Young lord of the Valar to silent 👑King

[Confusticated]

Pengolodh says: "Yea, even from his first coming into Ea from the side of Iluvatar, and from the young lord of the Valar in the white wrath of his battle with Melkor unto the silent king of years uncounted that sits upon the vanished heights of Oiolosse and watches but speaks no more: all that is he whom we call Manwe."
(From Dangweth Pengolodh in HoME XII)


Why do you suppose Manwe is silent now? What do these words make you think?

The elves of Tol Eressea speak, do those in Valinor? It must be awful grief for them that Manwe is silent.

Do you suppose Manwe communicates with the other Valar at all, or just sits in silent thought to himself? And what might he think?

 

[baragund]

I have not read HOME XII yet so this is purely conjecture.

In the minds of everybody except Eru, one could interpret Manwe as having mishandled many of the key events in the history of JRRT's world. You can start with his allowing Melkor to be freed, not doing enough to prevent Melkor from poisoning the minds of the Noldorand ruining the bliss of Valinor before the First Age, setting an unsustainable ban on Men from Valinor while allowing it to remain just over the horizon from Numenor, not doing enough to prevent Men from being ensnared by Morgoth when they first awoke, all of the evil that has evolved in the world in the later ages, and so on and so on.

It could be that Manwe figured out that whatever happens to the peoples of Middle Earth, it is all part of the ultimate plan of Eru and he has no business interfering with it. So he decided to just park himself on top of his mountain and watch.

Make any sense?

 

[Beleg]

Posted By Nom
Do you suppose Manwe communicates with the other Valar at all, or just sits in silent thought to himself?

Well, Valar can 'mind-talk' if receivent and the sender are willing; so I doubt that he doesn't communicate at all. I always take this phrase in the meaning that he communicates not a great deal with the Elves and does not actually exchange views in any speaking language.

 

[HelplessModAddi]

Those words make me think that Manwe is getting old. "Silent," in this context, does not necessarily mean absolutely silent, just that he doesn't talk much. But the passage sure does make it sound like Manwe is aging.

 

[Confusticated]

Make any sense?

Yes

But does anyone have other ideas about this ancient Manwe?

 

[YayGollum]

I do. I was never a fan of Manwe. I call him the spirit of the sock puppet. He's just some pretty mouthpiece for Eru. Him being silent = Eru is just too distracted by cooking up cool ideas with Mel out in the Void. Or you could go with that telepathy thing, and he's just playing his part of the super great leader type stuck in paradise, which = not doing much until something dramatic happens. The jesters of the Vanyar hopelessly toil to tease a chuckle?

 

[Master of maps]

Then again, he might just be sick of interfering and causing more trouble by doing so....

i agree with baragund when he says that he has "mishandled" many, many things since his arrival in arda. Chances are, hes just bored of skrewing up all the time

never know......