Creation begets Sub-Creation

From Mythopoeia: 

“Although now long estranged,

Man is not wholly lost nor wholly changed.

Dis-graced he may be, yet is not de-throned,

and keeps the rags of lordship once he owned:

Man, Sub-creator, the refracted Light

through whom is splintered from a single White

to many hues, and endlessly combined

in living shapes that move from mind to mind.

Though all the crannies of the world we filled

with Elves and Goblins, though we dared to build

Gods and their houses out of dark and light,

and sowed the seed of dragons- 'twas our right

(used or misused). That right has not decayed:

we make still by the law in which we're made.”

Apart from Leaf by Niggle, Mythopoeia, and On Fairy Stories, the Ainulindalë is one of the essential works to digest in order to understand sub-creation, as it serves as a foundational elucidation of what Tolkien sees at the heart of sub-creation. 

When the Ainur gazed upon the Music, they were entranced. And when the grand plan was beginning to be revealed to them, they discovered the Children of Ilúvatar, products completely of Eru’s own making, and “when they beheld them, the more did they love them” (Ainulindalë). Beholding the habitation and the Children, their “hearts rejoiced in light, and their eyes beholding many colors were filled with gladness” and “many of the most mighty among them bent all their thought and their desire towards that place” (Ainulindalë). Looking upon Creation, the Ainur “had become enamored of the beauty of the vision and engrossed in the unfolding of the World” (Ainulindalë). Knowing of the great love stirring in their hearts, Eru invited the Ainur to enter into the Creation, if they should so chose. But their entry was conditional: “It is the necessity of their love, that their power should thenceforward be contained and bounded in the World, to be within it for ever, until it is complete” (Ainulindalë). Despite this heavy toll, “many of the greatest and most fair [Ainur] took leave of Ilúvatar and descended into it” (Ainulindalë). Even Melkor, perhaps overwhelmed by the beauty, had been convinced himself at first “that he desired to go thither and order all things for the good of the Children,” in spite of the constraint it would place on his power (Ainulindalë). Upon entering, each Ainur picked up his own Niggle’s leaf. Ulmo took up mastering water, Manwë the air and winds, and Aulë the fabric of the earth. And from their love and through their efforts, they began hoisting in the Creation they had seen, and prepared the habitation, Eä, for the Children of Ilúvatar. 

The Ainur display an overwhelming love and awe of Creation, and through this profound respect, which comes through recognition of the validity of said awe and love, for Eru and his Creation, they want nothing more than to enter into it and do all they can to contribute and participate in it. In other words, the Ainur are driven to sub-create. Tolkien writes, “a good craftsman loves his material, and has a knowledge and feeling for clay, stone and wood which only the art of making can give” (On Fairy Stories). And that is precisely what most of the Ainur do. Melkor is in such awe and has such respect for Eru’s Creation that he is overcome with jealousy for Eru after entering Eä, as he “wished himself to have subjects and servants, and to be called Lord, and to be master over other wills” (Ainulindalë).  As a direct contrast to Melkor and a representation of the good craftsman, Tolkien presents Aulë, who is given “skill and knowledge scare less than to Melkor, but the delight and pride in Aulë is in the deed of making, and in the thing made, and neither in possession nor in his own mastery” (Ainulindalë). But both are clearly working on the basis of respect (albeit dashed by jealousy in the one case) for Creation.  

It should be noted that even Melkor, depraved as he was in intent, has the right to sub-create and his work is made no less legitimate because of his intent. “Fantasy can, of course, be carried to excess. It can be ill done. It can be put to evil uses. It may even delude the minds out of which it came. But of what human thing in this fallen world is that not true? […] Abusus non tollit usum. Fantasy remains a human right: we make in our measure and in our derivative mode, because we are made: and not only made, but made in the image and likeness of a Maker” (On Fairy Stories). Just as Man is made in the image of his Maker, the Ainur are “the offspring of [Ilúvatar’s] thought” and so they share that right with us (Ainulindalë). To borrow language from Mythopoeia, the Ainur make by the same law in which we, and they, were made. In another elucidation as applicable to Fallen Melkor as to Fallen Man, Tolkien states the Christian may guess that “in Fantasy he may actually assist in the effoliation and multiple enrichment of creation. All tales may come true; and yet, at the last, redeemed, they may be as like and as unlike the forms that we give them as Man, finally redeemed, will be like and unlike the fallen that we know” (On Fairy Stories). Even Melkor’s works are included in Creation in the end. In spite of all his perverted motives and efforts to destroy, ultimately his works will be redeemed and turned into something beautiful, beyond the comprehension of everyone else, especially Melkor. “And thou, Melkor, shalt see that no theme may be played that hath not its uttermost source in me, nor can any alter the music in my despite. For he that attempteth this shall prove but mine instrument in the devising of things more wonderful, which he himself hath not imagined,” Ilúvatar says, “And thou, Melkor wilt discover all the secret thoughts of thy mind, and wilt perceive that they are but a part of the whole and tributary to its glory” (Ainulindalë).

Every sub-creator “wishes in some measure to be a real maker, or hopes that he is drawing on reality: hopes that the peculiar quality of this secondary world (if not all the details) are derived from Reality, or are flowing into it” (On Fairy Stories). Melkor desires to be a real maker. Aulë and the Ainur strive to have their work flow into the Creation they foresaw in the Music. Outside the Ainulindalë we have Niggle deriving his painting from Reality and, on a more meta level, we have Tolkien’s own writing of the Ainulindalë.  Essentially what Tolkien is doing with his legendarium is the same as what many of us will be doing with the fanfic/sub-creation of our final projects, which in turn is the same process the Ainur were participating in in the beginning. We are all so moved by the Creation that we all want to add in a little piece of our selves and partake in it. Even the apocryphal entries like Jubilees are sub-creations. Whether they are done in a Melkor-esque way, rooted in arrogance and attempting to assert itself as Creation, or an Aulë-esque way, a genuine attempt at participating in true Creation, is another question. But undeniably they, too, are sub-creations, which are naturally driven by respect, or a recognition of the validity of awe for Creation. All of us, from Melkor, Aulë, and Niggle, to the apocryphal writers, to Tolkien himself, are only attempting to add our bits to the Pot of Soup, the Cauldron of Story, Reality, to Creation.

~Tom B(ombadil)