Silm thoughts - "Of Aulë and Yavanna”

[alasse_mirimiel]

I thought it was odd how Eru waited so long to confront Aulë about the creation of the Dwarves. Surely Eru must have known what Aulë was doing; was it necessary to wait until the Dwarves were finished?  It got me thinking if maybe this was a test to see if Aulë could go in the same direction as Melkor. It wasn’t until Aulë told Eru his intention was to have pupils he could share his knowledge with that Eru “adopted” the Dwarves. Maybe Eru had to wait until the Dwarves were sentient to test Aulë’s intent, could it be that Eru doesn’t have an insight into the mind of the Valar? If Aulë’s answer had implied in any way that he wanted to have dominion over a race, something Melkor sought, would the other Valar been alerted?

Another thing I found interesting is the mention of the Dwarves’ own beliefs. If The Silmarillion is a compilation of tales written by the Elves, it means that knowledge came from the Dwarves. It could be a sign of the time Elves and Dwarves weren’t enemies. More than that, it implies friendship between the races, because the Dwarves wouldn’t have shared that knowledge with anyone. On the other hand, it could be that the Dwarves were offended by the Elves’ assumption of what happened to them after they died, and they shared a bit of their culture to stop the Elves from thinking something so insulting.

And finally, I just love the relationship between Aulë and Yavanna. I love that Aulë only confied in her, how Yavanna didn’t break that trust when she went to Manwë (also how funny was Manwë’s reply to her idea of the Ents?). The ending was fantastic, though it made me wonder if it’s possible that Aulë doesn’t consider Yavanna’s creations as creations. It seems to me that for Aulë, a tree contains the material to make creations, but it’s not really a creation in its own right…

Comments

[shirebound]

It got me thinking if maybe this was a test to see if Aulë could go in the same direction as Melkor.

Ooooh, interesting.

[hhimring]

I suppose the most likely time and place for the Dwarves to have talked about this to Elves is Eregion in the Second Age, when we know there was friendship between the races. (I actually have written a drabble in which Celebrimbor and Narvi discuss the subject.)
But you could perhaps also imagine Finrod Felagund discussing it with the Dwarves while they were helping him build Nargothrond. We know he was interested in such subjects!

It's possible that Iluvatar really meant to adopt the Dwarves all along, perhaps, but made Aule go through all that so that he would know that the Dwarves weren't really his to do with just as he liked. But even so, that would still be pretty tough on those poor Dwarves, gaining consciousness at the moment their creator is trying to smash them!

[alasse-mirimiel.livejournal.com]

True. I doubt Eöl or Maeglin showed much interest in the Naugrim’s culture, unless it related to craftsmanship and metallurgy. I can see Finrod being the first to ask, and his findings being later confirmed by Celebrimbor’s. Though for some reason I can’t picture Celebrimbor being much interested in telling his fellow Elves what he’s learnt. On the other hand, I can picture an excited Finrod going to his cousins and telling everything he’s heard from the Dwarves.

I don’t think Eru would have destroyed the Dwarves, I think they were adopted the moment Aulë made them. What I don’t think Eru knew was what to do with Aulë. For me, that all depended on Aulë’s response.