Angainor
the great chain; the fetters of Morgoth
Name and Making
Angainor — “the great chain” of the Valar, forged by Aulë (the smith-god) “of metal more strong than any that was in the world” — the Quenta: “Aulë wrought the chain Angainor… in the… fires of the earth” — it was made expressly, in the elder years, to bind the mightiest of the Ainur.
The Three Rounds
- The first binding: After the War for the Sake of the Elves (the great conflict that ended the assault of Melkor at the awakening of the Quendi), Melkor was bound in Angainor and brought before the Valar; by its fetters he was chained for three ages of the Valar in the halls of Mandos —.
- The release and the recoil: At his great swelling humility (after three ages) the Valar, deceived, released him — and his first and greatest work thereafter was the theft and the ruin that repaid the mercy.
- The second binding: When Morgoth, after his wars and thefts, was at last overthrown at Angband, and he was — the final captivity: in the War of Wrath, Morgoth was bound with Angainor and cast through the Door of Night into the Void, “and the… his fetters were… laid upon him till the Dagor Dagorath” — Angainor holds the Dark Lord eternally.
Significance
Angainor is the emblem of the Valar’s power over even the greatest of their kin — the chain of law and retribution — made by the smith Aulë, whose own mercy of making had (indirectly) armed the Enemy’s craft; and its constant return at the two turnings of Melkor’s fate (the pardon, the final casting) frames the arc of the Dark Vala’s whole history.
Related
Werke: die Quellen sind seitenübergreifend die Bücher von J.R.R. und Christopher Tolkien (Silmarillion, Hobbit, Herr der Ringe, Unfinished Tales, History of Middle-earth, Nature of Middle-earth u. a.) — eigene Zusammenfassung. Siehe die Concordance und den README der Quelle für die Einzelbelege.
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