Things of Middle-earth
Mánir
Type: Miscellaneous
Description:
Winged spirits of the air, attendant on Manwë and Varda:
'Behold, Manwë Súlimo and Varda the Beautiful arose.... Those twain gathered now wings of power to themselves and fared swiftly through the three airs 1....
With them came many of those lesser Vali who loved them and had played nigh them and attuned their music to theirs, and these are the Mánir and the Súruli, the sylphs of the airs and of the winds.
The Book of Lost Tales 1, HoME Vol 1, Ch 3, The Coming of the Valar and the Building of Valinor
Then did the gates of Valmar open and Nornorë 2 bid them enter, and all that bright company passed through. There Varda met them, standing amid the companies of the Mánir and the Súruli, and all the Gods made them welcome, and feasts there were in all the great halls thereafter.
The Book of Lost Tales 1, HoME Vol 1, Ch 6, The Theft of Melko and the Darkening of Valinor
[To] each of the stars had [Varda] given a heart of silver flame set in vessels of crystals...: and these vessels were some made like to boats, and buoyed by their hearts of light they fared ever about Ilwë, 1 yet could they not soar into the dark and tenuous realm of Vaitya 1 that is outside all. Now winged spirits of the utmost purity and beauty — even the most ethereal of those bright choirs of the Mánir and the Súruli who fare about the halls of Manwë on Taniquetil or traverse all the airs that move upon the world — sate in those starry boats and guided them on mazy courses high above the Earth, and Varda gave them names, but few of these are known.
The Book of Lost Tales 1, HoME Vol 1, Ch 8, The Tale of the Sun and the Moon
From wall to wall she turned and wheeled
in dance such as never Elf nor fay
before devised, nor since that day;
than swallow swifter, than flittermouse 3
in dying light round darkened house
more silken-soft, more strange and fair
than sylphine maidens of the Air
whose wings in Varda's heavenly hall
in rhythmic movement beat and fall.
The Lays of Beleriand, HoME Vol 3, Ch 3, The Lay of Leithian, Canto XIII, Lines 4071-4079
Notes
1 The three airs:
Vilna The innermost of the three airs.
Ilwë The middle air that flows among the stars.
Vaitya The outermost of the three airs.
The Book of Lost Tales 1, HoME Vol 1, Index
2 Nornorë Herald of the Gods.
The Book of Lost Tales 1, HoME Vol 1, Index
3 flittermouse (plural: flittermice): A small European bat (Vesperugo pipistrellus)....
flittermouse. Dictionary.com. Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary. MICRA, Inc.
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/flittermouse
(accessed: October 22, 2007).
Contributors: Elena Tiriel 22Oct07