Eönwë
Herald of Manwë; chief of arms among the Maiar
Name and Office
Eönwë — the Herald of Manwë — is among the mightiest of the Maiar; the Valaquenta records that “his might in arms is surpassed by none in Arda”. He is the banner-bearer and messenger of the Elder King, and the chief of the Maiar who served Manwë and Varda at the high seat of Taniquetil.
Life in the Tale
His part in the story is above all in the The War of Wrath at the end of the First Age: when the host of Valinor came against Morgoth, “Eönwë, herald of Manwë, passed over the deeps of the sea with a great array… and the hosts of the West went into battle”. It was Eönwë who bore the white banner and led the last assault on Angband.
- After the war, it was Eönwë who summoned the Elves of Beleriand to come to Aman: “after the overthrow of Morgoth… Eönwë called together all the remnant of the Elves” — in the account he gave choice to the Eldar, and the greater part departed for the West. He was also the one who, coming upon the camps of the remorseless, commanded that the Silmarils be returned to the West; he forbade the House of Fëanor to take the Silmarils — when the last two sons, Maedhros and Maglor, purposed to seize the jewels, Eönwë refused them and warned that the Oath must be fulfilled or withheld; their theft and burning followed. He is associated with the final fate of the Noldor: the host of the Teleri… In the earliest tradition his name is linked with the great trumpets; in all versions he stands at the hinge where the power of the West finally enforces the Doom.
In the Texts
In the Unfinished Tales account “Of the Voyage of Eärendil” and in the Quenta’s final chapters, Eönwë is the personal arm of Manwë. Christopher Tolkien notes that Eönwë was once conceived far more mightily — in the Lost Tales his counterpart fights at the last in person — but in the final form Tolkien kept him as the unsparing herald who “does what is commanded and no more”. He is not to be confused with the later Istari; he is a Maia of the first order.