Vai

The Outer Ocean as per BoLT1.

Practically understood almost the same as Vaitya.


Details and Comments

Tolkien started working on the "The Book of Lost Tales" in 1916-17 during the First War, when he was 25 years old, but he left it incomplete several years later. Those writings - though very early and called provisional, however seem to be the only place where a very detailed description of the airs around the new world is given.

From Appendix;Names in the Lost tales -- Part I:

Vai - The root VAYA 'enfold' in QL yields Vai 'the Outer Ocean', Vaimo or Vailimo 'Ulmo as Ruler of Vai', vaima 'robe', vainė 'sheath', vainolė 'quiver', vaita- 'to wrap', Vaitya 'the outermost airs beyond the world', etc. In Gnomish the form is Bai, with related words Baithon 'the outer airs', baith 'garment', baidha 'to clothe', bain 'clad (Q. vaina)'.”

Also, as in the words of Ulmo to the rest of the Valar:

“Lo, there is but one Ocean, and that is Vai, for those that Ossė esteemeth as oceans are but seas, waters that lie in the hollows of the rock... In this vast water floateth the wide Earth upheld by the world of Ilśvatar...”

This is the only layer of airs around the world, a subject described in details in BoLT1, that survived in the later writings which were entered into the final version - the Published Silmarillion.

From "The Silmarillion"; Quenta Silmarillion; Chapter 1 - "Of the Beginning of Days" :

"….the Outer Sea, that is called by the Elves Ekkaia, encircling the Kingdom of Arda. How wide is that sea none know but the Valar; and beyond it are the Walls of the Night:


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