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Originally Posted by Beleg
I personnaly think that Melkor is the second greatest Vala because of that. His part is to counterpoise Manwë. He might be the opposite, or even better, the complement. It is a kind of Yin/Yang, there is no order without chaos.
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I would go further, actually, and venture that He Who Arises In Might is a far greater being than the Lord of the Breath of Arda. Melkor is the classic immoralist; they've existed, thrived, and burnt brilliantly out at the last ever since the Platonic interlocutor Thrasymachus scorned Socrates' belief in morality.
Thrasymachus argued that morality is imposed by the fear of weak beings at full human potential. Immorality, if practised on a large enough scale, he says, is more free, more honest, and leads to a truer fulfillment of the powers of the human spirit.
It is in this way that Melkor acts (along with the more minor villains of Tolkien) and I see a heroism in his rebellion that I'm not sure Tolkien himself sympathised with. He's not satisfied by Illuvatar's word. He wants to see, to possess, to create, himself. Manwe sticks to his father's orders and profits thereby; but he hardly achieves greatness. Countless heroes of the Eldar and Edain (themselves striving against the thought of Melkor, as Melkor strove against Eru's) perish because of his saintly indifference.
Like all immoralists, including Thrasymachus, who Socrates eventually out-debated, Melkor's argument cannot prevail over the united forces of morality, and he is doomed to sink as low as he was once great; but he leaves his legacy behind him, while Manwe and the other Valar retreat entirely from the world.
Melkor and Sauron both bear comparison to Alberich in Wagner's Ring, of course, who takes the same kind of route. It is the wrong route, true, but it certainly leads to greatness.