The Machinations of an Infinite Mind

To those of us who are experienced with monotheistic religions, the existence of evil in a universe ruled by an omnipotent, omniscient, and omnibenevolent ruler is a troubling notion to consider. One could ask “why does God let evil exist?” to all the religious leaders in the word, and they could very well a multitude of different answers and interpretations of holy scripture, but none that are concretely definitive. There exists too many things to consider and too many holes to be filled. A popular train of thought is that God wants to give us free will and test us, but if he is truly all-knowing, then he would know the results before the conclusion of the experiment. This would make his desire to test us meaningless and pulls into question the existence of free will. If God knows who will obey him and who won’t, then what is the point? Why even create the possibility for evil in the first place? How could he take pleasure in saving some souls and despair in losing others if he knew from the beginning who was going where?

Fortunately, I am not about to tackle the reason behind the existence of evil in our world, and the problems it poses to monotheistic religions, but instead its existence in Tolkien’s legendarium, which I firmly believe will be a simpler task, even if the difference is marginal.

First, let us begin with the Ainulindale, the beginning of everything in Tolkien’s legendarium. At the very beginning, the Ainur are born of Eru Ilúvatar’s thought, and are beings created to “[sing] before him”. The Ainur were “Holy Ones” meant to take the great theme Eru had given them, apply their own thought and understanding to it, and to present it before Eru. From the onset, we get a read on the personality of the creator god of this universe, more so than the story of Genesis, anyway. Eru is a curious god. He desires new things, things he did not directly create, and enjoys learning. He was glad when these new themes and songs were presented to him, and I could not find any indication that Eru knew the new themes of the Ainur before they were presented before him. This experience is akin to a teacher listening to their students improvise and improve upon a melody he had taught all of them. It was an inclusive experience, and Eru was learning just as much as the Ainur was. Each Ainur presented their new theme alone at first, then Eru commanded them to play together and make a single harmony, and the Ainulindale states, “Never since have the Ainur made any music like to this music though it has been said that a greater still shall be made before Ilúvatar by the choirs of the Ainur and the Children of Ilúvatar after the end of days”. 

It is at this moment where evil first rears its head, and it is given a name: Melkor. The text states, “It came into the heart of Melkor to interweave matters of his own imagining that were not in accord with the theme of Ilúvatar, for he sought therein to increase the power and glory of the part assigned to himself”. In the beginning, Melkor’s crime was not evil or maliciousness, it was pride and ambition, or more specifically, corruption. Melkor’s theme was not created with the intention of being beautiful or harmonious, but to the loudest and greatest sound of all the Ainur. Of course, these is only the first step in a long, long walk of terrible deeds, but it is important to note what Melkor’s intentions were. Why did he stray in the first place? 

This caused me to wonder what the Ainur truly are. They are described as “offspring of [Ilúvatar’s] thought” and it said that they “comprehended only that part of the mind of Ilúvatar from which he came, and in the understanding of their brethren they grew but slowly”. This is why they sang alone at first, and only after a time all sang in harmony. All save for Melkor. Like the other Ainur, Melkor is a part of Ilúvatar and his actions ultimately derive from a place in Ilúvatar’s mind. Melkor must be the embodiment – in some form – of Eru Ilúvatar’s corruption. I was at first driven to say he was Eru Ilúvatar’s ambition, desire, and pride as well, but those traits are not inherently evil. Melkor most definitely displays those traits, but he takes them to the immoral extreme, corrupting them as much as possible. Furthermore, when Melkor sows discord into Ilúvatar’s great theme, the Ainur that sang near him “grew despondent, and their thought was disturbed and their music faltered; but some began to attune their music to his rather than to the thought which they had at first”. His very presence corrupts those around him. Just as the other Aniur have their parts of Eru Ilúvatar to comprehend, Melkor could only understand the dark, evil parts. And, although Melkor was the most powerful of the Ainur, he lacked their proficiency in creation, and could only take what others had done and twist it to his dark purpose. The obvious examples are how Melkor took Elves and tortured and corrupted them until they became Orcs, and how Melkor’s interference with the creation of Arda caused extreme temperatures on the planet. Even after he began to gain an understanding of his fellow Ainur, all that did was fuel his desire to lord over them all. All this to say, Melkor is corruption incarnate. Not metaphorically, literally. In a way, he had no other choice but to become Morgoth, the Enemy. It’s all he knows.

But, some of that could have probably been surmised from a close reading of the Ainulindale. The question now is such: Why did Ilúvatar create Melkor, and why did he let him exist? Well, I have a few thoughts on that.

As I said before, Eru Ilúvatar is a curious god. He wills things into being and learns from his creations. It is quite obvious that Ilúvatar’s power outclasses Melkor’s by several magnitudes, and thus does not see him as a threat, but only as an interesting development. When Melkor first began his discordant song, Ilúvatar “sat and hearkened until it seemed that about his throne there was a raging storm” but was otherwise unconcerned. Then he actually smiled and added new theme to the music. Ilúvatar saw this disruptive, discordant noise only as a means to try something different, and with it he created a theme that “gathered power and had new beauty”. Twice more Melkor strove against Eru Ilúvatar, and his discord grew in such strength that the other Ainur actually stopped singing, and it was just the two themes of Ilúvatar and Melkor raging together. Finally, Ilúvatar displayed the totality of his power by silencing the Great Music and teaching Melkor the futility of his actions, saying, “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”. Eru Ilúvatar entertained Melkor’s rebellion so that he could explore the Great Music fully, for while the Ainur were different one from another, only Melkor defied the harmony of the Great Music. He alone becomes the Enemy, Morgoth, and goes to wage war on the rest of the Valar. Over the Ages, he challenges and defies the inhabitants and rulers of Arda time and time again, stirring up troubles that would last millennia. But, all of that just adds to the idea that Eru Ilúvatar may find Melkor one of his most interesting creations.

My last thought: from the little that we know of him, Eru Ilúvatar is presented as an impartial and inactive god, at least inactive in the deistic sense. For all the atrocities attributed to Melkor (and believe me, the blame is well-deserved) Melkor was willingly sprung from Ilúvatar’s mind. As soon as Melkor began his streak of corruption in the Timeless Halls, Ilúvatar must have known the amount of evil Melkor was capable of, given his power, but he did not destroy him then and there, and also did not prevent him from descending into Arda. Even through all the Ages, Ilúvatar did not interfere when Melkor did… well, literally anything. I refuse to believe Eru Ilúvatar didn’t possess the power to intervene if he chose to, so other ideas came to mind. Perhaps, like I said, Eru Ilúvatar wished to remain impartial, and didn’t want to show favor to one of his creations over the other. Perhaps he didn’t want to single out Melkor. Perhaps the world of Arda is only a miniscule portion of Eä and Eru Ilúvatar has so many other worlds to look after – perhaps and infinite number – that he cannot or doesn’t want to give special attention to just one. Perhaps Eru Ilúvatar’s moral compass is beyond our understanding and he sees right and wrong in a different way we do.

Or, maybe perhaps he’s just interested in seeing how things will pan out if he lets Melkor run rampant.
In all honesty, it’s what I would do.

- Lioje Toussaint