Aulë
The Smith; lord of all crafts
Aulë the Smith
Names and Titles
- Aulë — “the Smith”; the Maker.
The Eldar called him Aulë “for he is the maker of all great works of hand”.
- Among the Dwarves he is Mahal, “the Maker”, and they are counted his children — “the children of Aulë”. Aulë is the Vala of craft: of all work of hand — metal and stone, gems and jewels, the shaping of tools and of great machines; “the treasure of the world is his”. He is “the friend and patron of the Noldor, and of the Dwarves”, and most of the skill that made the work of the Noldor surpassing was learned from him.
Dominion and Character
Aulë’s glory is the joy of making. “He delights in works of skill, and he loves the things of the earth”; “his mastery of all crafts of hand is the greatest of all”. He is strong and enduring, “of great might”, and fertile in invention
— the Vala whom Melkor most envied and most nearly seduced, for “Melkor coveted the works of Aulë, and aided the ruin of the world by the craft of Aulë that he had stolen.” Aulë’s knowledge of the secrets of matter is the root alike of the great chains, the lamps, and — tragically — of the arts by which Melkor built Angband and forged his war-machinery. Yet Aulë remains loyal: “he was not beguiled to serve Melkor, but was indeed the most stubborn enemy of Melkor among the Valar” (in Tolkien’s later view). His is the craftsman’s patience, and he “takes no delight in the making of things for war”, though he made the Angainor, the mighty chain with which Melkor was bound.
Life and Deeds
- In the shaping of Arda, Aulë devised the The Two Lamps, and The Two Lamps, whose light kindled again the earth after the first darkness; their ruin by Melkor grieved him deeply.
- He forged the Great Chain Angainor — “made of metal more strong than any in the world, forged in the fire of the world” — with which Melkor was bound and afterwards Melkor chained for ages.
- He is the fosterer of the Noldor, who “came to Aulë and learned of him all that they could of the craft of the earth”, and to whom he gave the love of skill that flowered in the Silmarils of Fëanor.
Relations
His wife is
Yavanna, the Giver of Fruits, whose making of stars-and-flowers he could never share; their debate over living things vs. smithy-work produced the Ents, shepherds of the trees, at Eru’s pleasure. Aulë is one of the few Valar whose worship survived among the later races: the Dwarves “called upon Aulë” and honoured him as Mahal, and their secret dwellings and craft are his enduring memorial.
In the Texts
The Dwarves’ creation is told in the Quenta Silmarillion chapter “Of Aulë and Yavanna”; its earlier forms appear in the Book of Lost Tales and in The Shaping of Middle-earth, where the tale of the father of the Dwarves is told. Tolkien’s later essays (in Morgoth’s Ring, “Of Aulë”) deepen Aulë into a figure of theological patience: the maker who is willing to be unmade rather than disobey his creator, and whose work is saved by grace precisely because he offered it in humility.