The Morgoth-element.

[Marwhini]

A comment I made on another thread recently got me to thinking about something concerning the Morgoth-element.

Melkor, in his rebellion adoring the Ainulindalë (Music of the Ainur), poured forth his being into the Making of Ëa/Arda, in the same way that Sauron poured his being into the making of the Ruling Ring, the One Ring.

As Tolkien points out in Morgoth's Ring (pp. 399 - 400) Notes on Motivations in the Silmarillion (ii):

Melkor 'incarnated' himself (as Morgoth) permanently. He did so as to control the hroa(2), the 'flesh' or physical matter, of Arda. A vaster, and more perilous procedure, though of similar sort to the operations of Sauron with the Rings. Thus, outside the Blessed Realm, all 'matter' was likely to have a 'Melkor ingredient' (3), and those who had bodies, nourished of the hroa of Arda, had as it were a tendency, great or small, towards Melkor: they were none of them wholly free of him in their incarnate form, and their bodies had an effect upon their spirits.

Tolkien also mentions in several points that Gold contained more of the Morgoth-element than did many other things, and that things like Silver, and Water had less of this 'element.'

This got me to thinking:

How much of this element was likely present in the different races (I am talking about on average, not as a fixed number that everyone in a race would have)?

And how much of it is likely present in the typical environment, or locations within Middle-earth.

As a few examples:

It would seem that the Shire was less afflicted by the Morgoth-element than was a location like Angmar, or Gundabad (or Mordor, especially).

It would seem that places like the roots of mountains would also be rather high in Morgoth-element concentration.


One other issue with the 'Morgoth-element' as Tolkien describes it:

It seems like the Morgoth-element can increase or decrease within a region (indicating that it is not a purely "Physical" 'element' as we would define 'Physical' in our Universe).

What then would it be, if it is Physical?

How would that work?

A warning here....

Saying "magic" is exactly what Tolkien never did as an explanation for Middle-earth.

This is why I place such great emphasis upon the comments of Tolkien's son Christopher on p. x of Morgoth's Ring, where he talks about his father's failure to complete the Silmarillion due to JRRT's concern over identifying/discovering/formulating the 'underlying postulates' and a 'coherent Theological and Metaphysical system' for Arda.

Those words mean "How it works, and by what specific mechanisms."

Tolkien admitted that his lack of knowledge in certain areas hindered him in many ways (I cannot recall if it was in a letter, or in HoM-e, where he speaks about his lack of knowledge of geology preventing him from creating a more accurate map of Middle-earth - having worked with a Geologist on detailing Middle-earth, Tolkien did quite well in assembling a Map that could realistically function geologically: i.e. with Plate Tectonics, and such), but he remained committed to the creation of a Metaphysics that would give rise to functional systems within Middle-earth that did not need to resort to Kluges or Deus ex Machina. . .

Remember, to Tolkien, Eru/God directly intervening in the operations or affairs of Ëa/Arda/Middle-earth was a gravely serious matter. Thus Tolkien did not wish that anything in Ëa/Arda should require ANY sort of 'Divine Intervention,' neither of/from the Ainur nor directly from Eru/Ilúvatar.

To that end, the world needed to operate by its own, internally consistent, natural laws, which would subsume both the Hroa and Fea of Arda itself, and the Hröa and Fëa of incarnate beings within Arda.

I hope that my extravagant exposition does not put anyone off the main point.

MB


(2) hroa: so written here and at the second occurrence below (and in text A), not as elsewhere always written hröa, where it means the body of an incarnate being. The word used for 'physical matter' in Laws and Customs was Hrón, later changed to korma (p. 218 and note 26): in the Commentary on the Athrabeth and in the 'Glossary' of names the word is erma (pp. 338, 349)
(3) On this sentence see p. 271
[Note]: p. 271 deals with the death of Finwë's wife Míriel, and how it was such a shock to the Valar, because they had been deluded into thinking that the Hröa and Fëa of any "Immortal" being could not be separated while in Valinor. And that this was revealed to be the result of Arda Marred (the Melkor/Morgoth-element pervading existence). The Valar had managed to purge this element from Valinor when they alone inhabited it, but the Children of Ilúvatar were all products of Arda Marred, and thus their Hröa was tainted by the Morgoth-element, and thus so was their Fëa (although there exists a contradiction in this, as physical matter is JUST molecules, and the 'Morgoth-element' would thus need to be some sort of 'Spiritual Element' - but this is one of those things I tend to focus upon in looking at the 'underlying postulates' of Arda/Ëa, and the 'requirement for a coherent Theological and Metaphysical system' for the same).