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

[obloquy]

Originally Posted by Raynor

Well, as we know from the Ainulindale, the true source of Melkor's actions still resides with Eru; moreover the last paragraph of the Silmarillion states that the evil seeds planted by Melkor still give fruit. In a sense, this is what made it possible for him to be defeated - he dissipated his power, he diminished himself so that he may perpetuate his works through an long lasting corruption of Arda. In a sense, the Marrer did not leave Arda; Melkor might be gone (he might even repent ), but his essence of evil is ever at work.

I think you're seeing the glass as half empty. As I pointed out in post 35 above, Melkor's slow self-defeat may be a foreshadowing of the gradual mending of Arda itself. The Melkor element is not necessarily evil. True, the way in which Melkor behaved as Morgoth, when he had become physical himself, was evil according to those laws of morality that govern physical beings. But wasn't Melkor's mar actually effected when his voice disrupted and overpowered those of the others during the Music? That spiritual event is what Iluvatar brought into physical existence and it continues to unfold: there are eruptions of discord and epochs of dissonance, but Iluvatar himself is its ultimate source, and if we could view it all at once, as only Iluvatar can, we might see the "grand design." The healing of Arda may not be just in spite of Melkor's efforts, but may actually be made possible only by the power of his essence and how much of it he invested in Arda, which is surely more than any other Power.