Valaquenta

Valaquenta (Quenya for "Tale of the Valar") is the second section of The Silmarillion, a collection of J. R. R. Tolkien's mythopoeic works, edited and published posthumously by his son Christopher Tolkien in 1977.

Overview

Valaquenta provides a middle-ground and link between Ainulindalë, which stands as Middle-earth's cosmogony or 'creation myth', and Quenta Silmarillion, a collection of mythical histories wherein major events of Middle-earth find their first elaboration (see The Silmarillion).

Not an actual 'story' in itself (there is no plot or action), Valaquenta is more a 'listing' — a kind of expanded footnote giving 'personal' details attached to each of the major divine characters of Tolkien's Middle-earth legendarium. These divine beings are the Valar, the Maiar and the 'Enemies' (the last being equivalent to fallen Ainur of the same kind and order as the Valar/Maiar. For an explanation of the divine natures of all the Ainur, see Ainulindalë).

Just as with the rest of Tolkien's characters, the natures and names of these worldly Ainur are by no means incidental; they are intimately connected with important elements of plot and action in the later tales. To an extent, Valaquenta gives a meaning or a 'genealogy', or both, to many scenes in the larger Quenta Silmarillion; it is a virtual 'list of players' for important parts of that ensuing drama, which drama itself (as a collection of mythic tales) provides a foundational background for the world that comes after (in particular for those stories comprising the more widely known histories of Middle-earth, including The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings).