Origins of Iluvatar

[Man of the Old Hope]

Quite simply, Tolkien conceived Eru Ilúvatar as God, meaning that Eru is unoriginate and self-existent, and is the Origin of all things (through the Great Music).

The meaning of the name, Eru, is 'The One', or 'He that is Alone' (cf. the Index to The Silmarillion); and of Ilúvatar, 'Father of All'.

While the translated 'Father of All' echoes the epithet given to Odin/Woden, 'Allfather', it is clear that Tolkien's concept of Eru Ilúvatar is informed more profoundly by Christian (and Jewish) beliefs about God.

And yes, the Valar do echo sundry pantheons in 'Indo-European' mythologies, but in their functions (and though espoused, in their lack of offspring) they are much more akin to the angelic powers set as guardians over various planets and natural forces in speculative Jewish and Christian angelology.

In Letter 131 (To Milton Waldman), Tolkien wrote:

'The cycles begin with a cosmological myth: the Music of the Ainur. 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 rule 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 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 of beauty, power, and 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.'