Varda&Melkor and Marriages of Valar

[Lalwendë]

Originally Posted by Raynor

In regards to the valar feelings, in some early variants of the story (and even in HoME X - "Fionwe son of Manwe"), we find refferences to the sons of the valar (though Chris discarded those versions in the Silmarillion).

I'd agree with this. In the earliest versions of the Silmarillion writings, the Valar not only married but also had children, which suggests that desire must also have played some part. This is very reminiscent of Pagan gods. At a later stage however, Tolkien altered the text and removed such references. The text that we have now may retain some remnants of its more 'pagan' past. I ownder if he did this to 'Christianise' the text or to remove sub-creation of 'beings' from the capacity/remit of the Valar?