Morgoth's Ring (61 page)

The Elves observed that all Men died (a fact confirmed by Men). They therefore deduced that this was 'natural' to Men (sc. was by the design of Eru), and supposed that the brevity of human life was due to this character of the human fea: that it was not designed to stay long in Arda. Whereas their own fear, being designed to remain in Arda to its end, imposed long endurance on their bodies; for they were (as a fact of experience) in far greater control of them. (Author's Note 5, p. 341) Beyond the 'End of Arda' Elvish thought could not penetrate, and they were without any specific instruction. (Author's Note 6, p. 341) It seemed clear to them that their hroar must then end, and therefore any kind of re-incarnation would be impossible. (Author's Note 7, p. 342) All the Elves would then 'die' at the End of Arda. What this would mean they did not know.

They said therefore that Men had a shadow behind them, but the Elves had a shadow before them.

Their dilemma was this: the thought of existence as fear only was revolting to them, and they found it hard to believe that it was natural or designed for them, since they were essentially

'dwellers in Arda', and by nature wholly in love with Arda. The alternative: that their fear would also cease to exist at 'the End', seemed even more intolerable. Both absolute annihilation, and cessation of conscious identity, were wholly repugnant to thought and desire. (Author's Note 8, p. 343)

Some argued that, although integral and unique (as Eru from whom they directly proceeded), each fea, being created, was finite, and might therefore be also of finite duration. It was not destructible within its appointed term, but when that was reached it ceased to be; or ceased to have any more experience, and 'resided only in the Past'.

But they saw that this did not provide any escape. For, even if an Elvish fea was able 'consciously' to dwell in or contemplate the Past, this would be a condition wholly unsatisfying to its desire. (Reference to Author's Note 8) The Elves had (as they said themselves) a 'great talent' for memory, but this tended to regret rather than to joy. Also, however long the History of the Elves might become before it ended, it would be an object of too limited range. To be perpetually 'imprisoned in a tale' (as they said), even if it was a very great tale ending triumphantly, would become a torment.(5) For greater than the talent of memory was the Elvish talent for making, and for discovery. The Elvish fea was above all designed to make things in co-operation with its hroa.

Therefore in the last resort the Elves were obliged to rest on

'naked estel' (as they said): the trust in Eru, that whatever He designed beyond the End would be recognized by each fea as wholly satisfying (at the least). Probably it would contain joys unforeseeable. But they remained in the belief that it would remain in intelligible relation with their present nature and desires, proceed from them, and include them.

For these reasons the Elves were less sympathetic than Men expected to the lack of hope (or estel) in Men faced by death.

Men were, of course, in general entirely ignorant of the 'Shadow Ahead' which conditioned Elvish thought and feeling, and simply envied Elvish 'immortality'. But the Elves were on their part generally ignorant of the persistent tradition among Men that Men were also by nature immortal.

As is seen in the Athrabeth, Finrod is deeply moved and amazed to discover this tradition. He uncovers a concomitant tradition that the change in the condition of Men from their original design was due to a primeval disaster, about which human lore is unclear, or Andreth is at least unwilling to say much. (Author's Note 9, p. 343) He remains, nonetheless, in the opinion that the condition of Men before the disaster (or as we might say, of unfallen Man) cannot have been the same as that of the Elves. That is, their 'immortality' cannot have been the longevity within Arda of the Elves; otherwise they would have been simply Elves, and their separate introduction later into the Drama by Eru would have no function. He thinks that the notion of Men that, unchanged, they would not have died (in the sense of leaving Arda) is due to human misrepresentation of their own tradition, and possibly to envious comparison of themselves to the Elves. For one thing, he does not think this fits, as we might say, 'the observable peculiarities of human psychology', as compared with Elvish feelings towards the visible world.

He therefore guesses that it is the fear of death that is the result of the disaster. It is feared because it now is combined with severance of hroa and fea. But the fear of Men must have been designed to leave Arda willingly or indeed by desire -

maybe after a longer time than the present average human life, but still in a time very short compared with Elvish lives. Then basing his argument on the axiom that severance of hroa and fea is unnatural and contrary to design, he comes (or if you like jumps) to the conclusion that the fea of unfallen Man would have taken with it its hroa into the new mode of existence (free from Time). In other words, that 'assumption' was the natural end of each human life, though as far as we know it has been the end of the only 'unfallen' member of Mankind.(6) He then has a vision of Men as the agents of the 'unmarring' of Arda, not merely undoing the marring or evil wrought by Melkor, but by producing a third thing, Arda Re-made - for Eru never merely undoes the past, but brings into being something new, richer than the 'first design'. In Arda Re-made Elves and Men will each separately find joy and content, and an interplay of friendship, a bond of which will be the Past.

Andreth says that in that case the disaster to Men was appalling; for this re-making (if indeed it was the proper function of Men) cannot now be achieved. Finrod evidently remains in the hope that it will be achieved, though he does not say how that could be. He now sees, however, that the power of Melkor was greater than had been understood (even by the Elves, who had actually seen him in incarnate form): if he had been able to change Men, and so destroy the plan.(7) More strictly speaking, he would say that Melkor had not

'changed' Men, but 'seduced' them (to allegiance to himself) very early in their history, so that Eru had changed their 'fate'.

For Melkor could seduce individual minds and wills, but he could not make this heritable, or alter (contrary to the will and design of Eru) the relation of a whole people to Time and Arda.

But the power of Melkor over material things was plainly vast.

The whole of Arda (and indeed probably many other parts of Ea) had been marred by him. Melkor was not just a local Evil on Earth, nor a Guardian Angel of Earth who had gone wrong: he was the Spirit of Evil, arising even before the making of Ea. His attempt to dominate the structure of Ea, and of Arda in particular, and alter the designs of Eru (which governed all the operations of the faithful Valar), had introduced evil, or a tendency to aberration from the design, into all the physical matter of Arda. It was for this reason, no doubt, that he had been totally successful with Men, but only partially so with Elves (who remained as a people 'unfallen'). His power was wielded over matter, and through it. (Author's Note 10, p. 344) But by nature the fear of Men were in much less strong control of their hroar than was the case with the Elves. Individual Elves might be seduced to a kind of minor 'Melkorism': desiring to be their own masters in Arda, and to have things their own way, leading in extreme cases to rebellion against the tutelage of the Valar; but not one had ever entered the service or allegiance of Melkor himself, nor ever denied the existence and absolute supremacy of Eru. Some dreadful things of this sort, Finrod guesses, Men must have done, as a whole; but Andreth does not reveal what were Men's traditions on this point. (Reference to Author's Note 9)

Finrod, however, sees now that, as things were, no created thing or being in Arda, or in all Ea, was powerful enough to counteract or heal Evil: that is to subdue Melkor (in his present person, reduced though that was) and the Evil that he had dissipated and sent out from himself into the very structure of the world.

Only Eru himself could do this. Therefore, since it was un-thinkable that Eru would abandon the world to the ultimate triumph and domination of Melkor (which could mean its ruin and reduction to chaos), Eru Himself must at some time come to oppose Melkor. But Eru could not enter wholly into the world and its history, which is, however great, only a finite Drama.

He must as Author always remain 'outside' the Drama, even though that Drama depends on His design and His will for its beginning and continuance, in every detail and moment. Finrod therefore thinks that He will, when He comes, have to be both

'outside' and inside; and so he glimpses the possibility of complexity or of distinctions in the nature of Eru, which nonetheless leaves Him 'The One'. (Author's Note 11, p. 345) Since Finrod had already guessed that the redemptive function was originally specially assigned to Men, he probably proceeded to the expectation that 'the coming of Eru', if it took place, would be specially and primarily concerned with Men: that is to an imaginative guess or vision that Eru would come incarnated in human form. This, however, does not appear in the Athrabeth.

The argument is not, of course, presented in the Athrabeth in these terms, or in this order, or so precisely. The Athrabeth is a conversation, in which many assumptions and steps of thought have to be supplied by the reader. Actually, though it deals with such things as death and the relations of Elves and Men to Time and Arda, and to one another, its real purpose is dramatic: to exhibit the generosity of Finrod's mind, his love and pity for Andreth, and the tragic situations that must arise in the meeting of Elves and Men (in the ages of the youth of the Elves). For as eventually becomes plain, Andreth had in youth fallen in love with Aegnor, Finrod's brother; and though she knew that he returned her love (or could have done so if he had deigned to), he had not declared it, but had left her - and she believed that she was rejected as too lowly for an Elf. Finrod (though she was not aware of this) knew about this situation. For this reason he understood and did not take offence at the bitterness with which she spoke of the Elves, and even of the Valar. He succeeded in the end in making her understand that she was not

'rejected' out of scorn or Elvish lordliness; but that the departure of Aegnor was for motives of 'wisdom', and cost Aegnor great pain: he was an equal victim of the tragedy.

In the event Aegnor perished soon after this conversation,(8) when Melkor broke the Siege of Angband in the ruinous Battle of Sudden Flame, and the destruction of the Elvish realms in Beleriand was begun. Finrod took refuge in the great southern stronghold of Nargothrond; but not long after sacrificed his life to save Beren One-hand. (It is probable, though nowhere stated, that Andreth herself perished at this time, for all the northern realm, where Finrod and his brothers, and the People of Beor, dwelt was devastated and conquered by Melkor. But she would then be a very old woman.)(9)

Finrod thus was slain before the two marriages of Elves and Men had taken place, though without his aid the marriage of Beren and Luthien would not have come to pass. The marriage of Beren certainly fulfilled his prediction that such marriages would only be for some high purpose of Doom, and that the least cruel fate would be that death should soon end them.

Author's Notes on the 'Commentary'.

Note 1.

Because fear were held to be directly created by Eru, and 'sent into' Ea; whereas Ea was achieved mediately by the Valar.

According to the Ainulindale' there were five stages in Creation. a. The creation of the Ainur. b. The communication by Eru of his Design to the Ainur. c. The Great Music, which was as it were a rehearsal, and remained in the stage of thought or imagination. d. The 'Vision' of Eru, which was again only a foreshowing of possibility, and was incomplete. e. The Achievement, which is still going on.

The Eldar held that Eru was and is free at all stages. This freedom was shown in the Music by His introduction, after the arising of the discords of Melkor, of the two new themes, representing the coming of Elves and Men, which were not in His first communication.(10) He may therefore in stage 5 introduce things directly, which were not in the Music and so are not achieved through the Valar. It remains, nonetheless, true in general to regard Ea as achieved through their mediation.

The additions of Eru, however, will not be 'alien'; they will be accommodated to the nature and character of Ea and of those that dwell in it; they may enhance the past and enrich its purpose and significance, but they will contain it and not destroy it.

Thus the 'newness' of the themes of the Children of Eru, Elves and Men, consisted in the association of fear with, or 'housing'

them in, hroar belonging to Ea, in such a way that either were incomplete without the others. But the fear were not spirits of a wholly different kind to the Ainur; whereas the bodies were of a kind closely akin to the bodies of living things already in the primary design (even if adapted to their new function, or modified by the indwelling fear).