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| {{sources}}
| | #REDIRECT [[Ilúvatar]] |
| [[Image:Ted Nasmith - Melkor Weaves Opposing Music.jpg|thumb|Eru during the [[Great Music]].]] | |
| {{quote|But [[Rúmil (Elf of Tirion)|Rúmil]] said: 'Ilúvatar was the first beginning, and beyond that no wisdom of the [[Valar]] or of [[Eldar]] or of [[Men]] can go.' 'Who was Ilúvatar?' asked [[Eriol]]. 'Was he of the [[Gods]]?' 'Nay,' said Rúmil, 'that he was not, for he made them. Ilúvatar is the Lord for Always who dwells beyond the world; who made it and is not of it nor in it, but loves it.' |''[[The Book of Lost Tales Part 1]]'', "[[The Music of the Ainur]]"}}
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| {{Pronounce|Eru.mp3|Ardamir}}
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| '''Eru''' ("The One" in [[Quenya]]; pronounced {{IPA|[ˈeru]}}), also called '''[[Ilúvatar]]''' ("Father of All"), is the name in the Silmarillion for the supreme God for [[Elves]] and [[Men]]. He is the single omnipotent creator, but has delegated most direct action within Eä to the Ainur, including the shaping of the Earth ([[Arda]]) itself.
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| He is considered the [[Creation of the Ainur|father]] of the [[Ainur]], thus in lineage charts Ainur are shown as [[Children of Ilúvatar]]. However, not all of the Ainur were considered to be siblings. For instance, Manwë, Varda, and Melkor's father is Ilúvatar, and Melkor and Manwë were considered brothers; Varda was not considered their sister.
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| == Eru as Creator God ==
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| [[Elves]] and [[Men]] were created by Eru directly, without delegation to the Ainur, and they are therefore called "Children of Ilúvatar" (''[[Eruhini]]''). The [[Dwarves]] were "adopted" by Eru in the sense that they were created by [[Aulë]] but given sapience by Eru. Animals and plants were probably fashioned by Ainur after themes set out by Eru in the [[Music of the Ainur]], although this is questionable in cases where animals exhibit sapience, as in the case of [[Huan]], or the [[Eagles]].
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| The activities of Eru on the life of Arda or Ea is not clear. [[Manwë]] was the vicegerent<ref>{{S|1}}</ref> of Eru on Arda. The [[Changing of the World]] was made by Eru, something that the Valar themselves could not have done. According to ''[[Athrabeth Finrod ah Andreth]]'' Eru would someday enter Ea to save his Children.
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| ==Etymology==
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| The name comes from the [[Sundocarmë|Root]] [[ER]] meaning "one, alone".
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| ==Inspiration==
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| Tolkien understood Eru not as a "fictional deity" but as a name in a fictional language for the actual monotheistic God, although in a mythological or fictional context. In a draft of a letter of [[1954]] to Peter Hastings, manager of the Newman Bookshop (a Catholic bookshop in [[Oxford]]), Tolkien defended non-orthodox aspects as rightly within the scope of his mythology, as an exploration of the infinite "potential variety" of God. Regarding the possibility of reincarnation of [[Elves]], Hastings had written:
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| {{quote|God has not used that device in any of the creations of which we have knowledge, and it seems to me to be stepping beyond the position of a sub-creator to produce it as an actual working thing, because a sub-creator, when dealing with the relations between creator and created, should use those channels which he knows the creator to have used already|Peter Hastings}}
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| Tolkien's reply contains an explanation of his view of the relation of (divine) Creation to (human) [[sub-creation]]:
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| {{quote|We differ entirely about the nature of the relation of sub-creation to Creation. I should have said that liberation "from the channels the creator is known to have used already" is the fundamental function of "sub-creation", a tribute to the infinity of His potential variety [...] 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!|J.R.R. Tolkien, [[Letter 153]]}}
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| Hastings had also criticised the description of [[Tom Bombadil]] by [[Goldberry]]: ''"He is"'', saying that this seemed to imply that Bombadil was God.
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| Tolkien replied to this:
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| :''As for Tom Bombadil, I really do think you are being too serious, besides missing the point. [...] You rather remind me of a Protestant relation who to me objected to the (modern) Catholic habit of calling priests Father, because the name father belonged only to the First Person.''
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| The coming of Eru to save his children could come from the idea of the Messiah.
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| {{references}}
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| [[Category:Characters in The Silmarillion]]
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| [[Category:Quenya names]] | | [[Category:Quenya names]] |
| [[de:Eru]]
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