Morgoth

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This article is about the fictional character. For the band, see Morgoth (band).

Morgoth
Tolkien character
In-universe information
Aliases
  • Melkor (originally)
  • Arun (in the old tales of the Númenóreans)
  • Moringotto
  • Bauglir
Race
Valar
Book(s)The Lord of the Rings
The Silmarillion
The Children of Húrin
Beren and Lúthien
The Fall of Gondolin
Morgoth's Ring

Morgoth Bauglir (

Valar and the primary antagonist of Tolkien's legendarium, the mythic epic published in parts as The Silmarillion, The Children of Húrin, Beren and Lúthien, and The Fall of Gondolin. The character is also briefly mentioned in The Lord of the Rings
.

Melkor is the most powerful of the Valar but he turns to darkness and is renamed Morgoth, the primary antagonist of

Aulë betrays his kind and becomes Morgoth's principal lieutenant and successor, Sauron
.

Melkor has been interpreted as analogous to Satan, once the greatest of all God's angels, Lucifer, but fallen through pride; he rebels against his creator. Morgoth has likewise been likened to John Milton's fallen angel in Paradise Lost, again a Satan-figure. Tom Shippey has written that The Silmarillion maps the Book of Genesis with its creation and its fall, even Melkor having begun with good intentions. Marjorie Burns has commented that Tolkien used the Norse god Odin to create aspects of several characters, the wizard Gandalf getting some of his good characteristics, while Morgoth gets his destructiveness, malevolence, and deceit. Verlyn Flieger writes that the central temptation is the desire to possess, something that ironically afflicts two of the greatest figures in the legendarium, Melkor and Fëanor.

Name

The name Morgoth is

it is never used; instead, a deliberately similar name, Belegurth, meaning "Great Death", is employed.[T 4] Another form of his name is Melko, simply meaning "Mighty One".[T 1]

Like

Edain, the Men of Númenor, call him the Dark King and the Dark Power; the Númenóreans corrupted by Sauron call him the Lord of All and the Giver of Freedom. He is called "Master of Lies" by one of the Edain, Amlach.[T 5]

Melkor is renamed "Morgoth" when he destroys the

First Age.[T 6][T 7]

Fictional history

Further information: The Silmarillion

Ainulindalë and Valaquenta

Before the creation of

Aulë, Melkor is too proud to admit that his creations are made possible entirely by Eru. Instead, Melkor aspires to rival Eru.[T 8]

In an early draft, Tolkien has the elf Finrod state that "there is nothing more powerful that is conceivable than Melkor, save Eru only".[T 9] In The Silmarillion, Eru Ilúvatar similarly states that "Mighty are the Ainur, and mightiest among them is Melkor".[T 10]

In an essay from 1955 by Tolkien, he emphasizes Morgoth's immense power at the beginning of Arda, beyond all other

Maiar, into his service.[T 13]

Tolkien's comparison of "Morgoth's Ring" with Sauron's One Ring[T 12]
  Sauron Morgoth
Action Put much of his power into the One Ring "Melkor 'incarnated' himself (as Morgoth) permanently"; Transmuted "the greater part of his original 'angelic' powers, of mind and spirit"
Purpose Gain power over the other
Great Rings
, and over the physical world 		Gain "a terrible grip upon the physical world", the ability "to control the hroa, the 'flesh' or physical matter, of Arda."
Effect Power "concentrated" in the One Ring Power "disseminated" through "the whole of Middle-earth"
Outcome Utterly eradicated when the One Ring is destroyed Eradication not possible; probable "irretrievable ruin of
Arda
" by fighting Morgoth

Quenta Silmarillion

After the Creation, many Ainur enter into

Valar, the Powers of the World; the lesser, the Maiar, act as their followers and assistants. They set about the ordering of the universe and Arda within it, as they understand the themes of Eru. Melkor and his followers enter Eä as well, but he is frustrated that his colleagues do not recognize him as leader of the new realm, despite his great knowledge. In anger and shame, Melkor sets about ruining and undoing whatever the others do.[T 14]

Each of the Valar is attracted to a particular aspect of the world. Melkor is drawn to extremes and violence—bitter cold, scorching heat, earthquakes, darkness, burning light. His power is so great that at first the Valar cannot restrain him; he contends with their collective might. Arda is unstable until the Vala

Tulkas enters Eä and tips the balance.[T 14]

The Spring of Arda was lit by two great lamps, Illuin and Ormal, until Melkor attacked and destroyed them. Based on Karen Wynn Fonstad's Atlas of Middle-earth

Driven out by Tulkas, Melkor broods in darkness, until Tulkas is distracted. Melkor destroys the Two Lamps and the Valar's land of Almaren. Arda is plunged into darkness and fire, and Melkor withdraws to Middle-earth. In later versions, Melkor also disperses agents throughout Arda, digging deep into the earth and constructing great pits and fortresses, as Arda is marred by darkness and rivers of fire.[T 14]

The Valar withdraw into

Halls of Mandos for three ages.[T 17]

Upon his release, Melkor is paroled to Valinor, though a few of the Valar continue to mistrust him.

Silmarils, jewels made by Finwë's son Fëanor, filled with the light of the Trees. Fëanor thereupon names him Morgoth, "Black Foe", and the Elves know him by this name alone afterwards.[T 7]

First Age
.

Morgoth resumes his rule in the North of Middle-earth, this time in the half-ruined fortress of Angband. He rebuilds it, and raises above it the volcanic triple peak of

Ulmo.[T 23][T 24]

Before the Nírnaeth Arnoediad, the Man

Eärendil, wearing the Silmaril on his brow, sails across the sea to Valinor, where he pleads with the Valar to liberate Middle-earth from Morgoth.[T 25]

During the ensuing

Balrogs hide themselves deep within the earth. Morgoth flees into the deepest pit and begs for pardon, but his feet are cut from under him, his crown is made into a collar, and he is chained once again with Angainor. The Valar exile him permanently from the world, thrusting him through the Door of Night into the void until the prophesied Dagor Dagorath, when he will meet his final destruction. But his evil remains, and his will influences all living creatures.[T 26]

Children of Húrin

Main article: The Children of Húrin

In this more complete version of a story summarized in

Quenta Silmarillion, Húrin and his younger brother Huor are leaders of the House of Hador, one of the three kindred of elf-friends. At Nírnaeth Arnoediad they cover the escape of Turgon to Gondolin by sacrificing their army and themselves. Huor is slain, but Húrin is brought before Morgoth alive. As revenge for his aid to Turgon and his defiance, Morgoth curses Húrin and his children, binding Húrin to a seat upon Thangorodrim and forcing him to witness all that happens (using Morgoth's long sight) to his children in the succeeding years. The encounter with Húrin, is set out in more detail than in The Silmarillion, and in a more connected narrative than in Unfinished Tales. It gives the first allusion to the corruption of Men by Morgoth soon after their awakening, and the assertion by Morgoth of his power over the entire Earth through "the shadow of my purpose".[T 27]

The Lord of the Rings

Melkor is mentioned briefly in the chapter "A Knife in the Dark" in The Lord of the Rings, where Aragorn sings the story of Tinúviel and briefly recounts the role of Morgoth ("the Great Enemy") in the wider history of the Silmarils.[T 28]

Development

In the early versions of Tolkien's stories, Melkor/Morgoth is not seen as the most powerful of the Valar. He is described as being equal in power to

Manwë, chief of the Valar in Arda.[T 29] But his power increases in later revisions of the story until he becomes the most powerful among them,[T 30] and in a late essay more powerful than all of the other Valar combined. He develops from a standout among equals into a being so powerful that the other created beings could not utterly defeat him.[T 31]

Over time, Tolkien altered both the conception of this character and his name. The name given by Fëanor, Morgoth, was present from the first stories; he was for a long time also called Melko. Tolkien vacillated over the Sindarin equivalent of this, which appeared as Belcha, Melegor, and Moeleg. The meaning of the name also varied, related in different times to milka ("greedy") or velka ("flame").[T 2][T 32] Similarly the Old English translations devised by Tolkien differ in sense: Melko is rendered as Orgel ("Pride") and Morgoth as Sweart-ós ("Black God").[T 33] Morgoth is once given a particular sphere of interest: in the early Tale of Turambar, Tinwelint (precursor of Thingol) names him "the Vala of Iron".[T 34]

Analysis

Satanic figure

Further information: Christianity in Middle-earth and Hell and Middle-earth
Middle-earth artwork
by Outcast, 2008

Melkor has been interpreted as analogous to

a calque upon England). Shippey quotes Tolkien's friend C. S. Lewis, who stated that even Satan was created good;[1] Tolkien has the character Elrond in The Lord of the Rings say "For nothing is evil in the beginning. Even [the Dark Lord] Sauron was not so."[5][T 36] Shippey concludes that the reader is free to assume "that the exploit of Morgoth of which the Eldar [Elves] never learnt was the traditional seduction of Adam and Eve by the [Satanic] serpent", while the Men in the story are Adam's descendants "flying from Eden and subject to the curse of Babel".[1]

Odinic figure

The Tolkien scholar Marjorie Burns writes in Tolkien's Legendarium: Essays on The History of Middle-earth that Morgoth, like all Tolkien's Middle-earth characters, is based on a complex "literary soup". One element of his construction, she states, is the Norse god Odin. Tolkien used aspects of Odin's character and appearance for the wandering wizard Gandalf, with hat, beard, and staff, and a supernaturally fast horse, recalling Odin's steed Sleipnir; for the Dark Lord Sauron, with his single eye; for the corrupted white wizard Saruman, cloaked and hatted like Gandalf, but with far-flying birds like Odin's eagles and ravens. In The Silmarillion, too, the farseeing Vala Manwë, who lives on the tallest of the mountains, and loves "all swift birds, strong of wing", is Odinesque. And just as Sauron and Saruman oppose Gandalf in The Lord of the Rings, so the enemy Morgoth gets Odin's negative characteristics: "his ruthlessness, his destructiveness, his malevolence, his all-pervading deceit". Burns compares this allocation to the way that Norse myth allots some of Odin's characteristics to the troublemaker god Loki. Odin has many names, among them "Shifty-eyed" and "Swift in Deceit", and he is equally a god of the Norse underworld, "Father of the Slain". She notes that Morgoth, too, is named "Master of Lies" and "Demon of Dark", and functions as a fierce god of battle.[7]

Embodiment of possessiveness

The Tolkien scholar Verlyn Flieger, discussing the splintering of the original created light of Middle-earth, likens Melkor/Morgoth's response to the Silmarils to that of Fëanor, who had created those jewels. She states that the central temptation is the desire to possess, and that possessiveness itself is the "great transgression" in Tolkien's created world. She observes that the commandment "Love not too well the work of thy hands and the devices of thy heart" is stated explicitly in The Silmarillion. Flieger compares Tolkien's descriptions of the two characters: "the heart of Fëanor was fast bound to these things that he himself had made", followed at once by "Melkor lusted for the Silmarils, and the very memory of their radiance was a gnawing fire in his heart". She writes that it is appropriately ironic that Melkor and Fëanor, one the greatest of the Ainur, the other the most subtle and skilful of the creative Noldor among the Elves – should "usher in the darkness".[8]

See also

  • Maedhros

References

Primary

  1. ^ a b Tolkien 1993, pp. 194, 294
  2. ^ a b c Tolkien 1987, "The Etymologies"
  3. ^ Tolkien 1977, Index entry for "Melkor"
  4. ^ Tolkien 1996 p. 358
  5. ^ Tolkien 1977, ch. 17 "Of the Coming of Men into the West"
  6. ^ a b Tolkien 1977, "Quenta Silmarillion", ch. 6 "Of Fëanor and the Unchaining of Melkor"
  7. ^ a b Tolkien 1977, "Quenta Silmarillion", ch. 9 "Of the Flight of the Noldor"
  8. ^ a b c Tolkien 1977, "Ainulindalë"
  9. ^ Tolkien 1993, p. 322
  10. ^ Tolkien 1977, p. 6
  11. ^ Tolkien 1993, p. 339
  12. ^ a b Tolkien 1993, pp. 398–401
  13. ^ Tolkien 1977, "Valaquenta"
  14. ^ a b c d Tolkien 1977, ch. 1, "Of the Beginning of Days"
  15. ^ Tolkien 1977, ch. 3 "Of the Coming of the Elves and the Captivity of Melkor"
  16. ^ Tolkien 1993, pp. 72-73
  17. ^ Tolkien 1993, pp. 416-421
  18. ^ Tolkien 1977, ch. 11, "Of the Sun and Moon"
  19. ^ Tolkien 1977, ch. 12, "Of Men"
  20. ^ Tolkien 1977, ch. 13, "Of the Return of the Noldor"
  21. ^ Tolkien 1977, ch. 18, "Of the Ruin of Beleriand"
  22. ^ Tolkien 1977, ch. 20, "Of the Fifth Battle: Nirnaeth Arnoediad"
  23. ^ Tolkien 1977, ch. 22, "Of the Ruin of Doriath"
  24. ^ Tolkien 1977, ch. 23, "Of the Fall of Gondolin"
  25. ^ Tolkien 1977, ch. 19 "Of Beren and Lúthien"
  26. ^ Tolkien 1977, ch. 24, "Of the Voyage of Eärendil and the War of Wrath"
  27. ^ Tolkien 2007, ch. 3, "The Words of Húrin and Morgoth"
  28. ^ Tolkien 1954a, book 1, ch. 11 "A Knife in the Dark"
  29. ^ Tolkien 1977, "Valaquenta", "Of the Enemies"
  30. ^ Tolkien 1977, Ainulindalë
  31. ^ Tolkien 1993, pp. 390-393
  32. ^ Tolkien 1984, p. 260
  33. ^ Tolkien 1986, pp. 281-283
  34. ^ Tolkien 1984b, "Turambar and the Foalókë", p. 73
  35. ^ Carpenter 2023, #156 to Robert Murray, S.J., 4 November 1954
  36. ^ Tolkien 1954a, "The Council of Elrond"

Secondary

  1. ^ a b c Shippey 2005, pp. 267–268.
  2. ^ Carter 2011, p. pt 16.
  3. ^ Holmes 2013, pp. 428–429.
  4. ^ Garth 2003, pp. 222–223.
  5. ^ a b Rosebury 2008, p. 113.
  6. ^ Rosebury 2008, p. 115.
  7. ^ Burns 2000, pp. 219–246.
  8. ^ Flieger 1983, pp. 99–102.

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