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Originally Posted by Raynor
It is one thing to argue that evil is necessary as a moral choice, so that rational beings can manifest free will and morality, and totally another to argue that we must have Melkor - the most powerful ainu falling to the most powerful agent of evil. In fact, it can be argued that the fall of Melkor makes it harder for Men (being the weakest) to exercise their free will, since they are more susceptible to marring through their hroa. Thus, Melkor's marring doesn't help (in this sense), quite the contrary. Tolkien didn't create evil as a moral choice, he merely became its first victim and most powerful agent.
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But in a mythological setting evil must have a manifest form, & that form must be the ultimate archetypal form that evil can possibly take. It must, in other words, show evil in its most extreme form. Melkor is the ultimate extreme & rarely enters into the story directly after the destruction of the Trees & the theft of the Silmarils. What we see more usually are, if you will, lesser 'harmonics' of the evil Melkor symbolises - Balrogs, dragons & Orcs. Hence, it is evil in more 'manageable' form that Men & Elves actually confront, rather than 'pure' evil in most cases.