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Originally Posted by Pitchwife
I would have liked, at this point, to delve a little into the theological implications of death as part of Eru's design (death as the Gift of Ilúvatar vs death as 'the wages of sin'), but discovered that this has already been discussed at length and brilliantly here: http://forum.barrowdowns.com/showthread.php?t=11971 Talk about re-inventing the wheel... |
I would certainly encourage you to do so
. A board where a topic is discusses in one, and only one, thread, is pretty much a dead board
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Anyway, I think we have to consider that the Children were introduced into the Music with the Third Theme, after Melkor had already spread discord; so their very nature, as designed by Eru, was a reaction, on Eru's side, to Melkor's initial marring of the Music.
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As far as I know, this is one of the main themes of discussion on most Tolkien boards. My personal position is that correlation does not mean implication. Though the appearance of the Eruhini was correlated with Melkor's actions, I strongly believe that the former originates purely in Eru's primary/initial intention. The purpose of the Children in creation, especially that of Men, is to take governance over Arda, to be, more or less, in the central spot of all the Universe, with everyone else fading into the background. If the purpose of Men is to replace everyone else as central players, then Melkor himself couldn't have been their source cause, since it means that by a rather unplanned action he determined the fate of valar and maiar, to a very fundamental degree. Eru excludes such a posibility, that anyone could alter his designs in his spite.