Ulmo

The Lord of Waters

Story

One of the chief of the Valar, and one of the most powerful, ranked only behind Melkor and Manwë. Before the making of the World, he delighted in the making of music, and played a great part in the Ainulindalë, the Music of the Ainur at the beginning of Eä. Within Arda, his special province was the waters of the World, and those waters were said to carry an echo of the Great Music.

Though Ulmo was an ally of the other Valar, and followed Manwë as the Elder King, he did not himself dwell in Valinor. Instead he moved through the deeps of the oceans, though he would come at times to Valmar and sit in council with his peers. Among the Maiar who followed him were Ossë, Uinen and Salmar, and it was Salmar who made Ulmo's fabled horns of shell, the Ulumúri.

When the Valar first discovered the Elves in Middle-Earth, Ulmo was at first reluctant to bring them to Valinor, but at last it was he who made it possible for the Eldar to pass across the Great Sea. With aid from his vassal Ossë, he moved the island of Eressëa back and forth from its original resting place, carrying first the Vanyar and Noldor, and then many of the Teleri, until at last the Lonely Isle was rooted in the Bay of Eldamar.