The power of creation is within the flame. At the beginning, the Creator Eru Ilúvatar places “the Flame Imperishable” at the heart of the World and declares: “And I will send forth into the Void the Flame Imperishable, and it shall be at the heart of the World” (Tolkien, The Silmarillion 9). Melkor, the greatest of the angelic beings of Ainur, becomes curious and impatient. The first expression of “evil” in the legendarium is in a way curiosity. The Beginning (and the End) of EvilĪt first, the Creation in Tolkien’s legendarium is supposedly “good”. All of these books form different angles and modes of the legendarium. The mythologically oriented stories of The Silmarillion form the backbone of cosmogony and cosmology in Tolkien’s legendarium’s. Then again, posthumously published The Silmarillion is a collection of Tolkien’s mythopoeic works edited by his son Christopher Tolkien. In The Lord of the Rings, the basic task and quest is to destroy the “One Ring” which in wrong hands can bring about the destruction of all Middle-earth. The Lord of the Rings, on the other hand, is highly popular – one could say the most popular – quest-tale, ( note 3) an epic fantasy of the 20 th century addressing grand themes such as world domination, apocalyptic visions, the battle between Good and Evil (and the poor individuals in the middle of this battle), heroism, and both success and failure. The Hobbit is a fantasy book and a children’s book, basically about an episodic adventure, ( note 2) written in a fairy-tale mode. The fundamental basis of Tolkien’s legendarium is formed on three separate works: The Hobbit, or There and Back Again (1937), The Lord of the Rings (1954–55, six books, originally published in three parts) and The Silmarillion (1977). Tolkien’s (1892–1973) legendarium, ( note 1) focusing mainly on the beginning of evil and on the aspects of juxtaposing physical with spiritual, mortal with immortal and visible with invisible. This article discusses good and evil forces in J. He is currently a doctoral student at the University of Oulu, Finland. Keywords: Tolkien, Tolkien’s legendarium, good and evil, visible and invisible, mortal and immortalīiography: Jyrki Korpua is a Master of Arts in literary studies. As concrete examples of this juxtaposition from The Lord of the Rings, I discuss the beings of Balrog and Nazgûls, but also the Great Ring, the Elves, and characters of Tom Bombadil and Gandalf. Gandalf says that if his side loses, “many lands will pass under the shadow”. In addition to this, Aragorn reports the assumed death of Gandalf by saying that he “fell into Shadow”. Where Ainur are beings of light, evil forces are often described as shadows: Mordor, for example, is “Black-Land”, “where shadows lie”. For Tolkien, a word to describe Good is light, whereas Evil is described as dark or black. In The Silmarillion, for example, Ainur can “change form”, or, “walk unclad” without physical form, but those among them who turn evil, such as Melkor, lose this power. In Tolkien’s legendarium, the physical appearance is the key to the creation of “two levels”: the visible and the invisible world. From the cosmological view, the visible and invisible dichotomy is relevant. I discuss the Creation in The Silmarillion, which is at first supposedly good, but later becomes “marred” because of Melkor, who is at the beginning greatest of the angelic beings of Ainur, but later becomes the enemy and the symbol of pride and evil. Tolkien’s legendarium, focusing mainly on the beginning of evil and on the aspects of juxtaposing physical with spiritual, mortal with immortal and visible with invisible. Tolkien’s Legendarium: Concerning Dichotomy between Visible and InvisibleĪbstract: This article discusses good and evil forces in J. Fafnir – Nordic Journal of Science Fiction and Fantasy Research, Volume 1, Issue 1, pages 46-55.
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