Evil in the Fouth Age and Beyond

[Child of the 7th Age]

Piosenniel -- Hi! In both his Letters and The Peoples of Middle-earth, Tolkien says that the third age is the last one "in which evil assumes a single dominant incarnate shape". He also says Sauron was:

the first of many concentrations of Evil into definite power-points that they {i.e. man} would have to combat, as it was also the last of those in "mythological" personalized (but non-human) form

So, according to Tolkien, we'll have a lot of little Sarumans, but no more great Saurons or Morgaths until the last conflict.

There's another thread on this board that relates to this--the one about The New Shadow which was Tolkien's draft pages of a new novel set in the fourth age. This story was going to trace how men quickly became disenchanted with peace and started secret societies practicing "dark cults" plus adolescents with "orc cults." Tolkien made several tries, then abandoned it. He felt the whole history he had developed had come to its true end with the Downfall of Sauron, and anything that came after would be little more than a thriller. So I guess he also "missed" the lack of a central figure of true evil like Morgoth or Sauron.

sharon, the 7th age hobbit

[ May 23, 2002: Message edited by: Child of the 7th Age ]