What Is Valinor In 'The Rings Of Power'?
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The short answer to this question is that Valinor is where the Valar live. Valinor is also called the Blessed Realm and the Undying Lands. Of course, for that to mean anything we need a whole lot of context. Who are the Valar and what do they have to do with The Rings of Power?
The Valar are the first creation of The One, Ilúvatar. They, at the direction of Ilúvatar, sang the world into being. They are beings of immense power who often take physical form. Men have called them gods. There are seven Lords of the Valar and seven Queens.
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At first, the Valar lived in Almaren, a great island, but they had a war with Melkor, later known as Morgoth. They defeated Melkor, but Almaren was so damaged that the Valar left. They settled on the continent furthest West across the sea, Aman. At the time, the world was flat instead of round. They raised mountains called the Pelóri to the east as a defense against Melkor and to the West was Ekkaia, then encircling sea, that surrounded both Aman and Middle Earth. This land where they dwelt was known as Valinor. Valinor was a place of great beauty. Two trees lit the land, one white and one yellow. These two trees eventually became the moon and the sun.
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Its largest city was Valmar. Valinor was called the Undying Lands because nothing there ever died or diminished. Although, it wasn’t the land itself that conferred immortality. If a mortal went there, the mortal would still die. However, with only a few exceptions, only immortals, the Valar, the Maiar, and the elves were allowed to live there.
When men were gifted the island of Númenor, there was a ban on the men sailing West, towards Valinor. The Valar were afraid that mortal men would become jealous of their immortality and try to take it by force, even though that was impossible. The Valar were correct and sank the island as punishment. That was when they made the world round and made Valinor isolated from all other lands. It could only be reached by the Straight Road of the elves.
And that is how Valinor connects to The Rings of Power and The Lord of the Rings. It becomes known as a type of paradise where the elves go when they tire of Middle Earth. It is where Galadriel was sent in the first episode of The Rings of Power and it is where Frodo, Bilbo, and eventually Sam go at the end of Lord of the Rings.
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