Valar / Greek and Roman gods

[wispeight]

Originally Posted by Andsigil

Given the love Tolkien had for the Finnish language, I'm surprised that people have omitted the Finnish deities, as well as the heroes of the Kalevala, from their comparisons here and stuck mostly with Greek and Norse comparisons.

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For my part it was my lacking, not intention. Thank you for the link.

[Vairë]

The title of this thread just caught my attention. No one's talked much about Yavanna (Ceres, or not?) and Aule (to my mind, the most *interesting* of the Valar, because of his creation of the dwarves; not really comparable to Vulcan, though, despite his smith-work).
It's Aule & Yavanna as a couple that interests me most now--what are the implications for that pairing? I lent out my copy of Silm so I can't check it now, but there's a chapter on the two of them. Yavanna's concern resulting in the race of the Ents, etc. Two very different worldviews with tremendous consequences for the physical world. There is some effort to work toward complementary views, but the environmental implications are left in the balance as the two prepare for the coming of the Children of Illuvatar. Depite Yavanna's love of trees, Aule declares "Nevertheless, they will have need of wood" and leaves it at that.
Comments?