[Lalwendë]

I like this creation myth as its a satisfying one. I venture to say I always found Genesis unsatisfying as we don't find out much about how the world is made, that immense period when there was no sentient life but gas and rocks and lava and water and winds. Tolkien gives us it:

Thus began the first battle of the Valar with Melkor for the dominion of Arda; and of those tumults the Elves know but little. For what has here been declared is come from the Valar themselves, with whom the Eldalie spoke in the land of Valinor, and by whom they were instructed; but little would the Valar ever tell of the wars before the coming of the Elves. Yet it is told among the Eldar that the Valar endeavoured ever, in despite of Melkor, to rule the Earth and to prepare it for the coming of the Firstborn; and they built lands and Melkor destroyed them; valleys they delved and Melkor raised them up; mountains they carved and Melkor
threw them down; seas they hollowed and Melkor spilled them; and naught might have peace or come to lasting growth, for as surely as the Valar began a labour so would Melkor undo it or corrupt it. And yet their labour was not all in vain; and though nowhere and in no work was their will and purpose wholly fulfilled, and all things were in hue and shape other than the Valar had at first intended, slowly nonetheless the Earth was fashioned and made firm. And thus was the habitation of the Children of Iluvatar established at the last in the Deeps of Time and amidst the innumerable stars

The metaphor of Gods battling one another to create and shape, and re-shape, a world is not only colourful but it works in comparison to both what we know about Geology and works in context of a secondary world which has Gods. We know our world was created over billions of years of erosion, attrition, creation of sedementary rocks, emergence of new chemical combinations etc, whole continents shifted across the globe, constantly reforming (and still are, as India continues to move North two inches per year). I find that poetic myself, but Tolkien puts it beautifully. The Ainur also embody aspects of the world that was created, and the metaphor of Air (Manwe) and Water (Ulmo) combining to create rain is beautiful:

Then Ulmo answered: Truly, Water is become now fairer than my heart imagined, neither had my secret thought conceived the snowflake, nor in all my music was contained the falling of the rain. I will seek Manwe, that he and I may make melodies for ever to thy delight!' And Manwe and Ulmo have from the beginning been allied

The Ainur are real Gods in the most ancient sense in that they are allowed to dream up this world and the flora within it, and they create in their own image, Illuvatar giving them the power to do so. Illuvatar simply creates the Ainur, then allows them to sing - Illuvatar then makes real what they have sung about and gives the world people to populate it. The Ainur are embodied in the physical aspects of this world, the elements and the weather; they reside in Arda, and they cannot leave it until the end of time (Arda time at least).

Does Melkor come across as cool? Well, read this:

His envy grew then the greater within him; and he also took visible form, but because of his mood and the malice that burned in him that form was dark and terrible. And 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

He sounds quite impressive to me.

One final thought for now. One thing really intrigues me. Illuvatar created many more Ainur than those we know about, and they stayed with him in the Void. I often get the impression that Eru was playing a little 'game' in getting his Ainur to sing and then showing them what that song would look like; some liked what they saw and wanted to go there (a little like how Tolkien fans like what they saw and some want to get a one-way ticket to Middle-earth ). Eru then just went "pfff!" and it existed, so those Ainur who liked it could go there and play with it. Oh and of course he added a few people too (as a doll's house with no dolls to sit on the chairs aint much fun).

If Eru was this tricksy (and Tricksy he was indeed, if the Ainur were "the offspring of his thought" he must have had something of the Melkor about him alongside the cuddly stuff) what was to stop him getting the rest of the Ainur to have further sing songs and creating other worlds?