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telain
Rohan
Mar 16 2013, 11:02pm
Views: 761
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how well do we really know Melkor?
[In reply to]
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Can't Post
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I can't believe how fast time is flying -- and I assure you it is no "noontide in Valinor" around here!
I find everyone's response to how Melkor might have endured his confinement so divergent and therefore so very interesting. Some posters feel it was "a piece of cake" for Melkor (Maciliel and Finwe), while others felt it would have been especially unbearable for someone as active and meddlesome as Melkor appears to have been (Brethil). Not to mention the idea (and image) of Melkor arm-wrestling with Tulkas to pass the time! (CuriousG)
I guess the truth is we really don't enough about Melkor yet to say definitively one way or the other. Put the above range of responses against an almost unanimous understanding of Nienna's compassion. Even though we know comparatively little about her -- but perhaps what we know about her is important to answering questions about her character? The truth is, Melkor hid himself from the world for a while, and was forcibly hidden from the world for an even longer while, and we just don't know much about him apart from the fact that he is intensely and destructively envious and hateful -- but even this doesn't give a terribly good clue to why he takes credit for Feanor's skill (though I think we came up with some very good and reasonable answers to that one!). Maybe I'm not so upset with Manwe for not completely understanding what Melkor had become...
However, most of us also thought that leaving him alone to "gnaw the ends of his old plots" was probably the wrong move. Since many of the Valar did not live extensively with the creatures of Middle-earth (sullied by Melkor), they simply had no way of understanding him or his intentions (save Ulmo and Tulkas, apparently). This I find really fascinating! I have always envisioned the Valar as so knowing, so capable, but now I have a sense that many/most of them at this noontide of Valinor were perhaps a bit naive. Anyone else think so?
I also think it is interesting that Melkor really was the instrument of his own downfall. He allowed a reprimand for playing the Music out of tune and a dismissal from Varda cloud his vision of who he was -- a rather supreme being, and surely one capable of making the right decision... which leads me to bring up one of the newer posts about the Fate of Men...
Is Melkor some extraordinary example of the choice humans face in Tolkien's Middle-earth (i.e., to be "evil")? Is this part of Eru's plan all along? (If so, how?)
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Silmarilion Discussion, Chapter 6: "...and the Unchaining of Melkor" 2 of 2
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telain
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Mar 11 2013, 4:42pm
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Unleashing the beast
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CuriousG
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Mar 13 2013, 5:55pm
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how well do we really know Melkor?
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telain
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Mar 16 2013, 11:02pm
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Melkor Choice and naivete of the Valar
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Brethil
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Mar 17 2013, 1:38am
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Melkor's dark music and Nienna's healing
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telain
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Mar 17 2013, 11:34pm
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Pride and pity
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CuriousG
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Mar 18 2013, 12:49am
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I get your thoughts CG!
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Brethil
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Mar 18 2013, 1:19am
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Some thoughts on Nienna and Olorin and pity
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Brethil
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Mar 18 2013, 1:12am
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I'm always learning something new here
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CuriousG
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Mar 18 2013, 2:04am
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Clueless? Hardly!
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Brethil
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Mar 18 2013, 3:15am
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My thoughts
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Finwe
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Mar 14 2013, 7:07pm
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how did Aule get in this chapter? Oh, yes...
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telain
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Mar 16 2013, 11:39pm
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The whole "Knowledge- good or bad?" question
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elaen32
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Mar 17 2013, 10:28am
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my thoughts
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Maciliel
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Mar 16 2013, 12:30am
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Free will
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Elizabeth
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Mar 16 2013, 4:40am
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then how does this apply to the gift of men?
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Maciliel
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Mar 16 2013, 11:09am
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It's not easy for us Mortals to see it as a gift, is it?
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Brethil
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Mar 16 2013, 3:45pm
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as you've described it..
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Maciliel
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Mar 16 2013, 4:06pm
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Scratching head, flipping though text-
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Brethil
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Mar 16 2013, 4:49pm
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I think the "gift" is not connected to "free will".
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Elizabeth
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Mar 16 2013, 9:40pm
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Did not intend to imply control
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Brethil
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Mar 16 2013, 10:13pm
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Feanor is a pit of smouldering coals...
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telain
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Mar 16 2013, 11:52pm
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Hello all, my first post about Sil, but I have been following :)
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Brethil
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Mar 16 2013, 2:01am
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Late answers
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sador
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Mar 18 2013, 7:35am
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