Ainur

The Ainur (sing. Ainu) are the immortal spirits, Valar and Maiar, existing before the Creation in J. R. R. Tolkien's fictional universe. These were the first beings made of the thought of Eru Ilúvatar. They were able to sing such beautiful music that the world was created from it.

Scholars have likened the Valar to the Æsir, the gods of Asgard, while the wizard Gandalf, one of the Maiar, resembles Odin the wanderer. Others have seen them as like angels in Christianity, intermediaries between the creator, Eru Ilúvatar, and the created cosmos. The Tolkien scholar Tom Shippey relates the Valar to luck and fate in Middle-earth, writing that people do see a patterning force in the world; but while it could be Providence, or in Middle-earth the Valar, people still have free will and have to trust to their own courage.