Valinor

Exceptions are made for the surviving bearers of the One Ring: Bilbo and Frodo Baggins and Sam Gamgee, who dwell there for a time, and the dwarf Gimli.

[T 2][T 3] Tolkien's myth of the attempt of Númenor to capture Aman has been likened to the biblical Tower of Babel and the ancient Greek Atlantis, and the resulting destruction in both cases.

The continent of Aman extends from the Arctic latitudes of the Helcaraxë to the subpolar southern region of Arda – about 7,000 miles (11,000 km).

The land is well-wooded, as Finrod "walk[ed] with his father under the trees in Eldamar" and the Teleri Elves have timber to build their ships.

In the extreme north-east, beyond the Pelóri, is the Helcaraxë, a vast ice sheet that joins the two continents of Aman and Middle-earth before the War of Wrath.

Valinor is the home of the Valar (singular Vala), spirits that often take humanoid form, sometimes called "gods" by the Men of Middle-earth.

[T 12] Farther east is the Calacirya, the only easy pass through the Pelóri, a huge mountain range fencing Valinor on three sides, created to keep Morgoth's forces out.

The city of the Noldor (and for a time the Vanyar Elves also) is Tirion, built on the hill of Túna, inside the Calacirya mountain pass; it is just north of Taniquetil, facing both the Two Trees and the starlit seas.

[T 13] Valinor is established on the western continent Aman when Melkor (a Vala later named Morgoth, "the black foe", by the Elves) destroys the Valar's original home on the island Almaren in primeval Middle-earth, ending the Years of the Lamps.

[T 9] After his release, Melkor starts planting seeds of dissent in the minds of the Elves, including between Fëanor and his brothers Fingolfin and Finarfin.

But near the end of the First Age, when the Noldor are in total defeat, the mariner Eärendil convinces the Valar to make a last attack on Morgoth.

Centuries later the kingdom of Númenor grows so powerful and so arrogant that Ar-Pharazôn, the twenty-fifth and last king, dares to attempt an invasion of Valinor.

When the creator Eru Ilúvatar responds to the call of the Valar, Númenor sinks into the sea, and Aman is removed beyond the reach of the Men of Arda.

[T 17][6] Keith Kelly and Michael Livingston, writing in Mythlore, note that Frodo's final destination, mentioned at the end of The Lord of the Rings, is Aman, the Undying Lands.

In Tolkien's mythology, they write, the islands of Aman are initially just the dwelling-places of the Valar (in the Ages of the Trees, while the rest of the world lies in darkness).

[6] Kelly and Livingston similarly draw on Pearl, noting that it states that "fair as was the hither shore, far lovelier was the further land"[8] where the Dreamer could not pass.

[9] The scholar of English literature Marjorie Burns writes that one of the female Vala, Varda (Elbereth to the Elves) is sung to by the Elf-queen of Middle-earth Galadriel.

Burns comments that Sam's request to the "Lady" sounds distinctly Catholic, and that the "female principle, embodied in Varda of Valinor and Galadriel of Middle-earth, most clearly represents the charitable Christian heart.

"[11] The scholar of literature Richard Z. Gallant comments that while Tolkien made use of pagan Germanic heroism in his legendarium, and admired its Northern courage, he disliked its emphasis on "overmastering pride".

Barfield writes of the loss of "an Edenic relationship with nature", part of his theory that man's purpose is to serve as "the Earth's self-consciousness".

"[14] Further, Barfield believed that ancient civilisations, as recorded in their languages, had a connection to and inner experience of nature, so that the modern situation represents a loss of that state of grace.

[8] Kelly and Livingston note the similarity to the ancient Greek myth of Atlantis, the greatest human civilisation lost beneath the sea; and the resemblance to the biblical tale of the Tower of Babel, the hubristic and "sacrilegious" attempt by mortal men to climb up into God's realm.

[8] The scholar of English literature Paul H. Kocher writes that the Undying Lands of the Uttermost West including Eldamar and Valinor, is "so far outside our experience that Tolkien can only ask us to take it completely on faith.

"[15] Kocher comments that these lands have an integral place both geographically and spiritually in Middle-earth, and that their closest literary equivalents are the imrama Celtic tales from the early Middle Ages.

Map of Valinor, the Blessed Realm, in the continent of Aman, on Arda
Valinor in the Years of the Trees, lit by the Two Trees ; the rest of Arda, including Middle-earth , lay in darkness. The outlines of the continents are purely schematic.
The Downfall of Númenor and the Changing of the World. [ 6 ] The outlines of the continents are purely schematic.
Earthly Paradise : Eldamar has been compared to the place dreamed of in the Middle English poem Pearl . [ 7 ] Miniature from Cotton Nero A.x shows the Dreamer on the other side of the stream from the Pearl-maiden.
Fates of Elves and Men in Tolkien's legendarium . Elves are immortal but can be killed in battle, in which case they go to the Halls of Mandos in Aman. They may be restored by the Will of the Valar , and then go to live with the Valar in Valinor, like an Earthly Paradise , though just being in the place does not confer immortality. [ 10 ] [ 7 ] [ 8 ] Men are mortal, and when they die they go beyond the circles of the world, even the Elves not knowing where that might be.
The strife among the Elves and their resulting exit from Valinor has been compared to the Biblical fall of man . [ T 19 ] [ 12 ] The serpent tempts Adam and Eve to eat the forbidden fruit, Notre Dame de Paris
Scholars have compared Tolkien's Valinor to the "Land of Promise" in Celtic imrama tales. [ 15 ] Here, Saint Brendan sails the seas looking for the Land of Promise. Gautier de Metz , c. 1304