Quote:
|
Glancing over the other Myths Transformed texts, I feel like the shift from the simple "they're elves" version came about because of the Athrabeth. Finrod tells Andreth that he cannot believe that Morgoth could change the Doom and nature of a whole people. In that text he was referring to her claim that Men were not supposed to be Mortal, but Tolkien seems to have realised it applied equally to making Orcs inheritably evil. Everything from then on was an attempt to write himself out of that contradiction, by making them either no longer Eruhini, or so crushed by Morgoth's spirit and will that they weren't entirely rational creatures any more.
|
Huinesoron, certainly the Athrabeth introduces a new idea in the mythos; that Men were, in their original nature, possibly "undying" like Elves but were rendered mortal as a result of some event in the distant and nearly forgotten past akin to a "fall." I do not have the Athrabeth in front of me, but I seem to recall that Andreth attributes the mortality of Man to some act or influence of Morgoth, while Finrod believes (as he was taught in Valinor) that the nature of Man was set by Eru, though he voices concern that, if Andreth's view was true, Morgoth was far more powerful that the Noldor believed. To Finrod, the "marring" of Man by Morgoth is the fear of death and Man's view that the darkness of Morgoth and the darkness are death are one and the same. The Arthrabeth is, in part, a debate between differing views, as well as an attempt by Finrod to understand why Men alternatively fear and revere Elves.
If JRRT's shifting view of the origin of Orcs is attributable to the "fall" (and the marring of Man and the biblical "fall" are not the same, see Letter 153 the metaphysic of JRRT's mythical world is not the same as the metaphysic of the "real World") of Man, then the Arthrabeth is relevant to this discussion. The Athrabeth could be considered, indirectly, to be a rationalization of Tolkien's possible change in view of the origin of Orcs. Yet I am not convinced of this.