Short version
Ainulindalë ("The Music of the Ainur"[5]), takes the form of a primary creation myth. Ilúvatar ("Father of All") first created the Ainur, a group of eternal spirits or demiurges, called "the offspring of his thought". Ilúvatar brought the Ainur together and showed them a theme, from which he bade them make a great music
Long version
Ainulindalë tell of the time before Time. First to be named is Ilúvatar (God) (‘Father of All’ , also called ‘Eru – “the One, He that is Alone”’). Ilúvatar, as his names imply, exists before and independently of all else. He can take a particular concept, thesis or theme, and ‘give a secret fire to it’, will it into being, so it exists as a distinct object or entity. Such existence itself is a representation and concretization of divine conceptualizations: there is first the idea, then the concrete, or ‘objective’, manifestation commensurate with that idea. The ‘Ainur’ (meaning ‘Holy Ones’, singular ‘Ainu’) are the first such concepts-embodied or themes-realized; they are the children ‘of Ilúvatar’s thought.’ Upon their creation, when nothing else exists, Ilúvatar teaches the Ainur the art of ‘Music’, which becomes their life and work. So Heaven becomes filled with the making of Music.
With each Ainu comprehending at first only those secondary ideas and themes most closely related to that primary idea-theme-thought of Ilúvatar’s which pre-figured itself, these creative musical elaborations only gradually, through exposure to each other, become collaborative. The compositions revolve around themes given to each Ainu by Ilúvatar, which themes correspond respectively to those primary themes/concepts embodied in each Ainu – that indeed are each Ainu. Through listening and contemplation, an Ainu becomes aware of other Ainur, other musics, and the cultivation and adornment of other themes.
After a time of Music, Ilúvatar proposes a first ‘great’ design/theme/plan to all the Ainur at once: a symphony for His pleasure. He then charges them with the collective elaboration of this great design/plan/theme. They are to play themselves at composition.
While it is true that the Ainur are Ilúvatar’s thoughts embodied, they each have a life of their own, and are expected to utilize their ‘freedom’ by cultivating the grand theme. Only in the future, at the ‘end of days’, will all the created beings of Ilúvatar fully understand not only the divinely provided concepts and themes they each personally embody, but how each relates to all the others and fits (as per Ilúvatar’s intentions) in the entire greater scheme.
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This was all written by Tolkien, some time after 1937. It was not published until 1977 after his death. Its his ideas on creation and the origins of the universe.
Essentially he says the universe is made up of many different musical thoughts composed by the beings god conceived with thought and instructed to create music which they all did independently. He also says that only in "the end of days" will each be able to comprehend the music the others have created and be able to combine it all into the grand symphony god had in mind when he created them and instructed them to write each part.
This was decades before any physicist came up with a string theory. Pretty cool really!
well sure
Linear Mode
