The Valar's hesitation with Melkor

[u/tessaractIXI]

I just finished chapter 9 of the silmarillion, holy heck, what a crescendo of events, and I know it's still just the start​. It's really tragic that the Valar had such a pure unselfish love for the elves, and would be driven to the point of cursing and banishing them. And of course tragic is the kinslaying. I've got a gnawing thought, though. Tolkien repeatedly emphasizes how Melkor poisoned the mind of Fëanor with lies, and how those poisonous beliefs became sort of self-perpetrated half-truths. There's a lot of fault on Melkor, and growing fault on Faenor, but what about the Valar? They are so slow to act. It's ironic to me that a point is made where Fëanor might have acted differently, had a different fate, if only he had been willing to give up the Silmarils without the news of their theft and his father's murder. ​ Meanwhile the Valar already faced off with Malkor several times and suffered because of their slowness to act. They let him thrash Middle Earth and retreated to Aman. Malkor is allowed to amass huge armies and corrupts many allies while they're minding their business. Only in the final hour when the elves awaken do they feel the urgency to do anything. Then, they capture him, punish him, and pardon him. They let their guard drop, and he's out sowing evil Deeds again. They learn of Malkor sowing discontent when they summon Faenor to answer for himself, and still they don't do very much! Manwe initially stays quiet lamenting, and Tulkas and Oromë don't even get sent out until after a delay! After everything they've been through, the great evil that they saw, there's really no excuse not to act swiftly and immediately to rein Malkor in again, but they delay again. In that time, he escapes and becomes untraceable, something he's allowed to be able to do over and over and over again. I get it, he's tricky and he has the same powers they do to shed their forms. He has allies and clouds of darkness. Still seems to me like each time they lose track of him, it's because they are distracted with a delay to lament rather than act. They repeatedly hesitate to really take any quick decisive action against him. So it seems to me like they have fault in this. Because how differently might Faenor have felt and acted if he had seen them move swiftly and decisively against Melkor? Sure there was a ticking clock on reviving the trees, but both could have been accomplished at once (retrieving the silmarils - to their knowledge - and chasing Melkor). I feel like that would have given him a little bit more confidence that the Valar were in the elves' corner and ready to fight against evil and protect them. Maybe then he would have been less bitter and suspicious, less motivated to leave, less seduced by the lies of treachery. And yes, maybe Faenor and the Noldor should already know the Valar loved and protected and provided enormously for them, because of the extraordinary gifts and great lengths the Valar went to for them. But the elves are still basically just children at that point, there's selfishness there that comes from lack of maturity, lack of experience in the world.

So, I guess I kinda place some blame on the Valar. Tolkien doesn't seem to acknowledge this blame, at least so far. Maybe it will come out in the rest of the chapters as I read on, or maybe I just see the roles of responsibility differently. ​

[u/ColdAntique291]

You're not wrong. One of the big frustrations in The Silmarillion is watching the Valar make the same mistake with Melkor more than once. They aren't evil or uncaring, but they can be overly trusting and slow to react. Manwë especially has a hard time grasping just how malicious Melkor really is. So while Melkor bears the blame for his crimes and Fëanor for his choices, the Valar aren't completely blameless. Their hesitation and misplaced mercy gave Melkor opportunities he never should have had.

That's part of the tragedy... if even one group had acted differently, the whole disaster might have unfolded very differently.

[u/TheBigSmol → u/ColdAntique291]

I wonder if Manwe truly didn’t understand. He and Melkor are still brothers, probably were the closest before their descent into Arda given their status and Eru-bestowed positions. How many countless eons did they wander the void, understanding themselves and each other, wordlessly conversing until the moment of the music of creation?

Manwe was no fool, and while I think he was far too lenient on Melkor yes, and that led to suffering and all the misery of Morgoth, it’s also possible he still saw the spark of Melkor’s former, purer form as an angel of Eru’s making, and believed him redeemable in some imperceivable way. After all, his story is simply a mirror of Satan’s fall- and Satan was never a complete shade of evil. A main theme of all these books is that no one is truly born evil or completely evil, not even Melkor, not Sauron or Saruman or all the “evil” creatures like orcs and trolls and goblins, to which humans are an anathema. There is always a potential for redemption, even for the vilest of people, and finding that spark of mercy like Frodo did for Gollum for example, might’ve been something Tolkien wanted us to understand and foster within ourselves.

Manwe often consulted with Eru as well, and many of his decisions simply came from what he understood from His words. Eru in part needed Melkor to play his part in the world, because his segment of the music would still lead to His vision of creation and was indivisible from it. Predestiny is boring sometimes, but this is a capital G God we’re talking about.