Tolkienists.org

When readers discovered Middle-earth for the first time ever in 1937, they realised that Tolkien was understandably associating immortal beings to music. This affiliation is particularly noticeable in The Hobbit during the stay of Thorin’s company in Rivendell. Indeed, ​“Elrond, the master of the house”, is the one who asks the dwarves ​“to stay a bit and sing with” the elves. Music, songs, and dances accompany the travellers all along their trip until their departure to Erebor: ​“they went down to the water to see the elves dance and sing upon the midsummer’s eve”. From his very beginnings, Tolkien often gave an important place to music in his works; and it is after his death that people discovered the demiurgic value of that lyrical art in The Silmarillion (Allen & Unwin, 1977). Ainulundalë or The Song of the Ainur is the name of the divine action by which Eru Ilúvatar and his children, the Ainur, created Eä through songs. The main purpose of this article is to study the creating trait of music and to analyse its cosmogonic function.…