Morgoth

This article is about a fictional character created by J.R.R. Tolkien and presented in The Silmarillion (1977). For the death metal band named after this character, see Morgoth (band).

Morgoth Bauglir (originally known as Melkor) is a fictional character from J. R. R. Tolkien’s Middle-earth Cycle. In Tolkien's secondary world, Morgoth is an Ainu, a divine character of the same order and nature as the Valar. In the histories of Middle-earth, Morgoth plays "the great enemy," the ultimate antagonist of Middle-earth. Sauron, Tolkien's better-known villain, is actually a servant to the true "Dark Lord", Melkor/Morgoth.

A character that appears in person only in The Silmarillion, Morgoth is of critical importance to the entire Tolkien cycle. The personification of evil in Middle-earth, Morgoth provides later generations of Middle-earth inhabitants with moral warnings against the 'sins' of absolute individuation, of pride, lust for power, greed and the ressentiment in which these sins result. His story also powerfully accounts for the existence of evil in otherwise innocent people's lives – it rationalizes (to an extent) the pain the characters of Middle-earth must experience. In a similar vein to the devil, Morgoth is evil made manifest, evil personified, and his story provides an answer in Middle-earth to the question "Why is there suffering?"

The Name

"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. But this too is an epithet since he, like all the Ainur, has another true name in Valarin (the language of the Ainur before Time), but this name is not recorded.

The name Morgoth Bauglir can be translated as “Dark Enemy Tyrant", or "Oppressor of the Dreadful Dark". Morgoth comes from Ñoldorin for "The Dark Enemy" or "Dreadful Dark" (roots MOR - black, dark, shadow; and GOS/GOTH - dread, terror), and Bauglir is Ñoldorin for "Tyrant" or "Oppressor" (root MBAW - compel, force, subject, oppress).

The character is not properly called ‘Morgoth’ until he is given the name by Fëanor of the Ñoldor. This occurs in the First Age, after Melkor escapes Valinor. Prior to this point, he is only called Melkor. (see "History" below).

In the course of the literary development of his legendarium, Tolkien altered both the conception of this fallen Ainu and his name. Aside from the special name given him by the Ñoldor (Morgoth), he has been called, in various tales (in various versions) 'Melko', 'Belcha', 'Melegor' and 'Meleko'. The Sindarin form of his name was 'Belegur', which was never used except in the altered form 'Belegurth', meaning 'Great Death'.

His name in its most 'removed' form (common Eldarin) was 'mbelekôro'. in Might' (roots BEL - strong; and KHOR - set going, put in motion). All these name-versions are etymologically consistent with the 'Melkor' used in 'The Silmarillion'.

Morgoth’s History

Ainulindalë

Before the creation of Arda (The World), Melkor was the most powerful of the Ainur. Like an unusually precocious and arrogant child, Melkor contended with the Creator, Eru, 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 managed to draw many weaker-willed Ainur to him - creating a counter-theme to Eru’s main theme. Ironically, these attempts could not, as he hoped, truly subvert the Music, but rather could 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 stands 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 is an aspect of everything in Middle-earth that comes of Melkor’s meddling – everything has 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 is 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. But 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 can be called that) is in the area of terrible extremes and violence - bitter cold, scorching heats, quakes, rendings, breakings, utter darkness, ghastly cold, 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 in magnificent fashion 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 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.

It is rumoured (in some versions of the story) that Melkor actually 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 Melkor’s / Morgoth’s dispersal into the world he mars, and with the idea that his creations are mere imitations (id est, ‘Orc’ = parody of ‘Elf’); it also provides a moral basis for later inhabitants of Middle-earth, who kill Orcs without compassion or compunction. 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 was ended, Melkor was released on his own recognizance, yet he was confined to Valinor. He used his newfound freedom to somewhat corrupt the virtue of the Ñoldor (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. It was Fëanor (for a time himself King of the Ñoldor in Middle-earth) who first named Melkor Morgoth, “The Dark Enemy of the World”. After these crimes, and with the aid of 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 Ñoldor pursued him, but not before the Kinslaying and the Doom of Mandos. The rebel Ñoldor 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 the race of 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 mournful refugees living on or near a bay island off the mouths of Sirion, Morgoth had once again attained the mastery of Middle-earth.

Between and amidst all these events, Beren and Lúthien entered Angband, where they stole one Silmaril from Morgoth’s iron crown. It was a sign that Morgoth’s reign was not to last. Eärendil, descended from Elves, Ainur and Men, and bearing this same Silmaril on his brow, managed to sail 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 / reshaped, yet Morgoth was utterly defeated. He was bound once again with the chain Angainor and he was led to the judgment of the gods. This time, his punishment was final. Melkor’s / Morgoth’s fëa (“spirit”, as in “Fëanor” – “spirit of fire”) was shut outside the Door of Night forever. He is unable to return until the rumored Final Battle, when he will reënter Eä, destroy the Sun and the Moon, and with his followers fight a united army of Ainur, Elves and Men. Despite his absence until the End Time, Morgoth’s evil remains as “Arda Marred”, and his will walks yet with the feet of the living.

Appearance & Characteristics

Ainu Melkor initially could 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." (Sil, 22) After he had succeeded in alienating the Ñoldor from Valinor and stealing the Silmarils, he descended in the pits of Angband, and his shape eventually became that of the Dark Lord Morgoth: gigantic and terrible to behold. During this time he lost the ability to freely change shape, and in effect became bound to this one, terrible form. His hands had been burned by the theft of the Silmarils, and never healed. The one time he did emerge, to fight High King Fingolfin, he was stabbed seven times, including in the foot, and was left with a permanent limp. That battle also saw Thorondor, the great Eagle, swoop down and scar Morgoth's face with his talons, a wound that also never healed. In battle he wore night-black armor and wielded Grond, the Hammer of the Underworld. 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 Valar, but unlike them used this for his own gain. Because of this, Morgoth dispersed his essence throughout Middle-earth, tainting the very fabric of Arda itself with his will, and he became ever more diminished and restricted.

This diffusion was later emulated in miniature by Morgoth’s servant Sauron who, in creating the One Ring, became far less powerful whenever he was without it. The theme of the creator passing into the thing created is pervasive in Tolkien’s work; the "false" creations of evil beings are never more than a diminution and diffusion of themselves, while Eru's creations are limitless, yet He is never diminished.

Pity was beyond Morgoth’s understanding, as was courage, for he alone of the Valar knew fear.

Politics & followers

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

As the mightiest dweller in Arda, many "flocked to his banner." Morgoth's chief servants were certain Maiar he corrupted: 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 (possessed by an evil spirit); Draugluin, Sire of Werewolves; Thuringwethil, Sauron's vampire messenger; and Lungorthin, captain of Angband "security."

When the race of Men awoke, Morgoth (or his servant, depending on text consulted) is said to have temporarily left Angband, to dwell amongst them: some repressed (or tried to forget) tales of a Dark Lord who once led men to worship him, banning Ilúvatar from their hearts. The Atanatári (Fathers of Men), were those Men who repented and fled West toward the rumor of the Valar, but Morgoth and his servants had many legions of fallen Men at his service regardless. (see esp. Morgoth's Ring: Tale of Adanel)

Morgoth is known to have betrayed his own servants: e.g., after the Ñoldor were defeated, he confined all Men in his service to the lands of Hithlum, forbidding them to enter Beleriand, their promised reward. Since Melkor could never fully conquer Men, he could never really trust them. It seems that, once victorious, he would have destroyed them just as he intended to destroy his enemies.

Character development & 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 Melkor/Morgoth's 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. Yet, of course, there is One that can (and will) defeat him in the end.

The Silmarillion as published might seem to lean toward the earlier conceptions of Melkor's power; there is less discussion of Melkor/Morgoth's marring of all Arda by diluting himself throughout it. Yet the implication of his "total" power remains clear in his role in Ainulindalë, and it is supported by the important idea (widespread in all the versions) of the passing of something of the creator into the thing created. This is all to say that the strengthening of Melkor/Morgoth's position is wholly consistent with core themes present in all versions.

“The Morgoth”

A distinction is made between Ainu Melkor, 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’).

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 wove into the Music is mirrored in Eä by the evil he weaves into the fabric of reality, as history progresses. Part and parcel with Melkor’s inability to perform true creation is the idea that something of his actual being must pass into the things he ‘creates’, in order to give them an effective substance and reality. That is, he cannot create a new thing — what he can do is 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 Trolls to the Sun (which was made from a flower from a Tree poisoned by Ungoliant, and is thus itself imperfect), Melkor’s being was diffused throughout the material (and immaterial) universe. As a result, he — in his individuated being — has been diminished. He has been reduced to Morgoth, “Dark Enemy” or, more exactly, “Dreadful Dark”. It is almost as if he — as a person — has suffered a reduction to an it.

To distinguish between the greater Melkor that exists both as an individual (Morgoth) and as an element of all being (because he has corrupted, to an extent, everything that comes from the Music of the Ainur, and his being has — as that corruption itself — been diffused throughout material reality), the former came to be called “The Morgoth” (cf. Morgoth’s Ring; The History of Middle-earth, vol 10)

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