War of the Powers: Valar vs Melkor Explained | Silmarillion Deep Dive

The first true war in the history of Arda — a decade-long campaign in which the Valar marched out of their western paradise, besieged Melkor's fortress of Utumno, and chained the mightiest of the Ainur in iron. Tulkas the Valiant, the laughing Vala sent by Eru specifically for this conflict, wrestled Melkor face-down in the deepest pit, where Aulë closed the chain Angainor around his neck. The Enemy was beatable only because he had already bled his power into the matter of the world — Middle-earth itself had become his Ring. But the war shattered the continent's geography forever, sealed unsearched vaults beneath the north, and missed Sauron entirely. Three ages later, Manwë — unable to comprehend evil he had never felt — opened the door. Within a hundred years the Trees were dead, Finwë murdered, the Silmarils stolen, and the First Age burning.