Original Thought: A Brief Comparison of the Valar and Greek Gods
In beginning of The Silmarillion by J.R.R. Tolkien is a letter by the author to Milton Waldman from 1951. In it, Tolkien illuminated some of the ways in which he created the world and the stories within the novel. Throughout this, he maintained that though he borrowed from certain cultures’ mythologies, that his stories were a “given” in his mind which he wrote and largely made up. If you look at the actual story or what could be described as mythology, it becomes clear just how similar it is to other pre-existing mythology. The Valar in particular were seemingly inspired by Greek mythological Gods and Goddesses. The Valar, or the powers of Arda, were originally thoughts by Ilúvatar, the first creator. They helped him to create the world and were the most powerful of the Ainur. Similar to Greek Gods and Goddesses, there were Lords and Ladies of the Valar who all served the world as benevolent and at times tempestuous rulers (though not in comparison to the Greek Gods), nurturers...