Balrog and The One Ring

[Marwhini]

Originally Posted by Zigûr

I'm not sure "he had only a share" means share of the rulership, but rather share in the creation of, hence this statement:

He was not solely responsible for the creation of or nature of Arda; he was only one contributor among many. Thus he came to hate Arda and resent its existence because he believed only his own mind, work and thoughts to be worthy.

That's how it seems to me, at least.

To be fair, I think the passage is saying that Morgoth began with the desire for power over Arda, and that the transformation of that desire into a desire to destroy it came later, as a result of his ever-increasing pride.

Yes.... Could be.

Could very well be.

There does seem to be a "Descent into Madness" present in Morgoth, as Tolkien uses those exact words in the same essay.

But at the same time we are seeing works in HoM-e that are in progress (Tolkien trying to work out an Ontology of What Is).

And Tolkien's works represent The Authority in this respect, but that he never arrived at that coherent final whole.

The problem then remains of resolving the Metaphysical and Theological contradictions within Tolkien's works without altering the History of the events within them.

And the Nature of Morgoth remains a pretty significant contradiction within his works.

And thus even with this narrative of a descent into Nihilism, one is left with a litany of contradictions needing resolving.

And to resolve them..... That then requires those 'Foundational Postulates' I keep returning to.

Chief Among them is that Morgoth seemingly had the power to force the Valar to destroy the World for him, if this was actually his goal.

But.... My batteries are running out for this evening.... And I need to go consult Sources before delving further into this (for which I still need to find the rest of my HoM-e volumes other than Morgoth's Ring and The Treason of Isengard. I REALLY need to find The Shaping of Middle-earth and The Peoples of Middle-earth, as they contain much of the materials I need not only for this thread, but for the Ëa Project - I get to be Aulë and Yavanna at the present).

MB