[Lord Gothmog]

Ancalagon's Fire.

I agree with you about the way Eru is portrayed in the Silmarillion. He does not come across as compatible with the Traditional Christian God. As I have said before, Tolkien drew upon far more that just Christian traditions to write these books. However, I disagree about your view that Light and Dark are no more than Good and Evil. I do not believe that having Darkness predetermines your course, only that it tends to guide you in that way. In Melkor's case indeed it cannot even be said that he was totally Dark.

To Melkor among the Ainur had been given the greatest gifts of power and knowledge, and he had a share in all the gifts of his brethren.

So for Melkor to have a share in all the gifts of his brethren would mean that to some extent he had a Light side also. To account for his turning his gifts to Evil, we must look at more than just the fact that there was darkness in his make-up.

He had gone often alone into the void, and he was impatient of its emptiness. Yet he found not the Fire, for it is with Ilúvatar. But being alone he had begun to conceive thoughts of his own unlike those of his brethren.

It was at this point, in my view that he started down the path to Evil. Had he remained with the rest of the Ainur, he may not have conceived the thoughts that finally set him apart from the followers of Eru's plan for Arda. He might have been then, as he was in the beginning, the Greatest of the Ainur and the greatest of the Valar.

You say.

Yet still, even before the music, Melkor had the capacity to hate. What exactly was it that Yavanna knew?
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for Melkor she knew from before the making of the Music and rejected him, and he hated her.
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What had she known about Melkor if not that in his very essence he was evil, not dark.

Yavanna rejected Melkor before the making of the Music because he was Evil I agree. However, I ask 'How long before the making of the Music was it that Yavanna rejected him for this reason. At first she may have been repelled by the Darkness within him, and later, after he had gone alone into the void, when he had turned to evil she totally rejected him. This would have still been before the Making of the Music, but some time after the beginnings of the Ainur. So In his very essence at the beginning, he would not have been Evil, he would have only had a tendency to that way, the Evil would have come later by his choices. It might even be the case that the rejection by Yavanna was the final straw that turned him completely. He could not have the love and respect of Yavanna so he went totally against those who would become the Valar.

You next say.

Manwë knew not evil and could not understand it, therefore he is inherently good, not light. This in turn means he is easily deceived by Melkor. This presents another question as to whether one actually views Manwë as good, because his decisions were not entirely rational and forgiving.

You have in this paragraph given the very reason why I chose to use the terms "Light" and "Dark" instead of "Good" and "Evil". Manwë and Melkor were the extreme ends of the spectrum of "Light" to "Dark". You say at the beginning that Manwë is "Good" not "Light" then ask if Manwë can be "Good". No, his decisions were not entirely rational and forgiving, the very fact that he was as far or even further into the Light as Melkor was into the Dark means that there is a danger that he could be as much of a dictator as Melkor, and even worse for the peoples of Middle-earth. Anything taken to the extreme can become Evil. In Manwë's case I think it was only that he did not have as much "Free Will" as Melkor that prevented him from going to the point of doing Evil for Good intentions.

finally you ask.

My question now leads me to ask why does evil need to be personified in Melkor, yet good is not so easily personified, but measured?

In the case of Evil being personified in Melkor while Good is not. Melkor is the Most Dark, Manwë is the Most Light, in between there are all the rest of the Ainur. Of those who came to Arda, the rest of the Valar, the Maiar, the Servants of Morgoth (Sauron, Balrogs and all others) show that Light or Dark, both are measured from one extreme to the other. it is only the each end that is personified.

And I give to you another question that arises from this.

Is being the "Greatest" a guarantee of Goodness or of Evilness?

Melkor was the "Greatest" of the Ainur. Later we have Féanor being called the "Greatest" of the Elves. Both fell from the hights of Greatness to the utter depths of Darkness. Is there a link between them and their "Greatness".
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