Abstract

One of J.R.R. Tolkien's earliest writings about Middle-earth was The Music of the Ainur, a cosmogonical myth that would become, in the published Silmarillion, the Ainulindalë.  The Ainulindalë employs devices common to cosmogonical myths throughout the world; however, several of the most important details to Tolkien's cosmogonical myth, particularly the use of song to drive creation, are relatively uncommon in world creation myths and virtually nonexistent in the major myth cycles from which Tolkien drew his inspiration. It is in these differences that the import of the Ainulindalë is revealed. As Tolkien stated about comparative mythology in his essay "On Fairy-Stories," "It is precisely … the unclassifiable individual details of a story … that really count."

This paper will explore the cosmogony of Middle-earth using the ideas that Tolkien put forth in "On Fairy-Stories," first examining connections between various world myths and the creation myth of Arda, and applying the theories of mythologists like Joseph Campbell and Charles H. Long to establish the link to real-world elements that Tolkien professed essential when creating a believable Secondary World. The focus will then turn to the variations from cosmogonical archetypes that make the Ainulindalë an essential text in Tolkien's legendarium, looking particularly at how Tolkien's theory of sub-creation is expressed in his cosmogony for Middle-earth. In the creation story of the Ainulindalë, the Ainur act in a sub-creative capacity, endowed with a creative drive by Ilúvatar and inspired by desire to inhabit an imagined world to the extent that they labor to produce it. Furthermore, the Ainulindalë serves as an example of the aspect of recovery in sub-creation by presenting the inherent creative nature of humanity—and in Tolkien's view, the godliness of this drive—anew and inviting fresh consideration of ideas familiar to cosmogonical myth. In establishing a Secondary World itself produced of sub-creation by the Ainur and filled with characters replete with similar desires, Tolkien invites consideration of themes related to creation and sub-creation throughout his legendarium.

Read "At the Root of the Tree of Tales: Using Comparative Myth and "On Fairy-Stories" to Analyze Tolkien's Cosmogony" (Signum University)