Aman

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Aman (Quenya; "blessed realm") was a continent that lay west of Middle-earth (before the Changing of the World), across the great ocean Belegaer. It contained Valinor, home of the Valar and Maiar, as well as Eldamar, home to the three kindreds of Elves: the Vanyar, the Ñoldor and the Teleri. The island of Tol Eressëa lay just off the eastern shore.

History

Upon the destruction of Almaren in very ancient times of Arda, the Valar fled to the great continent of Aman in the far west of Arda, and there established the realm of Valinor. Seeking to isolate themselves, they raised a great mountain fence, called the Pelóri, on the eastern coast, and set the Enchanted Isles in the ocean to prevent travellers by sea from reaching Aman.

For reasons untold, the Valar left two lands outside the wall of the Pelóri: Araman to the northeast and Avathar to the southeast. Ungoliant, a great spider of unknown origin, had managed to escape notice in Avathar. When Melkor was released from his captivity, he fled to Avathar, scaled the mountains with Ungoliant's help, and wrought the destruction of the Two Trees of Valinor.

The first navigator to succeed in passing the Isles of Enchantment was Eärendil, who came to Valinor to seek the aid of the Valar against Melkor, now called Morgoth. His quest was successful, the Valar went to war again, and also decided to remove the Isles.

Soon after this, the great island of Númenor was raised out of Belegaer, close to the shores of Aman, and the Three Houses of the Edain were brought to live there. Henceforth, they were called the Dúnedain, or Men of the West, and were blessed with many gifts by the Valar and the Elves of Tol Eressëa. The Valar rightly feared that the Númenóreans would seek to enter Aman to gain immortality (even though a mortal in Aman remains mortal), so they forbade them from sailing west of the westernmost promontory of Númenor. In time, and not without some corrupting help from Sauron, the Númenóreans violated the Ban of the Valar and sailed to Aman with a Great Armament under the command of Ar-Pharazôn the Golden. Eru Ilúvatar collapsed a part of the Pelóri on this army, trapping but not killing them. It is said that the army still lies beneath the pile of rock in the Caves of the Forgotten.

As a result of the Númenórean attack, the Valar laid down their governance of Arda and called upon Eru Ilúvatar, who changed the shape of the world, making Arda round and removing Aman from it, so that a mariner sailing west along Eärendil's route would simply emerge in the far east. For the Elves, however, he crafted a Straight Road that peeled away from the curvature of the earth and passed to Aman.^[1] A very few non-Elves are known to have passed along this road, including the Hobbits Frodo and Bilbo Baggins, Samwise Gamgee, and the Dwarf Gimli.^[2]

Geography

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Aman was generally thought to be a crescent shaped continent with the concave portion to the east facing the rest of known Middle-earth.

Regions

From north to south:

• Araman
• Valinor
• Avathar

North and south of Valinor are largely unpopulated.

Notable features

• Helcaraxë - icy and watery waste to northeast
• Oiomúrë - a dim land between the western side of the Pelóri range and the western shore of Araman
• Pelóri Mountains - range of mountains that runs nearly the full north to south range of the continent
  • Calacirya - a cleft and pass that breaks the mountain range inland from middle of the Bay of Eldamar
  • Hyarmentir - the highest peak of the range in southern Aman
  • Taniquetil - the highest peak in all of Arda, just south of Calacirya
• Outer Sea (Ekkaia) - the seas to the west of Aman
• Bay of Eldamar - large bay on the central eastern side
  • Enchanted Isles - chain of islets in the seas to west of Valinor surrounding the Bay of Eldamar
  • Shadowy Seas - magically darkened and sleep inducing seas around the western inner edge of the Enchanted Isles
  • Tol Eressëa - large island in the the bay, but within the Enchanted Isles

Varying features

Araman and Avathar are often shown in some maps as being only to the east of the northern Pelóri range and some place it to the west, but it most likely includes all the northern adn southern tips of Aman.

Most maps show several small sub-ranges of mountains that split off from the Pelóri range in Araman and Avathar.

Some maps label the large flat region of Valinor between the Pelóri range and the western shore as the Plain of Valinor.

Eldamar is the eastern coastal region around the Bay of Eldamar of uncertain borders. It extended into the Calacirya to the hill of Túna on which the Ñoldorin city of Tirion was built.

Tol Eressëa is shown in some maps to be very close to the eastern shore of the Bay of Eldamar just to the east of Calacirya, but some maps show it farther out into the bay.

The Shadowy Seas may encompass most of the Bay of Eldamar or only some area on the inner western edge of the Enchanted Isles.

The lake of Lórellin was just west of the Woods of Oromë somewhere southwest of Taniquetil, but some maps place it more inside the woods. In the lake was the islet where Estë would sleep.

Ungoliant's lair is located in the Pelóri range somewhere south of Hyarmentir.

Etymology

The Quenya name Aman is glossed as "Blessed Land",^[3] "blessed, free from evil",^[4] or "The Unmarred State".^[5]

The etymology of the name Aman changed over time in Tolkien's writings. In early linguistic writings, Aman was intended to be a "native Quenya form", derived from the root MAN ("good"). However, in later writings (such as Quendi and Eldar), the name is said to derive from a Valarin word.^[6]

Notes

• Tolkien may have based Aman on Heaven from his own religion, Christianity, as Aman, like Heaven, is accessible only to beings whose (first) life on Earth has ended, and is inaccessible to any still-mortal beings.

Translations

Foreign Language	Translated name
Amharic	ዓማን
Arabic	آمان
Armenian	Աման
Assamese	অমান
Belarusian Cyrillic	Аман
Bengali	আমান
Bulgarian Cyrillic	Аман
Cantonese	阿曼
Chinese (Hong Kong)	阿門洲
Danish	Aman (De Udødelige Lande)
French	Terres Immortelles (Immortal lands)
Georgian	ამან
German	Aman (Unsterbliche Länder)
Greek	Άμαν
Gujarati	આમન
Hebrew	אמאן
Hindi	आमन
Hungarian	Halhatatlanföld
Japanese	アマン
Kannada	ಅಮನ್
Kazakh	Аман (Cyrillic) Aman (Latin)
Korean	암안
Kyrgyz Cyrillic	Аман
Laotian	ະມະນ
Macedonian Cyrillic	Аман
Malayalam	അമൻ
Marathi	आमन
Mongolian Cyrillic	Аман
Nepalese	आमन
Pashto	آمان
Persian	امان
Russian	Аман
Sanskrit	आमन्
Sinhalese	ආමන්
Tajik Cyrillic	Аман
Tamil	ஆமந்
Telugu	ఆమన
Thai	อามัน
Ukrainian Cyrillic	Аман
Urdu	امان
Uzbek	Аман (Cyrillic) Aman (Latin)
Yiddish	ײַמאַן

Places in the Undying Lands (Aman and Tol Eressëa)
Places and regions of the Valar	Valinor • Ezellohar • Gardens of Lòrien • Halls of Mandos • Halls of Nienna • House of Tulkas • Ilmarin • Máhanaxar • Pastures of Yavanna • Wells of Varda • Woods of Oromë • Plain of Valinor • Two Trees of Valinor
Other regions	Eldamar • Alalvinórëυ • Araman • Avathar • Enchanted Isles • Haerast • Oiomúrë • Sindanórië • Galathilion • Tol Withernonυ
Mountains and passes	Pelóri • Taniquetil • Hyarmentir • Túna • Calacirya • Caves of the Forgotten
Bodies of water	Afros • Bay of Eldamar • Gruirυ • Híri • Lórellin • Shadowy Seas • Sirnúmen
Cities and strongholds	Váli-màr • Alqualondë • Avallónë • Formenos • Kôrtirion • Tavrobelρ • Tirion • Lumbiυ
Houses and towers	Cottage of Lost Playρ • House of the Hundred Chimneysρ Pre-canon • Mindon Eldaliéva • Tower of Avallónë • Tower of Tavrobelρ • Tram Nybolρ
	ρ Pre-canon, υ Canonicity unclear.

References