he Stories of the Valar are incredibly beautiful, and I certainly cannot do them justice in what will be somewhat short summaries of the original text. I chose these four stories of The Valar because they are the most important in the shaping of Valinor, the home of the Valar, and the shaping of Middle-Earth. The Music of the Ainur is the story of how the Valar came together in song to sing the vision of Eru. This vision is how he wanted to shape the world, and he would use The Valar to put his vision into reality. The Creation of the World is an extension of The Music of the Ainur. After the music ended, Eru showed them what their song had made of the world. After they saw how wonderful Middle-Earth was, they were eager to enter into it and make the world habitable for the coming of Elves and Men. The Two Trees of Valinor is about how Yavanna, the goddess of all nature and things that grow, sang Telperion, the elder and silver tree, and Laurelin, the younger and gold tree, into being. These trees were the most beautiful trees in all Valinor, and they created silver and golden light for the fair city as they waned and waxed, comingling in the dawn to create the greatest beauty. They could be considered the forerunners of the sun and moon. Unfortunately, the Two Trees were destroyed and Valinor was darkened. Yavanna managed to sing through her grief, and two small saplings sprouted of the dead trees. She used the light from these saplings to create the sun and the moon and put them in orbit over Middle-Earth. The stories obviously go into greater detail, which I will get into on each page.

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