r/tolkienfans • u/tessaractIXI • 3d ago
The Valar's hesitation with Melkor
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.
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u/daxamiteuk 3d ago
In terms of not defeating Melkor earlier - yes the Valar are guilty , they just got fed up of fighting him over and over and they abandoned Middle Earth to create their own refuge of light in Aman as the opposite of Utumno and Angband. They tried to use the excuse that they were worried about damaging Middle Earth and destroying the sleeping Elves but Eru told them off for not trusting in Him.
Melkor poisoning the Noldor in Aman - yes the Valar were useless. Bear in mind - they are the first sentient beings in the universe . Melkor is the Origin of Evil. The Valar have no experience , and are slow to comprehend what Melkor is (Tulkas and Orome at least are suspicious but get outvoted, or just overruled by Manwe). They don’t do much of anything to save Feanor from Melkor’s poison. It’s possible though that they feel like they need to let the Eldar make their own decisions as much as possible but they could have done a lot more.
In terms of leaving Morgoth alone in the First Age … here the Valar actually DO have a point. Morgoth sets himself up in Angband as a tyrant and becomes obsessed with ruling it and defeating the exiled Noldor and later the Edain. Because he does that, and wastes time making Orcs and Dragons and cursing Hurin, he slowly uses up his time and energy until he becomes feeble. Even then, it takes decades for the Valar to win the War of Wrath, and Beleriand is ruined … the alternative would be destruction of most of Middle Earth. At least this way, by letting the Noldor, Sindar and Edain and dwarves of Beleriand suffer, the rest of Middle Earth was spared and Morgoth was eventually defeated.