Part Two, Valinor and Middle-Earth before The Lord of the Rings, Chapters 4-5, Ainulindale, The Lhammas Summary and Analysis

The next two chapters contain the second textual account of the Creation of the World, worked from the real text of the first Music of the Ainur. This "Ainulindale" was a source for the Creation passages in the Quenta Silmarillion. It survives in two manuscripts, one written more polished draft written quickly after the other.

In the beginning of the world, Iluvatar made the Ainur, the holy ones, that were produced by his thought. The Ainur existed before Time. Iluvatar taught the Ainur musical themes and they sang before him. Eventually, they sang just for one another, as each only understood the part of Iluvatar's mind from which they came, but...