Quote:
Originally Posted by Legate of Amon Lanc
...
Now, this can of course mean two things, one can mean some utter annihilation of those "evil elements" in the sense of utter annihilation of Melkor and Sauron and other "bad guys". But what I think Findegil had in mind was the possibility of some sort of transformation of those "bad guys", that is, they won't anymore play their music against the theme, but along with it. And I would actually support that idea. Yes, the evil elements are definitely annihilated, but that does not require annihilation of Sauron himself. And it says: "all shall then understand fully his intent in their part, and each shall know the comprehension of each, and Ilúvatar shall give to their thoughts the secret fire, being well pleased." So if we understood it the way that this would also apply to Sauron, it would actually be some sort of "revelation moment" for Sauron, when he would finally also understand his own purpose, which he himself had not been aware of before. I think that's quite a nice and hopeful idea.
Hope that helps clarifying it  |
## Metaphysical problem: if the "evil elements" don't exist, they can't be annihilated. Evil is not a thing in itself - it's a lack of a good that is meant to be present. Evil is not a
thing in Sauron - it's an absence of a good. Strength, deliberation,wisdom, intelligence, and other qualities required for doing evil, are all good things - Sauron had all of these, as when he deceived Ar-Pharazon.
Tolkien could hardly have been unaware of Boethius (d.524), or of the Old English version of Boethius' "Consolation of Philosophy" - & Boethius is the main author to whom later centuries owed that notion of evil. That evil is unreal fits nicely with the rest of the metaphysical notions in the
legendarium.