Tolkien and St. Augustine: The Origin of Evil

 At the end of this class, we got into a very interesting discussion about being good and evil. Specifically, why are the evil beings in Tolkien’s legendarium, such as Melkor and Orcs, able to do evil deeds despite their existence as Iluvatar’s creation? As we explored the nature of the free will, being good and evil, and obedience in our conversation, I discovered the close connection between the origin of evil in Tolkien’s legendarium and St. Augustine’s theology, in which he blames the misuse of one’s free will to resist God as the direct cause of one’s sin. In this blog post, I seek to illustrate that the nature of Melkor and the Orcs’ evilness in Tolkien’s legendarium to a large extent simulates the St. Augustine’s formulation, as both kinds of beings misused their faculty of free will to commit sins. Meanwhile, there also exists an interesting distinction between the two, since Melkor not only perverted his own will against Iluvatar but also caused the perversion of the Orcs who were involuntarily corrupted into evil creatures. This episode of Melkor’s perversion of Orcs’ wills serves a metaphor of St. Augustine’s theology and helps readers to comprehend how an essentially good nature can be turned against God.

In City of God, St. Augustine proclaims that one’s sin does not originate from God’s creation but rather one’s own perversion that causes him or her to resist the will of God (Augustine 473-474). In his theological formulation, by blaming one’s own choice for resulting in his or her disobedience of God, St. Augustine implies that beings like human and angels must have the faculty of free will by which they can either preserve their good nature or fall into evilness by defying God. Why is defying God a sign of evilness? Because it is one’s nature to obey God, and such nature is fundamentally good in St. Augustine’s definition (Augustine 473-474). By challenging the sovereignty of God, one essentially misuses free will to reject his or her good nature and descend into evilness which exists as the opposition of goodness. Hence, while St. Augustine attributes one’s sin to one’s own misuse of free will to remove God from this potentially awkward position, he also suggests that evilness exists as the perversion of one’s nature which is initially good since it was given by God who does not create evil.

In Tolkien’s legendarium, we can find a similar pattern in terms of how one being becomes evil. In Ainulindale, we can see how Melkor famously exercised his free will to resist the will of Iluvatar as he composed music that is “not in accord with the theme of Iluvatar” (4 Silmarillion). His such rebellion directly “contended” with the will of Iluvatar manifested by the music and helped Melkor to temporarily gain “mastery” over the music (5 Silmarillion). While St. Augustine in those three chapters does not specify in what way one can become God’s enemy by resisting God’s will, it is evident that Melkor’s disobedience and sin fit the description of other Christian writings. Having read St. Benedict’s The Rule, I believe that Melkor certainly committed sin and disobeyed the will of God, as he does not completely submit his will to God but sought to self-glorify by composing his own music. Such lack of humility and obedience indicates one’s rebellious will in St. Benedict’s system and, therefore, demonstrates Melkor’s sinfulness under an Augustinian evaluation. In fact, Melkor’s sinfulness is also exhibited by his desire to dominate Earth, and such domination unintended by Iluvatar is clearly against his will, thereby signifying Melkor’s sin.

Although the fall of Melkor does not exactly show how he became sinful by turning against his good nature as St. Augustine describes, we can find this aspect of one’s fall from grace by studying the origin of Orcs. According to Tolkien, the race of Orc was initially a group of elves who were just as good and beautiful as their peers. With a nature that was “essentially good,” these elves resemble the human beings and angels described by St. Augustine. Indeed, it was the violation of their good nature that resulted in their evilness, and such violation was made as this group of elves were transformed into hideous creatures that do not fit the design of Iluvatar. This process of corruption simulates St. Augustine's theology which also assumes the original goodness of one's nature. Indeed, not only the wills of these evil creatures are against Iluvatar by serving Melkor, but also their perverted existence manifests Melkor’s rebellious will. Hence, we can see how the origin of Orcs corresponds to St. Augustine’s theology which suggests that the evilness developed from the violation of good nature.

In fact, the more interesting aspect of the origin of orcs is the involuntary nature of their fall. Against their own will, these elves were tortured into evil and monstrous creatures by Melkor’s “slow arts of cruelty” (47 Simarillion). While the Orcs were indeed evil creatures, their good nature was not violated by their own will, since it was their fear of Melkor that turned their wills against Iluvatar (47 Simarillion). Hence, it was through the violation of Orcs’ free will that Melkor perverted their wills against Iluvatar and caused their ultimate corruption. Because of the coercive nature of the violation of Orcs’ good nature, Tolkien points out that Iluvatar is exceptionally offended by such crime of Melkor, who used force to create evil.

By establishing the torture of Melkor as the direct cause of the fall of Orcs, Tolkien uses a metaphor to represent this Catholic theological concept of perversion of one’s free will. While the hideous appearance of the Orcs symbolizes their evil nature, the Melkor's cruelty represents the force that perverted their will. Perhaps, the Silmarils also serve as a physical representation of this process of the perversion of one’s will, and Tolkien uses this metaphor to facilitate readers’ understanding of this religious truth.

In sum, by studying the fall of Melkor and the birth of the race of Orcs, we can discover that development of rebellious will is the source of the corruption of one’s good nature. Although we cannot assume that Tolkien completely formulated his mythology based on Catholicism, we can have some certainty that this particular aspect of the origin of evil in his legendarium does, to a certain degree, reflect the theology of St. Augustine who preaches that sin is resulted by one’s rebellious will. Specifically, the birth of the Orcs best illustrates how the essentially good nature of the elves was perverted as their free wills were turned against Iluvatar by the force of Melkor. This closely resembles the formulation of St. Augustine who believes that the nature of people is fundamentally good before perversion. Perhaps, Tolkien uses crime of Melkor as a metaphor to represent this perversion of will preached by Catholic theology, since this metaphorical narrative facilitates the understanding of theological principles by ordinary readers.

-R C

Sources:

The Silmarillion by Tolkien

City of God by St. Augustine

The Rule by St. Benedict