Tolkien and the Monsters

[The Saucepan Man]

My topic is what started this, and I have begun it all, but please try to move back to the issue of the monsters in LotR, and how they help us to think about the nature of evil in the book.

*Puts hand in the air* Sir! Sir! Please Sir! Isn't that what we are doing? Considering what the portrayal of the likes of Orcs and Ringwraiths tells us about the nature of evil in Middle-earth? if you take my meaning, sir.

Saucie, will you please stop making that noise with your armpit? It's disgusting.

Terribly sorry, sir. But these here pans can get awful uncomfortable, and that's a fact.

*Looks about for Mistress Bêthberry to enter and commence a lecture on the proper term of address for a thread-starter on a forum that is devoted to a book which is, at the same time, both Edwardian and Mediaeval in style.*

[Legolas]

Why do orcs present a problem with redemption? Tolkien said orcs and anyone else could be redeemed - even Morgoth, though he wouldn't.

Sauron and the Balrog are corrupted Maiar, but not "born" evil just like Saruman, Gollum, and the Nazgul weren't - they all fell to evil after desiring power. They all fall in the same boat.

The Barrow Wights are evil; they weren't just creatures that protected their ground. They were soldiers manning their post, as instructed several hundred years ago.

Old Man Willow isn't what I'd call evil. He's just grumpy and overprotective - for good reasion, I think. Look at the dwindling forests now. The Watcher of the Water is somewhat similar, but I don't think of it as a person or character with the sort of thought processes the others have.

and that she did not acknowledge or care about Sauron's claims to sovereignty (which makes her a lot like the good guys, now that I come to think of it).

This definitely doesn't make her good, though (not that you implied such). She isn't necessarily upset with Sauron and looking to destroy his empire. She just wants to eat. Remind you of someone? (; It's exactly the same case with her ancestor, Ungoliant, that did not care for Morgoth's power. She just wanted to keep her stomach full.