Valar
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The Valar are characters in J. R. R. Tolkien's legendarium. They are "angelic powers" or "gods" subordinate to the one God. The Ainulindalë describes how some of the Ainur choose to enter the world (Arda) to complete its material development after its form is determined by the Music of the Ainur. The mightiest of these are called the Valar, or "the Powers of the World", and the others are known as the Maiar.
"O'Elbereth, We sing to thee" By Sepi Donne
Some critics have noted the similarity of the Valar to the Æsir, the strong and combative Norse gods of Asgard. Painting by Christoffer Wilhelm Eckersberg, 1817.
Other scholars have likened the Valar to Christian angels, intermediaries between the creator and the created world. Painting by Lorenzo Lippi, c. 1645
Tolkien's Valar behave as a group, so that readers perceive them as a pantheon like the Olympian gods of the Greeks.
J. R. R. Tolkien
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John Ronald Reuel Tolkien was an English writer and philologist. He was the author of the high fantasy works The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings.
1892 Christmas card with a coloured photo of the Tolkien family in Bloemfontein, sent to relatives in Birmingham, England
Birmingham Oratory, where Tolkien was a parishioner and altar boy (1902–1911)
King Edward's School in Birmingham, where Tolkien was a pupil (1900–1902, 1903–1911)