Redefining Good & Evil

[William Cloud Hicklin]

It was money, but wasn't it also love? Love for Eowyn?

Nonsense. It was lust, or at least the desire to possess. It's the 'love' of the stalker. Grima cared nothing in the least for Eowyn's desires or happiness as a fellow, equal, human being. He just wanted to own her: the literal objectification of another person.

And, no, Eru didn't 'will' or 'cause' it, as if he was pulling Grima's strings. Tolkien does make use of the Deus ex Machina, but only in indirect fashions.

Grima was selfish, and thus evil. He was so, chose to be so, on his own. All Men and even Elves are capable of so doing because all of Arda was Fallen from the beginning.