Aman

Quick Facts

The Undying Lands

The land that lay on the extreme western edge of the World, beyond the Great Sea. In the most ancient times, the land that would become Aman was an empty and nameless region. In those distant days, the Valar dwelt across the Sea in Middle-earth, and the Western lands were apparently uninhabited².

The History of Aman

Morgoth destroyed the first dwelling of the Valar in Middle-earth, was destroyed. The Valar therefore chose a new land to make their home: a distant land on the western edge of the World, which became known as Aman ('the Blessed') because of their presence. They raised a mountain-fence along Aman's eastern borders, and behind those mountains they founded the land of Valinor. From a green mound in that land two Trees of light grew: Telperion and Laurelin, the White Tree and the Golden, to bring light to the West. So Aman was filled with shimmering silver and golden light, while Middle-earth lay dark under the stars. <p>Valinor lay in the central parts of Aman, but to the north and south great arms of land curved eastward, away from the light of the Two Trees. To the south, long shores, empty and dark, led away from the land of Valar. To the north, eastward beyond the mountains, plains stretched into the cold north. At its most northerly reach, Aman came close to the northern margins of Middle-earth, and the two lands were separated only by a frozen region of crashing ice.

The Eldar in Aman

At this time, the only speaking peoples were the Valar and their kind, including those lesser beings who had accompanied them into the World, and dwelt with them in Aman. That changed when the Elves awoke in a land in the distant east of Middle-earth. They were discovered there by the Vala Oromë, who brought report of their coming back to his peers in Aman. The Valar gathered to decide the fate of the newly awakened Elves, and their choice would shape the fate of Aman and of the World.

Finally resolved to overcome Morgoth, the Valar launched a great war, in which the Dark Lord's northern stronghold was destroyed, and he himself taken captive back to Aman. Through Oromë, the Valar offered the Elves a home of their own beyond the Sea, and at this time the lineage of the Elves split into two: the Eldar who accepted the summons to Aman, and those who refused it. The great westward journey was long and hard, and many of the Eldar fell away from it, but at last most of those who had set out reached Aman.

The ages that followed were a time of bliss in Aman: Morgoth was bound, and the Valar and Eldar dwelt in peace in the light of the Two Trees. After three ages had passed, the term of Morgoth's imprisonment came to an end, and he was released. He claimed to be reformed, but he set about creating a web of lies and deceits among the Elves that led to violence and betrayal until he was discovered and fled from Valinor.

The Darkening of Valinor

In the mountains to the south of Aman Morgoth discovered the monstrous being Ungoliant, and together they invaded Valinor and destroyed the Two Trees, and then fled from Aman to Middle-earth.

When the light of the Trees failed, Aman was plunged into darkness. The only hope for the rebirth of the Trees lay in the Silmarils of Fëanor, but Fëanor refused to break them. Soon afterwards, it was learned that Morgoth had stolen those Jewels and taken them with him to Middle-earth. In madness and grief (for Morgoth had also slain his father) Fëanor assembled the Noldor and led a great part of them out of Aman in pursuit of the Dark Lord. So desperate were they that they spilled the blood of their kin among the Sea-elves and stole their ships.

As the Noldor passed into the far north, the Valar sent a herald to them in a final attempt to bring them back to Valinor. Their emissary delivered a dreadful foretelling of the ultimate doom of the Noldor if they left Aman behind. At that prophecy, Fëanor's half-brother Finarfin abandoned the march, and returned with many of his people to Valinor, where he ruled over those few of the Noldor who remained in Aman. Meanwhile Fëanor led the rest of the host into the far north, where they crossed out of Aman into Middle-earth.

The Hiding of Valinor and the Years of the Sun

After the departure of the Noldor, the Valar attempted to rekindle the Two Trees. Their attempts failed, but before the Trees died they produced a brilliant silver flower and a golden fruit. Setting these in vessels, they set these aloft and sent them into the sky from Aman: thus the Moon and the Sun first rose in the West.

With Morgoth free in the World once more, the Valar set about securing Aman against further attack. The mighty mountains that guarded their land were raised to even greater heights, so that a towering wall of sheer cliffs ran along the coastlands of Aman. In that time the Valar also set a chain of dark rocks in the Great Sea to enmesh mariners in enchantment. So Aman was hidden from those in Middle-earth, and the Powers remained behind their mountains as the years of the Sun began. After this time, the Valar remained in Aman for the most part, and little is known of their doings.

The Overthrow of Morgoth

The wisest in Middle-earth had long seen that the only hope of overcoming Morgoth would be to summon the aid of the Valar from Aman. Indeed, Turgon had sent out many vessels to seek a way across the Great Sea and plead for the aid of the Lords of the West. All of these failed, but Eärendil became determined to succeed, though his first attempts to vo