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Old 11-23-2007, 05:29 PM   #15
Aiwendil
Late Istar
 
Join Date: Mar 2001
Posts: 2,224
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I suppose another way of saying this is that somehow Morgoth's curse is manifested through Turin's choices.

This is a truism.
I don't think it is. A curse could, in principle, work by constantly afflicting its sufferer with external evils, bad luck, and such. Turin's curse seems to work differently; it seems that it is not so much a matter of bad things happening to Turin as of Turin choosinig courses of action that have bad ends. I wouldn't say that Turin's decisions are twisted to evil; there doesn't seem to be any twisting involved. Turin simply makes the wrong decisions, and those decisions seem to lead quite naturally to evil.

Consider the question: "What would have happened if Turin had not lifted his visor, had not fallen under Glaurung's spell, and had rescued Finduilas instead of returning to Dor-lomin?" I can think of three plausible answers:

1. Turin would escape the misfortunes that followed from his return to Dor-lomin and would have had a happier life

2. Somehow, events would conspire such that terrible things happen to Turin anyway

3. The question isn't well-defined and cannot be answered.

Now, it seems to me that if one answers with option 2, one must subscribe to the external view of the curse. Someone who prefers the internal view I propose (i.e. the curse is manifested through Turin's choices) would say that it makes no sense to talk about the curse afflicting Turin if he had decided differently; the curse is that he didn't decide differently. Option 3 may be the wisest answer, but of course it merely refuses to answer the question. Option 1, it seems to me, is the one that serves the story best - even perhaps the one that is vital to much of the tragedy that follows. It seems to me that a key part of that tragedy is the fact that, as we're reading it, we can sigh and say: "If only he had rescued Finduilas!" A terrible fate is all the more tragic when one can see a way in which that fate could have been avoided.

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Morgoth's curse bound Turin with fate, so that even when he exercised free will, his choices were tainted and fated to result in evil.
From this, it sounds to me like you take the 'external' view of Turin's curse that I described above (and I would venture to guess that your response to my query would be my option 2). I suppose there's no definitive way to answer the internal vs. external question. Certainly, your appeal to what is said of Men in connection with the Music of the Ainur seems to lead one to your view (i.e. the external one) of the curse. On the other hand, I think that a close consideration of the events in the 'Narn' tends to point one toward my internal interpretation. Again, it doesn't seem to me that Turin's choices need much twisting to result in evil. And in most cases, it's hard to imagine how evil would have resulted if Turin's choice had been different.

In the end, though, I suspect that the particular interpretation one chooses is less important than the fact that the work can sustain either. As I've said elsewhere, it seems to me that one of Tolkien's greatest strengths as a writer was his ability to create these multi-faceted stories, in which seemingly contradictory concepts (fate and free will, internal and external evil) are combined.
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