What the Valar Look Like, Part I: Fanar, the Shape and Raiment
a meta written for @tolkienfashionweek 2026, Day 1: Races — Valar & Back to Middle-earth Month 2026, using the 2017 gameboard's Orange Path prompts Worldbuilding and Compile a list of sources.
“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 that manner which they had beheld in the Vision of Ilúvatar, save only in majesty and splendour. 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, and yet we may be naked and suffer no loss of our being. Therefore the Valar may walk, if they will, unclad, and then even the Eldar cannot clearly perceive them, though they be present. 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, 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 is not made thereby.”
—The Silmarillion, “Ainulindalë”
Preface: In this post (Part I) I will heavily reference both the published Silmarillion as well as Parma Eldalamberon No.17, pages 173-180, which discuss the word “fana” and the nature of the Valar in seeking to answer the question “What do the Valar look like?” What I have written here is what we know and can reasonably infer from the text we are given on the topic of the fana. (Of course, aside from the published Silmarillion and PE 17, there are other sources that discuss this topic, but I’ve chosen to only focus on those two documents for this meta.)
Part II will cover canonical descriptions of specific Valar, as well as my personal headcanons about their appearances.
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For the Valar, physical appearance and clothing are one and the same. All Ainur are in their truest nature solely an eäla, or Spirit (distinct from the spirits of the Children, which are called fëar, and must be united with a body (hröa) to be considered ‘living’). But to the Children (well, almost entirely just to the Elves, rarely Men, and even then only certain Elves), the Valar can appear in a “raiment” called a fana (literally meaning “veil” or “cloud”), which makes them look as if they are incarnate beings.
When not “wearing” their fanar, which while in Arda was their “normal ‘raiment’” (PE 17), the Valar were invisible to incarnates, and yet “Glimpses of other manifestations were seldom given to them [the Eldar],” which implies that on occasion, the eälar of the Ainur could be visualized, though this was rare. While in their spiritual state and unbound by a fana, they could travel anywhere in Arda in an instant:
“They could go where they willed, that is could be present at once at any point in Eä where they desired to be.”
—Parma Eldalambaron No.17
(Those noted to have “passed over the Sea” from Valinor to Middle-earth were Oromë, Ulmo, and Yavanna.)
Their fanar are “self-made,” express their inner self, and can change at any time:
“They houseless[?] as spirits could go where they would (either slowly or immediately), and could then reclothe themselves.” (PE 17)
Additionally, “the Elves of Valinor asserted that unclad and unveiled the Valar were perceived by some among them as lights (of different hues) which their eyes could not tolerate; whereas the Maiar were usually invisible unclad, but their presence was revealed by their fragrance.”
Melkor, however, was said to be in this sort of manifestation “invisible, and his presence was revealed only by great dread and by a darkness that dimmed or blotted out the light and hues of all things near him” (PE 17). Also, his Úmaiar stank! But that was only when they were not wearing a physical form. Any of them could, just like other Ainur, appear with a fana, which they could “make to appear beautiful to Elvish eyes.” (See: Annatar.)
This ability was apparently not used or else taken from them after Melkor destroyed the Trees:
“After that Melkor (Morgoth) and his servants were perceived as forms of evil and enemies undisguised.” (PE 17)
This makes me wonder if they just didn’t feel the need for that kind of deception any longer, or maybe Melkor forbade them from appearing beautiful? We know that when Melkor’s hands were burned by the Silmarils, they were burned forever after, and he had a hard time changing his shape and appearance. This is also made clear when Fingolfin gives him a permanent limp after their duel:
“Morgoth went ever halt of one foot after that day, and the pain of his wounds could not be healed; and in his face was the scar that Thorondor made.”
—The Silmarillion, “Of the Fall of Fingolfin and the Ruin of Beleriand”
Personally, I lean more toward Melkor forbidding his Úmaiar to do much changing of shape out of jealousy and rage at his own condition, as we know for a certainty that at least one Úmaia, Sauron, was able to take on a fair form later on, long after Morgoth’s ultimate downfall, for he came to Eregion as Annatar in a fair disguise that fooled many. Yet even Sauron lost this ability, in part:
“But Sauron was not of mortal flesh, and though he was robbed now of that shape in which he had wrought so great an evil, so that he could never again appear fair to the eyes of Men, yet his spirit arose out of the deep and passed as a shadow and a black wind over the sea, and came back to Middle-earth and to Mordor that was his home. There he took up again his great Ring in Barad-dûr, and dwelt there, dark and silent, until he wrought himself a new guise, an image of malice and hatred made visible; and the Eye of Sauron the Terrible few could endure.”
—The Silmarillion, “Akallabêth”
The fana is called a “raiment” because it is a “cloak” over the true being-ness of the eäla. But it is a physical object, and is subject to (at least some of) the laws of physics:
“Their fanar which were originally devised out of love for the ‘Children of Eru’, the Incarnate, whom they were to guard and counsel, had the properties of the material of which the koar [note: later hröar] (or bodies) of the Elves (and also of Men) were formed; so they were not transparent, they cast shadows (if their inner luminosity was dimmed); they could move material objects, and were resisted by these, and resisted them. These fanar were, however, also personal expression (in terms suitable to the apprehension of the Incarnate) of their individual ‘natures’ and functions, and were usually also clad in vestures of similar purpose.”
—Parda Eldalamberon No.17
Fanar were also intentionally created in the manner of the bodies (hröar) of Eru’s Children:
“These were the bodily forms (like those of Elves and Men), as well as any further vestures, in which the Valar were self-incarnated. These fanar they assumed when after their demiurgic activities they came and dwelt in Arda (“the Realm”), that is the Earth; and they did so because of their love and yearning for the ‘Children of Eru’, for whom they were to prepare the world, and for a time govern it. The future forms of the bodies of Elves and Men they knew, though they had no part in their making. In these forms they presented themselves to the Elves (though they could assume other and wholly alien shapes), appearing usually as persons of majestic (but not gigantic) stature. The High Elves said that these forms were always in some degree, variable according to the occasion, ‘radiant’, as if a light from within suffused the fanar.”
—Parma Eldalambaron No.17
Thus, while fanar generally resemble the bodies of Elves and Men but more “majestic” (and always glowing at least a little from within (though while in Middle-earth “they usually occluded their radiance”), the Valar can also appear rather eldritch when they wish to (“other and wholly alien shapes”). “Majestic stature” is then further elaborated:
“The fanar of the great Valar were said by the Eldar who had dwelt in Valinor usually to have had a stature far greater than that of the tallest Elves, and when performing some great deed or rite, or issuing commands, to have assumed an awe-inspiring height.”
—Parma Eldalambaron No.17
So they were larger than elves, but not gigantic, except when they were doing “great deed[s]” or issuing commands. That of course brings to mind the Doom of Mandos, where Námo likely towered far above the Noldor; I also envision giant Valar presiding over the Ring of Doom. Námo himself is probably most often in this sort of form, as well as Manwë.
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I have a lot more thoughts (and quotes) to share on what the Valar look like, but this is where I will end Part I’s general overview of the properties of fanar. In Part II I will go over what specific Valar look like, both canonically and in my own personal headcanon!
Part II: Vestures of Purpose will be shared when I’m finished with it. Keep an eye out!
