Can anything good come from Men?

[Legate of Amon Lanc]

Originally Posted by littlemanpoet

Second, it's interesting to me how Tolkien's legendarium - myth, really, compares and contrasts to the ancient mythologies, northern and otherwise, with which he was familiar. In point of fact, I don't think there are any myths that have the villainous evil deity in the north (there may be one or many, but I don't recollect them). There is, however, in many of the primary myths with which we are these days familiar - - Mayan, Egyptian, Babylonian, Greek/Roman, etc. - - an interesting correlation to the north, in that the primary deity is understood to be at the north, literally at the north pole, and is associated with the ancient sun god, be it Ra, Saturn, Quetzalchoatl, or whoever. That Tolkien has his northern power be evil is at odds to most of these, but there's one exception: Lucifer in the Hebrew "mythos", written by one Isaiah. The description of Lucifer matches that of Saturn, Ra, etc. in other cultural myths except that Lucifer is evil, like Morgoth.

Actually, the North is - sometimes - associated with the place of evil, with some northern cultures, simply because it is cold and dark. But that is not a rule, of course, as you say.

Nevertheless, the idea with Lucifer occured to me before as well. I think it is very likely that Tolkien was thinking of this one. Indeed, the verses in Isaiah 14

For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north: I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High.
Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit.

fit for Morgoth perfectly, I think.

Just as a side note, though, as you mentioned it - the original mythos does not come from Isaiah and in fact, it fits those "god in the North" patterns. Isaiah was intentionally using a myth, at that time well-known among the common folk (possibly as common as let's say King Arthur nowadays) of this "Heylel" (meaning "Bright One" or "morning star", indeed Lucifer, as translated from Greek into Latin and further into lots of other languages) called "son of Shachar" (also "morning star" or "dawn", or rather, the darkness just before dawn), who both were gods in the Canaanite pantheon, and in the Canaanite pantheon, the North was once again the seat of gods - so, in our terms, again Valinor, not Angband. And even Isaiah, when using this mythos, was not speaking of the North as of evil: he was just metaphorically speaking of the guy (the Babylonian king) who was usurping the throne (and thus, the place of god) for himself.

Nevertheless, even though the mythology itself (nor Isaiah when using it as illustrative example) was not depicting the North as evil, but rather the opposite, it's the reading of it that matters, and I believe Tolkien might have gone with the parallel of Lucifer = evil usurping the throne in the North = Angband. I find it very likely that at least a bit of inspiration was here, indeed.