Melian the Maia is an Ainu of the race of the Maiar of Yavanna, wife of King Elu Thingol, Queen of Doriath, and mother of Lúthien Tinúviel. She was the fourth greatest and one of the most powerful of the Maiar. In Middle-earth, Melian was unsurpassed in both wisdom, beauty, and magical singing.
She served Vána and Estë. Melian was said to be akin to Yavanna the Valië. She is associated with songbirds, and it is said she taught nightingales how to sing and their music followed her paces. In Valinor, she dwelt in the Gardens of Lórien tending its trees, and she was the most beautiful, wise and skilled in songs of enchantment of all the people of Irmo. However, she journeyed often to Middle-earth for she loved the deep shadows of trees and forests before she met her future husband, Elu Thingol.
