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Template:Middle-earth portalMorgoth Bauglir (originally known as Melkor) is a fictional character from J. R. R. Tolkien’s Middle-earth legendarium.

Character overview

Morgoth was one of the Ainur, a race of divine beings similar to archangels, the 15 most powerful of which later became the Valar. Melkor was the brother of their king, Manwë Súlimo. In the histories of Middle-earth, Morgoth played "the great enemy," the ultimate antagonist of Middle-earth. Sauron, Tolkien's better-known villain, was one of the Maiar and a servant to the original "Dark Lord", Morgoth.

A character that appeared in person in The Silmarillion and The Children of Húrin, Morgoth is of critical importance to the entire Tolkien cycle. The personification of evil in Middle-earth, Morgoth provided later generations with moral warnings against the sins of pride, lust for power, and greed, as well as the fall from grace and destruction in which these sins result. His story also accounts for the existence of evil in otherwise innocent people's lives in that it rationalizes (to an extent) the pain the characters of Middle-earth must suffer. In these respects his role is similar to that of Satan in Christianity.

The name

Morgoth came from Tolkien's invented language of Sindarin and means "The Dark Enemy"; Bauglir is also Sindarin, meaning "Tyrant" or "Oppressor". "Morgoth Bauglir" is actually an epithet. His name as first mentioned in Ainulindalë (the creation story of Middle-earth and first section of The Silmarillion) is Melkor, which means 'He Who Arises In Might' in Quenya. But this too is an epithet since he, like all the Ainur, had another true name in Valarin (the language of the Ainur before Time), but this name was not recorded. The Sindarin equivalent of Melkor was Belegûr, but it was never used; instead a deliberately resembling name Belegurth, meaning 'Great Death', was employed, though still rarely.

The character was not properly called ‘Morgoth’ until he is given the name by Fëanor of the Noldor. This occurred in the First Age, after Melkor destroyed the Two Trees and stole the Silmarils. Prior to this point, he was only called Melkor, and the Elves called him that name alone. (see "History" below)

Like Sauron, he had a host of other titles: Lord of the Dark, the Dark Power of the North, and Great Enemy. The Edain called him the Dark King and the Dark Power; the Númenóreans corrupted by Sauron called him the Lord of All and the Giver of Freedom.

History

Ainulindalë

Before the creation of Arda (The World), Melkor was the most powerful of the Ainur. He contended with Eru (God), via the Music of the Ainur. Melkor was jealous of his father, and wanted to create and rule other wills himself. He spent a long time looking for the Secret Fire (also called the “Flame Imperishable”).

Unlike his fellow-Ainu Aulë, Melkor was too proud to admit that his creations were simply discoveries wholly made possible by, and therefore “belonging” to, Eru. Instead, Melkor aspired to the level of Eru; the true Creator of all possibilities.

During the Great Music of the Ainur, Melkor attempted to alter the Music and introduce what he believed to be elements purely of his own design. As part of these efforts, he drew many weaker-willed Ainur to him — creating a counter to Eru’s main theme. Ironically, these attempts did not, as he hoped, truly subvert the Music, but only further elaborate and beautify Eru’s original intentions: the Music of Eru took on a depth and beauty precisely because of the strife and sadness Melkor’s disharmonies (and their rectification) introduced.

Since the Great Music of the Ainur stood as template for all of history and all of material creation in the Middle-earth cycle (it was first sung before Time, and then the universe was made in its image), there was an aspect of everything in Middle-earth that came of Melkor’s meddling – everything had been somewhat "polluted."

Quenta Silmarillion

After the Creation, many Ainur entered into Eä. These came to be called the Valar (the most powerful ‘class’ of Ainur in the World, of whom the ‘legitimate’ King was Melkor’s brother, Manwë) and the Maiar (Ainur of lesser rank and power). They immediately set about building the universe, and they attempted to manifest Arda according to the Music. Melkor and his followers entered Eä as well, and they set about trying to ruin and undo whatever the others did.

Melkor’s 'natural province' (if it could be called that) was in the area of terrible extremes and violence — bitter cold, scorching heat, earthquakes, rendings, breakings, utter darkness, burning light etc. He exerted his force (which was very great at that time) in whatever way he could; yet, at every step, he was opposed by the other Valar, who struggled greatly to contain him.

Ultimately, Melkor and his followers descended into Arda, and attacked and destroyed the Two Lamps (precursors to the Two Trees and the Sun and Moon). In the process, Arda was plunged into darkness, and Almaren, the first home of the Valar on Earth, was destroyed.

After the fall of the Lamps, the Valar retreated and made Valinor in the West. Melkor held dominion over Middle-earth from his fortress of Utumno in the North.

Melkor’s first reign ended after the Elves "awoke" (Tolkien's synonym for creation) at the shores of Cuiviénen, and the Valar resolved to rescue them from his malice. With best intentions, the Valar made immediate and devastating war on Melkor, and he was brought to Valinor in chains to serve a term in the Halls of Mandos for three Ages.

Melkor captured some Elves before the Valar came to rescue them, and he tortured and perverted them, producing the first Orcs. But other versions of the story (written both before and after the version that appears in The Silmarillion) discount this, and claim that the Orcs are soulless beings animated solely by the will of their evil lord (be it Melkor or, later, Sauron), which explains why they collapse and retreat in battle should the “guiding will” be removed. This latter version falls more in line with the idea of Morgoth’s dispersal into the world he marred, and with the idea that his creations were mere imitations (e.g. ‘Orc’ = parody of ‘Elf’); it also provides a moral basis for later inhabitants of Middle-earth, who kill Orcs without compassion or compunction. Other versions state that Morgoth bred the Orcs from Men, whose awakening in such texts is placed soon after the awakening of the Elves. In The Silmarillion, Tolkien writes that Orcs were created in mockery of Elves, and indeed that they were originally Elves. He also does not say anything about them not having souls, he just says that they are a foul race created by Melkor in mockery of elves. Still, the questions of Orc reproduction and of the possible melding of the races of Orcs and Men must be dealt with — both issues lend credence to the Silmarillion version. Cf. Middle-earth canon.

After his three-Age sentence ended, Melkor was released, yet he was confined to Valinor. He used his newfound freedom to corrupt the virtue of the Noldor (one of the kindred of the Elves that had been relocated to Valinor), to kill Finwë their King, and to steal the Silmarils — jewels that Finwë’s son Fëanor made by encasing the light of the Two Trees in an unknown substance. Fëanor (for a time himself King of the Noldor in Middle-earth) gave Melkor the name Morgoth, “The Dark Enemy of the World”. After these crimes, and with the aid of the monstrous spider Ungoliant, Morgoth destroyed the Two Trees and brought darkness to Valinor.

Back in Middle-earth, Morgoth resumed his reign in the North, this time in Angband, which had not been destroyed as thoroughly by the Valar as had been his main fortress Utumno. Fëanor and most of the Noldor pursued him, but not before the Kinslaying and the Doom of Mandos. The rebel Noldor arrived in Beleriand and established principalities and set themselves against Morgoth and his armies, severely restricting them. Immediately afterward, the Sun and the Moon first arose and Men awoke in the world. Several battles ensued, including the Dagor-nuin-Giliath (Battle Under the Stars — fought before the rising of the Moon), Dagor Bragollach (Battle of Sudden Flame), and the Nirnaeth Arnoediad (Battle of Unnumbered Tears) at which the armies of the Eldar and the Edain were utterly defeated and routed. Excepting a few refugees living on or near a bay island off the Mouths of Sirion, Morgoth once again conquered Middle-earth.

Between and amid all these events, the Man Beren and the Elf-maid Lúthien entered Angband, where they stole one Silmaril from Morgoth’s iron crown. In due course, their granddaughter's husband Eärendil, descended from the Eldar and the Edain, and bearing this same Silmaril on his brow, sailed across the sea to Valinor, where he pleaded with the Valar until they agreed to send an army to vanquish Morgoth and liberate Elves and Men.

During the ensuing War of Wrath, Beleriand and much of the north of Middle-earth was again destroyed and reshaped, and Morgoth was utterly defeated. His armies were almost entirely slaughtered, his "Invincible Dragon Armada" was cast from the sky, his surviving Balrogs fled to the ends of the earth, and the very mountains of Thangorodrim were shattered and the immence underworld fortress of Angband was gouged out. His enemies found Morgoth in the deepest, darkest dungeon at the very bottom of what was left of Angband. Alone, cornered, friendless, and lacking absolutely any shame or guilt, he unbelievably demanded the right to negotiate for peace. In response, his legs were swiftly cut out from under him, felling him like a tree and giving a more fitting answer to his outrageously unreasonable pleas than mere words ever would. Now unable to flee, he was bound once again, his Iron Crown beaten into a collar around his neck and bound in chains, Angainor and he was led to the judgment of the gods. This time, his punishment was final. Morgoth’s fëa (“spirit”, as in “Fëanor” – “spirit of fire”) was shut outside the Door of Night forever. He was unable to return until the rumoured Final Battle, when he would reënter Eä, destroy the Sun and the Moon, and with his followers fight a united army of Ainur, Elves and Men. His evil remained, however, as “Arda Marred”, and influenced all living creatures.

Children of Húrin

This book is a more complete version of events summarized in Quenta Silmarillion. Húrin along with his younger brother Huor are leaders of the House of Hador, one of the three kindred of elf-friends. At Nírnaeth Arnoediad they covered the escape of Turgon to Gondolin by sacrificing their army and themselves. Huor was slain, but Húrin was brought before Morgoth alive. In revenge for his aid to Turgon and his defiance, Morgoth cursed both Húrin and his children, binding Húrin to a seat upon Thangorodrim and forcing him to see all that happened to his children in the succeeding years. There is little additional information about Morgoth in this book, except what is found in the encounter between him and Húrin, which is set out in more detail than in The Silmarillion and in a more connected narrative than in Unfinished Tales. It is the first allusion in such a narrative to some earlier corruption of Men by Morgoth soon after their awakening, and the assertion by Morgoth of dominion over the entire Earth by virtue of his influence.

Appearance and characteristics

The Ainu Melkor could initially take any shape, but his first recorded form was "...as a mountain that wades in the sea and has its head above the clouds and is clad in ice and crowned with smoke and fire; and the light of the eyes of Melkor was like a flame that withers with heat and pierces with a deadly cold." At the time he slew the Two Trees and stole the Silmarils, he took to himself the shape of the great Dark Lord: gigantic and terrifying. The diminution of his power in this time and his own desire for lordship destroyed his ability to freely change shape, and in effect he became bound to this one, terrible form. His hands were burned by the theft of the Silmarils, and never healed. The one time he emerged, to fight High King Fingolfin, he suffered several wounds, including one to the foot which left him with a permanent limp. At the end of this battle, Thorondor, the great Eagle, swooped down and scarred Morgoth's face with his talons, a wound that also never healed. In battle he wore black armour and wielded Grond, the Hammer of the Underworld. Mordor's great battering ram was named after this weapon. He also wielded a black spear, and in early texts a poison sword.

Melkor's powers were originally immense – greater than those of any other single Ainu. He shared a part of the powers of every other Vala, but unlike them used it for domination of the whole of Arda. To accomplish this Morgoth dispersed his being throughout Arda, tainting its very fabric of Arda; and only Aman was free of it. This resulted in his person becoming ever more diminished and restricted.

Pity was beyond Morgoth’s understanding, as was courage; as he alone of the Valar bound himself to a physical (and therefore destructible) body, he alone of the Valar knew fear.

Politics and followers

Morgoth considers himself "Master of the Fates of Arda," and thinks himself the universe's rightful king.

Because he was the most powerful creature in Arda, many "flocked to his banner." Morgoth's chief servants were certain Maiar he corrupted or monsters he created: Sauron, later the Dark Lord of Mordor and his chief servant; Gothmog, the Lord of Balrogs and High-Captain of Angband; Glaurung, the Father of Dragons; Ancalagon "the Black", greatest of the Winged Dragons; Carcharoth, the mightiest wolf that ever lived; Draugluin, Sire of Werewolves; and Thuringwethil, Sauron's vampire messenger.

Melkor was aided in destroying the Two Trees by Ungoliant, a demon in spider form. However, this allegiance was temporary; when Melkor refused to feed the Simarils to Ungoliant, she attacked him. He had spread his power and malice too thinly and had thus weakened himself too much to fight back, and so was forced to call upon the Balrogs to save him.

When the race of Men awoke, Morgoth (or his servant, depending on text consulted) temporarily left Angband to live among them: some men worshipped him, banning Ilúvatar from their hearts. The Atanatári (Fathers of Men) were those Men who repented and fled West toward the rumour of the Valar, but Morgoth and his servants had many legions of fallen Men at his service regardless.

Morgoth was known to have betrayed his own servants: e.g., after the Noldor were defeated, he confined all Men in his service to the lands of Hithlum, forbidding them to enter Beleriand, their promised reward. Since he could never fully conquer Men, he could never really trust them.

Character development and history

In the early versions of Tolkien's stories, Melkor/Morgoth was not seen as the most powerful Ainu. He is described as being equal in power to Manwë, chief of the Valar in Arda. But his power increased in later revisions of the story until he became the most powerful Ainu, and then (in a late essay), more powerful than all of the Valar combined. His character thus developed from being a standout among equals (by virtue of his wickedness and rebelliousness), to being invincible with regards to all the others: no created beings in the universe have the power in themselves — alone or united — to utterly defeat Morgoth.

In the course of the literary development of his legendarium, Tolkien altered both the conception of this fallen Ainu and his name. The name given to him by the Noldor (Morgoth) was present since the first stories, otherwise he was for a long time called Melko, which was later preserved as a variant form. The Sindarin equivalent of this was a matter of hesitation, appearing as Belcha, Melegor, and Moeleg, and so was the meaning of the name, considered to be related in different times to milka 'greedy' or velka 'flame'. Similarly the 'Old English translations' devised by Tolkien differ in sense: Melko is rendered as Orgel 'Pride' and Morgoth as Sweart-ós 'Black God'. Once Morgoth is given a particular 'sphere' of powers: in the early Tale of Turambar Tinwelint (precursor of Thingol) names him "the Vala of Iron".

Much of the text published in The Silmarillion was drawn from earlier, more completely written, drafts of the mythology and thus in places seems to advance the older conception of Morgoth's power; there is less discussion of Melkor/Morgoth's marring of all Arda by diluting himself throughout it. In other sections, such as the 1950s draft used for Ainulindalë, the implication of his "total" power remains clear. While not included in the published 'Silmarillion', the final passages of all other versions of the mythology state that Melkor will escape the guardianship of Eärendil and return at the end of time. In the final battle, Melkor will be slain by Túrin Turambar with his famous black sword.

"The Morgoth"

In late writings a distinction is made between the Ainu Melkor, the most powerful of Eru’s created beings, and The Morgoth, the diminished being that styled itself Dark Lord of Arda. This distinction is not limited to a name-change only (‘Arises in Might’ to ‘Dark Enemy’).

As described in the “Ainulindalë”, Melkor’s musical disruptions marred the Music of the Ainur in Heaven. Melkor’s thematic variations in that Music amounted to his own self-elaboration (each Ainu is, in its conception, the ‘concretization’ of a divine theme, existing beforehand only in the mind of Eru). Eä, or the World that Is, mirrors the Music. Thus, the evil that Melkor weaves into the Music was mirrored in Eä by the evil he wove into the fabric of reality. As a result, the world Arda was "Marred": the conceptions of the Valar never came about, and Melkor's very essence was present in all creation.

Part and parcel with Melkor’s inability to perform true creation was the idea that something of his actual being must pass into the things he ‘created’, in order to give them an effective substance and reality. That is, he could not create a new thing, but he could create a parody of an already-existing thing by cutting off, as it were, a piece of his own being and using it as the clay to make his false creations. From his Trolls to the Sun (which was made from a flower from a Tree poisoned by Ungoliant, and was thus itself imperfect), Melkor’s being was diffused throughout the material (and immaterial) universe, as a kind of "magical" element. Melkor — in his individuated being — was diminished as a consequence. He was reduced to Morgoth, the “Dark Enemy” or, more exactly, “Dreadful Dark”.

Morgoth, once the most powerful being in Eä, had to rely on his armies in the War of Wrath, and with these armies defeated was easily captured by Eönwë, a Maia of much less power. Morgoth's physical body was executed as punishment and his spirit cast out of the world; such a punishment would have been impossible for Melkor at his full might.

To distinguish between the greater Melkor, a being that existed both as an individual (Morgoth) and as a "magical" element of all being (because he had corrupted, to an extent, everything that came from the Music of the Ainur, and his being had — as that corruption itself — been diffused throughout material reality), the former came to be called “The Morgoth”.

Notes and references

1. Roots MOR- 'black', KOTH- 'strife, enmity' and MBAW- 'compell, oppress'. Fëanor actually named him in Quenya (another of Tolkien's languages), Moriñgotho, and later this was translated in Sindarin as Morgoth.
2. Roots BEL(EK)- 'strong' and ORO- 'rise'. The form of the name in ancient Quenya was Mbelekōro; also a variant form of Melkor is recorded as Melko, simply meaning 'Mighty (One)'.
3. Tolkien, J. R. R. (1993). Christopher Tolkien (ed.). Morgoth's Ring. Boston: Houghton Mifflin. pp. 72-73. ISBN 0-395-68092-1.
4. Morgoth's Ring, p.416-21.
5. Tolkien, J. R. R. (1977). Christopher Tolkien (ed.). The Silmarillion. Boston: Houghton Mifflin. p. 22. ISBN 978-0-395-25730-2.
6. See esp. Morgoth's Ring: Tale of Adanel.
7. Tolkien, J. R. R. (1987). Christopher Tolkien (ed.). The Lost Road and Other Writings. Boston: Houghton Mifflin. Quenta Silmarillion, p. 206. ISBN 0-395-45519-7.
8. The Lost Road and Other Writings: Ainulindalë, pp. 157, 164.
9. Morgoth's Ring, pp. 390-393.
10. The Lost Road and Other Writings: The Etymologies, p. 373, root MIL-IK-.
11. Tolkien, J. R. R. (1984). Christopher Tolkien (ed.). The Book of Lost Tales. Vol. 1. Boston: Houghton Mifflin. p. 260. ISBN 0-395-35439-0.
12. Tolkien, J. R. R. (1986). Christopher Tolkien (ed.). The Shaping of Middle-earth. Boston: Houghton Mifflin. pp. 281-283. ISBN 978-0-395-42501-5.
13. Tolkien, J. R. R. (1984b). Christopher Tolkien (ed.). The Book of Lost Tales. Vol. 2. Boston: Houghton Mifflin. Turambar and the Foalókë, p. 73. ISBN 0-395-36614-3.
14. Cf. Morgoth’s Ring, pp. 322, 390-393.

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