How otherwise would you have it? Should Manwë and the Valar meet secrecy with subterfuge, treachery with falsehood, lies with more lies? If Melkor would usurp their rights, should they deny his? Can hate overcome hate? Nay, Manwë was wiser; or being ever open to Eru he did His will, which is more than wisdom. He was ever open because he had nothing to conceal, no thought that it was harmful for any to know, if they could comprehend it. Indeed Melkor knew his will without questioning it; and he knew that Manwë was bound by the commands and injunctions of Eru, and would do this or abstain from that in accordance with them, always, even knowing that Melkor would break them as it suited his purpose. Thus the merciless will ever count on mercy, and the liars make use of truth; for if mercy and truth are withheld from the cruel and the lying, they have ceased to be honoured.[14]
Manwë could not by duress attempt to compel Melkor to reveal his thought and purposes, or (if he used words) to speak the truth. If he spoke and said: this is true, he must be believed until proved false; if he said: this I will do, as you bid, he must be allowed the opportunity to fulfill his promise.[fn8]
The force and restraint that were used upon Melkor by the united power of all the Valar, were not used to extort confession (which was needless); nor to compel him to reveal his thought (which was unlawful, even if not vain). He was made captive as a punishment for his evil deeds, under the authority of the King. So we may say; but it were better said that he was deprived for a term, fixed by promise, of his power to act, so that he might halt and consider himself, and have thus the only chance that mercy could contrive of repentance and amendment. For the healing of Arda indeed, but for his own healing also. Melkor had the right to exist, and the right to act and use his powers. Manwë had the authority to rule and to order the world, so far as he could, for the well-being of the Eruhíni; but if Melkor would repent and return to the allegiance of Eru, he must be given his freedom again. He could not be enslaved, or denied his part. The office of the Elder King was to retain all his subjects in the allegiance of Eru, or to bring them back to it, and in that allegiance to leave them free.
Therefore not until the last, and not then except by the express command of Eru and by His power, was Melkor thrown utterly down and deprived for ever of all power to do or to undo.
Who among the Eldar hold that the captivity of Melkor in Mandos (which was achieved by force) was either unwise or unlawful? Yet the resolve to assault Melkor, not merely to withstand him, to meet violence with wrath to the peril of Arda, was taken by Manwë only with reluctance. And consider: what good in this case did even the lawful use of force accomplish? It removed him for a while and relieved Middle-earth from the pressure of his malice, but it did not uproot his evil, for it could not do so. Unless, maybe, Melkor had indeed repented.[fn9] But he did not repent, and in humiliation he became more obdurate: more subtle in his deceits, more cunning in his lies, crueller and more dastardly in his revenge. The weakest and most imprudent of all the actions of Manwë, as it seems to many, was the release of Melkor from captivity. From this came the greatest loss and harm: the death of the Trees, and the exile and the anguish of the Noldor. Yet through this suffering there came also, as maybe in no other way could it have come, the victory of the Elder Days: the downfall of Angband and the last overthrow of Melkor.
Who then can say with assurance that if Melkor had been held in bond less evil would have followed? Even in his diminishment the power of Melkor is beyond our calculation. Yet some ruinous outburst of his despair is not the worst that might have befallen. The release was according to the promise of Manwë. If Manwë had broken this promise for his own purposes, even though still intending “good”, he would have taken a step upon the paths of Melkor. That is a perilous step. In that hour and act he would have ceased to be the vice-gerent of the One, becoming but a king who takes advantage over a rival whom he has conquered by force. Would we then have the sorrows that indeed befell; or would we have the Elder King lose his honour, and so pass, maybe, to a world rent between two proud lords striving for the throne? Of this we may be sure, we children of small strength: any one of the Valar might have taken the paths of Melkor and become like him: one was enough.
X
NOTES ON ÓRË
Among the papers associated with the c. 1968 Shibboleth of Fëanor (published in part in The Peoples of Middle-earth), located now between the final typescript page of the essay proper and the first of the manuscript pages concerning the names of the sons of Fëanor and the legend of the death of his youngest son (cf. XII:352 ff.), is a single, apparently unrelated but closely contemporary typescript sheet. It is the beginning of what once may (or would) have been a substantial essay on the Common Eldarin root GOR and its descendants, which Tolkien has titled in ink with its Quenya derivative: “óre”; and numbered “1”.
This text has been previously published, in a somewhat different form, in Vinyar Tengwar 41 (2000).
Órë
Common Eldarin GOR: Quenya or, Telerin or, Sindarin gor; associated with Common Eldarin √OR in Quenya and Telerin,[1] but probably not in Common Eldarin semantically connected. Nearest to the original sense is ‘warn’, but (a) it did not refer only to dangers, evils, or difficulties ahead; and (b) though it could be used of the influence of one person upon another by visible or audible means (words or signs) – in which case ‘counsel’ was nearer to its sense – this was not its chief use. This can best be explained by consideration of its principal derivative. This was in Common Eldarin *gōrē: Quenya órë, Telerin ōrë, Sindarin gûr.
Quenya órë is glossed in The Lord of the Rings (III 401)[2] ‘heart (inner mind)’. But although it is used frequently in the LR in the phrase “my heart tells me”,[3] translating Quenya órenya quete nin, Telerin ōre nia pete nin, Sindarin guren bêd enni, ‘heart’ is not suitable, except in brevity, since órë does not correspond in sense to any of the English confused uses of “heart”: memory, reflection; courage, good spirits; emotion, feelings, tender, kind or generous impulses (uncontrolled by, or opposed to the judgements of reason).
What the órë was for Elvish thought and speech, and the nature of its counsels – it says, and so advises, but is never represented as commanding – requires for its understanding a brief account of Eldarin thought on the matter. For this purpose the question whether this thought has any validity as judged by human philosophy or psychology, present or past, is of no importance; nor do we need to consider whether Elvish minds differed in their faculties and their relation with their bodies.
The Elves thought there was no fundamental difference in the given faculties; but that for reasons of the separate history of Elves and Men they were differently used. Above all the difference of their bodies, which were nonetheless of the same structure, had a marked effect: the human body was (or had become) more easily injured or destroyed, and was in any case doomed to decay by age and to die, with or without the will to do so, after a brief time. This imported into human thought and feeling “haste”: all desires of the mind and the body were far more imperious in Men than in Elves: peace, patience, and even full enjoyment of present good were greatly lessened in Men. By an irony of their fate, though their personal expectation of it was brief, Men were always thinking of the future, more often with hope than dread, though their actual experience gave little reason for the hope. By a similar irony the Elves, whose expectation of the future was indefinite – though before them, however far off, loomed the shadow of an End – were ever more and more involved in the past, and in regret – though their memories were in fact laden with sorrows. Men, they said, certainly possessed (or had possessed) óre; but owing to the “haste” spoken of above they paid little attention to it. And there was another reason more dark (connected the Elves thought with human “death”): the órë of Men was open to evil counsel, and was not safe to trust.[fn1][4]
The typescript ends at the bottom of the page. If any continuation of this typescript text ever existed, it is apparently no longer extan
t. There are, however, manuscript pages among Tolkien’s linguistic papers containing what is apparently draft material not long preceding this typescript, that may give some indication of how that more finished text may have continued. This group of manuscript notes is written on both sides of three sheets of Allen & Unwin publication notices, variously dated 12th January or 9th February, 1968 (providing a terminus a quo for these notes). These were written very hastily, and the handwriting is in places exceedingly difficult of interpretation, even to Tolkien, who has, here and there, and more or less tentatively, glossed his own handwriting.
órë in nontechnical language, glossed ‘heart, inner mind’, nearest equivalent of ‘heart’ in our application to feelings, or emotions (courage, fear, hope, pity, etc.) including baneful ones. But it is also used more vaguely of things arising in the mind or entering the mind (sanar) which the Eldar regarded as sometimes the result of deep reflection (often proceeding in sleep) and sometimes of actual messages or influences on the mind – from other minds, including the greater minds of the Valar and so indirectly from Eru.[5] (So at this period it was supposed Eru even “spoke” directly to his Children.)[6] Hence the frequent expression órenya quete nin = “my heart tells me” used of some deep feelings (to be trusted) that some course of action etc. is to be [?approved] or [?] will happen [??]. This in Quenya was often associated with √or- ‘up/-rise’ as if it were ‘arising’ = things that arise and come up into the sanar, disturbing or colouring or warning it, and often actively determining its judgement, nāmie ‘a single judgement or desire’ (sanwe ‘thought’ > nāma ‘a judgement or desire’ > indo ‘resolve’ or ‘will’ > action), but it is probably another case of lost h.
‘Mind’ is sanar (for ‘thinker’): of which indo ‘will’ was regarded either as a part or as a function of sanar.
Common Eldarin √HOR = ‘urge, impel, move’ but only of “mental” impulse; it differs from √NID in having no reference to physical action or force.[7]
(h)ore nin karitas = “I feel an urge/wish/desire to do it”.
ore nin karitas nō (but) namin alasaila = ‘I would like / feel moved to do so but judge it unwise’.
ōrenya quēta nin = “my heart is saying to me”.
Mind, ‘reflector, thinker’ = Q. sanar; ‘will’ = indo; ‘(pre)monition’ = óre.[8]
Emotions are divided into two “intertwined” things:
1) physical impulses provided by the body, for its preservation, pleasure, propagation, physical fear, desire, hunger, thirst, sexual desire, the physical side of love when the “wedding” of hröa and fëa was most close, etc.
2) impulses arising in the fëa, either from its own nature or as affected by horror, love/pity/[??], anger, hate; hate being a crucial case. It was in later Eldarin history a product of pride/self-love and emotion of rejection (or most corrupt, revenge) on those opposing one’s will or desire; but there was a real “hate” far more impersonal, affecting the fëa only as one of animosity, of things that were evil, “against Eru”, destructive of other things, especially living things.[9]
The Eldar thought[10] that some disaster, perhaps even amounting to a “change of the world” (sc. something that affected all its later history), had befallen Men which altered their nature, especially with regard to “death”. But of this Men, not even the Atani with whom they became closely associated, could never speak more clearly than to refer to “the shadow behind us” or “the dark we have fled from”. There exists however a curious document called the “Debate of Finrod and Andreth”.[11] Finrod was one of the Noldorin Kings known as Firindil or Atandil ‘friend of Men’ most interested in them or sympathetic. Andreth was a woman, a ‘wise-woman’ of the Atani who it would appear had loved and been loved by his brother Eignor (‘sharp flame’) [Aegnor in the Athrabeth], but had (as Andreth thought) finally rejected her as of an inferior race. From this debate it would appear that Andreth believed that death (and especially the fear of it) had come upon Men as a punishment or result of some disaster – rebellion against Eru the Eldar guessed; and that there had not been any original intention that Men should be brief or fleeting. This document appears to have been actually of Mannish origin probably deriving from Andreth herself.
For (as far as we can now judge) [from] the legends (mainly of Elvish origin probably, though coming down to us through Men) it would seem clear that Men were not intended to have Elvish longevity, limited only by the life of the Earth or its endurance as a habitable place for incarnates. They were privileged, the Elves would have said, to have passed with free will out of the physical world and time (the circles of the world), but after a much greater life-span than now most actually possessed. The life of the Númenóreans before their fall (the 2nd fall of Man?) was thus not so much a special gift as a restoration of what should have been the common inheritance of Men, [to live] for 200–300 years. Aragorn claimed to be the last of the Númenóreans.[12] The “disaster” the Elves thus suspected was some rebellion against Eru taking [the] form of accepting Melkor as God.[13] One consequence of this was that the fëa was [?impaired] and Melkor had claim upon those who had rebelled against him and sought the protection of Eru, and access to [??] óre which [?amazed??] but were [?useless] and only the wisest of Men could distinguish between [?his] evil promptings and the true óre.
Despite the difficulty of the end of this passage, enough is legible that its meaning seems clear: through their acceptance of him as God, Melkor gained access to the órë of Men, so that only the wisest of Men could distinguish between the uncorrupted counsel of the órë and the evil promptings of Melkor. Cf. the statement in the typescript text that “the órë of Men was open to evil counsel, and was not safe to trust”.
The Elves distinguished between the fëa (< *phayā) as ‘spirit/soul’ and hröa (< *srawā) ‘body’. To the fëa [?primarily] they attributed sanar ‘the mind’ which functions in part with the will indo derived from judgements of the sanar based on evidence brought to it by the senses or experiences but also by the órë. This was held to be a power or function of the ‘inner mind’ …[14]
Another difficult manuscript note, located in the same bundle as (but not with) the preceding manuscript notes, and likewise written on an Allen & Unwin publication notice dated 9 Feb. 1968, reads:
hor- to be glossed ‘warn’ though this does not refer only to evils or dangers. It may be used of one person speaking to another but is mainly used impersonally as in ora nin ‘it warns me’ or in phrase órenya quete nin ‘my heart tells me’ and is regarded as “arising” from some inner source of wisdom or knowledge independent of the knowledge or experience gathered from the senses, which wisdom [?was sometimes due] to influence of greater, wiser minds, such as those of the Valar.
XI
FATE AND FREE WILL
Some time c. 1968 (much of the text presented here is written on the backs of printed Allen & Unwin reprint notices dated 12th Jan. 1968), Tolkien turned to considerations of two Quenya words encountered and glossed in The Lord of the Rings: ambar ‘world’ and umbar ‘fate’; and of their precise meanings and etymological and semantic relationship. Amidst a linguistic discussion of certain points of Elvish phonology, Tolkien cited the Eldarin base MBAR underlying both these Quenya words, as well as the related Sindarin forms amar ‘world’ and amarth ‘fate’:
MBAR: basically ‘settle, establish’ but with a considerable semantic development, being especially applied to ‘settlement’, sc. the settling of a place, occupation (permanently) and ordering of a region as a “home” (of a family or people) > to erect (permanent) buildings, dwellings?[1]
Tolkien goes on to cite various derivatives of this base, including:
Quenya and Telerin ambar, Sindarin amar ‘world’, ‘the great habitation’.
Beneath these glosses he added a note of clarification:
The full implications of this word cannot be understood without reference to Eldarin views and ideas concerning “fate” and “free will”. (See note on
these points.) The sense ‘world’ – applied usually to this Earth – is mainly derived from sense ‘settlement’: “the great habitation” (οἰκουμένη)[2] as “home of speaking creatures” esp. Elves and Men. (ambar ‘world’ differed from Arda in reference. Arda meant ‘realm’ & was this earth as the realm ruled by Manwë (the Elder King) vice-regent of Eru, for benefit of the Children of Eru.) But though mbar- was naturally mostly used of the activities and purposes of rational creatures, it was not limited to these. It thus could refer to the conditions and established (physical) processes of the Earth (as established at its Creation directly or mediately by Eru), which was part of Eä, the Universe; and so approached in some uses the sense ‘Fate’, according to Eldarin thought on the subject. Thus Q. ambarmenië ‘the way of the world’ (“world” by the way never meant “people”), the fixed, and by “creatures” unalterable, conditions in which they lived.
Then, a little further on in this discussion of derivatives of MBAR, Tolkien cites:
Sindarin amarth ‘Fate’. This sense is an application of the basic sense, augmented by its formation, of mbar: ‘permanent establishment/order’; ‘Fate’ especially (when applied to the future): sc. the order and conditions of the physical world (or of Eä in general) as far as established and pre-ordained at Creation, and that part of this ordained order which affected an individual with a will, as being immutable by his personal will.
The Nature of Middle-earth Page 18
