Quote:
|
Originally Posted by hewhoarisesinmight
I've read in many places that men couldn't cope in the undying land and that their lot there would be miserable what would have happened if Melkor had not driven the Valar out of Middle Earth. Men would have arisen and lived extremly short lives, hungering after immortality that was about them so thanks to Melkor and his marring of Middle Earth men had a place where it was possible for them to live happily. I don't think Melkor intended this but I suppose it is a by product to his war on the Valar. The Valar who we know were error prone would not have realised that the paradise they created would harm men.
So I think it is right for men to worship Melkor as he saved them from the tyranny of the Valar EDIT:even unintended tyranny as it supposedly was
|
Now that question just invites flame. But you won't get it from me because it's a fair point!
Just what was it that made Melkor such an attractive proposition? What was it that made Eru and Valar unattractive?
Of course the Valar eventually retreated over to Valinor and there they made their home; this was also the 'natural' place for the Elves to abide, and though they were not forced to go there, it was viewed as inappropriate for them to remain in Middle-earth. Valinor, as it says in The Silmarillion was a Perilous Realm for Men:
Quote:
|
'The Doom of the World,' they said, 'One alone can change who made it. And were you so to voyage that escaping all deceits and snares you came indeed to Aman, the Blessed Realm, little would it profit you. For it is not the land of Manwe that makes its people deathless, but the Deathless that dwell therein have hallowed the land; and there you would but wither and grow weary the sooner, as moths in a light too strong and steadfast.'
|
So to live too close to the Valar and Elves would be difficult for Men, they would fade all the more quickly as they would be close to far too many Fear that burned brightly, strongly and eternally; their own Fear would perish in such a Light. It's well worth asking if the presence of a whole phalanx of Valar in Middle-earth would make it unbearable for Men's Fear. I happen to think it also has something to do with an essential difference in nature between Valar/Elves and Men; that the Valar are impotent in the face of the rebellion of the Numenoreans and have to resort to Eru's help speaks volumes about their 'power', or lack of it, over Men's Free Will. And of course part of that nature is that the Valar and Elves are tied to the earth and cannot leave it whereas Men are Free.
There's a lot of truth in saying that Men who did not linger around Elves would also not be likely to learn about and hence yearn for Immortality. In that respect Melkor
did do them a good service. But he also drove out a lot of knowledge and Art.
I wouldn't say they were right to worship Melkor though. I'd rather have been like a Hobbit and worshipped nothing but pipe-weed and ale.
