Nar
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Piosenniel-- just read your latest post, and I see that you place an emphasis on quiet thinking throughout eternity as the means of redemption/enlightenment for Melkor, in contrast to my focus on a final battle. Clearly, you're operating on a more civilized level than I have been. The model in Tolkien's work that corresponds to this sort of spiritual change is Niggle's experience in purgatory in Leaf by Niggle. Niggle is an artist who loved his own creation too much and his fellows not enough, and he reaches his own enlightenment through 'complete rest, in the dark.' --Including guidance from voices that debate the state of Niggle's soul. I could see this as a model for Melkor's enlightenment after everything is done-- but only if the orc-souls get the same chance.
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Just a quick note, because I must get off this board and go to work - I appreciated the model reference drawn from Niggle's experience. Honestly, I had read that a very long time ago and quite forgotten it. All of those 'voices that debate the state of Niggle's soul' could be thought of as all the creatures that Melkor has wronged through his affinity for choosing 'evil'; it would be a long, lonely, and arduous dialog with himself. The problem that I see with orc-souls getting a chance, is that I'm not sure that the creatures which Melkor bred have souls. He didn't 'create' them; he bred them much in the same manner that someone might put together an automaton. They are programmed only to make evil choices. I don't think they have any capacity for positive, creative imagination and are incapable of reasoning out a choice for good. This is reflected again in the breeding of the Uruk-hai by Saruman. These creatures have no 'light' within them, as do the creations of Eru.
Am very intrigued by your reference to Melkor coming back through the Door of Night for the Last Battle. I have as yet to read the HoME's(just bought the first 4, in fact.) Does Tolkien state why he does not expect Melkor to pull up and repent in the final battle?
[ May 06, 2002: Message edited by: piosenniel ]