"Therefore
Ilúvatar gave to their vision Being, and set it amid the
Void, and the Secret
Fire was sent to burn at the heart of the World; and it was called
Eä."
The Silmarillion
Valaquenta
A mysterious power or essence, never explained in detail, that seems to represent the principle of creation. Little can be said of it for certain, though it seems to be identified with the Flame Imperishable of Ilúvatar. After the Music of the Ainur, the Secret Fire was taken into the heart of the newly created world, where it preserved an aspect of Eru Ilúvatar free from the corruption that Morgoth had spread through the world's substance.1
When Gandalf met the Balrog on the Bridge of Khazad-dûm, he spoke of himself as a servant of the Secret Fire. By this he named himself as a follower of the Valar and the power of Ilúvatar that they preserved within the Circles of the World. The Secret Fire also had associations with the Sun, hence Gandalf's subsequent claim that he wielded the Flame of Anor (Anor being an Elvish name for the Sun).2
Notes
1 |
The Secret Fire had a symbolic aspect, but also a physical one, though exactly what form this took is unclear - and indeed Tolkien's own view seems to have changed over time. At the time he started writing The Lord of the Rings, he seems to have imagined the Secret Fire as being literally in the heart of the world. In the very earliest drafts of the book, Gandalf suggests that the Ring could be destroyed if one were to 'find one of the Cracks of Earth in the depths of the Fiery Mountains, and drop it down into the Secret Fire' (The History of Middle-earth volume IV, The First Phase, III Of Gollum and the Ring).
Later references speak of the Secret Fire as a light that held and conveyed Ilúvatar's creative potential. One story from the most ancient times, before the Ainur descended into the world, tells of Ilúvatar granting the light as a gift to the being who would become known as Varda or Elbereth. This version of the Secret Fire would grant the power of creation to the Valar within Arda, at least in ways the followed the original themes of the Music that had created the world.
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2 |
Though the Secret Fire itself was within the heart of the world, tradition said that Varda had passed a fragment of the Fire to Arien, the Maia of the Sun, so that its power could shine down upon the world. Thus Gandalf's twin claims that he was both a 'servant of the Secret Fire' and 'wielder of the Flame of Anor' (The Fellowship of the Ring II 5, The Bridge of Khazad-dûm) were directly connected to another.
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- Updated 28 January 2026
- This entry is complete
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