Who told you that?

[Hookbill the Goomba]

I just began a quick re-read of The War of the Jewels and a thought struck me early on. I was reading this passage;

Originally Posted by HoME XI: The War of the Jewels. Chapter 1: the Grey Annals

"Then Osse and Uinen came to them, and dwelt in the Isle of Balar, and became the friends of the Teleri and taught them all manner of sea-lore and sea-music
...
And [Osse] taught to them the craft of ship building and of sailing..."

It's an odd thing that has always been in my mind about a lot of mythology in general. The higher powers always seem to have knowledge of things which they then teach to the creatures. Where did the Valar and Maiar learn their skills to teach the Elves?

The obvious answers that jump to mind I have given a little thought to. They spent a lot of their time, before the Elves awoke, learning skills by a sort of trial and error method. The Valar have 'powers' to form the lands, trees and so on, but when it comes to characters like, as above, Osse and some like Aule, they have, as it were, none-supernatural skill... Natural skill, I suppose. Yet these supposedly natural skills come out of nowhere. They are always refined to the sort we know; metal work, shipbuilding and so on.
Perhaps they had enough time to go through the evolution of design, as it were, to make smith-craft and ship-craft a reality. But it raises more questions; why did they feel they needed these skills? We know that the Valar and Maiar could exist without physical form, traversing the waters without the need for ships. So why did they start building ships? Did they know the Elves would need them? You could say that Aule was commissioned to make something that could hold Melkor and in the process discovered the method of smithying we know.
The other explanation I can think of is that Illuvatar taught them, or showed them these things in the Music.

It seems a bit random to me that these skills are taken as matter of fact. Many myths have their gods knowing about complicated farming methods, ship building and smith-craft. Is that what Tolkien is doing here? Alluding to the idea that, behind the smithy and shipwright, there is a power that invented it? Are the Valar and Maiar, therefore, more than the shapers of Ea and are more active partners in it? Am I, as usual, talking absolute nonsense?

You decide!