"[11], Kelly and Livingston state that while Aman could be home to Elves as well as Valar, the same was not true of mortal Men. )[T 14] [T 7], - Gandalf the Grey, speaking to the Balrog on the Bridge of Khazad-dûm in the Mines of Moria, The Fellowship of the Ring, The "Flame Imperishable" or "Secret Fire" represents the Holy Spirit in Christian theology. The Elves who stayed in Middle-earth where Melkor once was dominant, being in bodies and surrounded by things that are themselves marred and subject to decay by the influence of Melkor, created the Elven Rings out of a desire to preserve the physical world unchanged; as it were in the Undying Lands of Valinor, home of the Valar. The ships of the Númenóreans that tried to sail on it sank, drowning the sailors. You cannot pass. To discourage Melkor from assailing Aman, they thrust the continent of Middle-earth to the east, thus widening Belegaer at its middle, and raising five major mountain ranges in Middle-earth: the Blue, Red, Grey, and Yellow Mountains, plus the Mountains of the Wind. These gave rise to the Ages of the Lamps and the Years of the Trees, however the Ages of the Stars did not conclude until the creation of the Sun. The land was well-wooded, as Finrod "walk[ed] with his father under the trees in Eldamar" and the Teleri had timber to build their ships. [T 36][T 37]. Go back to the shadow! While most scholars liken the Valar to Christian angels, Tolkien depicted them as pagan gods in his works. But the whole 'legendarium' contains a transition from a flat world ... to a globe ....". [T 9], Discussing Frodo Baggins' failure to destroy the Ring in The Return of the King, Tolkien indicates in Letter 192 that "the One" does intervene actively in the world, pointing to Gandalf's remark to Frodo that "Bilbo was meant to find the Ring, and not by its maker", and to the eventual destruction of the Ring despite Frodo's failure to complete the task. However, Aman is not, they write, exactly paradise: firstly, being there does not confer immortality, contrary to what the Númenoreans supposed; and secondly, those mortals like Frodo who are allowed to go there will eventually choose to die. During the Third Age, recognizing that an outright confrontation with the dark Maia Sauron would be disastrous, the Valar sent the Istari, Wizards, to Middle-earth to give counsel to Men in their resistance to the growing power of the Dark Lord. For the price could be no other. Dear-bought those songs shall be accounted, and yet shall be well-bought. In the Valaquenta, Tolkien wrote that the Maiar are "spirits whose being also began before the world, of the same order as the Valar but of less degree".In the Valaquenta, it is also written that many Maiar associated themselves with a Vala; for example, Ossë … "[T 32] Through … Their role transformed from participants in the great drama to observers. Further, Burns suggests, Galadriel is an Elf from Valinor "in the Blessed Realm",[11] bringing Varda's influence with her to Middle-earth. These are actually the Aratar, the eight most powerful Valar, minus Nienna plus Melkor, who once were of their number but is cast out due to this actions. Farther east is the Calacirya, the only easy pass through the Pelóri, a huge mountain range fencing Valinor on three sides, created to keep Morgoth's forces out. After the hiding of Valinor, this was the only gap through the mountains of Aman. I am not a metaphysician; but I should have thought it a curious metaphysic – there is not one but many, indeed potentially innumerable ones – that declared the channels known (in such a finite corner as we have any inkling of) to have been used, are the only possible ones, or efficacious, or possibly acceptable to and by Him!