Notes on the Marriages of the Valar

I remember from my undergraduate Milton course that it is actually a point of debate with reference to Paradise Lost whether or not angels have bodies, and consequently, whether they have sex.  Or perhaps it was a debate at the time of Milton, and Milton weighed in on this matter in Paradise Lost--I forget.  But I do remember that sex among angels was an issue raised in my Milton course (one of only a few things that sticks with me from that course... along with my professor's recommendation that I read Wind in the Willows, which I still have not done).

While Tolkien does not treat the matter of sex between the Valar--and really, there seems no need to do so--he addresses their occasional corporeality in The Silmarillion and grants them marriages.

Of their bodies, we learn:

Moreover their shape comes of their knowledge of the visible World, rather than of the World itself; and they need it not, save only as we use raiment, and yet may be naked and suffer no loss of our being. Therefore the Valar may walk, if they will, unclad, and then even the Eldar cannot clearly perceive them, though they be present. But when they desire to clothe themselves the Valar take upon them forms some as of male and some as of female; for that difference of temper they had even from the beginning, and it is but bodied forth in the choice of each, not made by the choice, even as with us male and female may be shown by the raiment but is not made thereby. But the shapes wherein the Great Ones array themselves are not at all times like to the shapes of the kings and queens of the Children of Ilúvatar; for at times they made may clothe themselves in their own thought, made visible in forms of majesty and dread. (21)

The Valar are inherently male and female, and though the language of "performativity" could be compared to the idea of taking on their forms and walking about in them if they choose, and to the comparison of bodies to clothing that does not determine the inherent gender identity, the "difference of temper" is inherent.  The choice of the phrasing "bodied forth in the choice" rather than "made by the choice" seems deliberately to belie the notion that gender is choice.  They do not choose the gender of their bodies, they choose to be embodied, and the resulting form reflects the identity that Tolkien calls the "difference of temper." Also interesting is the fact that "male and female may be shown by the raiment but is not made thereby." Here, we might assume that for Tolkien, the human form of each individual embodies gender ("bodies forth," which is a fantastic phrase), so that there is no conflict between biological, corporeal manifestation of gender and subjective experience of gender identity. And since that identity is fixed, clothing poses no threat: male and female are not made by our clothing; they seem not to be made by the body.  This might be a risky proposition, except that there is no narrative condemnation of Eowyn's dress when she poses as Dernhelm.

***

Divided into male and female, the Valar are also divided into pairs.  The first couple among the Valar are Manwë and Varda.  They are not named husband and wife, instead we learn that

With Manwë dwells Varda, Lady of the Stars....

An interesting feature of this description is that while it may seem impermanent, since "dwelling" does not carry an inherent promise, there seems to be an echo of the Word being with God.

We learn that

Out of the deeps of Eä she came to the aid of Manwë; for Melkor she knew from before the making of the Music and rejected him, and he hated her, and feared her more than all others whom Eru made.

...

 Manwë and Varda are seldom parted, and they remain in Valinor.

...

When Manwë there ascends his throne and looks forth, if Varda is beside him, he sees further than all other eyes, through mist, and through darkness, and over the leagues of the sea. And if Manwë is with her, Varda hears more clearly than all other ears the sound of voices that cry from east to west, from the hills and the valleys, and from the dark places that Melkor has made upon Earth. (26)

In Manwë and Varda we find a model of marriage as a partnership at the highest level. They aid and complement each other.

***

Though there are other ways to organize this discussion, for now I will follow the narrative. The next of the Valar to be described in the Valaquenta after Manwë and Varda is Ulmo:

Ulmo is the Lord of Waters. He is alone.

This description of Ulmo is striking and dramatic, particularly following the account of Manwë and Varda.  However, the next line makes clear why Ulmo is alone:

He dwells nowhere long, but moves as he will in all the deep waters about the Earth or under the Earth. (26)

Being of the sea rather than the Earth, Ulmo is not easily rooted to one place, as is necessary for a spouse.  The call of the Sea, so strong for the Elves of Middle-earth, is known to be a powerful call for those who are drawn to vocations of sailing and fishing. The call of the sea and the vocation of a sailor are notably present in The Unfinished Tales, in the tale of Aldarion and Erendis, subtitled, revealingly, "The Mariner's Wife."  In this tale, it becomes clear that devotion to sailing is, for some, so compelling, that to marry and pledge devotion to something other than that duty is not only inadvisable, but disastrous. As Ulmo is alone, those called to follow Ulmo--or Ulmo's path--have an obligation to remain unmarried.

***

In the initial telling, all that is said of the marriage of Aulë and Yavanna is this:

The spouse of Aulë is Yavanna, the Giver of Fruits. (27)

Interestingly, she is first introduced after Aulë, as his spouse.  Both of them are important to the Children of Ilúvatar.  More will be said about Aulë and Yavanna later.

***

Lesser pairs:  the brothers Námo (who dwells in Mandos) and Irmo (who dwells in Lórien) are married to Vairë and Estë, respectively.  Of the marriage of Námo and Vairë, this is said:

Vairë the Weaver is his spouse, who weaves all things that have ever been in Time into her storied webs, and the halls of Mandos that ever widen as the ages pass are clothed with them. (28)

They have, perhaps, more a similarity than the complementarity or enhancement of each other that Manwë and Varda experience, as

He forgets nothing; and he knows all things that shall be, save only those that lie still in the freedom of Ilúvatar. (28)

While Mandos (Námo) is included among the High Ones of Arda, his spouse is not one of the High Ones.

Of Irmo and Estë:

 Irmo the younger is the master of visions and dreams. In Lórien are his gardens in the land of the Valar, and they are the fairest of all places in the world, filled with many spirits. Estë the gentle, healer of hurts and of weariness, is his spouse. Grey is ger raiment; and rest is her gift. She walks not by day, but sleeps upon an island in the tree-shadowed lake of Lórellin. From the fountains of Irmo and Estë all those who dwell in Valinor draw refreshment....

Is there a kind of hospitality here?  That would seem to be a stretch. But looking at this again, Irmo and Estë are joined by common purpose, and their specialties are complementary:  the visions and dreams of Irmo and the Estë's healing of hurts and weariness are both related to sleep, though we can assume that the Valar, like the elves, have no need for sleep as we know it (because of Irmo and Estë?)

***
Nienna "dwells alone," and as with Ulmo, we immediately perceive why:

She is acquainted with grief, and mourns for every wound that Arda has suffered in the Marring of Melkor. So great was her sorrow, as the Music unfolded, that her song turned to lamentation before its end, and the sound of mourning was woven in to the themes of the World before it began. But she does not weep for herself; and those who hearken to her learn pity, and endurance in hope.

Interestingly, with Nienna, we get a sense of the geography of Valinor:

Her halls are west of the West, upon the borders of the world; and she comes seldom to the city of Valimar where all is glad. She goes rather to the halls of Mandos, which are near to her own; and all those who wait in Mandos cry to her, for she brings strength to the spirit and turns sorrow to wisdom. The windows of her house look outward from the walls of the world. 

 Now, the first thing I notice, and I'm not sure whether or where it may have been noted, is that she is a Lady of Lamentation. The dead cry to her. But her morning is for others.  And she teaches pity, endurance, strength of spirit, and wisdom.  And, of course, she "mourns for every wound."  I would be hard pressed to find a place in all of Tolkien's works where the language he uses is so explicitly connected to the language used to describe Mary, perhaps Mater Dolorosa?  Reading this, my mind turns to "Hail, Holy Queen":

To thee do we cry, poor banished children of Eve. To thee to we send up our sighs, mourning and weeping in this valley of tears.

With her close proximity to Mandos, and her complementarity with Námo's gathering of the dead, she could have been paired with Námo.  However, her vocation to sorrow and her solitary nature (much like Ulmo's vocation to the sea and solitary nature) seem to preclude union with another.

***
Tulkas is married to Nessa, and of these we learn:

Greatest in strength and deeds of prowess is Tulkas [....] He delights in wrestling and in contests of strength; and he rides no steed for he can outrun all things that go on feed, and he is tireless. [....] His spouse is Nessa, the sister of Oromë, and she also is lithe and fleetfooted. Deer she loves, and they follow her train whenever she goes into the wild; but she can outrun them, swift as an arrow with the wind in her hair. In dancing she delights, and she dances in Valimar on lawns of never-fading green.

Of Tulkas, we further learn that in contrast to Oromë, he "laughs ever."

In Tulkas and Nessa, we seem to have another well-matched pair. I have an image of them running together against the wind, over fields of Middle-earth.  I also imagine Tulkas as the patron of Aragorn as Ranger, and watching over the Three Hunters as they track Merry and Pippin. Nessa seems to be the patroness of Lúthien.

***
The last pair to be named are Oromë and Vána, who is the younger sister of Yavanna.  More is said about Oromë than Vána, and indeed, the name of Oromë's horn takes precedence over his wife, who seems relatively unimportant. While Oromë is a hunter, a lover of trees, and dreadful in anger, Vána is grace and beauty:

The spouse of Oromë is Vána, the Ever-young; she is the younger sister of Yavanna. All flowers spring as she passes and open if she glances upon them; and all birds sing at her coming.

They seem more like opposites than complements, and it's notable that the male Ents have a particular devotion to Oromë, though the Entwives are devoted not to Vána, but Yavanna. As with Mandos (Náma), Oromë is an Aratar, while his spouse is not:

Among them Nine were of chief power and reverence; but one was removed from their number, and Eight remain, the Aratar, the High Ones of Arda: Manwë and Varda, Ulmo, Yavanna and Aulë, Mandos, Nienna, and Oromë. Though Manwë is their King and holds their alegiance under Eru, in majesty they are peers, surpassing beyond compare all others, whether of the Valar and the Maiar, or of any other order that Ilúvatar has sent into Eä.

Of the highest order of the Valar, four are married to peers, two are unmarried, and two are married to Valar of lesser power. Marriages, then, do not have to be equal, and whether or not the marriage of equals is ideal remains to be seen (though Manwë and Varda seem to represent the highest ideal, unless being of the highest power, they simply could not be paired with anyone else).