How the mighty do fall!

[William Cloud Hicklin]

facing that ultimate knowing of death or ending, would have pieced his God-headed vanity.

Not death or ending: no Ainu can be killed within Ea. He was reduced to a shadow of malice gnawing itself in the dark, unable to grow or take shape again. "While no fëa can be annihilated, reduced to zero or non-existence, an evil spirit becomes fixed in a certain desire, and if it does not repent then this desire can become virtually its whole being. If the desire is wholly beyond the limits of the spirit, it will be unable to withdraw its attention from the unobtainable desire, even to attend to itself. It will then remain forever in impotent desire or memory of desire."

[Zigûr]

Originally Posted by William Cloud Hicklin

no Ainu can be killed within Ea.

It depends what you mean by "killed" though, doesn't it? Morgoth was literally killed when he was executed by Mandos at the end of the First Age, as in his body was damaged so much that it stopped working and his fëa could no longer resided within it.

I agree that the case of Sauron was different, however; his body probably fell apart or ceased to exist when the Ring was destroyed, rather than him being "killed" as we understand it; that being said, he was described as having been "slain" at the end of the Second Age.

[Inziladun]

Originally Posted by Zigûr

It depends what you mean by "killed" though, doesn't it? Morgoth was literally killed when he was executed by Mandos at the end of the First Age, as in his body was damaged so much that it stopped working and his fëa could no longer resided within it.

I take "killed" to mean the state for any sentient creature in Arda whose physical form is separated from the fea.
In terms of Ainu, that should only apply when the forms are 'real', such as the Istari, who were ensconced in actual bodies which they could not at will discard, and Sauron, who had built himself a form that was tied to the world.

[Belegorn]

Originally Posted by Zigûr

It depends what you mean by "killed" though, doesn't it? Morgoth was literally killed when he was executed by Mandos at the end of the First Age, as in his body was damaged so much that it stopped working and his fëa could no longer resided within it.

You're on the verge of thinking like Melkor about destroying matter being the end all be all. Yea his body was destroyed after he was decapitated and that ended him as an incarnate being, but he lives on. This is especially true with him even though he became a shell of his former self since his essence was not destroyed like with Sauron in the Ring. I don't know how he might be able to draw back that power into himself as it was suggested he might do. Makes me wonder about Sauron and the Ring and why not him with that.

[Zigûr]

Originally Posted by Belegorn

You're on the verge of thinking like Melkor about destroying matter being the end all be all. Yea his body was destroyed after he was decapitated and that ended him as an incarnate being, but he lives on.

I just came back upon this thread and noticed this. I am aware that Melkor "still lives" after the War of Wrath and that his fëa cannot be destroyed, but that's true of all beings in Eä - being killed just means that the hröa can no longer house the fëa. To my mind this corresponds with what Professor Tolkien says in the essay found in Morgoth's Ring:

Morgoth was thus actually made captive in physical form, and in that form taken as a mere criminal to Aman and delivered to Namo Mandos as judge and executioner. He was judged, and eventually taken out of the Blessed Realm and executed: that is killed like one of the Incarnates. It was then made plain (though it must have been understood beforehand by Manwe and Namo) that, though he had 'disseminated' his power (his evil and possessive and rebellious will) far and wide into the matter of Arda, he had lost direct control of this, and all that 'he', as a surviving remnant of integral being, retained as 'himself' and under control was the terribly shrunken and reduced spirit that inhabited his self-imposed (but now beloved) body. When that body was destroyed he was weak and utterly 'houseless', and for that time at a loss and 'unanchored' as it were.

"killed like one of the Incarnates" suggests to me that "killed" in this context specifically means "having the hröa destroyed such that the fëa can no longer reside in it." Just because Melkor's fëa still exists doesn't mean he wasn't "killed". Elves can be killed, but their fëa persist and can be reborn. Men can be killed and their fëa go to Mandos. It's less common for an Ainu to be killed, but if they become bound to a single body, as Morgoth did, they can. It doesn't mean they can't recover from that, because we know Melkor could, but we wouldn't say Elves can't die or be killed just because they can be reincarnated, would we?

As Inzil points out above, Gandalf and Saruman were both also killed, despite being maiar: the hröa to which the fëa was bound was destroyed. Otherwise we might as well say that Wizards, Elves, Morgoth and practically anyone else besides Men and Dwarves is only "disembodied" or "temporarily inconvenienced" rather than "killed".

Sauron is also described as being "slain" in letter 131, in reference to a time when he appears to have been bound to a single body, at the end of the Second Age: "Gilgalad and Elendil are slain in the act of slaying Sauron". I note, however, that in the Appendices to The Lord of the Rings Professor Tolkien uses the more ambiguous term "overthrown", perhaps to simultaneously indicate the breaking of his power as well as his personal (temporary) demise and to avoid confusing readers who might be wondering how he seemingly "came back to life" given that it's not very clear in The Lord of the Rings itself as to what manner of being Sauron is.

[Aaron]

I think Aragorn had a line which summed it up quite nicely:

If simple folk are free from care and fear, simple they will be.

The Hobbits are saved by their humility. Aragorn is a good King because he lowered himself to live a hard life rather than enjoy the pleasures of the world. Eomer suffered exile, Faramir suffered his father's constant disapproval.

In Tolkien's world, hardship purifies the characters - whereas the villains flatter themselves with lofty titles and airs and graces. Saruman the Wise, Sauron the Great, the Witch-King who boasts of his own immortality.

It's a very Christian view, in line with Tolkien's deeply held faith.

[William Cloud Hicklin]

However, the small and weak can also fall, they just do less damage when they do. Smeagol, Lotho, Grima, Bill Ferny are just some of those who fell to the temptations of petty power or trivial wealth, and as far as they were concerned then their fall was no less than that of a Feanor or Ar-Pharazon.

[Leaf]

Since this thread has already been resurrected, I might as well add my two cents on the original subject matter.

Back in 2004, the user Gorwingel offered an interesting interpretation:

Originally Posted by Gorwingel

All of the mighty who did fall in Tolkien's works, fell because they went to the evil side and strayed from their original purpose. They gave into their own personal greed, and desires for greatness and domination over everything. The mighty who didn't fall (like Gandalf) stuck to their original purpose, and kept on basically a path of "good". And of course they were rewarded in the end.

The observation that not all of the ever so powerful entities in the middle-earth mythos do indeed fall, seems important to me. We encounter many instances of supremely powerful beings that don't get corrupted and twisted. First and formeost there's Manwë and the rest of the Valar. They may err at times but they ultimately stay true to their path. The same can be said for less powerful beings like Gandalf or Galadriel. They key difference between those characters and evil characters lies in the willingness to oblige to their preordained roles in the cosmic plan. This difference in attitude marks a certain breaking point: Melkor, Sauron, Saruman, the Númenóreans, and so forth, all of them went astray in ther desire for things that were beyond their stature and standing. This insight bears the quiet depressing notion that everything and everyone ought to stay right where they belong, or else...!

I think this is why these fallen characters are able to claim a somewhat rebellious and free-spirited appearance for themselves which consistently attracts an entourage of less powerful but like-minded mortals. And this claim isn't solely a lie or a ruse to catch some minions. Its plausibility rests on the fact that it can be quite scarry to surrender one's own fortune and wellbeing to a largely unknown and vague but indisputable cosmic plan.