[Lalwendë]

Originally Posted by lmp

Well, try to imagine Light without its opposite. Everything good thing automatically has its opposite, both in the Legendarium, and in real life. It's just the nature of reality. The good is made, and its opposite is as a rule always possible. There is no other way. It is not a necessary corollary that Eru must be the opposite as well as the original of what he has created; rather, he has created the good, and its opposite is necessarily possible for those who choose other than Eru's will. And Eru uses that opposite to achieve his will anyway.

Of course there is the 'opposite', that's the way Eru makes it as it's part of his own all-encompassing, omnipotent nature. Eru is the All Father. Who makes the opposite to Light if Eru does not create it? Even if it is an absence of Light then Eru also causes the rules which allow voids and absences.

Originally Posted by lmp

Eru planned ice and snow, and Melkor could have achieved them within the will of Eru; but he achieved them according to his own will instead, which achievement can nevertheless be used as a tool in Eru's hands to become what Eru intended in the first place.

Melkor could not have achieved them within the will of Eru unless of course his path towards Darkness was all part of Eru's will. As it was Melkor's darkness and Evil which resulted in the formation of such terrible beauties as snow and frost, mist and clouds. This of course depends upon whether you can accept that part of Eru's creation and intention was Darkness. If you cannot accept that Eru intended there to be Darkness, that Melkor stemmed from Eru himself, then there would never have been any way possible for Melkor to make these things within a 'wholly perfect' version of Eru's will. Of course, Melkor could have made them independently of Eru, but then we come back to who made Melkor again...

How Melkor makes the snow and ice and so on. This passage is where Eru shows to the Valar before creation what Ea will be like:

And Iluvatar spoke to Ulmo, and said: 'Seest thou not how here in this little realm in the Deeps of Time Melkor hath made war upon thy province? He hath bethought him of bitter cold immoderate, and yet hath not destroyed the beauty of thy fountains, nor of thy clear pools. Behold the snow, and the cunning work of frost! Melkor hath devised heats and fire without restraint, and hath not dried up thy desire nor utterly quelled the music of the sea. Behold rather the height and glory of the clouds, and the ever- changing mists; and listen to the fall of rain upon the Earth! And in these clouds thou art drawn nearer to Manwe, thy friend, whom thou lovest.'

So, from this, did Melkor merely do that which was set out for him anyway?

Following on from that in the Sil is the following interesting passage:

But even as Ulmo spoke, and while the Ainur were yet gazing upon this vision, it was taken away and hidden from their sight; and it seemed to them that in that moment they perceived a new thing, Darkness, which they had not known before except in thought. But they had become enamoured of the beauty of the vision and engrossed in the unfolding of the World which came there to being, and their minds were filled with it; for the history was incomplete and the circles of time not full-wrought when the vision was taken away. And some have said that the vision ceased ere the fulfilment of the Dominion of Men and the fading of the Firstborn; wherefore, though the Music is over all, the Valar have not seen as with sight the Later Ages or the ending of the World.

Note here how the Valar are shown Darkness. This is the first time they see it, though they have thought of it before now. If you like, this is when Eru shows them what Darkness will look like as a living thing, rather than as a concept. It has always existed, but here it is shown to them given life. Interesting that even though they see this, and they see a little (but not all) of the history of Arda into the Third Age, they do not stay Eru's hand. He doesn't give them much of a chance anyway (he's quick to get creating is ol' Eru ), and says "Well I'm going to make it anyway, Darkness or Not!"

Then there was unrest among the Ainur; but Iluvatar called to them, and said: 'I know the desire of your minds that what ye have seen should verily be, not only in your thought, but even as ye yourselves are, and yet other. Therefore I say: Ea! Let these things Be!

Hmmm, that also brings on another thought...there are many things within Arda that must have been created by unknown and unknowable members of the Ainur, as some stayed behind. What might these be?