|
Lal brings up an interesting point re Tolkien's 'profound' desire for dragons. I think its clear that there are dragons in Tolkien's mythology not because he wanted 'an evil creature' but because he desired them to be there. And interestingly, he did not meake his dragons good (a la Anne McCaffrey) or morally neutral (a la Ursula Le Guin) but evil. The dragons he 'desired' were the powerful, destructive 'immoral' dragons of traditional Western myth.
Which opens a wider question - to what extent did he 'desire' the other 'evil' creatures of myth - Goblins, Trolls (& by extension Nazgul riding Fell Beasts & Balrogs)? I think it would be difficult to argue that he did not desire the 'evil' creatures as much as the 'good'. Why else would he choose to write a mythology based so strongly in Northern myth? In Northern myth the monsters are as important as the 'heroes'. What would Beowulf be without Grendel & the Dragon? Tolkien tells us in M&C - not very much. The monsters are essential, because of what they symbolise - which is not so much 'evil' as the archetypal forces Man must confront.
Tolkien chooses to create a world where mythological creatures of good & evil (Dragons in particular) can live, move & have their being. Morgoth, Sauron, Ungoliante, Durin's Bane, all live because Tolkien chooses to give them life. They exist because he desired them to exist - & not simply as 'enemies' but because he desired them to exist as they are. They fascinated him - as much if not more than his 'good' creations. The amount of time he spent analysing them, the overwhelming nature & effect of their very presence, speaks to this fact. The idea that he viewed them with as much hatred as his good characters is, to my mind, a misunderstanding. Good & Evil balance each other in his creation. No one who reads The Hobbit can doubt that Tolkien relished writing the Smaug scenes - one can tell he loved writing Smaug's dialogue, & the description of Smaug's power, launching himself from the Mountain to devastate Lake Town could only have been written by someone in awe of dragons & whose desire for them was indeed 'profound'. In contrast the events which follow Smaug's death are 'mundane' because we have in effect seen the end of the mythological world symbolised by the Dragon.
And Balrogs - well, if Tolkien isn't in awe of his own creation here! The Balrog exudes power & menace. This is not simply a 'demon' , but rather a creature of Power, a fallen angel. Tolkien is justly proud of what his imagination has brought forth.
This is where the whole idea that what one thinks about reflects one's morality - if so then either Tolkien should only have written about beautiful Elves singing beneath trees in Valinor if he was a 'good' person' or he wasn't such a 'good' person after all - it was his imagination that gave birth to Morgoth, Sauron, Ungoliante, Smaug & Durin's Bane & they exist because he desired they exist.
Or maybe the human mind (& particularly the mind of the Artist) is a more complex thing than some will credit. In the end it was Tolkien himself who destroyed Gondolin - he created it, gave it being, & he also created & gave being to the hordes who destroyed it. If Orcs tortured & murdered Elves & Men it was because Tolkien invented all three & had them do what they did. The idea that Tolkien only thought about (& only desired) Elves, Valar & good Men & that the 'evil' creatures somehow intruded themselves from 'outside' his imagination, to despoil his beautiful Arda is ridiculous. Tolkien created the good & the evil, the creators & the destroyers, because that's the kind of world he wanted to write about. Those creatures, the good & the evil, existed because he desired them - 'with a profound desire'.
|