Silmarillion - Chapter 02 - Of Aule and Yavanna

[Aiwendil]

A short chapter – and one that has always felt like a bit of a detour to me. That’s not to say I don’t like it – sometimes a detour can be more interesting than the direct route.

This chapter is about the origins of the Dwarves and the Ents; and if the chapter feels a bit like the odd one out, perhaps it’s because Dwarves and Ents are, in a certain way, misfits among Tolkien’s races. After all, the Children of Iluvatar are Elves and Men, right? Hobbits are an offshoot of Men; Orcs are corrupted Elves (at least, that’s one explanation). Of the major races, that leaves Dwarves unaccounted for. This chapter accounts for them.

But it is more than an aetiological myth. It is also a fascinating glimpse into the character of Aule. One of the themes of Tolkien’s Legendarium seems to be the relation between artifice and evil – between the desire to make and the desire to control. The origin of Melkor’s evil was not altogether that different from Aule’s motivation in this chapter – both wanted to create something new. Aule seems to begin down the same path as Melkor but to turn aside from it by submitting to the will of Iluvatar (for which Iluvatar rewards him). It is interesting to note that among the Maiar, both Sauron and Saruman were servants of Aule. The Noldor were also closely associated with Aule. Tolkien thus provides a great variety of subtle variations on the theme of artifice.

Yavanna provides an interesting foil to Aule in this chapter. She is, of course, a nature-god in contrast to Aule the craft-god. Aule crafts the Dwarves; Yavanna does not craft the Ents but rather asks for them. And, as it is revealed, the Ents were in fact in the Music of the Ainur – and are therefore truly “natural”, truly an inherent part of the created world.

The whole inter-relation of nature and artifice is depicted in one stroke at the end of the chapter. Yavanna tells Aule that his children must beware the wrath of the forests. And Aule answers:

Nonetheless they will have need of wood.

Another reason that this chapter may feel slightly out of place is that it was not part of the Quenta Silmarillion as Tolkien wrote it. The chapter found in the published work is actually two texts by Tolkien spliced together by Christopher – the first extends up to the words “. . . whose mansions were at Khazad-dum.” This first piece, written in the 1950s, was indeed part of the Quenta Silmarillion – but it stood much later (chapter 13) and was part of a chapter on “the Naugrim and the Edain”. The story of the creation of the Dwarves by Aule first appeared in a few scattered references in the 1930s writing (including the Annals of Beleriand and the earlier Quenta Silmarillion), but it was not until this time that Tolkien wrote a full account of it. Dating from about the same time is another account found in a letter to Rhona Beare (no. 212 in Letters).

The second part of this chapter is from a text written in the late 1950s at the earliest, titled “Of the Ents and the Eagles”. It is, aside from a brief note from roughly the same time period, the only account of the origins of the Ents.

Additional readings:
HoMe V (for a few early references to Aule’s creation of the Dwarves; check the index under “Aule”).
HoMe XI (for the various versions of “Of the Naugrim and the Edain” as well as for “Of the Ents and the Eagles”)
Letters (for the other account of the making of the Dwarves mentioned above)