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"Now the Valar took to themselves shape and hue … Moreover their shape comes of their knowledge of the visible World, rather than of the World itself; and they need it not, save only as we use raiment … But when they desire to clothe themselves the Valar take upon them forms some as of male and some as of female; for that difference of temper they had even from their beginning"

"The names of the Lords in due order are: Manwë, Ulmo, Aulë, Oromë, Mandos, Lórien, and Tulkas; and the names of the Queens are: Varda, Yavanna, Nienna, Estë, Vairë, Vána, and Nessa."

Which of the Valar do you think was most important? Which would Arda be most different – or most impoverished – without?

Can you see any significant differences in the roles of the men and the women? In the importance of their roles? Was gender even important to the Ainur or was it merely a convenience for the sake of the elves?

That indicates to me that gender is an essential part of the identities of the Valar, and that perhaps the Ainur are truly male and female- in a nonphysical way. The Valië are "estrogeneous" despite their fundamental lack of estrogen, so to speak. And if that's so, then gender differences aren't just distinctions for the sake of the Elves. ~ Nauma

…and it is but bodied forth in the choice of each, not made by the choice, even as with us male and female may be shown by the raiment but it is not made thereby

…for at times they may clothe themselves in their own thought, made visible in forms of majesty and dread.

Now the Valar took to themselves shape and hue; and because they were drawn into the World by love of the Children of Ilúvatar, for whom they hoped, they took shape after the manner which they had beheld in the Vision of Ilúvatar, save only in majesty and splendour.

…you can't have Varda being described with a word that once meant dairymaid, now can you?

…try picturing Yavanna materializing as a "girly man". ~ Nauma

Wife is from the verb to weave. (Saxon wefan, Danish vaevc, German weben, whence weib, a woman, one who works at the distaff.) Woman is called the distaff. Hence Dryden calls Anne "a distaff on the throne." While a girl was spinning her wedding clothes she was simply a spinster; but when this task was done, and she was married, she became a wife, or one who had already woven her allotted task.
Alfred, in his will, speaks of his male and female descendants as those of the spear-side and those of the spindle-side, a distinction still observed by the Germans; and hence the effigies on graves of spears and spindles. ~ Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase and Fable

1. Work and concerns traditionally considered important to women.
2. Women considered as a group.

Queen- OE cwen, apparently always with the meaning "wife of a king". It's related to the gwen- in Guenivere, King Arthur's wife, and seems to have come right out of the Indoeuropean.

I for one would like to commend the late Prof T. because in the Silmarillion he has provided us with a more active view of the Mythic woman.

I believe women are pictured in mythology as they have been in society. ~ Elenisil

All through the other tales of Tolkien, women are again in their initial position of only a co-character. ~ Elenisil

When Manwë there ascends his throne and looks forth, if Varda is beside him, he sees further than all other eyes, through mist, and through darkness, and over the leagues of the sea. And if Manwë is with her, Varda hears more clearly than all other ears the sound of voices that cry from east to west, from the hills and the valleys, and from the dark places that Melkor has made upon Earth.

Too great is her beauty to be declared in the words of Men or of Elves; for the light of Ilúvatar lives still in her face

The mightiest of those Ainur who came into the World was in his beginning Melkor; but Manwë is dearest to Ilúvatar and understands most clearly his purposes

In the form of a woman she is tall, and robed in green; but at times she takes other shapes. Some there are who have seen her standing like a tree under heaven, crowned with the Sun; and from all its branches there spilled a golden dew upon the barren earth, and it grew green with corn; but the roots of the tree were in the waters of Ulmo, and the winds of Manwë spoke in its leaves.

His hair and beard are golden, and his flesh ruddy; his weapons are his hands.

…the Ainur whose characteristics led them to be seen in ME as female were just as important as those who were seen as male ~ atalante

And they were the only two without spouses.

Here we see the view of women as the ones that bind the family together. Yavanna is a part of the earth, the water, and the air. Beautiful.

“Giver of Fruits” can be construed to mean, fruit of the womb: okay, okay, perhaps I’ve read The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood one too many times.

Yavanna would have to, of course, nurture all that grows in the earth. I think she’s a perfect mate for Aulë. She applies the finishing touches to his work.

Nessa skill of speed doesn’t seem to lie in realm of traditional femininity. We don’t get a sense of her beauty either. The only physical description we have of her is that she is lithe.

Artemis is the goddess of wild Nature, a virgin huntress for the other deities. She is goddess of the moon, as her brother Apollo is god of the sun. ... She is often represented as a lithe young woman with a bow and arrow. Her femaleness is associated with youth and birth. The bow and arrow, with which she shoots her victims, represents death, often caused by sickness. Her realm then, as conceived by her parents is wild nature, with maidenhood and the protection of nursing mothers in that realm. Death due to sickness is also included.

Hesiod says: "Nor does laughter-loving Aphrodite ever tame in love Artemis, the huntress with shafts of gold; for she loves archery and the slaying of wild beasts in the mountains, the lyre also and dancing and thrilling cries and shady woods and the cities of upright men." (To Aphrodite, (ll. 7-32))

The last time I asked a question like this, we ended up with pictures of Klingons in a thread about the Rohirrim, but I'm going to ask anyway: what's The Handmaiden's Tale about, and how does it relate to Yavanna?

In a startling departure from her previous novels ( Lady Oracle , Surfacing ), respected Canadian poet and novelist Atwood presents here a fable of the near future. In the Republic of Gilead, formerly the United States, far-right Schlafly/Falwell-type ideals have been carried to extremes in the monotheocratic government. The resulting society is a feminist's nightmare: women are strictly controlled, unable to have jobs or money and assigned to various classes: the chaste, childless Wives; the housekeeping Marthas; and the reproductive Handmaids, who turn their offspring over to the "morally fit" Wives. The tale is told by Offred (read: "of Fred"), a Handmaid who recalls the past and tells how the chilling society came to be.

Throughout his stories, I always sense an adoration for women, because although they are quite rare in his stories, the women who appear are always (or at least almost always) either powerful or wise and sometimes both. In Éowyn's case, it is slight different, because she had not reached maturity yet.