II. Eru on his Throne
There was Eru, the One, who in Arda is called Illuvatar, and he made first the Ainur, the
Holy Ones, that were the offspring of his thought, and they were with him before aught
else was made. And he spoke to them propounding to them themes of music; and they
sang before him, and he was glad. i
So begins The Silmarillion, the long prequel to The Lord of the Rings, compiled after
J.R.R. Tolkein's death by his son Christopher from the master's unpublished manuscripts and
notes. The Silmarillion not only includes several tales great enough to be novels in their own
right (in recent years, several of them have been), but contains the full and complete backstory of
the world Rings inhabits. We discover the origin of Sauron, Gandalf, The Ring, and the line of
Kings that brought forth Aragorn. Reading this prequel has the rare effect of enhancing the first-
published work; the world built around the Quest of the One Ring, which one might read without
fully grasping the first few times through, suddenly informs every action by every character. I
would go so far as to say that anyone who enjoys The Lord of the Rings and has not read The
Silmarillion has not truly appreciated Tolkein's accomplishment.
And at the heart of this universe is One God, who brings all things to being, and first
among them beings of pure spirit. To say that this passage is Biblical is to say only that you have
read it.
And of course, before this first tale of the Silmarillion, known as "Ainulindale", one of
these Ainur will step into the Luciferean role and put his will against Eru's. This is Melkor, the
Great Enemy, more commonly known as Morgoth, whose machinations and cruelties drive much
of the plot of the various tales of the Silmarillion. Sauron, originally a member of a lesser angelic
class known as Maiar (Gandalf and the other wizards are Maiar who walk Middle-Earth in the
guise of old men) became his lieutenant, and succeeds to the position of Supreme Enemy of
Good at the end of the First Age of Middle-Earth (LOTR takes place at the end of the Third Age),
which is the time in which most of The Silmarillion takes place.
But Morgoth himself the Valar thrust through the Door of Night beyond the Walls of the
World, into the Timeless Void; and a guard is set forever on those walls, and Earindil
keeps watch upon the rampart of the sky. Yet the lies that Melkor, the mighty and
accursed, Morgoth Bauglir, the Power of Terror and of Hate, sowed in the hearts of
Elves and Men are a sed that does not die and cannot be destroyed; and ever and anon it
sprouts anew, and will bear dark fruit even until the latest days. ii
This does a fair job of summing up the history of both the Second and Third Ages of
Middle Earth, and even beyond. Tolkein played around with a sequel to LOTR, called "The New
Shadow", in which a weakened version of the Shadow begins to creep back in during the reign of
Aragorn's son, but he abandoned it, because of course some men would forget the Light and
embrace the Shadow, just as their forefathers had done. The Christian word for this is
"concupiscence" the inclination towards sin. Human nature is what it is and cannot be altered,