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Originally Posted by Rune Son of Bjarne
I am sure there are others and better simulareties, but in the end I think the Ainulindale is more like the Judeo-Christian creation myth than anyothers. With the one god who creates it all.
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But, of course, this is, one could almost say, the very PURPOSE of the Ainulindalė: to reconcile, for Middle-Earth, a monotheistic and a polytheistic tradition. Any Tolkien scholar worth his Legolas cut-out knows that the Valar are Arda's equivalent of the Greek/Norse/Egyptian/other pagan gods, fulfilling much the same role in the story. Tolkien clearly loved the Norse and Greek mythologies, and Middle-Earth is an attempt to create legends in the same vein (well, some of it is...). But with this he had to reconcile his monotheistic belief- a belief overpowering enough that he could not bring himself to write of a world where there was NOT a one, true God. In this, of course, Tolkien isn't really helped by his assertion that Middle-Earth IS (or, rather, WAS) our world. If he believed in a one God in our world today, then if Middle-Earth is to be "genuinely feigned" it must also have one God.
But that is to recap what we all already know...
I too must join the ranks of those whose clamouring voices love the Ainulindalė. 'Tis no coincidence, methinks, that it survived from the "Music of the Ainur" not so much changed, as it was expanded. The tale has, as noted, a natural flow and rhythm to it. I note this particularly in the use of the THREE musical themes, and the repetitious use of "Ilśvatar stood and raised (a) hand(s), and his countenance was (XXX)". In this, the Ainulindalė becomes reminiscent of various fairy tales, such as "The Three Little Pigs", or "Goldilocks and the Three Bears". It gives the Ainulindalė a very clear feeling of having been composed by the Eldar in Valinor, drawing from such as the Valar were able/willing to tell them. Which, of course, is what it is feigned to be. In the unaltered texts, the Ainulindalė is ascribed to Rśmil of Tirion.