10 great female characters from The Lord of the Rings

Varda, Queen of the Valar

Okay, it’s time to take things waaaaay back to the beginning. The Lord of the Rings is by far the most popular of J.R.R. Tolkien’s works, but the one he most cared about most may have been The Silmarillion. The Lord of the Rings is about the end of the Third Age. The Rings of Power takes place during the Second Age, and The Silmarillion is about the First Age, when Middle-earth was young and Morgoth was the Dark Lord in town.

Morgoth is one of the Valar, a group of god-like beings who sung Middle-earth into existence at the beginning of time. Morgoth is a power-hungry as*hole, but most of the Valar are good eggs, including Varda, their queen.

Varda has command of light; she created the stars and set the course for the moon and the sun to travel through the sky. Like Galadriel, she is also an excellent judge of character; she knew very early on that Morgoth was a trouble-maker and didn’t trust him. In turn, she was the member of the Valar that Morgoth most feared.

Nienna, Lady of Mercy

Nienna is another of the Valar. In the song of creation, her part was sad, and she brought grief into the world. She pities the suffering of others, and even spoke on behalf of Morgoth (then named Melkor) after the Valar threw him in prison for threatening the elves…the first time. The guy has a record. Of note for fans of The Lord of the Rings, Nienna was the mentor of Olórin, better known as Gandalf, to whom she taught pity and patience.

One of Nienna’s greatest accomplishments was teaming up with Yavanna, another of the Valar, to create the Two Trees, which gave light to Valinor before even the beginning of the First Age. After Morgoth destroyed the Trees (he really was an as*hole), Nienna teamed up with Yavanna again to salvage what they could. They saved two fruits, which became the sun and moon.

It’s hard to know if any of the Valar will show up in The Rings of Power, although based on the first image Amazon released from the series (above), we will see the Two Trees. In any case, even though they mostly provide background for Tolkien’s tale, it’s good to know that these goddesses are there looking out for our characters.