Tolkien clearly does imply a correspondence between Light & Goodness, & Darkness & Evil, but also between Light & Language. Light has its source in Illuvatar. It is in the world from the begining, & the Valar use it to create the Lamps. When they are overthrown, they create the Trees, which are then slain, but the Light continues to shine in the Sun & Moon, & in the Silmarils. The Light is broken, 'splintered' as Flieger has it, but it continues to shine, always with lesser intensity, but always there. Language too, fragments, from the primal Eldarin, which reaches its height in Quenya, but only after it has broken from the tongue of Middle Earth, which appears in the course of the story b
after we have met Quenya. Quenya is the Language of the Calaquendi - the
speakers of Light. The Sindar are Moriquendi, & speak 'darkness' - at least in comparison to the High Elves. the Sindar cannot learn to speak Quenya - they cannot understand the concepts which the High Elves developed Quenya to express, not having had experience of the Light of the West. The Light deteriorates the further East one goes, & the further away in time one moves from the sourcce. So, in Numenor, Sindarin is replaced by Adunaic. Adunaic is succeeded by Westron, & Westron is corrupted by the Orcs into a language of abuse & foulness. Then, at the ultimate extreme, is the Black Speech. 'Black Speech' implies a language where Light is completely absent, & therefore in which even the concept of 'goodness' is absent. The Nazgul speak the Black speech, which, significantly perhaps, even Orcs don't adopt - a remnant of their Elvish ancestry, perhaps?
Light is originally 'One', as Language is also. Both Light & Language go through a series of fragmentations & falls, as does 'Good'. Glorfindel symbolises the 'single' Light, driving back the Nine fragments of Darkness. He 'speaks' Light to them, they reply with Darkness. Light/Goodness, from the 'begining' (Glorfindel has returned from the West, from Mandos, purified of the sin of his part in the Rebellion, & with the Light of Aman in his face) shines in the 'Darkness' . The Darkness is driven away, by his presence, & by Frodo's invocation of Elbereth, who kindled the Stars with the Light of Illuvatar, the Light of the Secret Fire (which Gandalf serves, & which will stop even the Balrog, which
cannot pass it).
Whether Light brings about darkness is another question. If there was no Light there could be no Darkness. If some of the first Elves had not followed Orome into the West, then there would have been no Moriquendi - because they only become Moriquendi once the Calaquendi come into being. Yet, if all the Elves had gone into the West, all would have been Calaquendi, which implies, what? That Darkness chooses its existence, by refusing the Light? So, Evil 'choooses' to exist, by an active rejection of the Good. (Which, of course, is not going to work as a theory, because if Evil//darkness can be 'chosen' it must be a thing, in & of itself. So, Darkness & Evil are not things which are chosen, in & of & for themselves. It is, rather, that people refuse the Light, the Good. The Moriquendi do not
choose to be Moriquendi, unlike the Calaquendi. The Moriquendi end up as Moriquendi simply by chooosing not to become Calaquendi. So, 'evil' people are/do evil because they haven't made an active choice to be//do Good. Good is a 'positive' act/choice. Evil is the decision
not to make that choice. We are 'fallen', hence in darkness, & we must, therefore, make a positive choice of the Light, the Good. There is, therefore, an inherent 'momentum' towards Darkness & evil, always pulling us in that direction, because that is the place/state from which we began - so going 'back to nature' (including our 'natural' human nature)is not an option. What is 'natural' is not 'Good', it is a state from which we must raise ourselves, which we must move away from).
In Middle Earth there seems to bee this 'gravitational' pull, away from Light & Goodness towards Darkness & Evil, symbolised by the movement from Quenya to the Black Speech.
The Elves are driven forward in time, against their will, away from the Light & perfect 'Goodness' of the past. For them, time is an enemy. Going back is their dream - & its significant that the speak of going
back to Valinor, being 'borne back across the Sundering Seas'. Yet this desire to return to an idealised past is what Feanor plays on with his reference to Cuivienen to inspire the Noldor to rebellion. The Elves have memory, & in the end that is all they will have, memory of a place they cannot return to, & hence of a Light & Goodness to which they cannot return, but they cannot go forward. Only the truly blessed Elves - Luthien, Arwen, are liberated from memory & time, & able to pass beyond the Circles of the World. Ultimately, it is the Elves who must seek Light & Goodness
within the World. Men can seek it beyond the World. Elves must seek for it in the Past, Men must seek it in the future, so, Death is Illuvatar's gift to Men. Which means that the Elves have only memory of Light & Goodness, which they must hold onto, against the coming of the Great End, while Men have
hope
of those things. Men suffer in Hope, Elves suffer.
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