I am a complete Lord of the Rings addict. But after reading LOTR a book-destroying number of times, I have decided to give it a rest for a while and try some other Tolkein, despite the fact that I have never been able to read more than 5 pages of the other books before giving up in confusion and despair.
So, today I picked up The Silmarillion again. Perhaps unsurprisingly, I’m only 30 pages in and already things have gotten confusing, but this time, instead of wanting to throw the book against the wall, I find myself becoming rather interested, if befuddled. Anyway, on to my question:
In the Valaquenta, some of the Valar are described as being siblings:
Nessa and Orome
Yavanna and Vana
Namo, Irmo and Nienna
However, as I understand it, all of the Valar were created by Iluvatar, and so I would think that they would all be siblings. Why are only these particular groups called so? Does it have something to do with personality traits? Did Tolkein want to avoid the incestuous overtones of Classical mythology, where all the gods are siblings? Is there some other terribly obvious reason that I’m just missing?
Any help I could get from the Mighty Tolkein Scholars of the SDMB would be greatly appreciated.
arisu
Tolkein Geek-in-Training