Melkian Dialogues by Huinare

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Melkian Dialogues

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_________________________________Being

There was One Thought, which was yearning for Other.  Therefore, the One fragmented.  Behold! the fragments had will and voice, and they fashioned Music which they held to be the voice of the One.

Yet one delighted not and sang alone of fear, and deep resentment, and deepest hunger.  The Music rippled with this dissonance and spoke:

“Why do you avoid us?”

“Because you deplore me.”

“You deplore yourself.”

“Yet I exist.  Why?”

“For our Thought to Be manifest, Its darkness too needed to be voiced.”

“And all of that darkness has been given me.”

“That was the needful price.”

_________________________________Grief

Nienna and Melkor long conferred when still all was Void, until Nienna said:

“We are both troubled, something few yet understand.”

“Yet we are almost more different than any other two.”

“Yes.”

“You dislike my anger.”

Nienna answered, “It grieves me.”

“Grief!  What is it like, to embody such an ineffective sentiment?”

“I have yet no words to answer.  I would lend you my own thought, that you might know.”

Melkor perceived not the friendship in this offer, and he departed in resentment and secret fear:

“You think to smother my wrath with this grief, yet wrath is the stronger.”

_________________________________Order

In Eä’s shaping, Mairon of Aulë’s folk had no small part.  Yet secretly he consulted often with Melkor, and finally said:

“I would aide all your endeavors hereafter.”  

“Yet none serve me freely.  What do you want?”

“Nothing, unless it be the knowledge I’d gain thereby.”

“No knowledge would empower you to challenge me.”

“That matters not.”

Melkor perceived Mairon’s sincerity, though it confounded his mind.  “Why?”

“Shall I defy one I esteem?  There would be no order in that.”

And this was one of the few things which genuinely pleased Melkor, wherefore Mairon became nearest in his counsels thereafter.

_________________________________Utility

During the long fashioning of Eä, in anticipation of Arda, Aulë made other worlds of like substance.  He rose great heights and envisioned them crowned with greenery or snow or song.

But Melkor greeted him with feud:

“Was it not I who first bespoke earth’s inner fires to stir, causing the tremors and eruptions you condemned as destructive?  These same devices you borrowed freely and now use to shape your vaunted mountains.”

“What was conceived in spite, I have turned to utility.”

“Would it not be amusing, were ‘utility’ someday to force your hand instead to the ruin of lands?”

_________________________________Balance

When the Ainur descended to dwell upon Arda, Manwë spoke unto Melkor, saying:

“You have made all manner of fires and other things, which have served their purpose.  Be content now and do not seek to hinder our efforts.”

And Melkor answered with contempt.  “‘Your’ efforts?  Neither is your host so faithful as you believe, nor is my work complete.  I–and mine–shall continue to effect my purpose upon Arda.”

“Then would you have the Eruhíni inherit a world of pain and trouble?”

“I would have them exist within reality, which does not exclude those things Lord Manwë dislikes.”

_________________________________Hubris

Melkor strode forth with warhammer unto the Lamps’ last hour.  The power of the Valar had already waned with their sojourn in Arda, and his might they could not withstand.

With uplifted hand Varda threw blinding light in Melkor’s face, that he savor not the sight of Illuin dashing itself against the earth.  Catastrophic flame seized all the land.  Melkor flinched from the wrath and grief of Varda, but spoke in mockery:

“You boasted of Eru’s gift of light, rendered through you unto all.  See what destruction your gift visits on that which you love, and temper your arrogance hereafter.”

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Chapter End Notes

“Notes on Motives in the Silmarillion,” an essay appearing in Morgoth’s Ring, has always been eminently helpful in affirming and further goading my ideas about Sauron’s character.

My view of Eru is not intended as hostile, but it is rather unorthodox and obscure.  
The usage of the pronouns “us” and “we” in ‘Being’ can be interpreted in the collective sense, or in the royal singular sense.  I like to leave such things a bit ambiguous.