Nahar
the white horse of Oromë
Name and Nature
Nahar — the white horse of Oromë, “the Great Rider”, the steed of the Vala of the hunt. The Valaquenta’s image: “his horse Nahar, white as the snow, shod with gold and silver, swift as the wind, and in the dark he gleamed”; his hooves ran without leaving trace and his neighing was like the trumpets of war.
In the Tale
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The coming of Oromë to the Elves: On Nahar Oromë ranged the “wilds of the world”; at the search after the ruin of Utumno, “Oromë, riding Nahar, came upon the Elves at Cuiviénen” — and the first sight the Elves ever had of the Valar was of Oromë upon the great white horse.
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The horns and the crossing: At the Great Journey, Oromë rode at the head of the host, and the hoof-marks of Nahar were remembered long after in the lore, “the Earth-marks” of the Vala’s horse upon the mountains (a tradition the Sindar and the early Men kept among their memories).
Significance
Nahar is the horse-god’s horse — the “silver-shod white steed” whose image (hunter, forest-lord, the coming of the Valar) is among the most beautiful small figures of the early legendarium; his name is associated with Oromë’s power of the wild, and in later age-lore the “steed of a hunter-god” survives in the traditions of the early Men.