Tolkien Gateway    The gods is a name wrongly given by Men to
the Valar. While Tolkien states that Men have 'often' called the
Valar gods, in fact the term is very rare in his later books; it
is most prominently used at the debate of Estolad, where the Men
newly arrived in Beleriand dispute whether or not to remain.
This is natural, of course; they had not at this point been
tutored by the Elves in such high matters.  It is tempting to
suppose that 'Men have often called them gods' refers to the
years after the end of the Third Age, and might even suggest
equivalences between the Valar and mythological gods of later
times, such as those of the Greeks or Vikings. This cannot be
correct, however; the Valaquenta represents a very ancient text
within the context of The Silmarillion, probably dating from the
mid to late First Age, and therefore can only refer to the Men
of those times.