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The White CouncilNature of EvilTolkien and Inklings Discussion |
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The White CouncilNature of EvilTolkien and Inklings Discussion |
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Posted by Neithan on January 03, 19100 at 08:50:15 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) |
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