- "The Other Power then took over: the Writer of the Story (by which I do not mean myself), 'that one ever-present Person who is never absent and never named'."
- —Tolkien in Letter 192[3]
Erū Ilúvatar, also known as the One, was the supreme being of Eä. He was the single omniscient, omnipotent, and omnibenevolent creator of existence. He had been existing eternally in the Timeless Halls and possessed the Flame Imperishable in his spirit, which has the power to kindle existence from nothingness.
Though the Ainur attempted to shape and govern Eä according to Erū's general will (which they understood imperfectly), he gifted his creations with the will to ultimately do as they pleased, and intervened directly in the affairs of Eä on only extremely rare occasions.
Erū was central to parts of The Silmarillion, but was not mentioned by name in Tolkien's most famous works, The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, although he was alluded to as "the One" in a part of Appendix A speaking of the downfall of Númenor, and in "Cirion and Eorl and the Friendship of Gondor and Rohan" in Unfinished Tales of Númenor and Middle-earth as "the One who is above all thrones for ever".
Biography
Erū was considered transcendental, removed, and distant, existing beyond the affairs of Arda and was seldom worshiped and his name was too holy to be invoked.[5] He first created the Ainur before anything else, whom he kindled with the Flame Imperishable. Each Ainu came from a part of his mind. To further their comprehension, he presented his thought in the form of music, and listened as the Ainur picked up his themes and elaborated on them, slowly learning to sing in harmony with each other. Eventually he showed them his greatest theme, and made them sing it in harmony and develop it with newly granted powers. This was the Music of the Ainur. Erū was also known as "the All-Powerful", and he alone could create independent life, or reality, using the Flame Imperishable. Though the Ainur were the ones who created the Music, all of the possibilities and variations of that Music had their utmost origins within Erū himself. Erū then showed the Ainur a Vision of what resulted from the Ainulindalë. The Vision of Ilúvatar showed vast halls of spaces and stories unfolded in the deeps of Time. Some Ainur were drawn to it. After proclaiming the word "eä" ("let it be"), the bounds of the universe itself was created amid the Timeless Void.[6]
Upon creating Eä, Erũ also created and fixed the natural laws and physical rules in which it will function, limited within impossibilities that can't be broken by any being, no matter how powerful or evil.[7] Ilúvatar also set and fixed "the way of the World" in which the creatures would live.[8] He then gave the Ainur the option to enter into Eä and fashion it as they would according to the Music.[9] The greatest Ainur who chose to do so were called the Valar, and they controlled the shaping of Arda.[9] They could not make original life, however, as Aulë proved, who was able to give only shape to the Dwarves, while consciousness was given to them by Erū.[10] This inability to create independent life was one of the primary reasons for the fall of Melkor, as he could not ultimately stand being forever lesser than Erū.[6] The Valar were accompanied by the Maiar, the lesser Ainur. The Ainur were not omniscient and some things were beyond their comprehension,[6] such as the Dagor Dagorath, the fate of the Ainur, and Ilúvatar's creation of the Eruhíni.[11]
The subsequent activities and invocations of Erū are unclear. Manwë was the vicegerent[9] of Eru on Arda and it is known that he sought for his consent several times, like before the creation of the Ents[10] or before the Battle of the Powers.[12] Manwë also took counsel from Erū on several other important matters, including the fate of deceased Elven Fëa, the Pereldar, and the extension of the lifespans of the Númenóreans.[13] During the Days before days Erū sanctified the creation of the Dwarves by Aulë, giving them life and sapience, and were his adopted Children.[10] At the behest of Yavanna, he allowed the Ents into being.[10] During the First Age, Erū created the Eruhíni, with the Awakening of the Elves being at Cuiviénen,[12] and the Awakening of Men being at Hildórien.[14] The Elves and the the Valar often praised Erū in the Undying Lands.[15] The high feast that Manwë held prior to the death of the Two Trees of Valinor was in praise of Eru to celebrate each gathering of fruits.[16] Fëanor swore his Oath in the name of Erū.[17] Later, it was said that Beren crossing the Girdle of Melian and meeting Lúthien was an intervention of Erū.[18]
During the Second Age, The Númenóreans worshiped Eru in the Three Prayers held throughout the year, having the Meneltarma completely devoted to him.[19] On the other hand, as both the Eldar and the Númenóreans knew that Erū was the only God, they held worship of any other person to be an abomination,[20] save those who mistook Erū as one of the Valar.[14] At the end of that age Erū, called upon by the Valar, buried King Ar-Pharazôn and his Great Armament when they landed at Aman in the year 3319, defying the Ban of the Valar.[21] After drowning Númenor into a great chasm, he caused the Undying Lands to be taken "outside the spheres of the Earth".[21] Elendil bound the Last Alliance of Elves and Men with an oath to Erū; the next known instance when a Man invoked Erū's name "who is above all thrones for ever", was by Cirion in his Oath with Eorl, millennia later.[22] Several coincidences and signs of a higher providence occurred throughout the late Third Age, such as Bilbo Baggins finding the One Ring,[23] the resurrection of Gandalf after he was killed by Durin's Bane,[15] and the fall of Gollum into the fires of Mount Doom that indirectly caused the destruction of the One Ring.[3]
According to beliefs held by some sages among the Edain of the First Age, Erū would someday enter Eä itself to save his beloved Children.[2] It is said that after the End of Days, Erū would unite the Ainur and the Secondborn to create a music even greater than the one of creation.[9]
Etymology
Erū Ilúvatar is a Quenya name consisting of the words Erū ("The One;[2] The One God;[24] He that is alone"),[25] and Ilúvatar ("Sky-father;[26] Heavenly Father;[27] Lord for Always;[28] O Father;[29]All-father;[30] Father of All;[31] God")[32].
In other versions
Erū Ilúvatar appears since the earliest form of the legendarium in The Book of Lost Tales. It is to be noted that Erū Ilúvatar was also called Ainatar ("Holy Father").[33] The word Erū first appeared as an Adûnaic word: Êru.[34] It was first used as a Quenya word in a list of names of 1951.[35]
Inspiration
Tolkien understood Erū not as a "fictional deity" but as a name in a fictional language for the actual monotheistic God, although in a mythological or fictional context. In a draft of a letter of 1954 to Peter Hastings, manager of the Newman Bookshop, Tolkien defended non-orthodox aspects as rightly within the scope of his mythology, as an exploration of the infinite "potential variety" of God.[36] Regarding the possibility of reincarnation of Elves, Hastings had written:
God has not used that device in any of the creations of which we have knowledge, and it seems to me to be stepping beyond the position of a sub-creator to produce it as an actual working thing, because a sub-creator, when dealing with the relations between creator and created, should use those channels which he knows the creator to have used already
—Peter Hastings
Tolkien's reply contained an explanation of his view of the relation of (divine) Creation to (human) sub-creation:
We differ entirely about the nature of the relation of sub-creation to Creation. I should have said that liberation "from the channels the creator is known to have used already" is the fundamental function of "sub-creation", a tribute to the infinity of His potential variety [...] I am not a metaphysician; but I should have thought it a curious metaphysics — there is not one but many, indeed potentially innumerable ones — that declared the channels known (in such a finite corner as we have any inkling of) to have been used, are the only possible ones, or efficacious, or possibly acceptable to and by Him!
—J.R.R. Tolkien, The Letters of J. R. R. Tolkien, Letter 153, pgs. 188-9
Hastings had also criticized the description of Tom Bombadil by Goldberry: "He is", saying that this seemed to imply that Bombadil was God. Tolkien replied to this:
As for Tom Bombadil, I really do think you are being too serious, besides missing the point. [...] You rather remind me of a Protestant relation who to me objected to the (modern) Catholic habit of calling priests Father, because the name father belonged only to the First Person.
—J.R.R. Tolkien, The Letters of J. R. R. Tolkien, Letter 153, pg. 191
External links
- Hensler, Kevin R. (2013-12-15). God and Ilúvatar: Tolkien's Use of Biblical Parallels and Tropes in His Cosmogony (Modern English). Signum University. Retrieved on 2025-11-05.
- Möhn, Andreas. Is Eru a good god? - Epithets and actions of a supreme being (Modern English). Lalaith's Middle-earth Science Pages. Retrieved on 2025-11-05.
Translations
| Foreign Language | Translated name |
| Amharic | ኢሩ ኢልቫታር |
| Arabic | ىرو ىلوڢاتار |
| Armenian | Երու Իլուվատար |
| Belarusian Cyrillic | Эру Ілуватар |
| Bengali | ইরু ইলুভাটার |
| Bulgarian Cyrillic | Еру Илуватар |
| Chinese | 一如稱伊露維塔 |
| Georgian | ერუ ილუვატარი |
| Greek | Έρου Ιλούβαταρ |
| Gujarati | ઇરુ ઇલુવતાર |
| Hebrew | ארו אילובאטאר |
| Hindi | एरु ईलुवतर |
| Japanese | エル・イルーヴァタール |
| Kannada | ಇರು ಇಲುವಾಟರ್ |
| Kazakh | Ерұ Ылұватар (Cyrillic) Eru Iluvatar (Latin) |
| Korean | 에루 일루바타르 |
| Kyrgyz Cyrillic | Эру Илуватар |
| Macedonian Cyrillic | Еру Илуватар |
| Marathi | इरु इलुवतार |
| Mongolian Cyrillic | Еру Илуватар |
| Nepalese | एरु ईलुवतर |
| Pashto | اییو الیوټار ? |
| Persian | ارو ایلوواتار |
| Punjabi | ਏਰੂ ਇੱਲਵੱਟਰ |
| Russian | Эру Илуватар |
| Sanskrit | एरु ईलुवतर् |
| Serbian | Еру Илуватар (Cyrillic) Eru Iluvatar (Latin) |
| Sinhalese | ඊරු ඉලුවාපත්ර් |
| Tajik Cyrillic | Еру Илуватар |
| Tamil | இரு எலுவாத்தர் |
| Telugu | ఏరు ఇరువిలాటర్ |
| Thai | เอรู อิลูวาทาร์ |
| Ukrainian Cyrillic | Еру Ілуватар |
| Urdu | ایرو الوواتر |
| Yiddish | ערו ילווואַטאַר |
References
- ↑ The History of Middle-earth, vol. XII: The Peoples of Middle-earth, XVI: "The New Shadow"
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 The History of Middle-earth, vol. XII: Morgoth's Ring, Part Four: "Athrabeth Finrod ah Andreth: 'The Debate of Finrod and Andreth'", pgs. 321-3
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 The Letters of J. R. R. Tolkien, Letter 192
- ↑ The Nature of Middle-earth, Part Two: Body, Mind and Spirit, XI: "Fate and Free Will"
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 The History of Middle-earth, vol. XII: Morgoth's Ring, Part Four: "Athrabeth Finrod ah Andreth: 'The Debate of Finrod and Andreth'"
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 The Silmarillion, Ainulindalë
- ↑ The Nature of Middle-earth, Part Two: Body, Mind and Spirit, IX: "Ósanwe-kenta", pgs. 205-18
- ↑ The Nature of Middle-earth, Part Two: Body, Mind and Spirit, XI: "Fate and Free Will", pg. 226
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 9.3 The Silmarillion, ch. I: "Of the Beginning of Days"
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2 10.3 The Silmarillion, ch. II: "Of Aulë and Yavanna"
- ↑ The Silmarillion, "Valaquenta: Account of the Valar and Maiar according to the lore of the Eldar"
- ↑ 12.0 12.1 The Silmarillion, ch. III: "Of the Coming of the Elves and the Captivity of Melkor"
- ↑ The Nature of Middle-earth, Part Three, XI: "Lives of the Númenoreans"
- ↑ 14.0 14.1 The Silmarillion, ch. 12: "Of Men"
- ↑ 15.0 15.1 The Letters of J. R. R. Tolkien, Letter 156, pgs. 203-4
- ↑ The Silmarillion, ch. VIII: "Of the Darkening of Valinor"
- ↑ The Silmarillion, ch. IX: "Of the Flight of the Noldor"
- ↑ The Silmarillion, ch. 17: "Of the Coming of Men into the West"
- ↑ Unfinished Tales of Númenor and Middle-earth, Part Two: The Second Age, I: "A Description of the Island of Númenor"
- ↑ The Letters of J. R. R. Tolkien, Letter 183, pg. 243
- ↑ 21.0 21.1 The Silmarillion, "Akallabêth: The Downfall of Númenor"
- ↑ Unfinished Tales of Númenor and Middle-earth, Part Three: The Third Age, II: "Cirion and Eorl and the Friendship of Gondor and Rohan"
- ↑ The Lord of the Rings, The Fellowship of the Ring, Book One, ch. II: "The Shadow of the Past"
- ↑ The Letters of J. R. R. Tolkien, pg. 387
- ↑ Parma Eldalamberon, issue XXI: Qenya Noun Structure, pg. 83
- ↑ Parma Eldalamberon, issue XI: I·Lam na·Ngoldathon: The Grammar and Lexicon of The Gnomish Tongue, pg. 50
- ↑ Parma Eldalamberon, issue XII: Qenyaqetsa: The Qenya Phonology and Lexicon together with The Poetic and Mythologic Words of Eldarissa, pg. 42
- ↑ Parma Eldalamberon, issue XV: Sí Qente Feanor and Other Elvish Writings, pg. 27
- ↑ The History of Middle-earth, vol. V: The Lost Road and Other Writings, pg. 72
- ↑ The History of Middle-earth, vol. XII: Morgoth's Ring, pg. 39
- ↑ The Letters of J. R. R. Tolkien, pg. 204
- ↑ The Letters of J. R. R. Tolkien, pg. 155
- ↑ The History of Middle-earth, vol. I: The Book of Lost Tales Part One, "Appendix: Names in the Lost Tales – Part I", entry "Ainur"
- ↑ The History of Middle-earth, vol. IX: Sauron Defeated, Part Two: The Notion Club Papers, Major Divergences in Earlier Versions of Part Two, "(iii) The earlier versions of Lowdham's 'Fragments' in Adunaic (Night 67)"
- ↑ The History of Middle-earth, vol. XII: Morgoth's Ring, Part One: "Ainulindalë", pg. 7
- ↑ The Letters of J. R. R. Tolkien, Letter 153