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Fanwork Notes

Questions arising from "Ulmo's Wife" prompted this oddity of a follow-on. With a couple of sentences in that ficlet, I opened a heretical can of worms, something which I enjoy doing. For what it's worth, this is a fictionalized response which, if it doesn't precisely answer questions, might provide a backdrop for those lines. This is an alternate view of the beginnings of Arda (which Tolkien defined as our solar system), and once again, there's personification of the earth via the allusion to Gaia.

Although one might be inclined to label this "alternative universe," one must consider that the Ainulindalë may be viewed as a metaphor of a remote, incomprehensible time and place by most of the denizens of Middle-earth. Therefore, the myth that overlays that reality is open to interpretation, just as the creation stories of our world are. I will use this opportunity to direct the reader to Dawn Felagund's essay From Canon to AU: Defining Canon on a Continuum on The Heretic Loremaster.

"The Notion Club Papers" in The History of Middle-earth, vol IX, Sauron Defeated and "Myths Transformed" in The History of Middle-earth, vol X, Morgoth's Ring provided conceptual inspiration.

 

Fanwork Information

Summary:

When the Voice of the One names the ruler of the Guardians of Arda, the decision results in dismay and discord by another who believes he should have been chosen. A re-interpretation of the Ainulindalë myth.

MEFA 2009: First Place - Races: Other Beings: General 

Major Characters: Ainur, Melkor

Major Relationships:

Genre: General

Challenges:

Rating: Teens

Warnings:

Chapters: 1 Word Count: 654
Posted on 1 December 2008 Updated on 1 December 2008

This fanwork is complete.

Table of Contents

Chosen

 

 

Comments

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Melkor is the quintessential black sheep, even in abstract/vapor form. ;-D  My favorite lines were: 

"With binary speed, the blinding love he had poured into that cherished island changed to hate..."  and "If I cannot have her, neither can you."

These lines work so well to summarize what he eventually did to or with Arda.  In a way, Melkor's grand exit reminded me of the Feanor and Fingolfin feud or in another setting, Cain and Abel. 

"In a way, Melkor's grand exit reminded me of the Feanor and Fingolfin feud or in another setting, Cain and Abel."

I really like your insight, whitewave!  I've seen Manwë and Melkor compared to St. Michael the archangel and Lucifer, too (and that has tempted me to write something about Melkor's fall in the style of Milton a la Paradise Lost -- seems like too much work though ;^)) but I really like the tie-in the Fëanor and Fingolfin and Cain and Abel.  The theme of rival brothers  is an ancient one in human history and probably prehistory, too!

Thanks so much for reading and commenting!

Heresy or not, I'd like to think that Melkor was the first anarchist of Tolkien's universe -- like Lucifer -- and you've done a marvelous job with portraying him in this story. My hat's off to you. And it's always wonderful to see just how reviews and opinions produce another wonderful piece of writing.

Excellent! Thank you tons for sharing.

 Thanks so much for reading and for the kind words, Binka!

"I'd like to think that Melkor was the first anarchist of Tolkien's universe..."

 I agree, and I can't imagine that Tolkien wasn't influenced to some degree by Milton in the creation of his Diabolus.  Indepedence, pride and ambition.  Deadly stuff there. :^D

My read of the Valar is that they are far from perfect beings or infallible.  In fact, they went against Iluvatar's plan, mythologically speaking, by ferrying the Elves over to Valinor.  They're capricious, too, less so in The Silmarillion than in the Book of Lost Tales.  All that smacks of less-than-divine, so I wondered if there might have been an under-the-radar power struggle and culpability among the others, not, ummm, sung about in the Ainulindalë!

 

Well, I wouldn't say oddity, far too self-deprecating.  It's fascinating -- I'm intrigued with one of you thoughts -- "the beautiful ones, their lesser servants .. discovered and adapted for their use" .  There's quite a lot there; I'd imagine you've some very interesting notions about how that came to be and I'd also imagine that some of the beautiful ones might be a little ambivalent about being adapted for another's use.  I'm also wondering if Melkor's observation was as passive as he seems to believe. I also thought, and this might be my admittedly heretical mind reading too much into things, that, while your Melkor does invoke Milton's Satan, this and some of your other writing also reminds me of Blake -- in the sense that you seem to be playing with traditional association of good and evil, and, while not inverting those notions, you certainly complicate them in very interesting ways. A long-winded way of saying, thank you, that was lovely.

Thanks so much for reading, Lilith!  I very much appreciate your thoughtful commentary.

"I'm intrigued with one of you thoughts -- "the beautiful ones, their lesser servants .. discovered and adapted for their use" 

It's an imaginative spin on the Ainur, that the lesser spirits, the Maiar, are not the same "species" as the Valar.  That was just a flight of my own fancy, but when I read JRRT's (peculiar) remarks on the nature of the Valar and Maiar in Parma Eldalamberon 17 (discussion of the word root PHAN), he wrote that the Valar without veil or "raiment" appeared as bright lights whereas the Maiar, when incorporeal, could be detected by odor!  Pretty wild.  So that confirmed their different natures to me. :^D  There's an allusion to the different natures in Ch. 1 "Indistinguishable from Magic" in The Apprentice.  

"I'd also imagine that some of the beautiful ones might be a little ambivalent about being adapted for another's use."

Indeed. :^)

"this and some of your other writing also reminds me of Blake -- in the sense that you seem to be playing with traditional association of good and evil, and, while not inverting those notions, you certainly complicate them in very interesting ways."

To be mentioned in the same sentence as Blake is wildly flattering.  Yes, not inverting "good" and "evil" yet complicating them is my modus operandi.  That and I'm not a moral absolutist.

Thanks again! 

 

One of the things I really, *really* like about your stories is that they put a slightly different twist on things. This one sort of knocked me back a little bit and made me think (which is a good thing), and wonder just a little bit. They say that history is always written by the victors, and so this makes me think - if you wrote the Ainulindale or even the Silmarillion from Melkor's point of view - did he really see himself as evil? Or, as you suggest here, did he think of himself as having been betrayed?

So it may be heretical, but I liked it!

I just can't resist the heretical.  Just can't. With that I'll give Dawn's site, the Heretic Loremaster (linked in the Story Notes of "Chosen") a plug.  Dawn has some interesting and often -- well, always -- provocative stuff on there.  Although nothing to this effect is on her site now, we have talked about the history as written by the victors question.  Other writers have addressed this question through fiction: the Morlindalë by Michael Aquino (readily available as a pdf) and Jaqueline Carey's Banewreaker and Godslayer.  The names are (awkwardly) changed in the latter two volumes, but it's pretty transparent that the characters are Melkor et al and other Tolkien characters.  The concept of Aquino's work is interesting, but not enough for me to get past the, ummm, I'll be charitable here, mediocre writing.  I almost ran a sharpened pencil in my ear when I read a mere excerpt of Carey's work, but Dawn managed to get through Banewreaker and Godslayer without her eyes bleeding so maybe she can comment on them.  Not that I'm critical or anything! :^D

That is an excellent question though. My take here is that he already has that "brittle mind" that's teetering on the edge, hence the One picked the more stable, less obsessive (if sometimes too kind and oblvious ;^)) brother to lead the expedition.  The other Valar who might have originally said, "Sure, Melkor, old buddy, we've got your back!"  but thought better of it for good reasons, i.e., recognized he was too obsessive and controlling.  Or maybe Manwë promised them front row seats for the Lakers if they switched allegiance. :^D  At any rate, my conceptualiztion here is that he feels betrayed and that sends him over the edge.

I wonder, though, how he viewed himself?  I would guess he felt justified in his anger and his path to destruction.  Morgoth seems rather put upon in the Lay of Leithian, complaining that the gods of the west laze about while he and his minions work hard (see the scene where Luthien dances before him -- more sexuality in that version than the later one!)

Thanks so much for reading and the comments.  Made me think, too! 

 

 

In which Melkor gets a brutal introduction to office politics... ;P I did like the way he simply cannot believe he wasn't chosen. And his obsessive desire for Arda leaving a dissonance in the Song - a nice touch!

A small but great piece of work! You certainly researched wide and deep for this one-shot, and I appreciate your effort sincerely. Some terms in this piece were confusing to me, and one or two of them were not explained in the end notes, but that did not deter me from reading on and thinking that it was a great work.

 

Why were Tulkas and Nessa not included in the thirteen, though? And, seen from the descriptions in the Silmarillion (yes, I have only read it and not its suplement ones, shamefully), there were other Ainur who did not go into the universe after its forming, although they had lesser power than most of the Valar... Why were they not included here?

 

Melkor seemed so innocent and benign here, unlike the depiction in the Silmarillion. I like it. You provided an ample reason of your own why he became evil, unlike what I perceived in the Silmarillion. Good job!

 

By the way, I agree with you on the Maiar being the servants of the Valar, but to me they were of the same race, or at least quite similar (like Men and hobbits) with the latter. I took the idea from the Silmarillion too. (LOL Just thinking to share something...)

 

Thanks very much for reading and for your kind words, wind rider, and welcome to the SWG!

I'm curious as to which terms you found confusing.  In the end notes, I have referenced and defined Tolkien's invented (non-English) words, as he set them out in The Notion Club Papers.  Perhaps I missed something?

With regard to the other Ainur, again I have drawn inspiration from The History of Middle-earth (HoMe) in which JRRT wrote this about the Ainur who did not enter Arda (= the Solar System as JRRT explicitly stated) in Myths Transformed:

"Others there were, countless to our thought though known each and numbered in the mind of Ilúvatar, whose labour lay elsewhere and in other regions and histories of the Great Tale, amid stars remote and worlds beyond the reach of the furthest thought. But of these others, we know nothing and cannot know, though the Valar of Arda, maybe, remember them all."

So, with reference to JRRT's essays and comments in "Myths Transformed" (HoMe X, Morgoth's Ring), there were other Ainur who entered the universe (Eä) after its forming but"regions" (worlds) other than Arda , and whether they have greater or lesser powers than the Ainur of Arda is not clear. 

In "Chosen," the universe (Eä) already exists and its origins are a mystery. The Ainur in this fic are in the process of being "assigned," if you will, to Imbar (Earth) in Arda which has brought forth sentient life, a process that Melkor has observed as something like a "scout" and has thus become possessive of Imbar.  Because Tulkas entered the Kingdom of Arda last, I have not included him (or Nessa, one of the more minor Valar) in this fic although they easily could be there listening to the verdict, I suppose.

In The Silmarillion, the Maiar (the Valar's servants) are said to be of the same race but of a "lesser order" than the Valar.  I have taken that (and Tolkein's penchant for hierarchical structures) and spun it around with another interpretation of what that might mean.  As noted in the foreward/author's notes, the Ainulindalë is a creation myth, and thus prone to fluid interpretation (including yours and mine) as is much of Tolkein's mythopoeic world. 

 

 

Thanks. :) I do love this site and have been meaning to join for a long time. Hopefully no one would laugh at my limited notion of Tolkien's early mithologies.

 

I can't search for the words now, but one of them, I remember, began with m then a-acute... something like that. :- Well, regardless.

 

LOL Yes, Tolkien's works leave much for interpretation and gap-fillers. That is why I love them so much, although those points can be annoying at times too. By the way, I'm glad - and relieved, truthfully - that you liked my review. That given my knowledge and discussion arts...

You know, I feel honest sympathy for Melkor, it is the classical scenario of office politics and promotions: one does all the work and another claims the reward.

It was never explained why Melkor decided to sing out of tune in the Music, and whether that dissonance was already Evil, or it came later, once he felt displaced. Also I wondered whether the other Valar had a hand in pushing him down that road. Your story hints at alliances already made.

I know one should not look for plausible explanations within a creation myth, so it is great to know what it "actually" may have happened - Wonderful!

 

"it is the classical scenario of office politics and promotions: one does all the work and another claims the reward."

Heh.  Can you tell I've been a minion of Corporate America for many years? :^D  

Mine is just one interpretation of the legendarium's creation myth, and I'm glad it worked for you!  Thanks a million, Russa!

Good grief, Pandë! I found this through the excerpts for Clash of the Titans, and this is amazing, primal, so powerful.

 

He had tasted the new seas with their mélange of star-stuff born from the Fire, the substrates that might give birth. With wonder, he had listened to the first notes chime in the warm pools, those first simple notes of life that swelled into a chorus of endless forms most beautiful.

 

 

the blinding love he had poured into that cherished island changed to hate. He became fire, brilliant to behold but consuming, devouring, and so his kindred turned from him. He lifted his voice, more powerful than any gathered around him, and opened the gates to Arda, shooting through the gaping maw as a storm of flame and leaving the others behind, the last notes of his thought rebounding in the Hall of Song, now reverberating with jagged dissonance:

If I cannot have her, neither can you.

 

Wow!

If you ever have the time, I would love you to write Melkor's story.

Heh.  No, I do not view the Valar as perfect angelic beings.  Tolkien wrote them as fallible so I've just, uh, extrapolated a bit in that they are not divine but so strange and powerful that they would appear to be so to others a la Arthur C. Clarke's Third Law.  Thanks so much!  I'm pleased that you found this refreshing!

This is an awesome alternative interpretation of Melkor. I like it much better than the "God creating Satan to be that way and giving him no free will, but Satan is still evil for doing what he does" version in canon (at least that's what it feels like).
Also, office politics happen to supernatural beings, too! :D

Hey, thanks. K.!  Yep, I figured that the Ainulindalë is a creation myth, and like any other creation myth, there may be other interpretations or here, an "in-universe reality," e.g., the Valar as beings that are not angelic spirits, but rather beings that have moved away from their original organic forms through a mysterious process, either by evolution within the laws of their universe, or through an unimaginable technology.  But they'd still appear god-like to Elves and Mortals.  At any rate, Tolkien's Valar, for all his claims of their "angelic" nature, have very human qualities.  I figure "office politics" might be among those. :^D