Irmo
Lórien; Master of Visions and Dreams
(Lórien)
Names and Titles
Dominion
Irmo is the Vala of the mind’s resting-places: the “master of visions and dreams” whose power lies in the ordering of desire and imagination.
The Valaquenta says: “master of visions and dreams; the desire and the imagination of the heart, and the confusion of the mind, are his”. He is thus the gentle counterpart of his harsh brother: if Mandos is law, Irmo is longing; if Mandos judges the dead, Irmo refreshes the living. His garden in Valinor — also called Lórien — is “the fairest of all places in the world of the Valar”: a land of dim, golden light, drowsy willows by the water, gentle fountains, and the healing of weary and sorrow-lorn spirits. There “all that the Elves know of the images of the land of the Valar” are given; it is the place where Melian served in her youth, and from whence her future fell.
Deeds in the Tale
He is a quiet presence in the histories: -
In the Ainulindalë, thought… his is the theme of “the desires and the visions of the heart” woven into the world’s music. He it was who, with Nienna, tended the hurt of the world at the destroying of the Two Trees, and comforted the mourners. In the Return of the Noldor, his aid is one of the counsels of the Valar kept behind the mountain; and in the Athrabeth he appears as the friend of patience whose name the wise invoke for hope.
- His gardens are the abode where, in the legend, Lúthien and Beren… (in the final tale they do not remain; but the garden of Lórien is the place of the Elves’ dreams of the Valar). His healing power is personified in his wife Estë, who “heals the hurts and weariness of the world”.
In the Texts
Note the two Lóriens of the legendarium: the Vala Irmo-Lórien of Aman, and the Lothlórien (S. Lórien = “dreamflower”, the Golden Wood) of Middle-earth, which the Exiles named for him in memory — the distinction is a favourite text of Tolkien’s.