Fantasy Morality

[Mnemosyne]

Here's the thing, then: if the Christian Bible accepts multiple facets of theodicy, as part of the same moral universe (because all of these different books, even if they have different ideas on the matter, have since been interpreted as revelations of the same, unchanging person), how can you argue that Tolkien's Middle-earth, the texts of which are supposed to have been composed by different people, occupies different moral universes? If anything, it would seem that the apparent contradictions between the tragedy of CoH and the Eucatastrophe of Earendil, make Middle-earth more real than a bunch of books that offer the exact same interpretation of everything.

You simply cannot divorce CoH from the rest of its in-world cultural context, just because Christopher Tolkien decided to publish it separately: it was meant as a tale somewhat apart from the rest of the Sil, but coequal to Beren and Luthien, Tuor and the Fall of Gondolin, and the Voyage of Earendil. All of these were an inherited literary culture for anyone influenced by Elvish culture from the late First Age onward. Argue that it gives a different type of philosophy in Middle-earth if you wish, but to set it in a "moral universe" apart, to argue that reality itself somehow functions completely differently in this tale from any other because Turin's life sucks, throws the whole thing completely out of context. Middle-earth is intentionally philosophically diverse: the Athrabeth gives a completely different, Mannish explanation behind mortality, from the Elvish one, and there's an interesting bit on a group that deliberately turns back from the "Elvish" revelations specifically because there is still suffering in the world.

Finally, the key difference (even beyond the Valar) between the Judeo-Christian God and Eru, lies in the nature of creation itself. In Genesis, we get a world created perfect that was then marred by evil; in the Ainulindale we get evil sung into the very fabric of creation. Tolkien himself, when later reflecting on the way the Silm differs from LotR, referred to Beleriand as "Morgoth's Ring," that is, that Melkor invested so much of his own spirit into Beleriand itself that he was able to control reality--explaining a lot of the "bad luck" things that happen in CoH. This is also why, when the War of Wrath finally happened, Beleriand was sunk under the water--Morgoth had invested so much of his power in it that, in breaking his power, the land itself was broken. This seems to be an inherent part of the metaphysics of Arda, something that can't be fixed without redoing the whole Music (which is, of course, what eventually happens). The point is, this particular problem of evil is existent in the entire Silm-verse (not just CoH!), especially while Morgoth is still incarnate and thus able to work his will actively. Trying to get Eru to remove that instance without breaking the world is tantamount, in my mind, to trying to get him to make a rock so big he can't lift it. There are still logical limitations when an infinite being (and we really don't know whether Eru is infinite or not) operates on a finite scale.