Evil things

[Nirvana II]

ok, another question from me: did evil really diminish after the fall of morgoth???cause then later sauron just recorrupted men by going to numenor, so nothing really changed...except for the fact that beleriand was destroyed.....

[HerenIstarion]

This thread, as the evil in Arda even after Morgoth's departure, lingers on

With regards to your question - the evil as focused in the person of Morgoth did diminish, but he's will (as it was already dispersed into all the matter of Arda) remained. It refocused itself in the person of Sauron, indeed. But it is not quite true to say that 'nothing changed'. For one, silmarili were regained, and though two were lost again, one still shines as the sign of hope. And the redemption of Exile Elves came to be, and Men were given the chance to reach the peak of their possible development (Numenor), and races of the Maiar, Elves and Men were united by blood through first two Unions and many things more.

All of this would not have happened if not for Morgoth. One of the stems of Tolkien's philosophy at work:

And 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.'

[drigel]

So, if you follow the philosophy through....
Then the gold that is in the ring on my finger has a smidgen of Morgoth in it eh?

[davem]

Originally Posted by drigel

So, if you follow the philosophy through....
Then the gold that is in the ring on my finger has a smidgen of Morgoth in it eh?

Only if this world is Middle Earth in a later age. Did Tolkien think so?

[Nirvana II]

Professor T said he based Morgoth and Sauron on the Norse God/Frost Giant Loki

[drigel]

are we not still inhabiting Arda?

[HerenIstarion]

Supposedly, yes. (ask Child of Seventh Age about it )

Tolkien's world, taken from philological point of view, is a reconstruction, 'what it might have been back than' kind of world. Tolkien's creative process may be watered down, IMO, to state that 'if there is a word, and if the word is the same for many related languages, there must be, or must have been at one time, some concept hidden behind it'. So, of word for dwarf is the same for all Germanic languages, and wood-woses are remembered in place names, and world 'holbytla' has a genuine taste of reality to it, and wood's ability to walk is remebered even in Shakespear's time, than it may all have been true once, and it may be reconstructed.

Besides:

from Letter 183 (Notes on W. H. Auden's review of The Return of the King)

I am historically minded. Middle-earth is not an imaginary world. The name is the modern form (appearing in the 13th century and still in use) of midden-erd > middel-erd, an ancient name for the oikoumenē, the abiding place of Men, the objectively real world, in use specifically opposed to imaginary worlds (as Fairyland) or unseen worlds (as Heaven or Hell). The theatre of my tale is this earth, the one in which we now live, but the historical period is imaginary.

We never left ME - it is our home. The stories of Tolkien might have happened, or might have not, though .

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