# Why did the Valars had to be warned...



## Gilgaearel (Oct 11, 2018)

...about Morgoth's doings on Middle Earth? 

As I said I'm rereading the Silmarillion and I read that there were many attempts of Middle Earth people to contact and inform the Valars about the doings of Morgoth in Middle Earth, ask for help etc. 

But here is something quite funny that came on my mind the other day. 
How is it possible for the Valars not to have a clue about what was going on in Middle Earth. Hadn't they notice that the Halls of Mandos were filling with dead Elves' spirits?


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## Alcuin (Oct 12, 2018)

I don’t think the Valar needed any warning: they themselves warned the Noldor after they slaughtered their kinsmen the Teleri on the quays of Alqualondë. Mandos himself pronounced their Doom in Araman in Valinor. 

The Valar definitely knew much of what passed in Middle-earth: Ulmo, who was not altogether in communion with Manwë, reported the grief of the Eldar in Beleriand, but the Valar were unmoved. Even Námo Mandos was moved by the song Lúthien sang before him in his sad dark halls, so that he begged reprieve from Manwë for Beren and Lúthien, and the will of Eru was that they received it; but to the Noldor the Valar gave no relent. 

Moreover, as the Doom of Mandos reveals, they perceived much of what would happen even before the Noldor departed Valinor: 

Tears unnumbered ye shall shed
The Noldor did indeed shed “tears unnumbered,” so that the Fifth Battle of Beleriand is called _Nirnaeth Arnoediad_, “Unnumbered Tears,” in which the resistance of the Elves and all their kingdoms collapsed, and they along with the Edain their allies were forced into hiding near the Mouths of Sirion
the Valar will fence Valinor against you, and shut you out
This is the very question you pose, *Gilgaearel*. The Noldor are shut out, so that even when Círdan sends emissaries to Valinor – and Círdan and the Falathrim are only marginally under the Curse because they, too, are Eldar in Beleriand: they are innocent of all evil the Noldor have committed – they are driven back with loss. 
not even the echo of your lamentation shall pass over the mountains
Even Ulmo could not persuade Manwë and the other Valar to relent when this came to pass (_Silmarillion_, “Fall of Gondolin”):


> Ulmo came to Valinor out of the deep waters, and spoke there to the Valar of the need of the Elves; and he called on them to forgive them, and rescue them from the overmastering might of Morgoth… But Manwë was moved not…



On the House of Fëanor the wrath of the Valar lieth from the West unto the uttermost East
As leader of the Rebellion and instigator of the First Kinslaying, Fëanor, greatest of all the Noldor, bore the greatest responsibility, and his sons also: every one of them became bloodied and cruel, even Maedhros and the unhappy Maglor. 
upon all that will follow them it shall be laid also
Even their followers were condemned. 
Their Oath shall drive them, and yet betray them
Fëanor in his feckless determination that none should turn back burned the irreplaceable ships of the Teleri at Losgar, killing his own son, Amrod.
They murdered Dior and his young sons for the Silmaril his parents retrieved with gravest peril from Morgoth, and slaughtered the people of Doriath, ruining the kingdom of the Sindar, yet to no avail: Elwing escaped with the great jewel. Celegorm, the principle trouble-maker, Curufin, and Caranthir died in the fruitless, vile attack. 
They set upon and murdered the survivors of the Elves – Noldor from Nargothrond, Teleri Falathrim of Círdan, refugees from Doriath and from Gondolin, and the remnant of the Three Houses of the Edain – and yet again failed to achieve their prize: Elwing leaped into the sea with the Silmaril on her breast.
Saddest of all to me is the murder by Maedhros and Maglor of the guards of the two Silmarils wrested from Morgoth’s iron crown at the end of the War of Wrath. Eönwë let them go: but the jewels would endure no evil. Maedhros cast himself with his jewel into a fiery chasm, while Maglor cast his “at last into the Sea, and thereafter he wandered ever upon the shores, singing in pain and regret beside the waves”: I think he lost his mind, and unless he was lucky enough to die beforehand, perished in the tsunami along the coasts of Middle-earth that accompanied the Downfall of Númenor.

ever snatch away the very treasures that they have sworn to pursue
They twice missed the single Silmaril they might have – wrongfully – retrieved. Yet even when Maedhros and Maglor with murder stole the last two Silmarils, they were unable to keep them.
To evil end shall all things turn that they begin well
The Union of Maedhros began well indeed: all but Thingol in Doriath aided in its prosecution; but whether it would have succeeded or not was never learned, for Uldor the Accursed betrayed Caranthir to whose service he had sworn, and the Sons of Fëanor were attacked both before and behind. The armies of the Eldar, Edain, and Dwarves was utterly overthrown in the Nirnaeth Arnoediad. 
Not even in the Second Age was the Curse lifted. Celebrimbor son of Curufin, who renounced the evil deeds of his father and of his grandfather’s House and took no further part in the slayings, was cozened by Sauron, and forged the Rings of Power, for which he paid with his life when Sauron and his army swept through Eregion, torturing him to death and bearing his broken body on a pole as a banner for the army of Mordor.

by treason of kin unto kin, and the fear of treason, shall this come to pass
Uldor I have just mentioned. But there are many others besides:
Celegorm and Curufin betrayed their friend Finrod in Nargothrond, sending him in helping Beren to his death as he foresaw, turning the people of Nargothrond against him.
Celegorm attempted to seduce Lúthien, and Curufin helped him; later when they were exiled from Nargothrond for their treachery against Finrod, Curufin tried to murder Lúthien but wounded Beren instead.
The sons of Fëanor slaughtered Dior and the Sindar of Doriath, ruining the kingdom in the Second Kinslaying, as already noted: this was treason against kin.
So was the Third Kinslaying at the Havens of Sirion. 
So finally was the murder of the Vanyar guards of the Silmarils treason and a kinslaying after the War of Wrath, the one war in which Maedhros and Maglor did not participate. (Neither did any of the other Elves of Middle-earth; but the remnant of the Edain marched with the Host of the Valar.) 
Again, into the Second Age the Curse followed the House of Fëanor: Celebrimbor together with Galadriel founded Eregion. But when Galadriel spoke against Annatar, Sauron in disguise, Celebrimbor and his followers conspired to drive her out. 
Celebrimbor was himself betrayed by Sauron/Annatar, and all that he began was levered against him.

The Dispossessed shall they be for ever
Fëanor and his sons were dispossessed of the Silmarils.
Even after the Dagor Dagorath, Fëanor is prophesied to break the Silmarils: he cannot keep them.
Maedhros surrenders the High Kingship to Fingolfin after Fingon rescues him from Thangorodrim: the House of Fëanor lost the rulership of the Noldor. And Maedhros lost his right hand. 
They lost their petty kingdoms in Middle-earth, and Celegorm and Curufin were exiled from Nargothrond, where even their own followers disowned them. 
Celebrimbor disowned his own father.
Celebrimbor was dispossessed of the Rings of Power and lost his land of Eregion and his life.

For blood ye shall render blood, and beyond Aman ye shall dwell in Death’s shadow
That’s straightforward enough.
For though Eru appointed to you to die not in Eä, and no sickness may assail you, yet slain ye may be, and slain ye shall be: by weapon and by torment and by grief
So is this. The Noldor grieved in Middle-earth, and some did die of it; but all were ever after full of regret, particularly the Noldor: even Sam noticed the Elves were sad. 
your houseless spirits shall come then to Mandos
Fëanor would never be released until the end of Arda. Many others also found themselves imprisoned in Mandos. 
There long shall ye abide and yearn for your bodies, and find little pity though all whom ye have slain should entreat for you
An unpleasant prospect for an Elf. 
And those that endure in Middle-earth and come not to Mandos shall grow weary of the world as with a great burden, and shall wane
_*This one*_ is the kicker, the one the Noldor cannot comprehend until it is too late and upon them. They cannot die of old age, and their lives become a greater and greater burden. As soon as the Three Rings lose their power, the Noldor and Sindar began their last great exodus from Middle-earth. 
become as shadows of regret before the younger race that cometh after
They will _fade_. Curiously, I think Círdan is _not_ faded: he is _old_ instead! But the Elves, and in particular the Noldor, are fading. It drives them to forge the Rings of Power under Sauron’s tutelage, and while they allow the Eldar to hold off the effects of Time for a while, it proves their final undoing.
The Valar knew well the sufferings of the Noldor in Middle-earth. They foresaw and forewarned what would follow the Rebellion of the Noldor, and were later aware of all that transpired. Not until Eärendil came to Aman with the Silmaril Elwing brought him bound upon his brow would they hear the griefs and sorrows of Men and Elves and send them succor and rescue.


> *[T]he Valar will fence Valinor against you, and shut you out, so that not even the echo of your lamentation shall pass over the mountains*


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## Gothmog (Oct 12, 2018)

As Alcuin has said, the Valar did not need warning and Earendil did not make his journey for that reason.


> Therefore he turned back at last towards the sea; but even as he took the shoreward road one stood upon the hill and called to him in a great voice, crying:
> 
> 'Hail Eärendil, of mariners most renowned, the looked for that cometh at unawares, the longed for that cometh beyond hope! Hail Eärendil, bearer of light before the Sun and Moon! Splendour of the Children of Earth, star in the darkness, jewel in the sunset, radiant in the morning!'
> 
> ...



The Valar knew most of what was going on in middle-earth but were waiting for the right time. That time was when Earendil broke the Fences and reached Valinor to ask Pardon and Help for both races risking all that he was to do so.


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