 | |
| Editor | Christopher Tolkien |
|---|---|
| Author | J. R. R. Tolkien |
| Language | English |
| Series | The History of Middle-earth |
| Subject | Tolkien's legendarium |
| Genre | High fantasy Literary analysis |
| Publisher | HarperCollins (UK) |
Publication date | 1993 |
| Media type | Print (hardback and paperback) |
| Pages | 496 (paperback) |
| ISBN | 978-0261103009 |
| Preceded by | The History of The Lord of the Rings |
| Followed by | The War of the Jewels |
Morgoth's Ring (1993) is the tenth volume ofChristopher Tolkien's 12-volume seriesThe History of Middle-earth in which he analyses the unpublished manuscripts of his fatherJ. R. R. Tolkien. It contains "The Annals of Aman" which presents the history of Arda with year-by-year entries like real-worldannals, and "Athrabeth Finrod ah Andreth" which presents a discussion of death and immortality between an Elf and a human.
Reviewers welcomed the volume, noting that it reveals Tolkien exploring hard questions about his mythology, and struggling to reconcile them, to the extent that he unsuccessfully attempts a destructivereworking of the entire cosmology of Arda. The issues covered include death, immortality, and the extent to which Tolkien embodied Christianity in Middle-earth; evil and the origin of Orcs; and Tolkien's attempts to replace his mythology with "feigned history".
Morgoth's Ring presents source materials and editorial commentary on the following:
The title of this volume comes from a statement in one of Tolkien's essays: "Just asSauron concentrated his power in theOne Ring,Morgoth dispersed his power into the very matter ofArda, thus the whole ofMiddle-earth was Morgoth's Ring".[1]
The title page of each volume ofThe History of Middle-earth displays an inscription in theFëanorian characters (Tengwar, an alphabet devised by Tolkien forHigh-elven), written by Christopher Tolkien and describing the contents of the book. The inscription in Volume X reads: "In this book are given many of the later writings of John Ronald Reuel Tolkien concerning the history of the Elder Days from theMusic of the Ainur to theHiding of Valinor; here much is told of the Sun and Moon; of the immortal Eldar and the death of the Atani; of the beginning of theOrcs and of the evil power ofMelkor, the Morgoth, the Black Foe of the World."
Reviewing the book forMythlore,Glen GoodKnight wrote that in it, Christopher Tolkien leads the reader into "new third phase of his father's concept of Middle-earth after the writing ofThe Lord of the Rings — his recasting and adding to the mythos." In his view, the book is a major "earthquake" bringing "astounding revelations" about Tolkien's development of Middle-earth.[2] One is the "Athrabeth Finrod ah Andreth" (The Debate of Finrod and Andreth), meant to be the last item inThe Silmarillion's appendix; it presents opinions of death held by Men and Elves. Andreth complains of how unfair Man's short life is, believing death to be imposed byMorgoth, while Finrod speaks of hope, and that he believes human's death to be given byEru, and not imposed by Morgoth.[2] Tolkien comments on the passage that "Finrod has already guessed that the redemptive function was originally specially assigned to Men", leading GoodKnight to observe that Tolkien here aligns "his mythology very closely to his faith and theological belief in the primary world."[2]
In her 2008The Evolution of Tolkien's Mythology,[3]Elizabeth Whittingham calls theAthrabeth the nearest that Tolkien got toChristian theology anywhere in his legendarium.[4] Further, she notes,Glorfindel is the only Elf who is reincarnated, while he abandoned the concept everywhere else. According to Deidre Dawson, who reviewed her book, this suggests that Tolkien kept the "possibility" of this non-Christian concept to allow his Elves to be immortal.[4]
Tolkien had a long-standing and unresolved challenge with the origin of Orcs, whether they were "irredeemably evil" (if derived from evil) or as Tolkien here states, bred from Men (who would be redeemable).[5] Amelia Rutledge writes that "theodicy, the study of justice and of the nature of evil" is the "central concern" ofMorgoth's Ring.[6]David Bratman, inMythprint, finds interesting Tolkien's explanation that unlike Sauron, Morgoth's evil could not be fully purged from the world, because he had spread himself all through its physical matter.[5] All in all, Bratman writes, the philosophical writings in the volume are "unlike almost anything else" inHistory of Middle-earth, as "what they most resemble is some of the long self-explanatoryletters that Tolkien wrote to readers in the late 1950s".[5]
The co-founder of the Tolkien SocietyCharles Noad writes that Tolkien was "virtually attempting a [destructive] reinvention of his mythology", including Arda's cosmology, "Elvish reincarnation, the origins of Orcs, and the powers of Morgoth."[7] Noad comments that the attempt to rework the cosmology was an "alarming and destructive débâcle" that would effectively had demythologised his whole mythology, but that Tolkien broadly succeeded in his other attempted problem resolutions.[7] Dawson describes the situation as Tolkien's "steady movement away from the archetypes and structures of ancient pagan myths, towards a mythology for the modern era which includes more elements inspired by biblical texts," as seen inMorgoth's Ring.[4]
Bratman comments that the reader enters the "Myths Transformed" section at their peril, "for here you will see the author probing the absolute rock-bottom theoretical base of his subcreation."[5] The material reveals, too, why Tolkiencould not completeThe Silmarillion, as he grappled with his changing view of the acceptability of a mythology as against a "feigned history".[5] The later volumeThe Nature of Middle-earth presents more of Tolkien's attempts to resolve the dilemma.[8]
GoodKnight writes that the materials inMorgoth's Ring could have radically changedThe Silmarillion, had Tolkien lived to finish it "to his satisfaction".[2] Noad, reviewingMorgoth's Ring inMallorn, approves of Tolkien's intention to give his plannedThe Silmarillion shape with theAthrabeth at the end, with the "Great Tales" printed in full as appendices to the text, a structure that would in his view have been a great improvement. He praises Christopher Tolkien for his "clarity of exposition ... clothed in expressive grace".[7]