[Lalwendë]

Originally Posted by Raynor

I don't think that Arda Unmarred is equated with perfection; perhaps the timeless halls of Eru - or maybe just Eru is perfect. If I understand correctly, Arda Unmarred is Arda without the strong element of melkorism: accelerated moral and physical decay. Water would still carve out stone, the general interaction of elements would be preserved and, as far as I see, we are in agreement that good and evil predate Melkor or his rebellion, at least as moral choices. There would still be evil choices, yet evil would not have such a compelling force, tainting the body, and therefore the mind. Indeed, there are no obstacles, if we don't see them: either because we don't consider them as such, when they objectively exist, because we accept them a priori; either because, when they objectively exist, we consider them a mere challenge. The main challenge "there", as well as "here", is achieving our potential; in both cases it requires effort. Esspecially for humans, time is limited, and doing the best with it is always a challenge.

Which would mean that evil is indeed inbuilt by Eru and is not a result of Melkor's rebellion! In fact Melkor would not be necessary whatsoever as evil would still be manifest in Arda simply by dint of it being created by Eru.

Originally Posted by raynor

I would call this a secondary, minor, motivation, if any at all. From what I gather in the Silmarillion, he and the noldor were working out of "delight"; of himself, it is stated that he "was driven by the fire of his own heart only, working ever swiftly and alone". I interpret this as saying that it was the unique creative fire which he had, which no elf ever after had, that was driving him forward. I would dare say that a similar fire drives an artist to create.

I interpret it as Pride. He is driven by his own desire. And this bears a remarkable similarity to the actions of Melkor when he enters Arda with his kin - they work together whereas he works alone, driven by his own fire. We also see the same with the creation of the Rings - Sauron works alone to create the One, as does Celebrimbor to create the Three - and Tolkien does make it seem as though the creation even of these was highly dangerous (and led to naval-gazing, pickled creations such as Lothlorien which may be beautiful but typify the stagnation of the Elves). Tolkien seems to suggest that certainly for Valar and Elves, working alone often leads to bad results; if not this then it is at least not the correct way to go about thins, which seems to be to share and to work together.

Originally Posted by Raynor

if Art is to represent a reflection of God's creation,

That depends if it is. For the majority it is not. It may represent things which others take to be creations of God, but even then the Artist probably does not have that in mind. Even some of the creators of the greatest religious art will have had in mind not God but Aesthetics: colour, shape, language, sound. Look at the care Tolkien took in creating his own work, writing and re-writing to better secure the meaning of a single created word - his work is 99% aesthetics, even more maybe, as any notions of 'God' are so well woven in as to keep all his readers arguing yay or nay for as long as the books will exist.

Originally Posted by Raynor

Why? The elves have experienced death due to violent causes long before they met the Men; they have been enslaved, tortured and peverted by Melkor, their works and houses destroyed.

Men act as an inspiration to the Elves because what the Elves (and the Ainur) experience is not Death. They are not Mortal. They may lose a body but they will get another one. They are tied to the earth but Men are not. Elves know where they are going, Men never will. They may go back to be with Eru, they may not. There are possibilities and mysteries that the Elves cannot comprehend or understand. This is profound and sad, and the sense of urgency, of having just One Chance to get it right, that drives mortals is beyond the understanding of Elves.