Quote:
Originally Posted by Inziladun
Yet the grey is still a canvas upon which Ilúvatar paints.
The Silmarillon Ainulindalë
To me, that suggests that Ilúvatar knew full well what Melkor would do, and had made Melkor with that "flaw" of character for a purpose. That purpose is unstated directly, but Eru said the above words in the presence of the other Valar, and they would take it as an article of faith that, as the Eldar later explained to the Dúnedain in Númenor, Eru did not "plant to no purpose", and that while they were expected to do their best to try and counter Melkor's acts, if they failed they were not to worry or overextend their powers, or, more importantly, their authority in fighting him.
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Exact-rr-y
@Zigur
Irrespective of idealised, or otherwise notions of metaphysics, and contemplations about the nature of Good and Evil in Tolkien's dualist universe, back to basics about the Ainulindale--Melkor is embedded in Arda, deliberately.
Quote:
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"thou, Melkor, shalt see that no theme may be played that hath not its uttermost source in me, nor can any alter the music in my despite. For he that attempteth this shall prove but mine instrument in the devising of things more wonderful, which he himself hath not imagined."
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@reader
Arda-healed is a position not antagonistic to my own. In my positioning, I use some of Tolkien's linguistic turns of phrase or nuances to position ideas about what might have ensued in any Second Making for the Second Prophesy of Mandos.. Which incidentally, does, indeed occur after the breaking of Arda--(too busy to grab my Tomes and quote from it)--where, when the Powers grow weary, Melkor returns thru the Doors of Night to do battle at Ezellohar. My ideas are not overly concerned with 'measuring' the relative 'power quotient' in a ranking of the Valar. I realise I made some points about the First Age and used ideas in The Silmarillion to 'rank' Melkor's power against his bretheren. Melkor (and all the Valar) bleed power as they 'invest' their might into the Firmament of Arda. Central to what I'm suggesting, in any case, is that A Second Making would, indeed, need to break the firmament of Arda to reorganise reality.
I'm pondering, then about revisionist expressions of Valar-ian power, where the question and notion of Evil is addressed. The problem is the tendency for the Arda-ian mind to be divisionist in how she or he purposefully splits the universe (and so their own mind--entre Gollum/Sméagol) with
critical fracture lines. On 'this' side of the fracture--all is Good--and on 'that' side--all is Evil. That is, to their own peril, every being in Arda devises splits, within the mind, dividing their universe up. An Orc is the mirror-image-inverse fractured mind of the Elf, and the two beings, do indeed, imply the existence of a gestalt, or a synergy being that is greater in measure, insight, subtlety and purpose than either Elf of Orc, for example. The same applies for the 'Evil-Vala--Good-Vala' critical fracture line. They two are interdependent, and inspire (Eru) things 'more wonderful' than *either* being could devise, singularly.
Which is to remind us of Eru's own words where:
Quote:
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...For he that attempteth this shall prove but mine instrument in the devising of things more wonderful, which he himself hath not imagined
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We have not seen these 'more wonderful' creations yet, because 'he himself hath not imagined' them.
This is where I found an insight about the Good/Evil bifurcation about creations in Arda. It's implied in the Mythology, tacitly, everywhere I look. Unsight for a creation in Arda, is the idealising of notions of dynamic flow of good and evil 'energies' in metaphysical planes (and much more beyond. Inverses of an inverse imply, tacitly and explicitly, the 'things wonderful' running Evil in the INverse.
So, for example, for Ungoliant's Unlight, visualise her as a 'power station' and 'vacuum cleaner' and plugging her into an "inversion-inverter" -- some kind of Artefact that conjoins Arda's expressions of The Flame Imperishable, with the 'recycling' function of Evil.
Wraith, Necromantic and Evil manifestations, in the end, are just inversions of life. If the moral implications of 'Evil' are suspended, just for a moment, these ideas of Sauron and Melkor merely imply and prompt the birthing of 'more wonderful' creations.
For example--and this one was a flash I had today. If the Three Rings had been crafted with a 'failsafe' that recognised the 'signature' of metaphysical 'flow' of The Flame Imperishable running in the Inverse (i.e. Necromancy), there is no reason to have pre-supposed that the Mirdain could have created The Rings to 'backflow' or 'backflush' an attempt by a Sauronic tyrant to dominate the Rings. In this reformulation of The Rings of Power, the attempt to subvert a being wearing a Ring would experience and amplified, backflush, of Elvendom, in a positive feedback loop, so that a takeover attempt propagated Elvendom into the Wielder of the One. This does not need 'more power than Sauron' this modelling of energetics merely needs to devise a 'flow parameter' that inverts the polarity of a 'takeover' attempt, which, then, uses an Evil Compulsion quite against itself. No additional power required.
That is but one idea about what reorganisation of reality would be required, to 'heal' Arda by interlocking antithetical, seemingly opposed 'power' concepts into ideas that are synergistic.
In the end, energetics of magic in Arda do imply ideas about 'flow'. One 'flow' is the Giving of 'radiance' of the 'Valinorean planes of existence'. One 'flow' is the syphoning--taking--of life, to, presumably, return some feature of energy back to The Void.