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Originally Posted by Eönwë
But I have a question that has been bugging me since I first read the silmarillion: Are the Ainur (Valar and Maiar) angels or gods in their own right?
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If pressed I might say that Tolkien the Christian did not ultimately invent many gods, but 'Tolkien the pagan' invented a way in which his mythology can still mirror Primary World pantheons.
Some may say they find the author splitting hairs about worship and 'creating' because he doesn't want to be seen as the inventor of beings who are properly called 'gods'. After considering the issue I'm not sure I can agree with that, and I think parts of his faith did shape
the distinctions he seems to raise concerning his 'gods', if not his creations. Tolkien believed that praying to Mary, dedicating a chapel to her, revering her, was not 'worship' of a goddess. Whether this reaches beyond Catholic thought is not the point, because Tolkien believed what he believed.
Anyway, maybe consider...
'God and the Valar (or powers: Englished as gods) are revealed. These latter are as we should say angelic powers, whose function is to exercise delegated authority in their spheres (of rules and government, not creation, making or re-making). They are 'divine', that is, were originally 'outside' and existed 'before' the making of the world. Their power and wisdom is derived from their Knowledge of the cosmological drama, which they perceived first as a drama (that is as in a fashion we perceive a story composed by some-one else), and later as a 'reality'. On the side of mere narrative device, this is, of course meant to provide beings of the same order and beauty, power, majesty as the 'gods' of higher mythology, which can yet be accepted -- well, shall we say baldly, by a mind that believes in the Blessed Trinity'. JRRT to Milton Waldman, probably late 1951
'The immediate 'authorities' are the Valar (the Powers or Authorities): the 'gods'. But they are only created spirits -- of high angelic order we should say, with their attendant lesser angels -- reverend therefore, but not wordshipful.' Draft to Peter Hastings 1954
*There is only one 'god': God Eru Ilúvatar. There are the first creations, angelic beings, of which those most concerned in the Cosmogony reside (of love and choice) inside the World, as Valar or gods, or governors;...' footnote to a draft to Father Robert Murray, 1954
'... to the Valar or Rulers. These take the place of the 'gods', but are created spirits, or those of the primary creation who by their own will have entered into the world*
*They shared in its 'making' -- but only on the same terms as we 'make' a work of art or story. The realization of it, the gift to it of a created reality of the same grade as their own, was the act of the One God.' Draft to Michael Straight, probably 1956
'They were allowed to do so, and the great among them became the equivalent of the 'gods' of traditional mythologies; but a condition was that they would remain 'in it' until the Story was finished.' to Major Bowen 1957
'There are no 'Gods', properly so called, in the mythological background of my stories. Their place is taken by the persons referred to as the Valar (or Powers): angelic created beings appointed to the government of the world.' to A. E. Couchman, 1966
'Strictly these spirits were called Ainur, the Valar, being only those from among them who entered the world after its making, and the name is properly applied only to those great among them, who take the imaginative but not the theological place of 'gods'. The Ainur took part in the making of the world as 'sub-creators': in various degrees, after this fashion.' JRRT to (almost) Rhona Beare 1958, draft letter 212
Andreth said...
'Who is the One, whom ye call Eru? If we put aside the Men who serve the Nameless, as do many in Middle-earth, still many Men perceive the world only as a war between Light and Dark equipotent. But you will say: nay, that is Manwe and Melkor; Eru is above them. Is then Eru only the greatest of the Valar, a great god among gods, as most Men will say, even among the Atani: a king who dwells far from his kingdom and leaves lesser princes to do here much as they will? Again you say: nay, Eru is One, alone without peer, and He made Ea, and is beyond it; and the Valar are greater than we, but yet no nearer to His majesty. Is this not so?'
'Yes,' said Finrod. 'We say this, and the Valar we know, and they say the same, all save one. But which, think you, is likely to lie: those who make themselves humble, or he that exalts himself?'
From the 'Athrabeth',
Morgoth's Ring