Ulmo, Lord of Waters, Part 1 by Anérea

Ulmo, Lord of Waters, Part One

Now to water had that Ainu whom the Elves call Ulmo turned his thought, and of all most deeply was he instructed by Ilúvatar in music.¹

In the beginning was the Music, the medium through which the world was created in Tolkien's universe. A broader theme of music, with its magic and power—both metaphorically and literally—flows through the "Silmarillion", fundamentally associated with water through the person of Ulmo.

Arda, the world of Middle-earth, was sung into conception by the Ainur, the Holy Ones who first sprang from the thought of the One, Eru Ilúvatar. The Valar—along with their aides, the Maiar—were those Ainur who came into the World to fashion and govern it out of love for Elves and Men, the Children of Ilúvatar for whom the world was made, but who were as yet merely an enigmatic vision of the future.

As one of the Ainur, Ulmo was present before the formation of Arda, having participated in the Great Music. (Indeed, in terms of the history of the Legendarium, it may be that Ulmo was present—in essence if not in name—before the "Silmarillion" tales began to take form: around 1910 Tolkien wrote a poem personifying the sea that he later recast and absorbed into The Fall of Gondolin as the song The Horns of Ylmir, which Tuor recited to young Eärendil in Nan-tathren.)²

He was one of the most influential Valar in Arda, and the only one to maintain a direct involvement in the affairs of the Elves and Men of First Age Middle-earth. Associated strongly with the sea, his province encompassed all the waters of the world and, like his element, he has a pervasive, permeating presence, often felt even if he is not always seen. Thus his presence spans all the ages of the world, first appearing as an "ancient mariner" in the earliest tales of Eriol/Ælfwine, while his influence lingers on in The Lord of the Rings in the form of the sea-longing that grips Legolas and many other Elves before him, as well as in the Nazgûl's fear of water.³

The Silmarillion first took form as the Lost Tales in the mid-1910's before Tolkien began work on the much contracted "Sketch of the Mythology" in the 1930's. He then expanded this into texts like the Quenta Silmarillion, The Annals of Valinor, and The Annals of Beleriand in the period prior to writing The Lord of The Rings. He returned to it in the late 1950s and these combined writings grew into the tales that would become the published Silmarillion. Although Tolkien set aside and ultimately rejected the whimsical Lost Tales in favour the more "Northern" tone of his later writings, his early concepts nonetheless informed these, which retained the essence if not always the detail.

The bulk of the published Silmarillion is concerned with the stories of the Elves and Men of the First Age and is comparatively spare on detail in the years preceding their coming. In contrast, the sumptuously written Lost Tales contain a wealth of anecdotes about the shenanigans Ulmo and his contemporaries get up to in the earliest of days. In these tales, the Valar are referred to as gods, and indeed they bring to mind the all-too-human gods of Norse, Greek, and Roman mythology.

Part One of this biography concerns Ulmo's nature and his relationships with other Valar and Maiar in the early period of Arda, and so I draw heavily from Tolkien's early writings as well as the published Silmarillion. In Part Two I explore his connection and interactions with Elves and Men.

Please note: I refer to the published Silmarillion as The Silmarillion, while the "Silmarillion" refers to all the related texts included in The History of Middle-earth. The Lost Tales references The Book of Lost Tales, Volumes I and II of The History of Middle-earth. Unless specifically stated to be in the Lost Tales, the details I mentioned will generally be found in The Silmarillion.

"Roaring Foaming Music"⁴: What's in a Name

Ulmo, the Rainer; Ullubôz, the Pourer; i Chorweg a·Vai, the Old One of the Outer Ocean; Vailimo; Man of the Sea; Ylmir; Lord of Waters.⁵ Tolkien's characters frequently have numerous epithets and translations of their names and Ulmo has more than most, possibly because he was one of the few Valar who didn't withdraw from the affairs of Elves and Men. Yet he's one of the few whose original name, Ulmo, remained completely unchanged from the beginning. His demeanour, on the other hand, practically flip-flops from the melodramatic in the Lost Tales to the austere in The Silmarillion.

Yet a number of essential elements did also survive relatively unchanged: the fact that he is one of the "great ones", the mightiest Valar (initially numbering four along with Manwë, Melkor, and Aulë); that his power flows throughout the "veins" of the world and by this means he gathers news; his solitary nature and rarity of his visits to Valinor; his uncertain relations with his chief Maia, Ossë; and the fact that he has always loved and aided Elves and Men.

"Music Of Uttermost Deepness That Stirred In The Profound": The Creation of Arda

And a sound arose of endless interchanging melodies woven in harmony that passed beyond hearing into the depths and into the heights, and the places of the dwelling of Ilúvatar were filled to overflowing, and the music and the echo of the music went out into the Void, and it was not void.⁶

Ilúvatar gave life to all that is, but it was his Ainur who gave creation shape and form. When Ulmo's magnum opus—the conception of water— is upstaged through Melkor's discord wreaking havoc on creation, Eru Ilúvatar points out to Ulmo how the music of the sea has not been quelled and instead, Melkor's "bitter cold immoderate" and "heats and fires without restraint" have only made his creation even more beautiful in the form of "snow, and the cunning work of frost" as well as the "height and glory of the clouds, and the everchanging mists; and . . . the fall of rain upon the Earth." Rather than being resentful or jealous, Ulmo responds with gracious delight:

Yea truly is water fairer now than was my best devising before. Snow is of a loveliness beyond my most secret thoughts, and if there is little music therein, yet rain is beautiful indeed and hath a music that filleth my heart, so glad am I that my ears have found it, though its sadness is among the saddest of all things.⁷

Eru then points out: "And in these clouds thou art drawn nearer to Manwë, thy friend, whom thou lovest."⁸ Here Ulmo's faith and devotion to Eru also becomes apparent, as he continues:

"I will seek Manwë, that he and I may make melodies for ever to thy delight!" And Manwë and Ulmo have from the beginning been allied, and in all things have served most faithfully the purpose of Ilúvatar.⁹

Nevertheless, he seems to have a penchant for engendering mixed feelings about his element of both admiration and unease, even in the other Ainur. This reflects the multifaceted nature of water: beautiful, nurturing, and soothing, while also powerful, dangerous, and terrifying. When the Ainur beheld the vision of Arda, they rejoiced in the phenomenon of light and colour "but because of the roaring of the sea they felt a great unquiet". (In the Lost Tales this unquiet is expressed rather as a great longing.) And yet of all the things they saw in the World, it was water they most greatly praised.^10,11

Following the revelation of Arda, some of the Ainur choose to enter into it, undertaking the responsibility of guiding its development, each according to their own forte. With this choice came the condition that they would afterwards be bound to Arda until its end "so that they are its life and it is theirs". Having bent his desire and thought to the World, Ulmo also descended into it, becoming one of the Aratar, the eight Valar of greatest power.¹²

Yet when they arrived, to their astonishment the Valar discovered that what Ilúvatar had shown them was merely a vision of their Great Music and that their physical labour was yet to begin.¹³ The three mightiest—Manwë, vicegerent of Ilúvatar, whose delight was in the winds and clouds; Ulmo; and Aulë the Smith, whose lordship was over the fabric of which Arda is made—took the chief part in forming the foundational elements of Arda: air, water, earth. Melkor, mightiest of all the Ainur yet, due to his misdeeds, not counted among the Valar, completes this elemental quartet with his partiality for fire which, although destructive in intent, was as responsible for the ultimate shaping of Arda.¹⁴

The creation legend differs slightly in the Lost Tales, where Ilúvatar gave their music physical form while they sang,¹⁵ so once they entered the world they each had little knowledge of what lay beyond their own embellishments.¹⁶ It was Ulmo who, having explored all of the Enfolding Ocean to the surrounding Wall of the World, informed the Valar (with no small amount of arrogance) of the shape of the world, describing how the Earth floats in a single ocean, Vai, consisting of strange waters where "nought else or fish or bark will swim therein to whom I have not spoken the great word that Ilúvatar said to me and bound them with the spell". He relates how to the North "its pale waters are frozen to a depth beyond thought or sounding" while to the South is "such utter darkness and deceit . . . that none save I alone may find a way". He caps his speech (remarkably verbose for this taciturn one) by announcing: "For lo, O Valar, ye know not all wonders, and many secret things are there beneath the Earth's dark keel, even where I have my mighty halls of Ulmonan, that ye have never dreamed on."¹⁷

"The Immeasurable Hymn Of Ocean": The Nature of Ulmo

For all seas, lakes, rivers, fountains and springs are in his government; so that the Elves say that the spirit of Ulmo runs in all the veins of the world. Thus news comes to Ulmo, even in the deeps, of all the needs and griefs of Arda, which otherwise would be hidden from Manwë.¹⁸

In her biography of Námo Mandos, Dawn Walls-Thumma theorises that "as the early tales evolved across Tolkien's lifetime, he shied away from a lot of the complexity and moral ambiguity that he invested in characters like Mandos in the Lost Tales, preferring instead a more dualist good-evil approach." This is just as evident in Ulmo's evolution.

In The Silmarillion, Ulmo is portrayed as mighty, knowledgeable, and astute, somewhat aloof and austere, yet deeply caring for those whom he loves and respectful of authority to the extent that he acquiesces to Manwë's decisions even if he disagrees.

In the Lost Tales his aloofness and astuteness extends into haughtiness and arrogance, with a good dollop of impatience. Nonetheless, he is said to have a good heart and loves Elves and Men—although they compare him somewhat unfavourably with Manwë, viewing him as being "so fain of honour" and "so jealous of his power". He certainly finds asking for assistance from his subordinates too humbling to bear. Rather, he seems to take delight in deliberately annoying Ossë. As is often the case with such personalities, his actions at times become unintentionally comic to the outside observer.¹⁹

Like all the Ainur in Arda, Ulmo could take on visible forms when he wished, outward expressions of his inner nature. When interacting with Elves and Men, his peers favoured bodies resembling the Children's (albeit somewhat more impressive).²⁰ Ulmo, however, tended to one of two extremes: either flowing as an ethereal presence along his beloved rivers when he needed to venture inland, or, at the coast, taking on an appearance designed to inspire no small amount of awe and fear:

If the Children of Eru beheld him they were filled with a great dread; for the arising of the King of the Sea was terrible, as a mounting wave that strides to the land, with dark helm foam-crested and raiment of mail shimmering from silver down into shadows of green.²¹

This is a seemingly enigmatic choice for one who professes to love those in whom he is inspiring such feelings, yet this image resembles a recurring childhood dream, which Tolkien called his "Atlantis-haunting", of a "stupendous and ineluctable wave advancing from the Sea or over the land, sometimes dark, sometimes green and sunlit",²² causing him to wake with the sense of "gasping out of deep water".²³ Although it visited him occasionally as an adult, he said that writing about it exorcised it, and it is telling that, despite this formidable aspect, Ulmo played a benevolent role. This may also explain Ulmo's use of dreams to communicate with the Children at times, which, although subtle, always left the recipient with a lasting sense of unquiet.

In the Lost Tales his bombastic nature is fantastically illustrated as he strides inland along his favourite river, the Sirion:

. . . robed to the middle in mail like the scales of blue and silver fishes; but his hair was a bluish silver and his beard to his feet was of the same hue, and he bore neither helm nor crown. Beneath his mail fell the skirts of his kirtle of shimmering greens, and of what substance these were woven is not known, but whoso looked into the depths of their subtle colours seemed to behold the faint movements of deep waters shot with the stealthy lights of phosphorescent fish that live in the abyss. Girt was he with a rope of mighty pearls, and he was shod with mighty shoes of stone.²⁴

(Possibly inspired by a line in the Kalevala,²⁵ the stone shoes nonetheless seem a bizarre accessory for a sea-god, although maybe they act like a diver's weight-belt.)

His voice is described as "deep as the deeps of the ocean", and while quite capable of conversing in the languages of Elves and Men, Ulmo favoured more subtle and often somewhat cryptic means of communication. Ilúvatar forbade the Valar from attempting to dominate his Children through force, fear, or the "awe and reverence that their wisdom and overwhelming majesty might inspire if fully revealed",²⁶ and this is the one area where Ulmo found some loopholes to flout Eru's authority somewhat, inveigling his way into their subconscious. Apart from his use of dreams and speaking directly to the heart "with voices that are heard only as the music of water",²⁷ he also played horns of white shell, the Ulumúri (delightfully referred to in one instance in the Lost Tales as "his thing of shell"). The music he made with these was of "a magic greater than any other among musicians hath ever compassed".²⁸ When he wasn't being visually intimidating, Ulmo would play them unseen along the shores and firths of Middle-earth, his music instilling a life-long longing for the sea in all who heard it.²⁹

The sea-longing is an interesting feature. In The Lord of the Rings it has been equated with the longing of the Elves of Middle-earth to depart for Valinor, yet in The Silmarillion and earlier writings it is clear that the sea itself is the object of the longing. The sea gave the Ainur a sense of unease and restlessness when they first saw it, and Ulmo continues to do so with many of the Children of Ilúvatar. Whether he is aware of the effect he has or not, only he knows.

Little is said in The Silmarillion of Ulmo's abode other than that "he dwells nowhere long, but moves as he will in all the deep waters about the Earth or under the Earth". It also says he has "no need of any resting-place"³⁰—fairly unique among the Valar who otherwise all appear to have halls, mansions or gardens.

However, earlier writings tell of his mighty sea-halls of Ulmonan³¹ which, according to one of the earliest drawings Tolkien made of his world, titled I Vene Kemen,³² are situated deep below Valinor in the Outer Sea. On the occasions that he ventured out, he fared about in his "fishy car", a magic deep-sea vehicle³³ resembling a whale, drawn by narwhal and sea lions, and at times accompanied by whales.³⁴

The Ambarkanta details how, from his deep domain, Ulmo blends the waters of Middle-earth from Ilmen (thin atmosphere) and Vaiya (the Enfolding Ocean) and sends them up through "veins" in the earth connecting Vaiya to the surface, "to cleanse and refresh the seas and rivers, the lakes and the fountains of Earth", and thus running water possesses the memory of air and earth as well as Ulmo's music and wisdom. The first two Ambarkanta maps clearly illustrate this concept.³⁵

"Gathered To That Sound": Relationships with the Ainur

Thereafter came Ulmo and Aulë, and with Ulmo were none, save Salmar only . . . for good though the heart of that mighty one he thought ever deep thoughts alone, and was silent and aloof and haughty even to the Ainur.

From the beginning, Ulmo and Manwë have been allied, both faithfully serving Ilúvatar's purpose³⁶ and keeping an eye on the Outer Lands after the Valar had vacated them.³⁷ In music they complemented each other, Ulmo with "a power of musics and of voices of instruments", Manwe with "a splendour of poesy and song beyond compare".³⁸ Although close in friendship (with even Ilúvatar acknowledging Ulmo's love for Manwë), after the sanctuary of Valinor was built, Ulmo seldom went there unless matters of great importance were being debated. And when he did, he was a guest in Manwë's halls.³⁹

He remained solitary and single, being the only Vala other than Nienna the Weeper to not have a spouse. Like him, she dwells "upon the borders of the world; and she comes seldom to the city of Valimar".⁴⁰ In a way, they share another connection: just as water flows in Nienna's tears, so her sorrow flows through his waters:

In the deep places he gives thought to music great and terrible; and the echo of that music runs through all the veins of the world in sorrow and in joy; for if joyful is the fountain that rises in the sun, its springs are in the wells of sorrow unfathomed at the foundations of the Earth.⁴¹

And as a loner and a wanderer with a dedicated beneficent interest in the fate of Elves and Men—directly aiding and advising them while most of the others remained blissfully ensconced in Valinor—Ulmo and Gandalf bear some similarities. (Although the latter, while he could be theatrical, certainly didn't go in for the whole mighty terrifying look. However he could also be just as inscrutable!) Known in Valinor as Olórin, the wizard was the wisest of the Maiar, learning patience and pity from Nienna, while dwelling in the gardens of Lórien.⁴²

Although there is no mention of Ulmo interacting with Irmo Lórien, he clearly learned a few things from the Vala of visions and dreams since he used them as a means of subtly instilling his ideas in Elves and Men—most notably when instructing Turgon and Finrod to build their respective hidden cities, as we shall see in Part Two.⁴³

Yavanna and Ulmo have a few points of connection: she celebrated his creation through hers, relating how she "lifted up the branches of great trees to receive [the rains], and some sang to Ilúvatar amid the wind and the rain". At times she herself took on the form of a great tree, her roots reaching down into his waters.⁴⁴ After Melkor brought darkness and their peers removed to Valinor, they each ensured life continued in Middle-earth, she by tending to living things, he by keeping life-giving water flowing throughout the world.⁴⁵

In the Lost Tales, when Ulmo learns that Yavanna⁴⁶ has magically populated the world with animals, he immediately approaches her for spells so he too may people his seas with strange and interesting creatures. (But not shellfish or oysters; apparently not even Ulmo knows where they came from!⁴⁷) While he's at it, he also magics himself some constant companions in the form of "three great fish luminous in the dark of the sunless days"⁴⁸ and, in one draft, a great whale named Uin. (Perhaps his solitary nature related more to his aloofness toward the other Valar, since he sought the companionship of other creatures of the sea and, later, the Teleri.)

He is also instrumental in the Lost Tales' version of the creation of the Two Trees, bringing to Valinor liquid light that had gathered over the land in pools after the toppling of the Lamps. He also set "seven rocks of gold brought from the most silent deeps of the sea" which were placed in the bed prepared for Laurelin along with a lamp shard. (Telperion's pit contained three huge pearls from Ossë, a small star from Varda, and "foams and white mists".) The beds were watered with the glowing liquid, whereafter Yavanna and Vana worked their deep enchantments of life and growth.⁴⁹

Lesser Ainur who became sea spirits entered the World behind Ulmo, referred to in the Lost Tales as "the Oarni and Falmarini and the long-tressed Wingildi",⁵⁰ although of these only Ossë, his spouse Uinen, and Salmar are named.

While the former two retain their significance, if not their detail, Salmar's part dwindled until he is mentioned only once in the published Silmarillion as the maker of the Ulumúri, "the horns of Ulmo that none may ever forget who once has heard them."⁵¹ He plays a much larger and diverse role in the Lost Tales, and there he is said to be the only other spirit to enter into Arda alongside Ulmo. Seemingly, as Dawn Walls-Thumma says in her biography of Salmar, he is "the only one able to tolerate Ulmo's crabby personality long enough to remain with him for any length of time." A pretty accurate assessment, illustrated beautifully in this line from the Lost Tales where "Ulmo fares at the rear in his fishy car and trumpets loudly for the discomfiture of Osse".⁵²

Ulmo's relationships with Ossë and Uinen underwent substantial changes between the Lost Tales and The Silmarillion. They are detailed in Dawn's insightful character biographies so I will only touch on a few relevant aspects here.

Ulmo gave the governance of coasts and islands to Ossë and Uinen, although Tolkien tells us in the Lost Tales that Ossë served him more out of fear and reverence than love.⁵³ (During one of Melkor's violent tantrums that caused the seas to wreak destruction on the land, although he was furious at the damage done he also "feared the displeasure of Ulmo his overlord" despite it not being his fault.) Yet Ossë himself delighted in wild storms and wave-whipping winds, being so capricious that although seafaring Elves and Men loved him, they did not trust him. Uinen's was a calming influence, such that mariners held her in reverence and called on her for protection.⁵⁴

The sea was one thing that Melkor could not subdue, and he hated and cursed it.⁵⁵ Neither could he fool Ulmo with his feigned repentance and rehabilitation when even Manwë believed him reformed, and throughout the First Age, Ulmo remained one of his most persistent foes. Like water, Ulmo's power flowed naturally through the world as a nurturing force. In contrast, in his attempts to dominate, Morgoth too put forth his power into the material world, yet his went against the natural course of things. Although his influence on the land became much stronger after the Battle of Unnumbered Tears, forcing Ulmo to withdraw from the rivers in northern Beleriand, Ulmo's power remained consistent and undiminished while Morgoth's was leached in the process, ultimately weakening him.

In the early days of Arda, Melkor appealed to Ossë's violent nature by promising him Ulmo's realm in return for his allegiance. However, he was brought back into the fold and pardoned by Ulmo thanks to Uinen's intervention. Interestingly, she intervened at Aulë's request rather than Ulmo's⁵⁶—perhaps somewhat telling of Ulmo's lack of people-skills and his ambivalent feelings towards his subordinate.

After the toppling of the lamps in the Lost Tales, it is notable that Ulmo was not present when the Valar first departed the mainland for Valinor and that it was instead Ossë and the Oarni who dragged them there on an island ferry. Prior to this, Melkor had sweet-talked the Valar, claiming his actions were merely due to a little overexcitement about the newness of things and that he'd never do anything against them or the dignity of the great chiefs, Manwë, Aulë, and Ulmo. He then suggested that each of the Valar should go and dwell among the things they loved most, and also to not overstep anyone's boundaries. (A suggestion with ulterior motives aimed particularly at Manwë and Ulmo.) In the midst of the Valar's ensuing debate, where some were for and others against, Ulmo decided he'd had enough of "high words and concourse of folk", so he just upped and left to find the remotest part of the World in which to live.⁵⁷

Thereafter he left the governance of the seas to Ossë and Uinen, although he still kept tabs on the happenings on the surface from his deep-sea den where he "controlled the faint stirrings of the Shadowy Seas, and ruled the lakes and springs and rivers of the world."

"Their War-Song Burst To Flame": The Overthrow of Utumno

[Melkor] burst forth now into a great violence, for he had thought the world abandoned by the Gods to him and his. Beneath the very floors of Ossë he caused the Earth to quake and split and his lower fires to mingle with the sea. Vaporous storms and a great roaring of uncontrolled sea-motions burst upon the world, and the forests groaned and snapped. The sea leapt upon the land and tore it, and wide regions sank beneath its rage or were hewn into scattered islets, and the coast was dug into caverns.⁵⁸

In The Silmarillion, the march of the Valar to Utumno and the chaining of Melkor, spurred by the awakening of the Elves, is named the Battle of the Powers. There, it is aptly described as "naught but rumour"⁵⁹; however, the Lost Tales provide additional details that don't necessarily contradict later drafts and the published text.

After the building of Valinor and the creation of the Two Trees, Yavanna wandered Middle-earth in the gloaming, singing plants into life. This sent Melkor into such a fit of rage that he unleashed massive destruction on the land and sea. Which got the attention of those in Valinor:

Then was a great council held between the Two Trees at the mingling of the lights, and Ulmo came thither from the outer deeps; and of the redes there spoken the Gods devised a plan of wisdom, and the thought of Ulmo was therein and much of the craft of Aulë and the wide knowledge of Manwë.⁶⁰

Their plan was to first attempt to treat with him, but they were taking no chances: while Aulë forged the chain Angainor "The Oppressor", the rest donned armour and weapons and convened on the shores of the Shadowy Sea where Ossë, in shimmering mail himself, ferried them to Melkor's domain upon a mighty raft. Ulmo, gung-ho as ever, was already far ahead "roaring in his deep-sea car and trumpeting in wrath upon a horn of conches."⁶¹

Melkor attempted to deceive his brethren through flattery, but they had learned their lesson and hoodwinked him in turn, and so he was bound and taken to Valinor. Tulkas and Ulmo then blocked the entrance to Utumno, pulling down the gates and piling hills of stone upon them. However, Melkor's servants found sneaky ways through which to escape at times "from fissures where they shriek with the voices of the tide on rocky coasts, down dark water-ways that wind unseen for many leagues, or out of the blue arches where the glaciers of Melko find their end".⁶²

Interestingly, these exits are all through water so Ulmo would most likely have been alerted to their presence, and perhaps had forebodings of the part they might play in the fate of the Children.

"Sea Chant Of An Elder Day": Mythological Inspiration

Around the world there are possibly more deities and spirits of water than any other element. Most, however, belong to a single realm, such as the sea, rain, or specific rivers, and few rule over all the waters of the world like Ulmo.

Suijin is one, the benevolent Shinto god of water in Japanese mythology. Another is Anahita, an Indo-Iranian goddess venerated as the source of all the waters of the world. Varuna is the powerful Hindu god associated with the sky, oceans, and water, although that's where the similarity with Ulmo ends since he is depicted as youthful with many wives and children. (The fact that he fares about on a crocodile does bring to mind Ulmo's fishy car of the Lost Tales.)

With Tolkien's interest in the language, the Finnish sea god Ahto, who lived with his wife Wellamo in his sea-castle at the bottom of the ocean, may have had some influence on his early depiction of Ulmo.

One god who does star as Ulmo, albeit briefly, is the Norse god associated with the sea and sailing, Njörðr (or Neorth as he is anglicised by Tolkien). In the first version of Ælfwine of England, Ælfwine and his companions are stranded on an island where the god, in the guise of an ancient mariner, teaches them "many strange things about the western world" and helps them to build a vessel and provision it with such wonders as "water that drieth not save when heart fails". He blesses it, then promptly vanishes after diving off a cliff—causing them to suspect that he was, in fact, the mighty Lord of Waters.⁶³

But perhaps the most recognisable mythological deity in Tolkien's Lord of Waters is the Greek god Poseidon and his Roman counterpart Neptune. Both are certainly a very popular source of inspiration with artists depicting this notoriously difficult-to-illustrate Vala. Just as Ulmo and Manwë collaborated on making clouds and rain, so did Poseidon/Neptune and Zeus/Jupiter. Like Ulmo, Poseidon ranks third in the Greek pantheon, although his realm was purely the sea, while Neptune was a lesser god who initially presided over freshwater before the sea was adopted as well. Where Ulmo enjoyed his solitude, both Poseidon and Neptune had spouses and children (and in the case of Poseidon, a whole plethora of them with as many lovers). Poseidon also continued to aid mankind even when the other gods forsook them. However, this is where the similarities diverge, because very unlike Ulmo, he  had a tendency to fly into a passionate rage, throwing wild storms in his fury. Tolkien conferred this characteristic instead upon Ossë, even in his early writings where the Valar and Maiar were a lot more morally ambiguous. (The fact that Tokien's description of Ulmo bears a striking resemblance to the mounting wave of his recurring dream while removing any malevolence from his character, may also be an element of his exorcism of it.)

"Like a Shred of Salt Sea-dreams": Concluding Thoughts

For a book about events taking place largely on land, the theme of water and the sea casts a long shadow. (In The Silmarillion the sea is mentioned 215 times, more than twice that of Ulmo who is referred to ninety times, and seven more than Fëanor.)

It is clear that Tolkien was enamoured of the sea throughout his life. One of his earliest memories was of running up a sandy beach in Sea Point, South Africa,⁶⁴ and years later in Cornwall he was clearly exhilarated and awed by the wild and impressive coast. In his biography, Humphrey Carpenter writes of Tolkien's 1914 visit to the Lizard peninsula: "He never forgot this sight of the sea and the Cornish coastline, and it became an ideal landscape in his mind."⁶⁵

In a 1965 letter to Michael Tolkien, he expressed his regret at the unlikelihood of moving from Oxford because bungalows with a sea view were out of his budget.⁶⁶ Three years later, he and Edith did move and he made a special point of noting in another letter that at least their new home was within hearing of the sea.⁶⁷

The imagery of a tower looking out over the sea appears in many of his works; as well as serving literally in various poems and stories, it was also a "strong and private image of Tolkien's own for what he desired in literature".⁶⁸ In "Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics", Tolkien uses it in an allegory to powerfully express his view that the prevailing view of Beowulf needed to change. The importance of the sea in Tolkien's life is made apparent in his allegory when the ancestors of the man who built the tower fail to see the point of it and Tolkien ends by pointing out: "But from the top of that tower the man had been able to look out upon the sea."⁶⁹

Many of Tolkien's poems, as well as the works of his Legendarium, feature the music in sea and water, personified when Ulmo plays his music, whether on his horns or through the natural sounds of water, that in turn speaks to the hearts of Elves and Men. Although not musical himself, Tolkien enjoyed music (and delighted in Edith's piano playing), yet he seemed to experience words synesthetically, displaying a particular sensitivity to lámatyáve, their "sound-taste".⁷⁰ Thus it seems natural for music, linked with water, to be the medium through which divine wisdom is subtly conveyed within his mythology.

While Ulmo values his solitude as far as the other Valar are concerned, when it comes to the Children of Ilúvatar he becomes intimately involved, demonstrating some of the most insightful care for them and certainly the most persistent of all his peers, never abandoning them, "not even when they lay under the wrath of the Valar."⁷¹

Despite the changes Tolkien made over the decades to Ulmo's personality, his complexity as a character and the sea as a symbol is retained: he brings wisdom through dreams and unquiet through sea-longing, the sea divides the Elves from their kin, and he aids Elves and Men, yet it is his element that drowns Beleriand and destroys the Númenóreans. In this way Tolkien has essentially set the stage with his characterisation of Ulmo that allows him to both aid Turgon and also for his element to drown most of Turgon's mariners sent to Valinor for aid.

I leave Part One at this point and pick up with Ulmo's interactions with Elves and Men in Part Two.

Then shouted all the people of Valinor: "l ·Eldar tulier—the Eldar have come" . . . Now once more is council set and Manwe sitteth before the Gods there amid the Two Trees . . . Every one of the Vali fare thither, even Ulmo Vailimo in great haste from the Outer Seas, and his face is eager and glad.⁷²

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Oceans of gratitude for the valuable suggestions and invaluable moral support from Dawn, Ettelenë, Himring, and Polutropos, without whom more tears and less words (not to mention ideas) would have flowed.

Works Cited

1. The Silmarillion, Ainulindalë.
2. History of Middle-earth, Volume IV: The Shaping of Middle-earth, The Quenta, "Appendix 2: The Horns of Ylmir." The first two versions of the poem were titled The Tides, and Sea Chant of an Elder Day respectively. Ulmo and Ossë first appear in the third version, titled The Horns of Ulmo. In the Lay of the Children of Húrin and "The Sketch of the Mythology", Ulmo is changed to "Ylmir", the Gnomish form of his name.
3. Tom Shippey, The Road to Middle-earth (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2003), 231. While writing The Lord of the Rings, "the idea of water as a sanctity and an unfailing refuge from the Dark Lord had started to appeal to [Tolkien]; and … he wrote that all the Nazgûl save their chief ‘feared water, and were unwilling, except in dire need, to enter it or to cross streams unless dryshod by a bridge'."
4. Section titles are all from The Horns of Ylmir: History of Middle-earth, Volume IV: The Shaping of Middle-earth, The Quenta.
5. Ulmo, the Rainer (Quenya): The Silmarillion, "Index of Names."
   Ullubôz, the Pourer (Valarin): History of Middle-earth, Volume IX: The War of the Jewels, Quendi and Eldar, "Note on the 'Language of the Valar.'"
   Vailimo (Quenya); i Chorweg a·Vai, the Old One of the Outer Ocean (Gnomish): History of Middle-earth, Volume I: The Book of Lost Tales 1, "Names in the Lost Tales—Part 1."
   Ylmir (Gnomish); Man of the Sea: History of Middle-earth, Volume II: The Book of Lost Tales 2, The History of Eriol or Ælfwine and the End of the Tales.
   Lord of Waters: The Silmarillion, Valaquenta, "Of the Valar."
6. The Silmarillion, Ainulindalë.
7. History of Middle-earth, Volume I: The Book of Lost Tales 1, The Music of the Ainur.
8. History of Middle-earth, Volume I: The Book of Lost Tales 1, The Music of the Ainur.
9. Ibid.
10. Ibid.
11. History of Middle-earth, Volume I: The Book of Lost Tales 1, The Music of the Ainur.
12. The Silmarillion, Ainulindalë. In the Lost Tales these number four and include Melkor as well as Manwë, Ulmo, and Aulë.
13. The Silmarillion, Ainulindalë.
14. Ibid.
15. History of Middle-earth, Volume I: The Book of Lost Tales 1, The Music of the Ainur.
16. Ibid.
17. History of Middle-earth, Volume I: The Book of Lost Tales 1, The Hiding of Valinor.
18. The Silmarillion, Valaquenta, "Of the Valar."
19. History of Middle-earth, Volume I: The Book of Lost Tales 1, The Coming of The Valar and the Building of Valinor.
20. Nature of Middle-earth, Body, Mind and Spirit, "The Visible Forms of the Valar and Maiar."
21. The Silmarillion, Valaquenta, "Of the Valar."
22. Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien, "276 To Dick Plotz, 'Thain' of the Tolkien Society of America."
23. Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien, "257 To Christopher Bretherton."
24. History of Middle-earth, Volume II: The Book of Lost Tales 2, The Fall of Gondolin.
25. Elias Lönnrot, Kalevala, The Land of Heroes, Volume I, trans. W.F. Kirby, "Väinämöinen and Joukahainen," line 61.
26. Nature of Middle-earth, Body, Mind and Spirit, "The Knowledge of the Valar."
27. The Silmarillion, Valaquenta, "Of the Valar."
28. History of Middle-earth, Volume II: The Book of Lost Tales 2, The Fall of Gondolin.
29. The Silmarillion, Valaquenta, "Of the Valar."
30. Ibid.
31. History of Middle-earth, Volume I: The Book of Lost Tales 1, The Coming of The Valar and the Building of Valinor.
32. Ibid.
33. Ulmo's car is described as all these in various chapters of History of Middle-earth, Volume I: The Book of Lost Tales 1:
    fishy car: The Hiding of Valinor.
    magic car: The Coming of the Valar and the Building of Valinor.
    deep-sea car: The Chaining of Melko.
34. History of Middle-earth, Volume II: The Book of Lost Tales 2, The Fall of Gondolin.
35. History of Middle-earth, Volume IV: The Shaping of Middle-earth, The Ambarkanta.
36. The Silmarillion, Ainulindalë.
37. The Silmarillion, "Of the Beginning of Days."
38. History of Middle-earth, Volume I: The Book of Lost Tales 1, The Music of the Ainur.
39. History of Middle-earth, Volume I: The Book of Lost Tales 1, The Coming of the Valar and the Building of Valinor.
40. The Silmarillion, Valaquenta, "Of the Valar."
41. The Silmarillion, "Of the Beginning of Days."
42. The Silmarillion, Valaquenta, "Of the Maiar."
43. The Silmarillion, "Of the Return of the Noldor."
44. The Silmarillion, Valaquenta, "Of the Valar."
45. The Silmarillion, "Of the Beginning of Days."
46. Yavanna was named Palúrien at this stage, and also Kémi the Earth-lady.
47. History of Middle-earth, Volume I: The Book of Lost Tales 1, The Chaining of Melko.
48. Ibid.
49. History of Middle-earth, Volume I: The Book of Lost Tales 1, The Coming of the Valar and the Building of Valinor.
50. Ibid.
51. The Silmarillion, "Of the Beginning of Days."
52. History of Middle-earth, Volume I: The Book of Lost Tales 1, The Coming of the Elves and the Making of Kôr.
53. History of Middle-earth, Volume I: The Book of Lost Tales 1, The Coming of the Valar and the Building of Valinor.
54. The Silmarillion, Valaquenta, "Of the Maiar."
55. Ibid.
56. Ibid.
57. History of Middle-earth, Volume I: The Book of Lost Tales 1, The Coming of the Valar and the Building of Valinor.
58. History of Middle-earth, Volume I: The Book of Lost Tales 1, The Chaining of Melko.
59. The Silmarillion, "Of the Coming of the Elves and the Captivity of Melkor."
60. History of Middle-earth, Volume I: The Book of Lost Tales 1, The Chaining of Melko.
61. Ibid.
62. Ibid.
63. History of Middle-earth, Volume II: The Book of Lost Tales 2, The History of Eriol or Ælfwine and the End of the Tales.
64. Humphrey Carpenter, J.R.R. Tolkien: A Biography (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1977), 15.
65. Ibid., 70.
66. Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien, "279 From a letter to Michael George Tolkien."
67. Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien, "307 From a letter to Amy Ronald."
68. Shippey, The Road to Middle-earth, 47.
69. The Monsters and the Critics, and Other Essays, "Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics."
70. Carpenter, J.R.R. Tolkien: A Biography, 35-7.
71. The Silmarillion, Valaquenta, "Of the Valar."
72. History of Middle-earth, Volume I: The Book of Lost Tales 1, The Coming of the Elves and the Making of Kôr.