This is the creation story from Tolkien's
Lord of the Rings prequel
The Silmarillion. Just for explanation: "Iluvatar" is the name for God, and the 'Ainur' are something like high-ranking angels. Anyone familiar with the Bible will be able to tell that the Catholic Tolkien has crafted his creation story to mirror the teaching of Scripture.
"And
many other things Iluvatar spoke to the Ainur at that time, and because of
their memory of his words, and the knowledge that each has of the music that he
himself made, the Ainur know much of what was, and is, and is to come, and few
things are unseen by them. Yet some things there are that they cannot see,
neither alone nor taking counsel together; for to none but himself has Iluvatar
revealed all that he has in store, and in every age there come forth things
that are new, and have no foretelling, for they do not proceed from the past.
And so it was that as this vision of the World was played before them, the
Ainur saw that it contained things which they had not thought. And they saw
with amazement the coming of the children of Iluvatar, and the habitation that
was prepared for them; and they perceived that they themselves in the labor of
their music had been busy with the preparation of this dwelling, and yet knew
not that it had any purpose beyond its own beauty. For the children of Iluvatar
are conceived by him alone; and they came with the third theme, and were not in
the theme which Iluvatar propounded at the beginning, and none of the Ainur had
part in their making. Therefore when they beheld them, the more did they love
them, being things other than themselves, strange and free, wherein they saw
the mind of Iluvatar reflected anew, and learned yet a little more of his
wisdom, which otherwise would have been hidden even from the Ainur."
–J.R.R. Tolkien, The Silmarillion
