King of the Valar, Lord of the Breath of Arda, and husband of Varda. Manwe is the noblest of the Ainur and the one closest in thought and purpose to Iluvatar himself; in the great Music he understood most clearly the will of the One. He dwells atop Taniquetil, the highest mountain in Arda, in the white halls of Ilmarin, and from his throne he surveys the whole of the world with sight keener than any other. He is lord of the airs and winds, of cloud and the upper regions, and the Great Eagles of the North are his servants and his messengers.
Made brother in the thought of Iluvatar to Melkor, the mightiest of the Ainur, Manwe stands as his utter opposite: serene, just, and free of all desire for mastery -- though his one frailty is that, being wholly without evil himself, he cannot always foresee or comprehend it in others, and so was deceived when Melkor feigned repentance and was loosed from his chains. He is slow to wrath, but his wrath once roused is terrible. When at the last the plea of Elves and Men was carried to him by Earendil, it was Manwe who sent forth the host of the Valar in the War of Wrath; and when Morgoth was overthrown, it was Manwe who pronounced his doom, thrusting him out through the Door of Night into the Void beyond the Walls of the World.