Lesson 1. Breakdown: what matters and what's interesting

A short chapter, but rich in meaning, about two Valar who are husband and wife, and about the limits of creativity. Aulë, impatient for the Children of Ilúvatar, secretly makes the Dwarves, the Seven Fathers. Eru rebukes him: Aulë gave them form but cannot give them a life of their own; they would move only by his thought, like puppets. Repenting, Aulë raises his hammer to destroy his work, and the Dwarves shrink in fear. This means Eru has accepted them and given them wills of their own. But they must sleep until the Firstborn (the Elves) awake, for by design the Elves are the elder. Yavanna, learning of this, fears for the fate of all that grows and is defenseless against axes. Manwë reveals to her that spirits will come into the world to defend the forests: the “shepherds of the trees.” So the Eagles of Manwë and the Ents enter the design.

This is perhaps the most important chapter on the nature of creativity in Tolkien. Aulë commits “the sin of impatience”: he creates without leave, wanting to have pupils sooner. But the key difference between him and Melkor is this: Aulë is ready to humbly destroy his work at Eru's word, while Melkor wants to possess and dominate. It is for this humility that Eru grants the Dwarves true life. Tolkien, himself an author-creator (a “sub-creator”), makes a point here: a person has the right to create, reflecting the Creator's design, but not to put himself in the Creator's place or to demand that what he makes serve him alone. — The Dwarves (Khazâd in their own tongue) therefore always stand slightly “apart” from the design for Elves and Men, yet they are accepted by Eru. — Yavanna and Manwë bring balance: for every destructive force (the axe, the greed of Dwarves) the world has a defender, the Ents and the Eagles.

— The Seven Fathers of the Dwarves and their awakening are the source of all the Dwarvish peoples, including Durin, founder of Khazad-dûm (Moria). The ancient feud of Dwarves and Elves over “seniority” is partly rooted here already. — The Ents, “shepherds of the trees,” grow directly out of Yavanna's fear: in “The Lord of the Rings” Treebeard and the Ents are literally the fulfillment of this design, and their march on Isengard against the felling of the forests rhymes with her fear of axes. — The Eagles of Manwë, who rescue heroes both in “The Lord of the Rings” and in “The Silmarillion,” are also first named here, as messengers of the Vala of the air. — The theme of “sub-creation” is the key to everything, including how Tolkien understood his own writing: the author imitates the Creator but does not compete with him.