Q. Eärambar pn. “Walls of Eä”

Q. Eärambar, pn. “Walls of Eä”

A term for the boundaries of Creation, appearing in Silmarillion revisions from the 1950s-60s (MR/63), but omitted from the published version. It is a compound of “Creation” and the plural of ramba “wall”.

Conceptual Development: In the Lost Tales these walls were called the “Wall of Things” (LT1/214). In Silmarillion drafts from the 1930s they were called the “Walls of Night” (LR/12) or ᴹQ. Ilurambar (SM/235; Ety/IL, RAMBĀ) “Walls of the World”.

These walls were important in earlier versions of Tolkien’s cosmology, but as discussed by Christopher Tolkien (MR/63), this concept no longer fit well with the idea that was all of creation. Only hints of this concept remain in the published version of The Silmarillion, such as when Morgoth snuck back into the world over the “Wall of the Night” (S/36-7), and after his defeated he was “thrust through the Door of Night beyond the Walls of the World, into the Timeless Void” (S/254).

References ✧ MR/63; MRI; SMI/Eärambar, Ilurambar

Glosses

Variations

Elements

“Creation, the (Material) Universe, Cosmos, World; it is, let it be”
ramba “wall” plural

ᴹQ. Ilurambar pn. “Walls of the World”

See Q. Eärambar for discussion.

References ✧ Ety/IL, RAMBĀ; LRI; LT1/227; LT1I; MR/63; MRI; SM/235, 241; SMI/Eärambar, Ilurambar

Glosses

Changes

Elements

ilu “universe, world” ✧ Ety/IL; SM/241
ramba¹ “wall” plural ✧ Ety/RAMBĀ; SM/241