Flame Imperishable

Flame Imperishable

The cosmology of J. R. R. Tolkien's legendarium combines aspects of Christian theology and metaphysics, mythology (especially Germanic mythology) and pre-modern cosmological concepts in the flat Earth paradigm with the modern spherical Earth view of the Solar System.Tolkien's cosmology is based on a clear dualism between the spiritual and the material world. While the Ainur, the first-created but immaterial angelic beings, have the "subcreative" power of imagination, the power to create independent life or physical reality is reserved for Eru Ilúvatar (God); this power of (primary) creation is expressed by the concept of a "Secret Fire" or "Flame Imperishable". The term for the material universe is Eä, "the World that Is", as distinguished from the purely idealist pre-figuration of creation in the minds of the Ainur. Eä contains our Earth (and Solar System) in a mythical ancient past, of which Middle-earth is the main continent. Eä (Quenya for "let [these things] be!") was the word "spoken" by Eru Ilúvatar to bring the physical universe into actuality.

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