Evil Breath
 

It is said that the Evil Breath was a wind carried out from Angband and brought sickness to Dor-Lomin. It also was the reason for Urwen's (Turin's sister) death. I presume the Evil Breath was created by Morgoth...But what exactly is the Evil Breath? And why did it cause plague only to the people of Dor-Lomin? Could it be that the curse had indeed begun earlier for Hurin's family? Since a life was claimed? (Urwen)

Definetly smallpox spores released by Sadda--err, Morgoth, that could only affect humans.

Elves, by their nature, were not subject to disease, so it's hardly surprising that the plauge only affected the humans living in Dor-Lomin.

PS - There's no such thing as a smallpox spore.

That's what they want you to think [img]smilies/smile.gif[/img]

I agree with Voronwe. There were very few Men living that close to Angband (other than in Dor-lómin, of course), so there would be few other deaths.

Some sort of disease I expect, but probably an auto-immune one rather than a direct attack (Seems like Morgoth's style to turn the body against itself). If Melkor couldn't make anything living where did diseases come from? Does that mean they were a creation of Eru?

I would say that diseases are more of a natural creature, trying to survive.

But then, I thought Ice was natural so there! [img]smilies/smile.gif[/img]


PLZ IGNORE STUPID RANT!!

Oh i understand now. So i guess that Tolkien wanted you to think that the curse had begun earlier??

Yeah, it does kind of say that Morgoth created it. I'm sure that diseases had a role in the Theme of Iluvatar like everything else; they have done pretty well as population controls in the last few thousand years. Maybe it was Mustard Gas. Tolkien was in World War 1, remember.