A little-known member of the Valar, Nessa is accounted the least of the Powers. Like her brother, the HuntsmanOromë, she seems to have had a connection with the wilds, and was said to run through them with deer in her following, and to dance on the lawns of Valinor. Nessa was the spouse of Tulkas the Strong, and wedded him on the isle of Almaren in the Spring of Arda, when the Valar still dwelt in Middle-earth and Melkor had been banished from the world for a time.
Beyond these sparse facts, we know almost nothing about Nessa's role among the Valar or her history. Though she is now largely forgotten, she seems to have been known more widely among the Eldar and even the Númenóreans. There is a record of a tree named Nessamelda, whose name means 'beloved of Nessa', and an early member of a Númenórean noble family was given the name Nessanië, apparently connecting her to the Vala Nessa. So, the people of Eldamar and Númenor seem to have held some reverence for Nessa, though little of their lore survived into later accounts.
Notes
1
At least, The Etymologies in volume 5 of The History of Middle-earth expressly derive Nessa's name from a root word meaning 'young'. However, the essay Quendi and Eldar in volume 11, written long afterward, offers a different explanation. That source describes conjectures among the loremasters of the Elves that the name in fact came from a feminine form of the Elvish root ner, 'man, male'. That combination was said to imply 'she that has manlike valour or strength'.
Other sources beyond these take a different approach, suggesting that her name was actually a title in the language of the Valar, with an unknown meaning. There are also a number of references to Nessa sometimes being known by other names: as Indis in Quenya or Díneth in Sindarin, both of which translate as 'bride' (which must relate to her being the spouse of the warrior ValaTulkas).
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