Varda Elentári

Queen of the Valar, Queen of the Stars, Lady of the Stars, Tintallë, Fanuilos, Avradî, Airë Tári, Hîr Annûn Elbereth Gilthoniel

Varda Elentári, known in Sindarin as Elbereth Gilthoniel, was a Valië, one of the Aratar, the wife of Manwë and Queen of the Valar. Varda knew all the regions of Eä and rejoiced in light. She was said to be too beautiful for words, as within her face radiated the light of Ilúvatar. Elves loved and revered her most of all the Valar because she created the stars, which the Elves beheld when they first awoke. They called upon her in their hours of deepest darkness. She appeared in shining white fana in visions to the Elves of Middle-earth, and thus was called Fanuilos (Snow-white). Her handmaiden was Ilmarë, a Chief of the Maiar. Varda is a Quenya name of Valarin origin meaning "Sublime", "Exalted" or "Lofty". It comes from Primitive Quendian baradâ, from the root barad, being actually a honorific title used as a name. In the early Qenya, Varda comes from the same root as vard- ("rule, govern") or varni ("queen").

Mental characteristics

Personal history

Before the Music of the Ainur, Varda saw Melkor's mind, and despised him. Melkor feared and hated Varda the most out of all the Valar. In the beginning, Melkor had been unable to control light, which Varda was most associated with. When Manwë contested with him for Arda, Varda came from the deeps of Eä to his side. During the Spring of Arda, she filled the Two Lamps with light. After their destruction at the hands of Melkor, Varda and the rest of the Ainur forsook the outer lands and removed to Aman. She resided with Manwë in Ilmarin and aided him in the rule of Arda. With her, Manwë saw beyond all eyes, through mist and darkness, and with him, Varda heard all voices from every corner of the world. In Valinor, she kept the dews of the Two Trees in her Wells. When the Valar felt that the Awakening of the Elves was near, Mandos foretold that the Elves would see the stars first and how they would always look to Varda in reverence. Then Varda gazed the darkness in Middle-earth from Taniquetil and began the greatest work made by the Valar since their coming into Arda: taking the dew from the vats of Telperion, she created new and brighter stars. She set many individual stars, but also constellations, the Sickle of the Valar among them. A long time took this labours, and once they were finished, the Elves awoke in Middle-earth and they beheld first the stars which Varda had made. For this, Varda was the Vala most loved and revered by the Elves. She hallowed the Silmarils of Fëanor when he created them, so that any being or creature of evil could never handle them without being burned. After the death of the Two Trees, Varda was tasked once again with filling the world with a new light. Therefore she took the remaining flower of Telperion and the fruit of Laurelin and placed them in vessels made by Aulë. Varda bequeathed to them such light and power that they outshone the ancient stars. In doing so, she established the courses of the Sun and Moon. Initially she purposed the Sun and the Moon to be in the sky together, but Irmo and Estë pointed out that she had deprived the world of night-time and the stars, which was still necessary for rest and sleep. Therefore Varda changed her counsel and altered the courses of the Sun so that it should spend a certain time hidden, allowing for the stars to be seen again. At the end of the First Age, she placed Eärendil as a star in the sky.