Námo

		(Ilúvatar)
Nienna	Námo (Mandos)		Vairë	Irmo (Lórien)

One of the more powerful of the Valar, those beings who entered Arda in its first days and set about its ordering in defiance of Melkor. Námo's role is to pronounce the judgements of the Valar, and to keep and judge the spirits of the dead. He has knowledge of all things, past and future, to enable his judgements. Námo dwells apart from the other Valar with his spouse, Vairë the Weaver, in the Halls of Awaiting on the western edge of the world.

The Halls of Námo were known to the Elves as Mandos, and that name was usually also applied to the Vala who kept them. Accounts of the Valar therefore tend to name their Doomsman as 'Mandos' in place of his less familiar true name. That name, Námo, is a word meaning 'judge', as in one who judges things as they are (as opposed to his brother Irmo, better known as Lórien, whose original name meant 'desire', and whose province concerns events that might come to pass in the future).