Nienna is a fictional character in J. R. R. Tolkien's legendarium. She is introduced in The Silmarillion as one of the Ainur, one of the Queens of the Valar and one of the Aratar. She was the sister of Mandos and Irmo. Her name meant She who weeps. Or perhaps, in light of Tolkien's Catholicism, she was named after the charism of the Gift of Tears (Quenya nie 'tear' + anna 'gift'). She lives in the far West of Arda, grieves for the suffering of the world, and comforts the spirits of the dead who wait in the halls of Mandos: he dwells alone. She is acquainted with grief, and mourns for every wound that Arda has suffered in the marring of Melkor. So great was her sorrow, as the Music unfolded, that her song turned to lamentation long before its end, and the sound of mourning was woven into the themes of the World before it began. But she does not weep for herself; and those who hearken to her learn pity, and endurance in hope. Her halls are west of West, upon the borders of the world; an...