Sublime queen of light
Thee we recall as magnificent lady of splendour,
Whom no artist might mock well or loyally render,
Ye, who hearken fain to this tale, ought to know what befell when on her was our bewildered gaze,
Eyes of forever and infinite sight, long millennia of being, lances of starlight and a very miraculous of a maze.
The very appearance of the Valar is undoubtedly a quite tricky topic to tackle. One of those aspects that are left in a certain amount of obscurity by the Professor. We only know, thanks to the pure canons, that, after the violent clashes between Melkor and the Powers, the primordial world was shattered and utterly devastated, although its fashion was still indefinite and still in need of the intervention of the Archangels, in order to make for a proper dwelling in which the Children of Ilúvatar would live in peace and solace, as the Plan exactly encompassed. So, once the Good had triumphed and made his enemies flee in the deep places of the dark Void, the Valar elected to clothe themselves with human-like shapes; appearances that were an exact reflection of their intrinsic being, in accordance to each one's gender or inner might. However, albeit having bound themselves to a physical form (with all the relative consequences), it is not clear whether this ancestral fashion was akin to the one they would later took after the coming of the Eldar to their sacred continent. They may have initially opted for colossal resemblances, as that was an evident representation of their true potency.
As the Eldar accepted the solemn invitation of the Lords of the West, the Powers chose fashions that were more similar to the ones of their immortal guests, even though they certainly retained their own aura of authority and holy rule. Yet, in spite of the usual norm, Varda constituted an exception in herself, given that all of hers was clothed with pure radiance of unspeakable beauty. Clearest kind of light and sole testimony of the true nature of the halls in which Ilúvatar reigns, prior to all, beyond time and space.