Aman
the Blessed Realm, removed from the world
The Story
Aman is the land of the Valar, those who came into Arda before any creature, and to whom Eru gave the work of shaping the world. They withdrew here after the fall of the Lamps and behind the high wall of the Pelóri raised Valinor, the Realm of the Powers. Here the Two Trees stood. Here Fëanor crafted the Silmarils, three jewels that held the light of the Trees. Here the Eldar dwelt for an age beside their gods.
Then Morgoth and Ungoliant slew the Trees, and the long sundering began, Fëanor swore his Oath, the Noldor went into exile, and the great wars in Middle-earth followed. Two ages later, after Númenor's pride and drowning, the Valar lifted Aman entirely beyond the Circles of the World. Only the Straight Road still leads there now, and only the ships of the Eldar can find it.
The Land
A tall vertical continent at the western edge of Arda, walled along its eastern face by the great mountain range of the Pelóri, a rampart, not just a range; the Valar's deliberate boundary against the marring of the world.
- Pelóri Mountains, the unbroken eastern wall, with Taniquetil rising near its midpoint as the highest mountain in Arda; the seat of Manwë and Varda.
- Calacirya, the single pass through the Pelóri, just south of Taniquetil, opening upon Tirion.
- Plain of Valinor, the broad green plain west of the wall, where the Two Trees stood near Valmar.
- Tol Eressëa, the Lonely Isle in the Bay of Eldamar.
- Helcaraxë, the grinding ice once joining Aman's far northeast to Middle-earth's northwest; the road of the dispossessed Noldor.