Quote:
Originally Posted by ArcusCalion
It is precisely those passages that led to the reading we went with. The footnote you quoted, plus the statement It may however refer inaccurately* to the extrusion or flight of his spirit from Arda. both indicate that Tolkien's method of reconciling the narrative (Morgoth being thrust from the world into the Void) with his cosmological conception was to place any seeming contradiction onto Mannish misinterpretations of Elvish history: i.e. that Morgoth was thrust into the vast spaces of Ea around Arda, but due to Mannish confusion, they equated these spaces with the true Void of Uncreation that exists outside of Ea. If we were to say that Morgoth was TRULY thrust into the real Void, then we would need an indication of a direct act of Eru, per Tolkien's own note you quoted, and we have no such thing.
|
Quote:
That should mean that he was put outside Time and Space, outside Eä altogether; but if that were so this would imply a direct intervention of Eru.
|
What makes you think that Eru DIDN'T intervene here? Eru is all-powerful, and an event such as Morgoth's execution and the defeat/decline of his spirit to the point of his core
fea becoming a minute shell of his former greatness, would surely be enough to warrant Eru's involvement - to one degree or another.
Also, that footnote implies the exact opposite of what you said - it was the
Men who thought that Morgoth was yeeted into space, while most of the Elves knew better.