Tulkas

Nature

Tulkas is the last of the Valar to enter Arda and the strongest of them in body and in deeds of prowess. He is not counted among the Aratar and takes little part in council, being slow to give advice and uninterested in the past or the future, but in any test of strength or courage there is no one in the World to match him. He is golden-haired and golden-bearded, ruddy of face, and he laughs in sport and in war alike; he rides no horse because he can outrun anything on foot; and he needs no weapon. His spouse is Nessa, sister of Oromë, and their wedding feast in Almaren was the occasion of the Valar's first great rest after the shaping of the World. The Elves called him Astaldo, the Valiant.

The first war

Tulkas did not descend into Arda with the other Valar at the beginning. He came later, from the Timeless Halls, when he heard of the war in the World and of the Valar's hard labour against Melkor, who undid every work as fast as it was raised. The sound of his laughter and the sight of his strength filled Melkor with fear, and Melkor fled from Arda into the outer darkness. The Valar then enjoyed a long peace in which they raised the Lamps and dwelt on Almaren. But Tulkas is not watchful, and it was during the feast of his wedding, when the Valar were at rest and Tulkas was asleep, that Melkor crept back over the Walls of Night, built Utumno and cast down the Lamps. Tulkas, when he woke, could not find him.

The Battle of the Powers

When Oromë brought news of the Elves at Cuiviénen and the Valar resolved on war, it was Tulkas who led the assault. The Battle of the Powers broke the gates of Utumno, and there Tulkas wrestled with Melkor in person, threw him down, and bound him with the chain Angainor that Aulë had made. Melkor was brought before the Valar in the Ring of Doom, and though he begged, Tulkas took no notice of his pleas, having no faith in words.

The judgement and the distrust

After three ages, when Melkor's sentence was complete and he asked for pardon, Tulkas opposed his release, but Manwë granted it and Tulkas obeyed, because it is the Valar's nature to submit to their king. He never trusted Melkor and watched him with fists clenched; in Valinor Melkor for his part hated Tulkas as the one Vala he could not deceive or overawe. When Melkor and Ungoliant destroyed the Trees, Tulkas was the first to give chase, but the Unlight of Ungoliant blinded the pursuit, and Melkor escaped. At the council that followed he supported Fëanor's demand for pursuit, but the Valar declined.

The War of Wrath and after

Tulkas was present at the overthrow of Angband, and it was by his hands, with those of the host of Valinor, that Melkor was bound once more with Angainor and thrust out through the Door of Night. The Silmarillion gives no detail of his part in the later ages. Tulkas is not among the Valar who chose emissaries for the Istari, and his absence is fitting: the Valar had resolved on persuasion rather than force in the Third Age, and Tulkas has no gift for persuasion.

Legacy

Tulkas is a simple figure in a complex pantheon: the strength of the Valar made visible, joyful rather than grim, and the only one of the Powers who from first to last judged Melkor rightly. The Elves' prophecy of the end of the World foretold that Tulkas would fight the final battle against Morgoth when he returned through the Door of Night, but that prophecy belongs to the later, unfinished writings and is not in the published Silmarillion.

Tulkas remains in Valinor, the champion of the Valar until the end of the World.