Morgoth's Ring (74 page)

The last intervention with physical force by the Valar, ending in the breaking of Thangorodrim, may then be viewed as not in fact reluctant or even unduly delayed, but timed with precision.

The intervention came before the annihilation of the Eldar and the Edain. Morgoth though locally triumphant had neglected most of Middle-earth during the war; and by it he had in fact been weakened: in power and prestige (he had lost and failed to recover one of the Silmarils), and above all in mind. He had become absorbed in 'kingship', and though a tyrant of ogre-size and monstrous power, this was a vast fall even from his former wickedness of hate, and his terrible nihilism. He had fallen to like being a tyrant-king with conquered slaves, and vast obedient armies.(8)

The war was successful, and ruin was limited to the small (if beautiful) region of Beleriand. Morgoth was thus actually made captive in physical form,(9) and in that form taken as a mere criminal to Aman and delivered to Namo Mandos as judge -

and executioner. He was judged, and eventually taken out of the Blessed Realm and executed: that is killed like one of the Incarnates. It was then made plain (though it must have been understood beforehand by Manwe and Namo) that, though he had 'disseminated' his power (his evil and possessive and rebellious will) far and wide into the matter of Arda, he had lost direct control of this, and all that 'he', as a surviving remnant of integral being, retained as 'himself' and under control was the terribly shrunken and reduced spirit that inhabited his self-imposed (but now beloved) body. When that body was destroyed he was weak and utterly 'houseless', and for that time at a loss and 'unanchored' as it were. We read that he was then thrust out into the Void.(10) That should mean that he was put outside Time and Space, outside Ea altogether; but if that were so this would imply a direct intervention of Eru (with or without supplication of the Valar). It may however refer inaccurately *

to the extrusion or flight of his spirit from Arda.

In any case, in seeking to absorb or rather to infiltrate himself throughout 'matter', what was then left of him was no longer powerful enough to reclothe itself. (It would now remain fixed in the desire to do so: there was no 'repentance' or possibility of it: Melkor had abandoned for ever all 'spiritual'

ambitions, and existed almost solely as a desire to possess and dominate matter, and Arda in particular.) At least it could not yet reclothe itself. We need not suppose that Manwe was deluded into supposing that this had been a war to end war, or (* [footnote to the text] Since the minds of Men (and even of the Elves) were inclined to confuse the 'Void', as a conception of the state of Not-being, outside Creation or Ea, with the conception of vast spaces within Ea, especially those conceived to lie all about the enisled

'Kingdom of Arda' (which we should probably call the Solar System).) even to end Melkor. Melkor was not Sauron. We speak of him being 'weakened, shrunken, reduced'; but this is in comparison with the great Valar. He had been a being of immense potency and life. The Elves certainly held and taught that fear or 'spirits'

may grow of their own life (independently of the body), even as they may be hurt and healed, be diminished and renewed.(11) The dark spirit of Melkor's 'remainder' might be expected, therefore, eventually and after long ages to increase again, even (as some held) to draw back into itself some of its formerly dissipated power. It would do this (even if Sauron could not) because of its relative greatness. It did not repent, or turn finally away from its obsession, but retained still relics of wisdom, so that it could still seek its object indirectly, and not merely blindly. It would rest, seek to heal itself, distract itself by other thoughts and desires and devices - but all simply to recover enough strength to return to the attack on the Valar, and to its old obsession. As it grew again it would become, as it were, a dark shadow, brooding on the confines of Arda, and yearning towards it.

Nonetheless the breaking of Thangorodrim and the extrusion of Melkor was the end of 'Morgoth' as such, and for that age (and many ages after). It was thus, also, in a sense the end of Manwe s prime function and task as Elder King, until the End.

He had been the Adversary of the Enemy.

It is very reasonable to suppose that Manwe knew that before long (as he saw 'time') the Dominion of Men must begin, and the making of history would then be committed to them: for their struggle with Evil special arrangements had been made!

Manwe knew of Sauron, of course. He had commanded Sauron to come before him for judgement, but had left room for repentance and ultimate rehabilitation. Sauron had refused and had fled into hiding. Sauron, however, was a problem that Men had to deal with finally: the first of the many concentrations of Evil into definite power-points that they would have to combat, as it was also the last of those in 'mythological' personalized (but non-human) form.

It may be noted that Sauron's first defeat was achieved by the Numenoreans alone (though Sauron was not in fact overthrown personally: his 'captivity' was voluntary and a trick). In the first overthrow and disembodiment of Sauron in Middle-earth (neglecting the matter of Luthien) (12)

Here the long version B breaks off, at the foot of a page. I give now the conclusion of version A from the point where the texts diverge (see p. 394 and note 6), beginning with the sentence corresponding to B

(p. 401) 'The last major effort, of this demiurgic kind, made by the Valar...'

The last effort of this sort made by the Valar was the raising up of the Pelori - but this was not a good act: it came near to countering Morgoth in his own way - apart from the element of selfishness in its object of preserving Aman as a blissful region to live in.

The Valar were like architects working with a plan 'passed'

by the Government. They became less and less important (structurally!) as the plan was more and more nearly achieved.

Even in the First Age we see them after uncounted ages of work near the end of their time of work - not wisdom or counsel.

(The wiser they became the less power they had to do anything

- save by counsel.)

Similarly the Elves faded, having introduced 'art and science'.(13) Men will also 'fade', if it proves to be the plan that things shall still go on, when they have completed their function. But even the Elves had the notion that this would not be so: that the end of Men would somehow be bound up with the end of history, or as they called it 'Arda Marred' (Arda Sahta), and the achievement of 'Arda Healed' (Arda Envinyanta).(14) (They do not seem to have been clear or precise - how should they be! - whether Arda Envinyanta was a permanent state of achievement, which could therefore only be enjoyed 'outside Time', as it were: surveying the Tale as an englobed whole; or a state of unmarred bliss within Time and in a 'place' that was in some sense a lineal and historical descent of our world or 'Arda Marred'. They seem often to have meant both. 'Arda Unmarred'

did not actually exist, but remained in thought - Arda without Melkor, or rather without the effects of his becoming evil; but is the source from which all ideas of order and perfection are derived. 'Arda Healed' is thus both the completion of the 'Tale of Arda' which has taken up all the deeds of Melkor, but must according to the promise of Iluvatar be seen to be good; and also a state of redress and bliss beyond the 'circles of the world'.) (15) Evil is fissiparous. But itself barren. Melkor could not 'beget', or have any spouse (though he attempted to ravish Arien, this was to destroy and distain'(16) her, not to beget fiery offspring).

Out of the discords of the Music - sc. not directly out of either of the themes,(17) Eru's or Melkor's, but of their dissonance with regard one to another - evil things appeared in Arda, which did not descend from any direct plan or vision of Melkor: they were not 'his children'; and therefore, since all evil hates, hated him too. The progeniture of things was corrupted. Hence Orcs? Part of the Elf-Man idea gone wrong. Though as for Orcs, the Eldar believed Morgoth had actually 'bred' them by capturing Men (and Elves) early and increasing to the utmost any corrupt tendencies they possessed.

Despite its incomplete state (whether due to the loss of the conclusion of the fully developed form of the essay or to its abandonment, see note 6) this is the most comprehensive account that my father wrote of how, in his later years, he had come to 'interpret' the nature of Evil in his mythology; never elsewhere did he write any such exposition of the nature of Morgoth, of his decline, and of his corruption of Arda, nor draw out the distinction between Morgoth and Sauron: 'the whole of Middle-earth was Morgoth's Ring'.

To place this essay in sequential relation to the other 'philosophical'

or 'theological' writings given in this book with any certainty seems scarcely possible, though Fionwe son of Manwe on p. 399 (for Eonwe herald of Manwe') may suggest that it stands relatively early among them (see pp. 151 - 2). It shows a marked likeness in tone to the many letters of exposition that my father wrote in the later 1950s, and indeed it seems to me very possible that the correspondence which followed the publication of The Lord of the Rings played a significant part in the development of his examination of the 'images and events'

of the mythology.(18)

NOTES.

1. Ragnarok: 'the Doom of the Gods' (Old Norse): see IX.286.

2. hroa: so written here and at the second occurrence below (and in text A), not as elsewhere always hroa, where it means the body of an incarnate being. The word used for 'physical matter' in Laws and Customs was hron, later changed to orma (p. 218 and note 26); in the Commentary on the Athrabeth and in the 'Glossary' of names the word is erma (pp. 338, 349).

3. On this sentence see p. 271.

4. Overt condemnation, strongly expressed, of the Valar for the Hiding of Valinor is found in the story of that name in The Book of Lost Tales (1.208 - 9), but disappears in the later versions. Of the old story I noted (1.223) that 'in The Silmarillion there is no vestige of the tumultuous council, no suggestion of a disagreement among the Valar, with Manwe, Varda and Ulmo actively disapproving the work and holding aloof from it', and I commented:

It is most curious to observe that the action of the Valar here sprang essentially from indolence mixed with fear. Nowhere does my father's early conception of the faineant Gods appear more clearly. He held moreover quite explicitly that their failure to make war upon Melko then and there was a deep error, diminishing themselves, and (as it appears) irreparable.

In his later writing the Hiding of Valinor remained indeed, but only as a great fact of mythological antiquity; there is no whisper of its condemnation.

The last words refer to the actual Silmarillion narratives. Ulmo's disapproval now reappears, and is a further evidence of his isolation in the counsels of the Valar (see p. 253 note 11); cf. his words to Tuor at Vinyamar (having spoken to him, among other things, of 'the hiding of the Blessed Realm', though what he said is not told): Therefore, though in the days of this darkness I seem to oppose the will of my brethren, the Lords of the West, that is my part among them, to which I was appointed ere the making of the World' (Unfinished Tales p. 29).

5. pleasaunce (= pleasance): a 'pleasure-garden'. My father used this word several times in The Book of Lost Tales (see 1.275, pleasance), for example of the gardens of Lorien.

6. At this point my father wrote on the manuscript later: 'See original short form on Fading of Elves (and Men)'. See p. 394.

This seems a clear indication that B was not completed, or that if it was its conclusion was early lost.

7. Cf. the statement on this subject in the brief text I, p. 370.

8. Since this discussion is introduced in justification of the Hiding of Valinor, the bearing of the argument seems to be that the history of Middle-earth in the last centuries of the First Age would not have been possible of achievement had Valinor remained open to the return of the Noldor.

9. As, of course, had happened to Melkor long before, after the sack of Utumno.

10. Cf. the conclusion of QS (V.332, $29): 'But Morgoth himself the Gods thrust through the Door of Night into the Timeless Void, beyond the Walls of the World'.

11. The following was added marginally after the page was written: If they do not sink below a certain level. Since no fea can be annihilated, reduced to zero or not-existing, it is no[t] clear what is meant. Thus Sauron was said to have fallen below the point of ever recovering, though he had previously recovered.

What is probably meant is that a 'wicked' spirit becomes fixed in a certain desire or ambition, and if it cannot repent then this desire becomes virtually its whole being. But the desire may be wholly beyond the weakness it has fallen to, and it will then be unable to withdraw its attention from the unobtainable desire, j even to attend to itself. It will then remain for ever in impotent desire or memory of desire.