Evil in Middle-earth

J. R. R. Tolkien was a devout Roman Catholic. He described The Lord of the Rings as rich in Christian symbolism. Many theological themes underlie the narrative, including the battle of good versus evil, the triumph of humility over pride, and the activity of grace. The Bible and traditional Christian narrative influenced The Silmarillion; in particular, the fall of man is depicted in the Ainulindalë, the fighting amongst the Elves, and the fall of Númenor. == The nature of evil ==

Manichaean, or Augustinian and Boethian in the world, Manichaean, where evil coexists with good, and Boethian, where evil is the absence of good. Both views are hinted at in Tolkien's Middle-earth writings. In addition, the creation of the world as good is Augustinian. Tom Shippey writes that The Lord of the Rings embodies the ancient debate within Christianity on the nature of evil. Shippey notes Elrond's statement that "nothing is evil in the beginning. Even [the Dark Lord] Sauron was not so". He takes this to mean things were created good, and to have become evil by moving away from the good, a Boethian position (evil being the absence of good). This is set alongside the Manichaean view that good and evil are equally powerful, and battle it out in the world. Tolkien's personal war experience was Manichean: evil seemed at least as powerful as good, and could easily have been victorious, a strand which Shippey notes can also be seen in Middle-earth. Elrond's statement is taken by scholars to imply an Augustinian universe, created good. Personified The Jesuit John L. Treloar writes that the Book of Revelation personifies evil in the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse: the first, on a white horse, represents a conquering king; the second, red with a sword, means bloody war; the third, black and carrying a scale balance, means famine; and the last, green, is named death. Treloar comments that the personification increases the emotional impact, and that the Ringwraiths (Nazgûl) are introduced "as terror-inspiring horsemen who bring these four evils into the world. They are bent on conquest, war, [and] death, and the land they rule [in Mordor] is non-productive." Involving sapience Tolkien, a devout Roman Catholic, created what he came to feel was a moral dilemma for himself with his supposedly wholly evil Middle-earth peoples like Orcs, when he made them able to speak. This identified them as sentient and sapient; indeed, he portrayed them talking about right and wrong. This meant, he believed, that they were open to morality, like Men. In Tolkien's Christian framework, that in turn implied that they must have souls, so killing them would be wrong without very good reason. Orcs serve as the principal forces of the enemy in The Lord of the Rings, where they are slaughtered in large numbers, such as in the battles of Helm's Deep and the Pelennor Fields. If Tolkien wanted killing Orcs not to be such a problem, then they would have to be without any moral sense, like ordinary animals. That would place them as fierce enemies, but not sapient. Both Tolkien and other scholars have been aware of the contradiction implied by this position: if Orcs were essentially "beasts", then they should not have had a moral sense; if they were corrupted Elves, then treating them as "other" to be slaughtered was straightforward racism. Tolkien made repeated attempts to resolve the dilemma, without arriving at what he felt was a satisfactory solution. == Dark Lords ==

Morgoth 's analysis, The Silmarillions Melkor/Morgoth parallels the Book of Genesis's Lucifer/Satan. Middle-earth's first Dark Lord is Morgoth in The Silmarillion. Morgoth originates as Melkor, the most powerful of the divine or angelic Valar. He chooses to go his own way rather than to follow that of the creator, and creates discord. He is renamed Morgoth, the dark enemy. Morgoth's lieutenant is a lesser spirit being, a Maia, Sauron, one of several seduced into his service. Morgoth wages war on the Elves of Beleriand. Eventually the Valar call on the creator, Eru Ilúvatar, to intervene; Morgoth is destroyed amidst the utter ruin of his fortress of Thangorodrim; Beleriand sinks beneath the waves, ending the First Age of Middle-earth. 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 been likened, too, 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. Sauron , starting with the Dark Lord Morgoth and his lieutenant Sauron Men deceived: Númenor destroyed In the Second Age, Sauron proceeds to deceive the Men of Númenor into seeking immortality by invading Valinor. When their fleet arrives there, Eru Ilúvatar once again intervenes. The flat world is remade to be round, the fleet is destroyed, and Númenor is drowned, ending the Second Age in a cataclysm reminiscent of the legend of Atlantis. The faithful under Elendil, who opposed the attack on Valinor, escape to Middle-earth. Elves deceived: the Rings of Power and the Nazgûl Sauron too escapes, and takes on the mantle of Dark Lord for the Third Age. He helps the Elves of Middle-earth to put their power into Rings of Power, which they intend to use for good. He deceives them by secretly forging the One Ring, putting much of his own power into it, and gaining power over all the other Rings. The Elves perceive him and hide their three Rings, preventing him from controlling them. He gives seven Rings to the Dwarf-lords, and nine Rings to lords of Men. The nine become Ringwraiths, the Nazgûl, corrupted and enslaved to his will. The Third Age ends, leaving Middle-earth to become a world of Men. Monsters in spirit Joe Abbott describes the Dark Lords Morgoth and Sauron as monsters, intelligent and powerful but wholly gone over to evil. He notes that in The Monsters and the Critics, Tolkien distinguished between ordinary monsters in the body, and monsters also in spirit: "The distinction [is] between a devilish ogre, and a devil revealing himself in ogre-form—between a monster, devouring the body and bringing temporal death, that is inhabited by a cursed spirit, and a spirit of evil aiming ultimately at the soul and bringing eternal death". By going beyond the limits of the body with these monstrous Dark Lords, Tolkien had in Abbott's view made the "ultimate transformation" for a Christian author, creating "a far more terrifying monster" than any physical adversary. Presiding over successive falls The evil power of the Dark Lords brings about successive falls in the history of Middle-earth, reflecting the biblical pattern in which man is cast out of the original paradise into the ordinary world, never to return. Morgoth presides over the destruction of the two Lamps, then that of the Two Trees of Valinor, then the ruinous wars over the Silmarils. Tolkien noted that reflections of the biblical fall of man can be seen in the Ainulindalë, the Kinslaying at Alqualondë, and (under Sauron) the fall of Númenor. Sauron is at last destroyed in the War of the Ring, but even that victory represents the dwindling or fading away of all non-human peoples in Middle-earth, including the Elves and Dwarves. == Evil characters ==

Witch-king of Angmar {{quote box|title=A Boethian depiction of Evil|quote=In rode the Lord of the Nazgûl. A great black shape against the fires beyond he loomed up, grown to a vast menace of despair. In rode the Lord of the Nazgûl, under the archway that no enemy ever yet had passed, and all fled before his face.       All save one. There waiting, silent, and still in the space before the Gate, sat Gandalf upon Shadowfax: Shadowfax who alone among the free horses of the earth endured the terror, unmoving, steadfast as a graven image in Rath Dínen.       "You cannot enter here", said Gandalf, and the huge shadow halted. "Go back to the abyss prepared for you! Go back! Fall into the nothingness that awaits you and your Master. Go!"       The Black Rider flung back his hood, and behold! he had a kingly crown; and yet upon no head visible was it set. The red fires shone between it and the mantled shoulders vast and dark. From a mouth unseen there came a deadly laughter.       "Old fool!" he said. "Old fool! This is my hour. Do you not know Death when you see it? Die now and curse in vain!" And with that he lifted high his sword and flames ran down the blade... |source="The Siege of Gondor" At a theological level, he embodies a vision of evil similar to Karl Barth's description of evil as , an active and powerful force that turns out to be empty. Gollum Gollum is, Burns writes, "a thieving, kin-murdering, treasure-hoarding, sun-hating, underground dweller who ought to be dead," much like the Barrow-wight. As Gollum states: "We are lost, lost... No name, no business, no Precious, nothing. Only empty. Only hungry; yes, we are hungry". Verlyn Flieger suggests that Gollum is Tolkien's central monster-figure, likening him to both Grendel and the Beowulf dragon, "the twisted, broken, outcast hobbit whose manlike shape and dragonlike greed combine both the Beowulf kinds of monster in one figure". Burns comments that Gollum has other attributes from the undead of Norse myth: supernatural strength, demanding that he be wrestled; he may appear to be black, but has "bone-white" skin. Saruman Saruman is the leader of the Istari, wizards sent to Middle-earth in human form by the Valar to challenge Sauron. He comes to desire Sauron's power for himself, so he betrays the Istari and tries to take over Middle-earth by force, creating an army in his fastness of Isengard. He embodies the themes of the corruptive nature of power and the use of technology in opposition to nature. His desire for knowledge and order leads to his fall, as he submits to Sauron's evil will, brought about by the use of a palantír and his study of "the arts of the enemy". He rejects the chance of redemption when it is offered. Denethor Denethor is the Steward of Gondor, a realm neighbouring and opposed to Mordor. He is depicted as embittered and despairing as the forces of Mordor close in on Gondor. He does not side with Sauron, but his use of a Palantír allows Sauron to deceive him about present and future events. Tom Shippey comments that this forms part of a pattern around the use of the deceptive Palantír, that one should not try to see the future but should trust in one's luck and make one's own mind up, courageously facing one's duty in each situation. Critics have noted the contrast between Denethor and both Théoden, the good King of Rohan, and Aragorn, the true King of Gondor. Others have likened Denethor to Shakespeare's King Lear, who similarly falls into a dangerous despair. == Deaths of evil characters ==

Marjorie Burns writes that multiple monstrous or evil characters in Middle-earth die deaths that would befit "the [undead] afterwalkers of Old Norse sagas", being destroyed by fire sufficient to eliminate them completely. Gollum is brought to an end by fire, the final resort for "stopping the restless dead". In similar vein, the Nazgûl, already wraiths, are destroyed at the same time as the One Ring, blazing in their final flight, "shooting like flaming bolts" and ending in "fiery ruin" as they are burnt out. Burns states that Tolkien creates "quite a pattern" for characters "who would take more than their due and who have aligned themselves with death", naming Sauron, Saruman, and Denethor as instances of those who come to a "final and well-deserved destruction". == References ==