Redefining Good & Evil

[Aiwendil]

Davem wrote:

Of course, we don't know what Eru can or can't/will or won't do. Would Eru have permitted Sauron to win? Would he have permitted Frodo to fall if that would have allowed Sauron to win?

Given the remote and uninvolved character of Eru, I think the idea that he would directly intervene to prevent Frodo from failing is out of the question. Melkor ruled Middle-earth for many long ages and Eru did not intervene; why would he treat Sauron differently?

Moreover, even if one admits a small possibility that Eru would not let the quest fail (and I for one do not admit it), this is still a far cry from certain knowledge that he will intervene, so it certainly does not follow that the fight against Sauron is 'not worth fighting'.

Clearly, once the Sil appeared LotR became a different work.

I agree that the Silmarillion offers one a new way of looking at LotR. But I simply can't see how it could 'detract from the sacrifices made, the struggles undergone' as you suggest. There is certainly no assurance in the Silmarillion that good will defeat evil within the world, nor anything to rule out the possibility of Sauron's victory and dominion over Middle-earth.

The matter of Dagor Dagorath and Arda Remade concerns the end of the world, and that only. So yes, if one believes the Second Prophecy of Mandos then Melkor and his servants will at the end of time be defeated. In that sense, the final victory of good is certain. But this does not preclude the victory of evil within Arda; it does not preclude the immense death and suffering that would result from Sauron's victory. To suggest that Eru's final victory makes that suffering (and the heroic efforts to prevent it) irrelevant would be like suggesting that the eventual victory of the Allies in World War II made the Holocaust irrelevant.

Moreover, there are in Tolkien's writings no more than a few brief hints of the Last Battle and the final triumph of good; it is by no means assured. In the published Silmarillion there is no hint of it at all. Yes, the existence of Eru is stated there - but there is no hint, and certainly no assurance, of the ultimate victory of good over evil.