Nessa
the Swift; the Dancer; wife of Tulkas
Nessa the Swift
Names and Title
Nessa — “the Swift”; the sister of Oromë, wife of Tulkas, the dancer of the Valar.
Dominion and Character
The Valaquenta says: “Nessa… is swift of foot; she runs with the deer of the world, and dances in the green fields, and her laughter is like the ringing of silver.” Her swiftness is such that the deer of the wild run at her side, and her dancing is the loveliest of the Valier’s — a merry grace that the shadow never wholly dimmed. She is the gentlest note in the Valar’s chorus: without her the council of the Valar would be all law and grief; with her come the meadows, the running streams, the joy of the spring. In the earliest Book of Lost Tales she is the guide of the Elves’ dances before the waking of the Trees.
In the Texts
A figure of the frame-stories (principally the Valaquenta); she has little narrative role, and her presence is chiefly as part of the portrait of the blissful Arda and of Tulkas’ contentment. Christopher Tolkien notes her among the Valier who “personify the simpler delights” — swiftness, dance, and the innocent music of the body.