Sauron vs. Your Mama - A Discussion of Power in Middle-earth

[Raynor]

Originally Posted by obloquy

I said Adam and Eve were created with free will.

My bad, I misread

Originally Posted by alatar

But if you lived in the south, far from Morgoth's reach, did the more powerful evil even enter into your daily life?

Well, it's not like Melkor and the balrogs went from door to door converting good people, up in the north . Balrogs exited Angband only for the greatest battles, while Melkor came out of his will only to battle Fingolfin (he might have waged many battles himself previous to getting imprisoned the first time, but that was prior to the coming of Men). However, it is likely that, during his reign, many, if not most, of all Men were still subdued by him, doing his will - due to fear, some curses of fear (as with Maeglin, for example), sheer corruption, or whatever other means he found available. Later on, with no such power figure around them, Men were increasingly capable to part from evil. I'll try later to elaborate more on this.