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Bah! Sauron ain't got nothing on Morgoth.
And I don't agree that Morgoth was an irrational nutcase. Perhaps in terms of his ultimate goal he was (as described in Myths transformed), but not in his actual behavior trying to achieve it. Remember that he crushed the Noldor and Edain in the first age, enemies much mightier than those Sauron had to contend with later on. And he did it cunningly too, sowing seeds of mistrust amongst his enemies, making them fight amongst themselves. Towards the end of the age he could just lean back and watch how most of his plans unfolded successfully. Unfortunately (for him) he just didn't have the strenght to fend off an all out attack from Aman.
Morgoth also single handedly slew Noldor's first two high kings, Finwe and Fingolfin, and ruined most of mankind for many ages after his banishment from Arda. The existance of Orcs, Dragons, Trolls, Balrogs among other scourges are all mainly his responsibility. On another thread I've also argued that Melkor in fact personally introduced evil as a moral category. Morgoth is the Dark Lord. Sauron is a distant number two.
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