shippey, an "Earthly Paradise" as envisaged for Elves in the Middle English South English Legendary. Other Elves are in Middle-earth; the Elf-queen Galadriel indeed is expelled from Valinor, much like the fallen Melkor, though she is clearly good, and much like an angel. Shippey considers whether Elves have souls. He reasons that, since they are unable to leave the world, the answer must be no; but, given that they do not disappear completely on death, the answer must be yes. In Shippey's view, the Silmarillion resolves the puzzle, letting Elves go not to Heaven but to the halfway house of the Halls of Mandos on Valinor. The problem arises again with apparently wholly evil beings such as Orcs. Since evil cannot make, only mock, Orcs cannot have an equal and opposite morality to that of Men; but since they speak and have a moral sense, they are neither wholly evil nor lacking sentience. All of this implies, as various scholars have commented, a hierarchy of races comparable with the Medieval great chain of being.| Tolkien | Catholicism / Medieval world |
| Eru, the creator | God |
| Valar, immortal, participating in the creation | Angels |
| Fallen Vala, Melkor | Fallen Angel, Satan |
| Elves | |
| Men | Men |
| Orcs ? | |
| Beasts | Animals |
Several scholars have likened the implied cosmology of Tolkien's legendarium to that of his religion, Roman Catholicism, and that of Medieval poetry.
| Tolkien | Catholicism | Pearl, Dante's Paradiso |
| "that which is beyond Elvenhome and will ever be" | Heaven | Celestial Paradise, "beyond" |
| Undying lands of Aman, Elvenhome in Valinor | Purgatory | Earthly Paradise, Garden of Eden |
| Middle-earth | Earth | Earth |
Evil in Middle-earth
Tolkien used the first part of The Silmarillion, the Ainulindalë or creation account, to describe his thoughts on the origin of evil in his fictional world, which he took pains to comport with his own beliefs on the subject, as accounted in his Letters.In the Ainulindalë, evil represents a rebellion against the creative process set in motion by Eru. Evil is defined by its original actor, Melkor, a Luciferian figure who falls from grace in active rebellion against Eru, out of a desire to create and control things of his own. Melkor creates Orcs in mockery of Elves, or by corrupting Elves he had captured in his northern Middle-earth fortress of Udûn.
Shippey writes that Tolkien's Middle-earth writings embody the ancient Christian debate on the nature of evil. Shippey notes Elrond's Boethian statement that "nothing is evil in the beginning. Even Sauron was not so", in other words all things were created good; but this is set alongside the Manichean view that good and evil are equally powerful, and battle it out in the world. Tolkien's personal war experience was Manichean: evil seemed at least as powerful as good, and could easily have been victorious, a strand which Shippey notes can also be seen in Middle-earth. Brian Rosebury, a humanities scholar, interprets Elrond's statement as implying an Augustinian universe, created good.
The physical universe
Flat-earth cosmology
Eä, "that which is", is the material universe as a realisation of the vision of the Ainur. The Quenya word is from the existential to be in its aorist form. Eä was the word spoken by Eru Ilúvatar to bring the universe into actuality.The Void is the nothingness outside Arda. From Arda, it is accessible through the Doors of Night. The Valar exiled Melkor to the Void after his defeat in the War of Wrath. Legend foretells that Melkor will return to Arda just before the apocalyptic battle of Dagor Dagorath. The void is not to be confused with the state of non-being that preceded the creation of Eä.
When Arda was created, "innumerable stars" were already in existence. To provide greater light, the Valar later created the Two Lamps in Middle-earth, and when these were destroyed they created the Two Trees of Valinor. These gave rise to the Ages of the Lamps and the Years of the Trees, however the Ages of the Stars did not conclude until the creation of the Sun and Moon. During the Years of the Trees, shortly before the Awakening of the Elves, Varda created the Great Stars: "new stars and brighter" and constellations.
Ilúvatar created Arda according to a flat Earth cosmology. This disc-like Arda has continents and the seas, and the moon and the stars revolve around it. Arda was created to be the "Habitation" for Elves and Men. This world was lit by two lamps created by the Valar: Illuin and Ormal. To support the lamps, Aulë forged two enormous pillars of rock: Helcar in the north of the continent Middle-earth, and Ringil in the south. Illuin was set upon Helcar and Ormal upon Ringil. Between the columns, where the light of the lamps mingled, the Valar dwelt on the island of Almaren in the midst of a Great Lake. When Melkor destroyed the lamps, two vast inland seas and two major seas were formed, but Almaren and its lake were destroyed. The Valar left Middle-earth, and went to the newly formed continent of Aman in the west, where they created their home called Valinor. To discourage Melkor from assailing Aman, they thrust the continent of Middle-earth to the east, thus widening Belegaer at its middle, and raising five major mountain ranges in Middle-earth: the Blue, Red, Grey, and Yellow Mountains, plus the Mountains of the Wind. This act disrupted the symmetrical shapes of the continents and seas.
Ekkaia, also called the Enfolding Ocean and the Encircling Sea, is a dark sea that surrounds the world before the cataclysm at the end of the Second Age. During this flat-Earth period, Ekkaia flows completely around Arda, which floats on it like a ship on a sea. Above Ekkaia is a layer of atmosphere. Ulmo the Lord of Waters dwells in Ekkaia, underneath Arda. Ekkaia is extremely cold; where its waters meet the waters of the ocean Belegaer on the northwest of Middle-earth, a chasm of ice is formed: the Helcaraxë. Ekkaia cannot support any ships except the boats of Ulmo. The Sun passes through Ekkaia on its way around the world, warming it as it passes.
Ilmen is a region of clean air pervaded by light, before the cataclysm at the end of the Second Age. The stars and other celestial bodies are in this region. The Moon passes through Ilmen on its way around the world, plunging down the Chasm of Ilmen on its return.