Dark Lord – Morgoth and Satan
April 7, 2008
I’ve recently been reading a bit of the Silmarillion, since I have made several attempts to read it in the past, but I wasn’t able to cope with the scale of it. In going over some of the story, I couldn’t help but draw some similiarities between that of Tolkien’s works, and that of the Modern World. The connections I’ve draw from reading this book are between that of Satan and the Dark Lord Morgoth, the malignant foe and enemy of all good. My comparison is not simply on a scale of good versus evil, but rather into the deeper field of the plots and strategies of our eternal enemy. Morgoth constantly watches and waits for the perfect moment at which to strike at his enemies within Middle Earth, always giving the false impression of weakness to hide his true wickedness and strength. What is most noticeable about his character which relates to that of Satan’s, is his ever crafty deceit, in which he waits until his enemies have turned against one another, and uses the moment of confusion to strike. It is this striking similiarity which caught my attention, particularly when looking at Catholic Europe, and how Satan planted the seeds of sedition among its fields, and is now harvesting the expected crop. While the people were Faithful to God and His law, they were unpenetrable, but when they forsook God’s ways, and turned to themselves for an answer to the question of Life, they opened the door to the enemy whom they willingly welcomed into their homes.
The enemy always disguises his true self from us, seeking to sneek past our guards, and infiltrate our camp. He often coaxes us into accepting him by false promises and empty words, and when we’ve taken hold of the apple, and have bitten into it, our eyes are opened to the true nature of things. But alas! Then, it is too late. Society seems to be finally opening it’s eyes, at least partially. And those who are gifted with the ability to see and know what is going on in our world, are nearly powerless to do anything against the force which has arisen. The forces of Satan and his black legions, as they march from the foul pits of Angmar.
Master Paul Xavier
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August 21, 2008 at 12:23 AM
And those who are gifted with the ability to see and know what is going on in our world, are nearly powerless to do anything against the force which has arisen. Wow sounds like those are the people you want to be. I often debate “hard liner” catholics,christians,this kind of christian,spiritialists etc ( I refuse to use a capitols for them) and I have to side with logic and science, religions HAD a place way back when, but honestly its just something for people to misinterpret and fight about nowadays. I do not support religious “exceptions” to the rules either. one country one law. you are here. follow the laws and that’s it. Maybe there is a God maybe not. But we know what we know. science and mathematics, Hey we never knew what DNA was. Thats a miracle. Polio vaccine. Another miracle? Think about it. No really give it an honest open minded effort. If you get cancer, you gonna pray about it? probably me too!! Scared too death obviously. But would you seek treatment by man and science? Of course you would. So why keep hoping and straining to try and convince your self and others that there’s this cosmic GOD life force good power all knowing loving healing super duper everything warm and fuzzy force out there??? Where is the sense in self inflicting that mental cruelty on yourself and others? When you get sick, do you go to church? or to the Doctor? No. Really. Think about it. You have to admit what I say is true. Now I am not saying everyone is an extremist of course. Or I can play it in Bible terms. God created Man (mankind) in his image, he gave us free will. The Bible says so, correct? So.. THE ALL KNOWING GOD GAVE US THIS BRAIN AND FREE WILL. To do what? Why?….. not advance ourselves and mankind? Or to keep talking about “this particular” interpretation of some religious book.over and over. Get on with your lives. Be happy. Try to be good people. Read a different book.
August 21, 2008 at 10:58 AM
I see the point you are trying to make here. Simply answered! God gave Man Free will in order that we may choose Him. There is nothing wrong with seeking human assistance in times of need, i.e., when we’re sick, etc; but it never hurts up to pray or seek Divine Interecession. Does it? I’m not arguing what this books says, or what that book says, I am simply drawing parrallels between them.
August 24, 2008 at 4:06 AM
Not sure your getting it, anyway. Moving forward. you say he gave us free will in order that we may chose him? That is really lame, you are supposed to be talking about a god or The God right. How can ANY of that make sense? He would have done it right the first time. Right? Not give it later to see what happens. Not create Eve later, cause Adam got lonely, Not make Eden with a forbidden tree, or let alone Satan/snake. in it right? Or… this whopper.. OK Satan rebels (Angels dont have free will but all of a sudden this one does, never mind that for now) OK Satan rebels and all of a sudden there is 1/3 of heaven on his side. How did GOD let that happen? to 1/3?(not gonna bring up free will again) any way. So Gods Freakn mad and gonna kick thier asses!!! What to do… what to do.. I know!!! I’ll blow them into cosmic space dust!!! HA HA HA nope just kidding. I’ll cast them all down to Earth. AKA the planet I worked so hard to create (by the way occupied)garden of eden etc. “happy place” Yeah. That’s it. That’s what would happen. take my worst enemy and BESET him on my favorite creation. My favorite place. No really is that what would have happened? This Guy just got 1/3 of the Angel kicked out of heaven/cast out what ever. Now we’ll leave him in the garden of Eden. Guess so, hes probably not going to do anything bad from now on. OH SNAP. I told them dont eat that apple from the tree of knowledge or what ever. DUDE. I dont think you get my point. these ARE STORIES and you can get some life lessons and morals and stuff, what ever. If he did make us free will/brain power etc. (see my previous post) surely a GOD/ THE GOD had enough of his own brain power to forsee the impending doom of these creations. Rather like being mean to a child if you want to consider the “cosmic” and GOD power ratio. Give us free will so we can chose him? That is like leaving the barn door open so the cows can choose to stay. There is no God.(just my opinion) Get on with your lives. By the way I wish to thank you for not deleting my post and posting a reply. I did like that and I am glad that we are not just bashing and name calling each other.
December 13, 2008 at 4:38 AM
It’s interesting that you picked up on this, because I recall reading that Tolkien was a very devout Catholic, and because of that, he sprinkled a lot of symbolism throughout his books. Everything you got out of The Silmarillion is pretty much dead-on. Granted, it’s been several years since I last touched a Tolkien book, but I remember enough to know that you “get it” moreso than most.
January 17, 2009 at 9:03 PM
It seems to me to be kind of like C.S. Lewis and the Chronicles of Narnia;he put in symbolism of Christian stories throughout the series.
i.e. The Lion, Witch, and the Wardrobe can be compared to the life of Jesus partly.
January 18, 2009 at 4:47 PM
Yes, somewhat related, though not as obvious. What I find so interesting about Tolkien’s world is how carefully and deeply he interwound his faith into his works.
January 20, 2009 at 1:55 AM
It is very easy to draw symbolism from all of Tolkien’s work. I do recall hearing that Tolkien disliked people trying to analyze his work to modern day events (WWI, WWII). What Tolkien wanted to do most was create mythology for England. However, Tolkien was a devout Catholic and actually helped C.S. Lewis become a devout Catholic as well. I am glad that this blog discusses The Simirillion as it is, in my opinion, underrated and has flown under the radar of many Tolkien fans. This one is my favorite Tolkien book too. I see the point Visitor was making, however I don’t see why these books should be avoided simply because people can draw religious parallels. Besides, I think it is good to believe in at least something even if you aren’t a religious person. It gives hope to people if nothing else.
May 21, 2009 at 11:05 AM
Hello, i would like to say that despite of Tolkien being a devout Catholic, The Simarillion and his others works are highly
based on Norse mythology. You can see this clearly while reading his books (Valinor for example, can be placed as Valhalla, Manwe and Morgoth as Odin and Loki respectively). This was said by Tolkien himself, and ocorred by the fact that he was an
English historian and, as we know, Tolkien was a worshiper of Norse history (a big fan of the Beowulf tale for example). I
really cannot identify any of his catholicism in his books and i presume that he really didnt put any of it in them. But
we can always find some link between our beliefs if we look close enough, even if the author not.
May 21, 2009 at 1:11 PM
Essentially what you say is true. Tolkien personally admitted that he did not write his works as an allegory. Unlike Lewis’ works which strongly reflect a Christian influence. Rather, I might argue, since Tolkien was such a devout Catholic, his work permeates with Catholic Ideology and Morality, rather than direct Catholic References and Traditions.
Much of Tolkien’s work has that Norse influence, particularly the Shield maiden idea in Eowyn, along with Rohan (especially seen in the movie) and even some of the ‘gods’ as you yourself point out, Keppel. Thank you for the comment!
May 22, 2009 at 9:55 AM
If you look closer you will find even more of the Norse influence in his works, like the moment that bilbo stolen the cup from the dragon, it happens the same thing in Beowulf, when the thief stole a cup from a dragon too and in the two histories this is the act that provoques the beast to destroy the cities. Aragorn rebuilding his sword just like Sigmund does to the Balmung, all the focus of the The Lord of the rings is about a ring, just like siegfried tale, etc.
With this in mind, i agree with you that some of the catholic influence is in the books, even if is not direct, but isnt in everything? With the growing influence of the catolic religion almost every work has some of it, even if it is not so easy to detect in some works (like Tolkiens works, i particularly didnt get yet), even in Beowulf tale there is, with is something that makes me sad, not because i deslike the cristianism but because it is a tale of a Norse Hero, that was passed vocally throug the years, and because a priest decided to write it he put much of his beliefs in the tale, distorting a lot of it, and losing his identity. But, even with this influence, he could not remove the citations to the original Norse mythology in the tale. Even sigmund is citated there. Sorry to bring this up when the discussion is about Tolkien and here i speak about Beowulf, but i think it is important, since Beowulf is one of the most important influence in Tolkiens works.
Thanks!!
May 25, 2009 at 4:57 PM
Once again I agree.
Tolkien was a professor of English and had a great love for the old Norse tales. I plan on buying his work on Sigmund that will be released (or is it rereleased) soon.
Though I think of it wrong for you to say that Christian Ideas ruined Beowful, in all honesty, the true author of the work is still unknown, and even then, the moral is simply Christian, not the story.
Somewhat the same idea with Tolkien’s works. It’s not fully a Catholic Story, but the morality that flows within is.
May 25, 2009 at 7:49 PM
If i did say that the Christian ideas ruined Beowulf, forgive, it was not what i plan to say. What i as trying to say is that, even not knowing who writed, you can cleary see the ideas there. In the poem for example, it is told that Grendel is a son of Cain, in many places you see the warriors asking for God’s guidance, and etc. But in the norse mythology, Grendel is a Troll, and theyr God is Odin (this is told in the text, in some place that i dont remeber).
What you say about morality is true, but, even with the great diference between the religions (Norse and Christian) you can see that the morality is basicaly the same in all religions (that dont worship the evil), only the rituals and the God’s is diferent, but the morality that is learned is close.
May 26, 2009 at 6:20 PM
Very well spoken, for any religion that isn’t malicious towards human nature or directly to the soul has a similiar morality. Since man has the law of God written into his heart via conscience, we all have a similiar understanding of right and wrong.
Which I find interesting in some pagan societies which were devoid of Christian Thinking.
May 29, 2009 at 8:51 AM
Keppel,
Tolkien did what Christians have been doing since the beginning, namely, subsuming the non-Christian culture and baptizing it, jettisoning what was irredeemable and purging what could be salvaged.
Tolkien was not happy with the existing English mythology, such as the Arthurian legends: too fantastic and to explicitly Christian to meet the demands of his demands for mythology, namely, a secondary world worthy of the suspension of disbelief.
I believe we need to avoid thinking that because the literary forms Tolkien chose more often conformed to the Norse tradition than to the Christian one, that the values and metaphors contained there are more pagan than Christian. This is not the case.
That being said Tolkien considered the Norse tradition to be very poorly understood and maligned by those who completely misrepresented it, such as Adolf Hitler, whom he called a “ruddy little ignoramus.”
May 29, 2009 at 8:51 AM
Sorry for the typos.
August 9, 2009 at 7:50 PM
Also, let’s not forget the element that the psyche plays in all of this with it’s ability to cast the forces of nature and life into archetypes. I think sometimes that Tolkien’s work, our mythologies and religions arise out of our own subjective integration in this universe and the forces which create its fabric. We are enmeshed in it and our brains interpret things in a way that I believe we have only just begun to discover. Let’s hope our passions don’t wipe us out before we get the full picture.
August 14, 2009 at 8:25 AM
I’m slightly confused by your statement. Are you trying to state that the world, as we know it, is nothing, compared with the actuality of it all? I.E., our sense perception of life is a mere fragment of the realm around us?