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But Morgoth himself the Valar thrust through the Door of Night beyond the Walls of the World, into the Timeless Void; and a guard is set for ever on those walls, and Earendil keeps watch upon the ramparts of the sky. Yet the lies that Melkor, the mighty and accursed, Morgoth Bauglir, the Power of Terror and of Hate, sowed in the hearts of Elves and Men are a seed that does not die and cannot be destroyed; and ever and anon it sprouts anew, and wil bear dark fruit even unto the latest days.
~The Sil, Of the Voyage of Earendil and the War of Wrath
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A passage at the end that sumarises the irony, the feeling of a long defeat, the whole nature of The Sil. It's all concentrated in here.
But that's not the only reason I want to bring it up. In a way it suggests that the evil of ME, and possibly of our world as well, lies in lies. (
) Morgoth brought discord to the world even before it was created, and with it he brought a lie, a pretence that he wants to take care of it just like the other Valar. And from then on 'lies' stemmed into treachery, deciet, tricks, and etc and etc. When I think about it it makes more and more sense to me. It all involves lies.
Morgoth used lie after lie, sham after sham, to get the Noldor to revolt and during their war. His underlings did exactly the same. But lies were used in "good" context as well in the legendarium (although generally not):
-Frodo lies to Gollum to try and save him near Heneth Annun.
-Bilbo tricks the Dwarves and gives the Arkenstone to Thranduil
-Isildur saves the fruit of the Tree in disguise
-Amandil sails West against the king's laws
-Maedhros' attempt to trick Morgoth into giving back the Silmarils (which resulted in him being captured)
-The idea of bluff in the Battle of Cormallen
-and others.
Although in most of these those lying are uncomfortable with it, or they do it because they have no other choice, or it is a choice between a lie and something much worse. Yet deceit is used against "evil". Is this the case of everything serving Eru's purpose in the end? It doesn't really seem so, since most of the lying is still done by the opposite side. What is it then?
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What is it about "Eärendil in the Sky with Silmaril" that gives hope to the people of Middle-earth?
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From the start they were rather attached to the Stars. Stars always meant hope for them. A new star, hence, means new hope. Moreover, this unexpected bit of light in the West was like a signal to them that help unlooked for will come from Valinor. I don't think that many of them got the direct message (who would, if the help is
unlooked for?), but the idea of hope reached them (possibly with the help of their close connection with nature).
It makes perfect sense for the story that Earendil is literally halfelven. But that is a bit strange in the broader picture, since he is the only one of the Peredhil to be exactly half-half. Tolkien never seemed to me as one who paid much attention to being politically-correct. Earendil must really be a special case with the symbolic representation of the Two Kindreds.