[Aiwendil]

Davem wrote:

Morgoth was the first to ‘break the White Light, when he destroyed the Lamps, & the single, unbroken, light was lost to Middle earth. Then the Light was split into Gold & Silver, in the Two Trees, Telperion & Laurelin& was no longer constant, but fluctuated.

This is an interesting observation, and it brings up another point. In the ages of the Sun, the ages of the Trees take on a kind of "lost utopia" connotation. We hear a lot about how the light of the Sun and the Moon is tainted while the untainted light of the Trees is preserved only in the Silmarils; the Second Prophecy of Mandos tells that at the end of the world the Trees will be rekindled. But we hear almost nothing of the Lamps. Neither is there much of a sense, during the time of the Trees, of a lost utopia, nor is there any suggestion that, even in Messianic days, the Lamps will be remade. The light of the Trees is never unfavorably compared to the light of the Lamps. I wonder why. One possible explanation is simply that since these are Elvish myths (or Elvish-based Numenorean myths) they recall the golden age of the Elves rather than the earlier, Elf-less age. But I wonder if that is the whole story.

But where does this desire to break the Light come from? What is the purpose of breaking it? Well, the more it is broken down, the weaker it gets, because the Light originally was One, single, whole. the movement is from holism to fragmentation.

I'm not sure that the original or fundamental motivation is to make the light weaker. Rather, I think we must take Gandalf's quote quite literally:

And he that breaks a thing to find out what it is made of has left the path of wisdom.

Why break the light? To find out what it is. Saruman originally desired knowledge (and skill). Like all things in Middle-earth, he began with intentions that were not evil.

Now Melkor certainly was acting out of malice when he destroyed the Lamps, as when he destroyed the Trees. But when he first broke something - the song of the Ainur - it was out of a desire to create for himself.

It is this power of division, of estrangement that gives Sauron his real chance of winning victory.

This brings up another interesting point I've been thinking about. Haldir comments on the power of the Dark Lord to cause estrangement among his enemies. But when one thinks about LotR as a whole, one is struck by the degree to which the opponents of Sauron work together - in fact, it is often dissension among Sauron's forces that allows victory. So on the one hand we have Elves, Dwarves, Men, and Hobbits all taking counsel together, the Rohirrim fulfilling their oath to Gondor, the Dead Men of Dunharrow fulfilling their oath to Isildur, the Ents coming forth to war, the Woses assisting the Rohirrim, etc. And on the other the fight between Grishnakh and Ugluk, the fight between Gorbag and Shagrat, the Snaga's reluctance to search for Sam and Frodo, Saruman's betrayal of Sauron.

It is, rather, in the Silmarillion that we see the power of evil to divide good - there we have Noldor slaughtering Teleri, Dwarves sacking Menegroth, Thingol refusing to send forces to the Nirnaeth, Maeglin betraying Gondolin, etc., while Morgoth's forces seem extraordinarily well-organized and disciplined.

What's the significance of this? I'm not entirely sure. But it does underline a difference in tone between the two - the Silmarillion is far more tragic (though I wouldn't quite call it a tragedy). LotR, while not lacking in tragedy of its own, is on the whole more clearly a happy story, a "comedy" in the old sense.