Middle Earth's Creation Myth

It happened like this: In the Beginning there was Eru Illuvatar, the one. For a time (though this is only a metaphorical term, as time did not yet exist) he existed alone, but soon he created the Ainur, his holy angels, from his thought. Illuvatar tought them of the themes of music, and they rejoiced and sang together, but they were still young as yet, so they sang individually or in small groups while the rest listened. Presently Illuvatar came to them and said (and I quote) "Hey guys, I got a new song for you. " He sang it and "the glory of its beginning and the splendor of its end" made all the Ainur fall silent in awe. He then said to them "So yeah, now you make that music too. Also since I have given each of you part of the Flame Imperishable you should throw in some of your own stuff to keep it fresh." This the Ainur did with gusto, and they sang beautiully. One of the Ainur, the most powerful and also most devious, Melkor, was determined to ruin everything. He began singing his own tune, covetous of Illuvatar's role as creator, to try to prove his greatness. This threw off the whole rhythm of the song and many Ainur grew confused and afraid. To counter this Illuvatar rearranged the piece with a lead part for Manwe, the most noble of the Ainur, but Melkor persisted in his deviance.  Then for a time Illuvatar sat and hearkened to what was going on around him. The Illuvatar spake "That's all pretty neat, but uh, check this out," and he threw down the dopest beat the Ainur had ever even heard. Most stopped to listen but Melkor, bastard that he was, continued trying to overpower Illuvatar's song. However, every time Melkor would create a magnificently dissonant note, Illuvatar would incorporate it into his song, as though it had been planned that way. Eventually, Illuvatar ceased his theme with one triumphant blast of a chord, and all the other Ainur had to shut up because there was no way they could follow that, even the interloper Melkor. And Illuvatar said to Melkor "Hey, you better watch what you're doing," and he did. Then Illuvatar said to the Ainur, "You guys wanna see what all your singing was about?" and he took them to what was once a void, but was now filled with a beautiful vision. He said "Yeah, so your singing was all about this world, Arda." The Ainur were all "Wow that's neat!" And Illuvatar was all like "I know. I'm God, stupid." The he cried out "Ea!" This is the command "Be!" and the world came into existence. It was still ushaped though, and Illuvatar said "Actually, that stuff I showed you in the void? It hasn't really happened yet, you gotta go down there and make it happen. You have the flame unperishable and all." And the Ainur said "What about that third theme you made, what was that all about?" And Eru Illuvatar said, "Oh yeah. That was my kids, elves and men. I put them on the world you made and had them sleep until you were finished making it." The Ainur were happy with all this, so they went down and made the world, and waited for the men and elves to wake up.

I miss the old persephone

So here I am, two weeks late and a dollar short i begin writing my blog. I've never blogged before, I only have kind of an idea what it's all about, thus I don't have anything especially valuable to say at the moment.

I miss the old Persephone. My girlfriend was recently talking about how she read the myth of Persephone in another class, and it reminded me that the ancient Greeks had a very legitimate understanding of the cycle of the seasons. Persephone is representative of plantlife (which is in many ways representative of life as a whole to us, as humans), so it is only fitting that when she goes to live as queen of the underworld for half a year the entire world seems to die. I suppose winter is necessary for us to appreciate the summer, but looking outside right now I really wish Hades hadn't kidnapped and married one of my favorite deities. During winter she is the queen of the shades and spends her time administering punishments to people in Hades. I know she'll come around, but in Montana she takes a while to do it. The moral of this myth? Keep potted plants in your house during winter; it makes it seem less sad that Persephone won't be around for a while.