moredhel
"...he descended upon Arda in power and majesty greater than any other of the Valar, as a mountain that wades in the sea and has its head above the clouds and is clad in ice and crowned with smoke and fire; and the light of the eyes of Melkor was like a flame that withers with heat and pierces with a deadly cold.”
ohmyarda
A redraw of my Uinen that’s been circulating in the reblogs again
kudriaken
Melkor or more known as Morgoth.
Continuing the designs for Valars. This time - Manwe`s brother and main troublemaker in whole universe.
cerulean-shark
tbh it makes me really sad that a lot of Silm characters had the possibility of reuniting in Valinor, but Narvi and Tyelpë never would be able to
ofmiceandwomen
As a gift for my co-admin and friend from the Silm discord server @nightcityberries I gave her this free commission of Ilmarë being lucky to brush Glorfindel’s hair. Sounds like a great thing to do, really!
Happy birthday 🥳
been having some fun designing the maiar, so here’s the ones i’ve done so far
ëonwë | ilmarë | aiwendil | olórin | curumo | alatar and pallando
Iconography of the Ainur
anthropologyarda
It’s pretty common for deities or saints to have certain symbols attached to them for artistic or teaching purposes, especially in preliterate societies or places with low literacy. So it seems a pretty reasonable idea that the Ainur had their own symbols developed by the elves and later adopted and modified by the Edain.
(The dwarves have no such parallel system. Language and writing have such a sacred character to them that calligraphic inscriptions serve this purpose.)
The pre-sundering elves of Cuivienen created the oldest symbols, and those continue to be used among the Moriquendi and the elves of Middle-earth. From these ancient symbols, the Amanyar elves developed a complex system to help identify the subject of an image in their art, such as the number and placement of figures, their gestures, setting and objects that appear with them.
The Valar have a particularly standardized set of iconography associated with them. When the image is an Ainur’s humanoid form, they have a nimbus of radience or a crown of stars surrounding their head. The icon can take the place of the Vala it represents, or simply be a sign of influence or presence. The most common symbol type is animal.
- Manwë - an eagle, a cloud, or a wind. Eönwë is specifically represented as a falcon, and other maiar as other birds of prey active during the day.
- Varda - stars, of course, but occasionally an owl, a noctural bird of prey to match her husband’s eagle, or rarely a bat (Amanyar only, used only during the Years of the Trees). Ilmarë and her other handmaidens use a cat, ocelot, or leopard.
- Aulë - an anvil or a smith’s hammer, raw crystals; his only animal symbols are corvids like crows or ravens
- Yavanna - It would be inappropriate to represent Yavanna with any animal, since they feed on her plants. Instead elven artists use ripened wheat or fair trees with straight trunks. Some pollinators, like bees may be used. Yavanna’s maiar are animals that eat only nuts or fruits, the rationale being that they are helping the tree disperse its seeds.
- Ulmo - Use of an animal symbol for Ulmo is unusual; most commonly he is a tall, foam-crested wave. But when an animal is used, large predatory fish, squid or octopus are common. No animal that must surface to breathe can be used. Ossë’s symbol is a Killer Whale, an Uinen has dolphins & porpoises. For his other maiar, various water-going animals that cannot breathe in the water are used, like whales, seals, or sea turtles.
- Namo/Mandos - Using any living thing to represent the Vala of death is taboo. A pair of scales, an animal skull, or an hourglass are his symbols. For his maiar, the elves created a race of special mythological creatures: black coated, predatory animals with bare skulls as their heads and ghost lights in place of eyes.
- Vairë - Her symbol has quite the history. Her ancient, original symbol is the spider and spiderweb, but those fell out of use among the Amanyar and Sindar thanks to Ungoliant and her spawn. The Avari, Nandor and their Silvan descendents continued to use it until spiders began to plague Mirkwood. The spider was replaced by symbols of weaving like the loom, shuttle, and spindle.
- Irmo/Lórien - He has several. The butterfly or moth, because they are animals that metamorphose from one form to another, and the Gardens of
Lórien are filled with them. Colorful frogs, especially poisonous ones. Peacocks, for the ‘eyes’ on their feathers. Poppy flower, for its narcotic properties.
- Estë - the serpent, for her role as healer. The turtle or lotus as representations of her island where she sleeps.
- Melian - nightingale
- Nienna - a teardrop or tear tracks. White or grey doves. For the Amanyar, elephants, because they can cry and feel grief for a lost family member.
- Oromë - a horse or a hound. He is a rare case of a repeated symbol; a falcon or hawk is also used, but it must be hooded or jessed as when used in falconry. Oromë’s maiar are most often represented by animals that hunt in packs, like wolves or lions, sometimes solitary predators. They are always predators.
- Vána - flowers or songbirds, and hummingbirds who drink from flowers.
- Tulkas - the boar, bull, or ram. Implements of war may be used, but since Tulkas is famous as a wrestler, are less common.
- Nessa - a doe, hare, or gazelle. Among the Edain, she gained the symbol of the Horned Doe, a doe with a buck’s horns.
- Tilion and Arien have special symbolic markings of their own. Tilion is always crowned with the moon (which moon phase varies), as Arien is crowned with the sun.
- Melkor: We do not speak his name, we do not write his mark
- Mairon/Sauron: too many Eyes
