Posted: January 04, 19100 at 00:55:15: by DAVID
: Now, I see that a subject that I have been struggling with is already being brought up in the "search for a Hero"- thread, so I will post it before my own thoughts on the matter has ripened- even though the subject has been touched before.
: We know that all the Ainu were created by the thought of Ilúvatar, including Melkor, and we know (since he tells us so) that there can be no creation, no thought NOTHING that has not its origin with Ilúvatar. Now, this must thus entail Melkor's rebellion, everything Melkor does has its ultimate foundation in the thought of Ilúvatar that created him. Is Ilúvatar evil then? And what is the nature and purpose of evil? To create something even more beautiful in the end, something that not even the evil mind itself could foresee? Why then is Ilúvatar wroth with Melkor when he continues to sing his own theme in The Music? Is evil but a part of Ilúvatar symbolised by Melkor? is its purpose to achieve balance between good and evil (well to engage in a struggle with good for supremacy and thus be a catalyst for good to rise to greater good)? Is it merely created to avoid a neutral grey mass?
: I know little of mythology (apart from the Norse one of my forefathers) so I am really struggling with these questions that has arisen from a debate between one of my player Characters and an NPC where the PC was embarking on the path of evil by ambition, selfaggrandisation and bloodthirst (he wanted to kill a dragon merely because it was evil and to secure its skin- the NPC would help him out of friendship but bade him ponder the reasons behind the fall of the Noldor, the Maiar and even Melkor himself). Consequently I need some wise words of those more knowledgeable on (catholic) religion than I, or of those merely wiser.
: Neithan Turambar (Palle)
Wow, very good questions! I think ultimately we'll never know what exactly Tolkien meant by this statement by Illuvatar. But a good guess, seeing as how Tolkien was a Catholic, the answers provided below are accurate. C.S. Lewis, a relatively well known Christian author, made a good point in one of his books that even the Devil, or in this case Melkor, was not totally devoid of good. He had life, intelligence, talents etc. These in themselves were good and would not be possible w/o God. All that the Devil/Melkor have is simply what they were given them by God. But they used these for evil purposes. Even though what they did was evil and caused great harm to God/Illuvatar's creation it was actually used to show the preeminance of good over evil and how, ultimately, evil carries w/in itself the seeds of it's own destruction. While good will always pervade, many times, as a result of evil. I'm thinking this might be what Tolkien was alluding to.
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