Analyzing Evil: Morgoth From The Tolkien Legendarium

hello everyone and welcome to the 90th episode of analyzing evil featuring our delayed patron pick for june 2022 melkor or as he's more commonly known morgoth from the tolkien legendarium though sauron is more well known there was another who came before him a being far more powerful than sauron could have ever hoped to be morgoth the grandfather of all dark lords like sauron morgoth is a member of the divine race known as the ainur though he's a step above sauron who like gandalf and saruman is a mayar one of the lesser spirits of the ainur morgoth before his downfall was counted amongst the valar the angelic beings that the creator of the universe eru iluvatar bequeathed a portion of his power to however melkor would shun the design given to him by his creator rebelling against him and becoming the greatest evil that ever touched the land of arda the source of all corruption that ever was and ever will be in middle earth in this video we're going to explore every aspect of this devilish monstrosity however up until now every villain i've covered has been present in some form of visual media or another and when we've looked at characters who are derived from literature before we've had the privilege of being able to examine their thoughts words actions or descriptions in depth but morgoth is a tricky character to analyze as the stories in which he's featured those being the silmarillion and the various books that were derived from it are told more in the format of a compilation of legends by storytellers rather than a single narrative from which we can derive information from there are such individual narratives that were crafted by tolkien and compiled by his son christopher those being the children of hurin the fall of gondolin and baron and luthien and they significantly enhanced the stories of several different characters within the legendarium but all the information that we can find about morgoth within the silmarillion is also found within these tales and they offer little to no new information about morgoth within them as far as i'm aware at least so with that in mind in this video we'll be going through the silmarillion and supplementing the information we're given there with a small amount of information that we can find in the history of middle earth particularly the book titled morgoth's ring but if there is anything that i've left out about morgoth please let me know down below as the legendarium is expansive and chances are i've missed a few things now while this video will be in analysis it will more so be a complete history of morgoth's life and of all the crimes he inflicted upon this world and rather than lump all those crimes into groups as i've done in other videos we're going to be covering morgoth and order from his beginning to his end analyzing his character as we go along after which we'll discuss at length all that we've learned about this master of darkness and just so you're aware i will be condensing what we're given about morgoth when i can but to constantly mar the words of tolkien with my own would be nothing short of a crime as there is no need to alter details and descriptions that are conveyed perfectly within the source material so i will be taking text directly from the silmarillion at certain points in this video also there are a lot of discrepancies between the silmarillion and some of tolkien's later works that weren't uncovered until after the silmarillion was published like for example the different origin stories for the orcs that tolkien played with over the many years he worked on the legendarium such as morgoth fashioning the orcs from stone or wild beasts though this and similar topics like it are still debated amongst fans to this day for the sake of cohesiveness we are going to consider the information in the silmarillion as canon and i won't be discussing any alternatives but feel free to discuss it amongst yourselves down below but before we begin let's take a moment to 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labored in their own ways they came to a greater understanding of one another and of aru as the songs of their brethren entered their minds then after listening for some time aru brought forth another great theme that astounded the ainur with its beauty and he thus ordered the ainur to assemble their collective talents and create a great music in accordance with the theme he had laid before them bringing into existence a magnificent flawless melody that would only ever be rivaled by the music created by the ainur after the end of days now many were the ainur and a great power was held within each of them according to the will of aru but none held greater power than melkor whose name in kuenya means he who arises in might and the power of melkor became known to the rest of the ainur during the making of this great music melkor who had been given the greatest gifts of knowledge and power and had a share in the gifts of his brethren often wandered in the void seeking the flame and perishable as he had grown impatient with its emptiness and sought to bring life of his own into existence though this was ultimately impossible as the flame resided with arrow alone these thoughts remained with him however and they began to bleed into the great music that the ainur were conducting causing discord to rise about him which caused his fellow ainur to become distressed and falter in the creation of their own songs and some still began to attune their music to that of melkors rather than the theme of iluvatar this caused the perfection that was aru's theme to become distorted into a raging storm that revealed not but discord where once there was only harmony illuvata abided this tumultuous song for a time before sending forth a new theme not unlike the last but the discord of melkor rose an uproar and contended with it and again there was a war of sound more violent than before until many of the inor were dismayed and sang no longer and melkor had the mastery it wasn't until arrow introduced a third theme that the music became more than a storm evolving into two separate songs one deep wide and beautiful but slow and blended with sorrow and the other loud and vain and endlessly repeated and it had little harmony but rather a clamorous unison as of many trumpets raying upon a few notes and an essay to drown the other music by the violence of its voice but it seemed that its most triumphant tones were taken by the other and woven into its own solemn pattern then arrow ceased all sound by raising both hands and striking a chord deeper than the abyss thereafter explaining that everything that has been or ever will be have their origin in him for mighty are the inure and mighty is melchor who is the mightiest amongst them but they are but extensions of aru and none can surpass the might of aru eluvatar nor can they make anything of their own accord that does not in truth come from eru being dismayed at this revelation melkor felt shame but with his shame came a secret anger and upon the revelation of the fruits of their music aya which is the known universe and the vision they were given of the children of iluvatar those children being elves and men melchor much like many of the most mighty of the ainur had his desires turned irrevocably towards aya and all that it encompassed at first melchor deceived even himself in believing that his chief desire was to order all things for the children of illivatar but in truth he envied the children and the gifts promised them by iluvatar and his innermost desire was to become the lord of this new world to dominate it and the wills of the children of iluvatar in order to fashion them into his subjects and servants now in this introduction to melkor and the making of aya there are a few things of note that help us to understand the mind of melkor first is the fact that he is the mightiest of the inure and more importantly that he knows that he's the mightiest while this may not be an issue in others of similar stature within melkor it gives him the belief that because of his might he has the right to claim that he is above the rest of his brethren now as i mentioned earlier all of the ainur and all of existence are linked to aru and e jainur is a representative of a certain portion of eru's mind so that would mean that these feelings of superiority and divine right have their origin in eru and this makes sense when you consider that aru is the source of all power in the universe the entity who stands above all others that has the right to claim that he is the supreme being who has no equal melchor being a representation of this aspect of eru is thus faced with turmoil as if aru is the mightiest of all and melchor is an extension of his might it was almost inevitable that melkor would develop feelings of superiority and an extreme distaste for others who would seek to claim lordship over himself even for the entity that created him as aru feels or rather knows that there is no one that should be or can be above him which in turn makes melchor feel this way as well the second thing to note here is that melkor desired in the beginning to create life of his own but not for the sake of bringing life into the world but to dominate his creations and lord over them as their master in this way he's also like aru but the difference between the two lies in eru's desire to watch his creations do as they will and shape the world how they please and melkor's desire to control everything he touches in tolkien's words he began with the desire of light but when he could not possess it for himself alone he descended through fire and wrath into a great burning down into darkness and darkness he used most in his evil works upon arda and filled it with fear for all living things this difference between arrow and melkor would be the primary reason for melkor's descent into darkness and upon setting foot on arda with his brethren melkor declared that it was his kingdom alone and that all the valar and the children of ilovatar who would come after were subject to his will and to assist him in this endeavor were the many mai are that he had corrupted to his service chief among them being the valarakar or balrogs as we know them and of course sauron or as he was known then gorthaur the cruel who during his servitude to melkor was his second in command when monwe melkor's brother in spirit and the second mightiest of the valar rebuffed his claim to the kingdom of arda stating that it did not belong to just one of them melkor distanced himself from the other valar and departed to other regions of the world to set his mark upon them the valar up to this point appeared as ethereal beings with no physical form but after melkor had departed they began to shape themselves into beings mimicking the forms of the children of ilovatar that they had seen in the vision arrow had given them and afterwards they began setting to work and ordering the earth and curbing its tumults after seeing this melchor grew envious of the beautiful and glorious forms the valor had taken and even more so of the beauty that was the earth subdued under their glory so melchor took on a form of his own but because of the malice that burned within him the form he occupied was dark and terrible and he descended upon arda and power and majesty greater than any other of the valar as a mountain that wades in the seas and has its head above the clouds and is clad in and crowned with smoke and fire and the light of the eyes of melkor was like a flame that withers with heat and pierces with deadly cold melkor's purpose still remained the same after taking on this form to establish himself as lord of all middle earth but now he also set about destroying everything beautiful that the valar had so far wrought and for an unknown amount of time after everything that the valar created melkor destroyed that is until one of the mightiest ainur came to the aid of the valar tulkas a being with such strength that melkor fled from him in fear giving the valor the time they needed to order the earth properly for the coming of the children of iluvatar however melkor fled only to bide his time and some of the maya in his service were set as spies amongst the valar who relayed all that the valor had done after his departure directly to him and melkor grew jealous and spiteful of his brethren for their efforts in resisting his domination of them and shaping what he believed to be rightfully his and in the spring following the completion of the valar's labors during a great feast a feast that saw tulkas fall asleep after exhausting himself laboring to order there at which time melchor finally deemed it appropriate to make his first move against the valar calling even more mayar to his cause he passed the wall of night that surrounded the edges of the great oceans of middle earth and came into the north of arda where the light of elohim never touched and he came as a vast shadow and the valar were unaware of his coming at this time melkor began working to carve out the great fortress of utumno a vast nigh impregnable subterranean stronghold that he delved into the iron mountains of the north and in the depths of utumno he waited for his chance to strike for the valar were still unaware of his coming even as he ran the earth asunder to fortify his position however with the return of melchor to middle-earth the peace and beauty of the spring of arda was slowly but surely marred green things fell sick and rotted and rivers were choked with weeds and slime and fins were made rank and poisonous the breeding place of flies and forests grew dark and perilous the haunts of fear and beasts became monsters of horn and ivory and died the earth with blood it was then that the valar became aware of his presence and that he had returned to arda but before the valar could move to apprehend him melkor emerged with all his strength from the depths of utumno and began ravaging middle-earth as he once had in the beginning of its history and the light of the two lamps eloween and ormal were spilled over and destroyed creating vast oceans of fire across the land that sought to choke every living thing with smoke and fire and though the valar tried the shape and symmetry of arda was forever marred to the point where the first designs of the valar were never after restored after wreaking his havoc melkor fled into the darkness and hid within nutuno where the valar could not reach him and could not overcome him for the greater part of their strength at this time was directed towards quelling the tumults that melkor had reintroduced to the world thus the valar fled from almerin the island home that they had made for themselves that sat between the two lamps and settled in the land furthest to the west amman where they established the blessed realm of valinor behind the gargantuan polari the highest mountains in middle-earth that were raised as a barricade to keep melkor from assailing them again here was raised the two trees teleprion and lorelin the successors to the two lamps of eluen and normal that lit the realm of elinor in a ceaseless golden light yet over the pelori in middle earth only the light of the stars wrought by varda and ages past remained and in the darkness of twilight melkor dwelt and still often walked abroad in many shapes of power and fear and he wielded cold and fire from the tops of the mountains to the deep furnaces that are beneath them and whatsoever was cruel or violent or deadly in those days is laid to his charge and he at this time before the coming of the children of villavatar was lord of all that the light of the trees couldn't reach however the lands of middle earth weren't entirely forsaken at this time as ulmo the lord of the seas still dwelt in the outer seas as he ever did and ever will and it was through him that vestiges of life survived in many secret loads so that the earth did not die and yavana the matron of all things that grow returned to arta from time to time to heal the wounds that melkor had inflicted upon the land oromay tamer of beasts would also ride at times into the darkness upon his mighty white horse nahar hunting the fell beasts of melkor as the earth trembled under the golden hooves of nahar and melkor himself quailed in uttumno foreboding the wrath to come but even as oramay passed the servants of melkor would gather again and the lands were filled with shadows and deceit so was the age before the coming of the children of iluvatar written and at its end the world was broken and darkened for the first time but not the last now concerning the children of ilovatar there is a distinction that's made in the silmarillion that is important when understanding the relationship between the ainur the elves and men for elves and men are the children of villavatar and since they understood not fully that theme by which the children entered into the music none of the ainur dared to add anything to their fashion for which reason the valar are to these kindreds rather their elders and their chieftains than their masters this is yet another point of contention between the valar the children of iluvatar and melkor as melkor doesn't even view the other valar as being his equal so to mark beings who are far lesser in might than the valar as being anything close in stature to himself was a laughable notion to melkor at best and in all his efforts following the awakening of the children of ilovatar he sought to subjugate those that he could and destroy those that he could not he did succeed in a small way once the firstborn emerged upon arda as though the valar knew when the firstborn emerged it was melkor who was poised to meet them and he did so by sending shadows and evil spirits to spy on and waylay the eldar so that when oromay came riding upon nahar during his many sojourns into arda the elves initially cowered in fear as he rode past as they believed him to be yet another dark spirit sent to torment them and during these first moments in the long history of the elves melkor would send out his forces to capture as many elves as they could in order to enslave and corrupt them in the depths of etuno and it's said that the elves melkor captured during this time were the poor souls who he corrupted into the creatures that we know of as orcs creatures that rather than feeling loyalty to their new master hated and feared him as the dark master they were forced to follow and toil for against their will however his efforts in this regard were swiftly dealt with by the valar as they descended upon arda to make war on melkor at the behest of ivana who implored the valar to not let the firstborn of the children of iluvatar be left to rot under the corrupting influence of melkor so the valar departed from valinor and assailed to tomno and the far northwestern reaches of arda were thereafter shaped by the cataclysmic battle that unfolded as the valar sieged melkor subterranean fortress managing to break its gates and unroof the mountain stronghold the valar descended to the deeps of etuno to find melchor on his dark throne cowering in fear before the valar left valinor aule the smith fashioned the chain known as angenor and upon reaching melkor tulkas one of the valar that melkor feared the most wrestled with melkor and bound him in the ingenor in order to take him safely back to valinor for judgment thrown before monwe on his throne melchor sued for pardon but his pleas fell upon deaf ears and he was sentenced to imprisonment within the halls of mandos for three ages before he would be allowed to ask for pardon again while melkor was bound though the evil beings in his employ that survived the siege of etuno continued to plague the world or hide awaiting the day when their master would return to lead them once more after the three ages had expired melkor feigned repentance to monwe and offered to prove himself as one deserving of being counted amongst the ranks of the valar once more and because monway and his grace could not comprehend evil he believed melkor and allowed him to walk unsupervised in valmar the city of the elves in valinor amongst the eldar teaching them much and laboring in many ways to improve that realm for a time that is slowly but surely melkor began to whisper lies into the ears of the elves lies that they often believed came from within their own thoughts due to the subtlety of melkor's speech and sowing dissension amongst their ranks he began searching for a way to free himself from his servitude to his hated enemy now though that would be his primary goal there was something else that melchor desired to obtain for himself the silmarils of feanor the jewels crafted from the light of the two trees teleprion and lorelin said to have been the most brilliant gems ever crafted the silmarils were the prized possession of the house of feyenoor the son of the first hiking of the noldor inway and ever coveting the light as his own melchor began to desire the possession of them for himself alone as soon as he set his sights on them in order to accomplish that he labored to turn feyenoord and his half-brother fingolfin against each other by telling feyenoord that fingolfin planned to use serpenwei and feyenoor as heads of the noldor and to fingolfin melkor said that feyenoor was plotting to drive him away from valinor as the relationship feyenoor had with his half-siblings was always one of contention which made it quite easy for melkor to convince them of these false ill intentions the noldor began to smith weapons and armor in anticipation of the conflict they believed to be brewing between the sons of fenway something that had never come to pass in valinor up till this moment in time and feyenoor desiring to make the first move armed himself and approached finneglefinn while he was speaking to their father fenway and demanded that he leave his house lest he begin corrupting his father against feyenoor and his sons for the crime of drawing a weapon upon his kin feyenoor was sentenced to 12 years of exile from the fair elvish city of tyrion atop the hill of tuna so fenor left his home with his sons in tow delving the fortress for manos in the hills north of alanaur and with feyenoord came also fenway his father and fingolfin ruled the noldor in his stead whilst he accompanied his son into exile now melkor had hidden himself during this period of turmoil in valinor as the valar knew that melkor had to be the source of strife between the noldor and it was some time before he showed himself again and he did so at the gates of formenos here he spoke to feyenoor about the truth of his words that the valar sought to possess the silmarils for himself and fingolfin was their agent in this endeavor and he urged feyenoord to let him assist him in fleeing from valinor however seeing that feyenoor wavered in his decision as to whether or not he should trust melchor melkor made an error that all but rendered his plans up to this point irrelevant as he mentioned once again that the silmarils wouldn't be safe anywhere even in valinor and in that moment feyenoor saw through the lies of melkor and peered into his mind to see that it was dominated by an intense lust for the silmarils after which feyenoor paid melcor to depart from formenos referring to him as a jail crow of mondos in great peril melkor fled in chaim and word reached the valar that he had passed through the calqiria the gateway through the pylori and was headed north towards the land of aruman however melkor knew that the valar would become aware of his path and so he shapeshifted into his ethereal form and in secret he turned southward toward the dark region of avatar where one of the most vile creatures ever to walk the face of arda resided angoliant devourer of light the origin of angolians is a mystery some say she was a dark spirit who inhabited the void before the creation of aya or perhaps she was a spirit that melchor corrupted into his service regardless she served as the singular source of darkness in amman a massive spider wreathed in shadows who consumed all light within her vicinity and spun dark webs that choked out even sunlight appearing to ungoleaned as the terrifying dark lord he had been during his tenure as tyrant of otumno melkor offered to give angolian whatever she so desired if she would assist him in exacting his revenge upon the valar by snuffing out the light of the two trees and as well as unbeknownst to ungoliant stealing the silmarils from feyenoor cloaked in arraignment of unlight melkor and ungoliant snuck into valinor during a festival signifying the first harvest and during the celebration in valmar ungoliant and melkor came to the hill as aloha where the two trees sat shining in all their glory and with his black spear melkor pierced the two trees to their core their sap pouring forth as if it were blood then angolian set her black beak to their wounds and drank the sap of the two trees until they were drained and withered by the poison of death that flowed within her and hungering still angolian drank from the brilliant pools of varda and swelled to an enormous monstrosity that instilled fear in melkor then they fled flying in a cloud of darkness weaved by angolians and valinor was drowned in a darkness so all-encompassing that it seemed to be a living thing that could pierce the hearts and minds of all who it touched with the valor in pursuit melkor hastened to flee to the safety of arda where he could once again marshall his forces and make safer dwelling from once he could further his dark designs but before departing the blessed realm he needed to first stop it for menos the fortress of feyenoor that housed the silmarils there he slew the only person who stood to face him amongst the darkness he had brought with him finway father of feyenoor whom he slew before the gates of formenos spilling the first drop of blood in the history of eleanor after this event melkor would be dub morgoth which means the black foe of the world in cinderin a name he would be referred to forever after this event also caused feyenoor to swear a deadly oath one that bound him in his kin to seek out and recover the silmarils no matter the cost and whoever would waylay them in this effort be they valar eldar or otherwise would be met with wrath and destruction at the hands of the house of feyenoor and this oath would end up being a plague upon arda that would be the cause of many woes for not just the noldor but all the children of ilovatar and aole woes that morgoth was ultimately the architect of as the corruption of feyenoor the one member of the children of ilovatar that had been given a fire that seemed to have come directly from eru himself was said to be one of the greatest crimes ever committed by morgoth a crime that brought misery to the world second only to the misery that morgoth manufactured personally though morgoth held dominion over arda in the dawn of days these crimes against the valar and the noldor would be the beginning of a reign of terror that would forever alter the entire course of history and any hope there was of melkor being redeemed was lost forever traveling over the pylori to the northern land of aruman and crossing the hellkaraxi into the lands north of the firth of drangist morgoth and angolian drew near to the ruins of the western fortress of angband and knowing that morgoth desired to rid himself of angoliant she requested that he give to her what he promised everything he had with both hands so the gems he had stolen from formenos were devoured by angolians but morgoth withheld the silmarils from her and seeing that he was only giving her what he would from his left hand she demanded that he give with his right as well and when he wouldn't yield and declared himself king and rightful owner of the silmarils angoliant attacked him spinning webs of misery about morgoth from which he couldn't hope to escape then morgoth sent forth a terrible cry that echoed in the mountains therefore that region was called lamoth for the echoes of his voice dwelt there ever after so that any who cried aloud in that land awoke them and all the waste between the hills and the sea was filled with a clamor as a voices in anguish the cry of morgoth in that hour was the greatest and most dreadful that was ever heard in the northern world the mountain shook and the earth trembled and rocks were riven asunder deep in forgotten places that cry was heard far beneath the ruined halls of engband in vaults to which the valor and the haste of their assault had not descended balrog still lurked awaiting ever the return of their lord and now swiftly they arose and passing over hithlam they came to lamothe as a tempest of fire with angolian cowed and sent to dwell beneath eric gorgaroth morgoth returned to angband to begin rebuilding the fortress anew and to fortify his position against any future attack he raised the threefold peaks of thangrodrim towering volcanoes that choked the region in thick black smoke so began the renewed reign of morgoth and middle-earth and though elven realms prospered under the leadership of various kings like thingol and doriath and turgon in gondolin the threat of morgoth was ever present while he sat on his subterranean throne as he desired to be king of all arta not just its north morgoth began marshalling his forces breeding new and terrible beasts as well as legions of orcs so that he might take all that he will by force and not long after his return to arda he sent forth a horde of orcs to assail menogroth the capital of the kingdom of doriath from both east and west the orcs descended upon menegroth cutting king thinkelof from kierdan lord of the grey elves at eglarest plundering much and killing many as they made their way towards menegroth but help came from denathor and the lyquindi or green elves from a syrian and together with the might of menogroth morgoth's forces were routed and forced to retreat back north and waiting for them on their return journey were many dwarves who had come out from mount dolmed to apprehend them and few indeed returned to angband however denethor was slain in the struggle and the green elves never again took a king and lived ever after in secrecy and kiridan was driven to the rim of the sea by the victorious orc host that came out from the west surrounding doriath in that region and cutting thingal off from kierdan for the time being in order to preserve his realm thingol was granted a blessing by his wife the maya mellion as she crafted a magical barrier that surrounded doriath that only allowed in those given leave by either thingol or melion protecting that realm from the advances of morgoth's forces but outside of doriath orcs and other fel beasts roamed belarian striking terror into any they crossed and the world outside the few safe havens crafted by the elves was a dangerous place to abide and so ended the first battle in the war of valerians and with half a victory under his belt morgoth was poised to further increase his power and stamp out any opposition that might present itself in the coming years but new tidings were at hand which none in middle-earth had foreseen neither morgoth and his pits normelian and menogroth feyenoor had departed from oman with his people slaying on their way the grey elves who dwelted aqualande for refusing to provide them with their ships so they might pass swiftly into arda and upon landing in the firth of draengist after crossing the hell karaxi the same place that morgoth landed with angoliant after they fled valinor theon or burned their ships at lostgar ridding the world of the white ships of the tulare whose like the world would never see again from draengist the noldoran host of feyenoor marched into the hills of hitlam to set up camp by lake mithrim hoping to regain their strength for a while before moving against angband but the orcs that wandered that region saw the flames of the burning ships at last gar and assailed feyenoora and his hosts before they could properly set up the defenses of their camp and there on the grey fields of mithrim was fought the second battle in the wars of valerian dagger newing gileath it is named the battle under stars for the moon had not yet risen and it is renowned in song the noldor outnumbered and taken unaware were yet swiftly victorious for the light of amman was not yet dimmed in their eyes and they were strong and swift and deadly in anger and their swords were long and terrible the orcs fled before them and they were driven forth from mithrim with great slaughter and hunted over the mountains of shadow into the great plain of art galen that lay northward of dorthonian they're the armies of morgoth that had passed south into the vale of syrian and beleaguered kiridan in the havens of the follis came up to their aid and were caught in their ruin for keligorm fein or sun having news of them way laid them with a part of the elven host and coming down upon them out of the hills near either syrian drove them into the fen of sorek evil indeed were the tidings that came at last to angband and morgoth was dismayed ten days that battle lasted and from it returned of all the hosts that he had prepared for the conquest of valerian no more than a handful of levees feyenoor glowing from his first victory pressed forward to pursue the host of morgoth back to angband but feyenoor was unaware of just how much strength morgroth had laying beneath the bowels of angband and upon the confines of dor dedoloth balrogs came from angband to assist the battered host of morgoth and feyenoor was surrounded long and hard he fought undismayed though he was wrapped in fire and wounded with many wounds but at the last he was smitten to the ground by gothmog lord of balrogs and had it not been for the courage of his sons who would come to his aid in that desperate hour thanor would have perished then and there with the balrogs retreating back to angband the sons of feanor raised up their father and bore him back towards mithrim but as they drew near to either syrian and were upon the upward path to the passover the mountains fan orbade them halt for his wounds were mortal and he knew that his hour was come feyenoor in his final hour knew that the noldor could never hope to surmount the power of the dark lord upon his dread throne in angband yet even so he cursed morgoth three times and bade his sons keep to their oath and use all their might to recover the silmarils the fires of his spirit turning his body to ash before them as he drew his last breath in that same hour morgoth sent an embassy offering terms to the sons of feyenoor even going so far as to promise them the return of one of the silmarils none amongst them trusted morgoth but may throws the tall the eldest of the brothers beseeched his brothers to feign to treat with morgoth and to meet his emissaries at the place appointed but with them they would take a force greater than was agreed upon knowing that what lay before them was surely a trap however morgoth sent an even greater number to meet them and mathros was ambushed and all his company were slain but he himself was taken alive by the command of morgoth and brought to angband with a valuable hostage in his possession morgoth sent word that he would not release mathros unless the noldor forsook their war and returned westward over the seas or far to the south from valerian but the sons of feyenoor knew that morgoth would betray them no matter what they did and keeping in their mind their oath they refused his demands therefore morgoth took mathros and hung him from the face of a precipice upon thangarodrim and he was caught to the rock by the wrist of his right hand in a band of steel though morgoth had the upper hand at that time his position was weakened considerably by the valar from afar knowing that the coming of men was nigh upon them the valar at the behest of havana vowed not to let their first steps be shrouded in darkness and so they sent two of the mayar tilian and aryan to act as the keepers of the moon and sun respectively with tillian going forth first to usher in the advent of the moon and aryan following after the moon had passed seven times in the sky as fingolfin marched across the icy wastes of the north he did so under the light of the infant moon and when he reached hithlam his host was greeted by the fire of the newly born son the light shimmering his silver and blue banners before the host of the sons of feanor then the orcs and other fel beasts and morgoth's employ retreated at the advent of this new light and the land of valerian knew peace for about a moment under the blazing glory of aryan and her charge and morgoth was ever fearful of these new lights and he attempted to snuff out the moon by assailing tillian with dark spirits but tillian emerged victorious in the end and aryan morgoth feared with a great fear but dared not come nigh her having indeed no longer the power for as he grew in malice and sent forth from himself the evil that he conceived in lies and creatures of wickedness his might passed into them and was dispersed and he himself became ever more bound to the earth unwilling to issue forth from his dark strongholds thus with the sun beating strongly upon his host fingolfin came to the gates of engband unopposed and issued a challenge to morgoth beckoning that he come and face him but the sound of his trumpets only met their echo in reply so fingelfin returned back to mithrim to join with the host of the sons of feyenoor but upon reaching mithrim the two kindred peoples created an atmosphere of tension as fingelfin's people were slow to forget the doom forced upon the tulare at aqualande and the arduous journey they were forced to take over the icy wastes and though feyenoord was gone they still held his sons and their people accountable as accomplices so they set up camps on opposite sides of the lake fingolfin in the north and the sons of feanor in the south and seeing the rift between his enemies from afar melkor laughed in the pits of angband he caused vast smokes and vapors to be made and they came forth from the wreaking tops of the iron mountains and afar off they could be seen in mithrim staining the bright airs in the first mornings of the world a wind came out of the east and bore them over hithlem darkening the new sun and they fell and coiled about the fields and hollows and lay upon the waters of mithrim dreer and poisonous the strife between the two peoples would not last long however as finrod son of finnarfin with the help of the eagles of monwe ascended the peaks of thangaradrim to free mathross from his torment and in doing so he healed some of the hurts that divided the three branches of the noldor in arda 50 years later morgoth believing the reports of his spies that the lords of the noldor were wandering abroad with little thought of war made trial of the strength and watchfulness of his enemies once more with little warning his might was stirred and suddenly there were earthquakes in the north and fire came from fissures in the earth and the iron mountains vomited flame and orcs poured forth across the plain of art galen thence they thrust down the paths of sirian in the west and in the east they burst through the lands of maglor in the gap between the hills of mathros and the outliers of the blue mountains but fingolfin and mathros were not sleeping and while others sought out the scattered bands of orcs that strayed in valerian and did great evil they came upon the main host from either side as it was assaulting dorthonian and they defeated the servants of morgoth and pursuing them across art galen destroyed them utterly to the least and last within sight of angband's gates that was the third great battle of the wars of balearians and it was named dagor aglareb the glorious battle a victory it was and yet a warning and the princes took heat of it and thereafter drew closer their leaguer and strengthened and ordered their watch setting the siege of angband which lasted well ny 400 years of the sun for a long time after the dagger agloreb no servant of morgoth would venture from his gates for they feared the lords of the noldor and fingolfin boasted that saved by treason among themselves morgoth could never again burst from the leaguer of the eldar nor come upon them at unawares yet the noldor could not capture engband nor could they regain the silmarils and war never wholly ceased in all that time of the siege for morgoth devised new evils and ever in anon he would make trial of his enemies nor could the stronghold of morgoth be ever wholly encircled for the iron mountains from whose great curving wall the towers of thangarod were thrust forward defended it upon either side and were impassable to the noldor because of their snow and ice thus in his rear and to the north morgoth had no foes and by that way his spies at times went out and came by devious roots into balarion and desiring above all to sew fear and disunion among the eldar he commanded the orcs to take alive any of them that they could and bring them bound to angband and some he so daunted by the terror of his eyes that they needed no chains more but walked ever in fear of him doing his will wherever they might be thus morgoth learned much of all that had befallen since the rebellion of feyenoor and he rejoiced seeing therein the seed of many dissensions among his foes when nearly 100 years had run since the dagger agloreb morgoth endeavored to take fingolfin at unawares for he knew of the vigilance of mathros and he sent forth an army into the white north and they turned west and again south and came down the coast to the firth of draengist by the route that fingolfin followed from the grinding ice thus they would enter into the realm of hitlem from the west but they were aspired in time and fingon fell upon them among the hills at the head of the firth and most of the orcs were driven into the sea this was not reckoned among the great battles for the orcs were not in great number and only a part of the people of hitham fought there but thereafter there was peace for many years and no open assault from angband for morgoth perceived now that the orcs unaided were no match for the noldor and he sought in his heart for new council again after a hundred years glaurung the first of the uruloki the fire drakes of the north issued from angband's gate by night he was yet young and scarce half-groan for long and slow as the life of dragons but the elves fled before him to arid wetherin and dorthonian in dismay and he defiled the fields of argelene then fingon prince of hitlam rode against him with archers on horseback and hemmed him round with a ring of swift riders and glaurung could not endure their darts being not yet come to his full armory and he fled back to angband and came not forth again for many years fingon won great praise and the noldor rejoiced for few foresaw the full meaning and threat of this new thing but morgoth was ill-pleased that glaurung had disclosed himself over soon and after his defeat there was the long piece of well nigh 200 years in all that time there were about a phrase on the marches and all belarian prospered and grew rich but with the coming of the sun a new opportunity and threat presented itself to morgoth the awakening of men and in the early hour of man's existence morgoth labored to corrupt men to his service and in this endeavor he was largely successful and much of early men were hostile to the elves when first meeting them due to the designs of morgoth however he could not corrupt men fully and 300 years after the coming of the noldor men met with the elves for the first time and developed bonds of friendship with them led by their chieftain bayour the elves were approached by finrod who was now king of the great realm of nagathrond and from the elves the men of the house of bayor learned much and finrod in turn wished to know more about the awakening of men but bayor knew little of what his forefathers endured knowing only that he and his people had fled from darkness westward seeking light but it was said afterwards among the eldar that when men awoke in hildorian at the rising of the sun the spies of morgoth were watchful and tidings were soon brought to him and this seemed to him so great a matter that secretly under shadow he himself departed from angband and went forth into middle-earth leaving to sauron the command of the war of his dealings with men the eldar indeed knew nothing at that time and learnt but little afterwards but that a darkness lay upon the hearts of men they perceived clearly even in the people of the elf friends whom they first knew but it was said afterwards among the eldar that when men awoken hildorian at the rising of the sun the spies of morgoth were watchful and tidings were soon brought to him to corrupt or destroy whatsoever arose new and fair was ever the chief desire of morgoth and doubtless he had this purpose also in his errand by fear and lies to make men the foes of the eldar and bring them up out of the east against valerian but this design was slow to ripen and was never wholly achieved for men it is said were at first very few in number whereas morgoth grew afraid of the growing power and union of the eldar and came back to angband leaving behind at that time but few servants and those of les might and cunning even so morgoth did not let his thoughts stray from men entirely and he sent a spy under the guise of amlak son of marach a chieftain of men to convince them that the eldar meant them harm with their constant war against morgoth and that morgoth far off in the north was no threat to them but his lie was discovered and in a great wrath he sent out a band of orcs to harass the haladen one of the three houses of the adain the elf friends and in the ensuing struggle their chieftain haldad and his son halder were slain leaving haldett's daughter halith as the heir to their clan ever after marking the people who followed halath as a people apart from the other branches of men during this time the three houses of the adine multiplied in number exponentially and their strength added to that of the eldars bolstered their position and enclosed the lands of morgoth on all sides safe for the far north and for a time there was peace in valerian but 455 years after the coming of fingovin that peace was broken during the winter when few guards stood to watch for any sign of attack a great river of lava burst forth from the wretched peaks of thane garage rim the fume of the poison that accompanied it suffocating the air and the rich plane of art galen was utterly destroyed in its wake the acrid desert that was born from its destruction ever after being known as anfalgleeth the gasping dust and many noldor who could not escape the torrent of fire perished as they fled from its ruin thus began the fourth of the great battles dagger bragalak the battle of sudden flame in the front of that fire came glaurung the golden father of dragons in his full might and in his train were balrogs and behind them came the black armies of the orcs in multitudes such as the noldor had never before seen or imagined and they assaulted the fortresses of the noldor and broke the leaguer about angband and slew wherever they found them the noldor and their allies grey elves and men many of the stoutest of the foes of morgoth were destroyed in the first days of that war bewildered and dispersed and unable to muster their strength war ceased not holy ever again in valerian but the battle of sudden flame is held to have ended with the coming of spring when the onslaught of morgoth grew less thus ended the siege of angband and the foes of morgoth were scattered and sundered one from another the most part of the grey elves fled south and forsook the northern war many were received into doriath and the kingdom and strength of single grew greater in that time for the power of melly and the queen was woven about the borders and evil could not yet enter that hidden realm others took refuge in the fortresses by the sea and in nagathrond and some fled the land and hid themselves in a syrian or passing the mountains wandered homeless in the wild and rumor of the war and the breaking of the siege reached the ears of men in the east of middle earth in this battle many great elves and men perished but all was not lost and the hordes of morgoth were eventually driven back and the land of hithlam was made safe once more however the land of dorthonian was assaulted with a force too great for the sons of fey in order to combat and when word reached hitlem that dorthonian was lost fingelfin son of phenarfin seeing the doom of the noldor and the loss of dorthonion resolved to face morgoth himself and riding out in a great fury he came to the gates of angband blowing his horn and smiting its heavy doors as he issued a challenge to morgoth to come forth and face him in single combat issuing forth from the depths of hell as a great thunder shaking the very earth morgoth reed and smoke and black stood as tall as a tower before fingolfin with grond the hammer of the underworld and a massive unblazing black shield that cast a terrible shadow over his countenance shining as a single star in the midst of endless night with his sword wrangle in hand fingolfin battled with morgoth until at last his exhaustion overcame him and morgoth pressed his left foot against fingolfin's neck yet with his dying breath he unleashed a desperate stroke that hewed morgoth's foot and the blood of morgoth gushed forth black and smoking and filled the pits sundered into the ground by grond never again during the wars of valerian did morgoth issue forth for mangband and when he attempted to cast the body of fingolf into his wolves the great eagle thorondor assailed him and carved deep wounds into his face and ever after that day morgoth walked with a limp and a face marred by the talons of thorondor wounds given to him by two of his most hated enemies that would never heal and cause him constant agony in the coming days morgoth would claim lordship over much of the lands of the north harassing the men who remained in dorthonian under barahir pursuing them until few remained of their number and the land that fell to darkness under the pursuit of his forces was ever marred and turned into a dark forest of horror that consumed all who would enter it in a mass of claw-like roots and read phantoms of terror and this place was ever after known as del duoth and tower neufoin the forest under nightshade during this time sauron also set to work corrupting what he could taking for himself the fair isle of tolsirion and the tower of ministerith as his own and ever after that land was known as tolengaurhoth the isle of werewolves this was a dark time in the history of balerians much of the land outside the girdle of melion was unsafe to travel and the orcs roamed far and wide plundering the holdings of elves and men for their dark master morgoth even began sending elvish thralls from the depths of angband that he had captured in ages past and though he promised them liberty and freedom in truth their wills were bound to his own and these free elves received little welcome from their kinsmen morgoth still labored tirelessly to sway men to his cause and with the coming of the easterlings into belarians he was given such an opportunity as some were already in service to him upon their arrival but others still held no allegiance to him and the seeds he sowed amongst their people were slow to grow though morgoth's power had increased exponentially following the bragalac his thoughts were troubled still by turgon and gondolin and fingon and nagathrond two realms that still remained hidden to him and so he sent out many more spies into valerian in an attempt to discover their location but perceiving that he could not make a final and victorious battle until he had gathered new strength as though he had won a great victory and held new key positions his losses had also been great so he withdrew his forces back to angband and waited seven years before he sent a great force once again to assault hithlam and though the forces of king fingon were initially overwhelmed kierdon and his grey elves sailed up the firth of drangist to assist their kin in driving back the hordes of morgoth to angband during the ensuing interlude began the tale of baron and luthien the romance between the daughter of melian and king thingal and the man baron deeming baron unworthy to claim his daughter king thinkel gave baron the impossible task of recovering a silmaril from the iron crown of morgoth as dowry and baron filled with undying love for luthien accepted the challenge and went forth to find a way into the depths of angband though king thingol tried to keep his daughter within the confines of doriath while baron labored to win his favor luthien could not bear to stand by while the man she loved braved the depths of hell for her sake and so she stole away from doriath in search of baron along the way encountering two of the sons of feyenoor keligorm and kurofin seeking to overthrow king finrod in nagathrond keligorm and kurufin plotted to hold luthie in his hostage to force king thingol to give her hand to caligorm but the great wolf huan who was the companion of kelligorum took pity upon luthien and bore her away from nagathrond in search of baron morgoth learning of the quest of baron and hearing the bang of huan as they approached the iron mountains designed to sunder all hopes of this quest completion as well as huan's life by fulfilling the doom of huan that being his destiny to perish fighting the mightiest wolf to ever set foot upon middle earth and he planned to do so by feeding his flesh to a wolf of the race of draugloine instilling within it the fire and anguish of hell filling it with a devouring spirit tormented terrible and strong karkaroth the red ma he is named in the tales of those days and on fouglier the jaws of thirst and morgoth set him to lie on sleeping before the doors of angband lest huan come but with the power of luthien daughter of the mayamellian karkaroth was put to sleep then baron and luthien went through the gate and down the labyrinthine stairs and together robbed the greatest deed that has been dared by elves or men for they came to the seat of morgoth in his nethermost hall that was upheld by horror lit by fire and filled with weapons of death and torment there baron slunk in wolves form underneath his throne but luthien was stripped of her disguise by the will of morgoth and he bent his gaze upon her she was not daunted by his eyes and she named her own name and offered her service to sing before him after the manner of a minstrel then morgoth looking upon her beauty conceived in his thought in evil lust and a design more dark than any that had yet come into his heart since he fled from valinor thus he was beguiled by his own malice for he watched her leaving her free for a while and taking secret pleasure in his thought then suddenly she eluded his sight and out of the shadows began a song of such surpassing loveliness and of such blinding power that he listened per force and a blindness came upon him as his eyes roamed to and fro seeking her all his court were cast down in slumber and all the fires faded and were quenched but the silmarils in the crown on morgoth's head blazed forth suddenly with a radiance of white flame and the burden of that crown and of the jewels bowed down his head as though the world were set upon it laden with a weight of care a fear and of desire that even the will of morgoth could not support then luthien catching up her winged robe sprang into the air and her voice came dropping down like rain into pools profound and dark she cast her cloak before his eyes and set upon him a dream dark as the outer void where once he walked alone suddenly he fell as a hill sliding an avalanche and hurled like thunder from his throne lay prone upon the floors of hell the iron crown rolled echoing from his head all things were still as a dead beast apparently upon the ground but luthien touching him with her hand aroused him and he cast aside the wolfhame then he drew forth the knife angrist and from the iron claws that held it he cut a silmaril as he clothed it in his hand the radiant swelled through his living flesh and his hand became as a shining lamp but the jewel suffered his touch and heard him not it came then into baron's mind that he would go beyond his vow and bear out of angband all three of the jewels of feyenoor but such was not the doom of the silmarils the knife angrist snapped and a shard of the blade flying smoth the cheek of morgoth he groaned and stirred and all the host of angband moved in sleep baron and luthien thus fled but as they fled karkaroth stirred and sprang upon them as they ran and baron in his panic attempted to quell the wolf with the light of the silmaril failing as karkaroth's great hunger stirred and willed his jaws to clamp down upon the wrist of baron to swallow the silmaril and the holy fire that burned within karkaroth caused him to go mad with anguish as it radiated throughout his being causing him to rampage all across the northern lands and awaken the sleeping hosts of morgoth in the depths of angband eventually karkaroth was slain in tandem with huan as they battled one another and the silmaril recovered and given to king thingal and doriath where it was placed in the nalglomir the necklace of the dwarves and apart from the loss morgoth suffered in losing a silmaril his foes gained something else of much greater value the knowledge that morgoth was not unassailable and that hope there may still be for the free peoples to overcome his might in the days to come mathros the eldest son of feyenoor was the most willing to hearken to this portent of good fortune and mustered his forces to march in open force over and falgleeth and with the assistance of king fingon an alliance of elves men and dwarves deigned to assault morgoth on two fronts smashing his forces as a hammer upon an anvil between them but mathross made trial of his strength too soon air's plans were full rot and though the orcs were driven out of all the northward regions of belarians and even dorthonian was freed for a while morgoth was warned of the uprising of the eldar and the elf friends and took council against them many spies and workers of treason he sent forth among them as he was the better able to do now for the faithless men of his secret allegiance were yet deep in the secrets of the sons of feanor bolstered by their victories however this alliance pressed on and on the appointed day were assembled the sons of feyenoor with all their might king fingon in the strength of all the noldor of hitlem prince gwyndor and his company of noldor and men from nagathrond and last but not least hurin huar and haldir of brethiel with many men of the woods then fingon looked towards thingarodrim and there was a dark cloud about it and a black smoke went up and he knew that the wrath of morgoth was aroused and that their challenge was accepted a shadow of doubt fell upon fingon's heart and he looked eastwards seeking if he might see with elvin's height the dust of anfal gleeth rising beneath the hosts of mathros he knew not that mathros was hindered and is setting forth by the guile of uldor who deceived him with false warnings of assault from angband but now a cry went up passing up the wind from the south from veiled a veil and elves and men lifted their voices in wonder and joy for unsummoned and unlooked for turgon had opened the leaguer of gondolin and was come with an army ten thousand strong with bright mail and long swords and spears like a forest the ensuing battle would become known as the nirnaeth arnoydiad the battle of unnumbered tears for although this alliance of elves men and dwarves was the mightiest yet seen in the wars of valerians morgoth's cunning machinations proved to be far greater than the hastily planned assault the alliance formulated and though they were able to deal heavy blows to morgoth and his forces namely in the fear that gwyndor and his company instilled within him when they slammed against the doors of angband and the wounding of glaurung by the dwarf lord of bellagost asigal but this battle was not named the unnumbered tears for no reason as the greater part of the host of the valiant was slain their bodies piled high on the desolate plains of ann valgleeth until they resembled great hills hills that the eldar ever after called the houdin dengan the hill of the slain during this horrid struggle against the darkness many notable elves and men were slain gelmir the brother of gwyndor was murdered by orcs who first cut off his hands and feet before lopping off his head ulfing the easterling and his sons betrayed the sons of feyenoor and forced many losses upon them asigal paid for the wounding of glaurung with his life fingon high king of the noldor was slain by gothmog and another balrog which spelled the end of his realm along with all of his forces and the men of hador's house their lands afterwards plundered by treacherous easterlings and hurin head of the house of hador was taken captive by gothmog following these devastating losses valerians was forever changed the elves became estranged from all men except for those belonging to the three houses of the adine and the elves of hithlam were taken to the north to labor in the mines of the iron mountains as thralls to add even more pain to an already painful situation the grey elves under kierdan were massacred only a year later when morgoth sent a force to assault the grey havens and there were few left alive to pick up the pieces left by their fallen brethren however all was not lost as king turgon of gondolin escaped from the sight of morgoth and remained hidden from him and morgoth's thoughts were ever after on turgon who was now by right the high king of the noldor and morgoth sat in fear on his throne at the thought of the battle to come with the house of fingolfin under turgon for he feared and hated the house of fingolfin because they had the friendship of umo his foe and because of the wounds that fingolfin gave him with his sword and most of all his kin morgoth feared turgon for of old and valinor his eye had lighted upon him and whenever he drew near a shadow had fallen on his spirit foreboding that in some time that yet lay hidden from turgon ruin should come to him also there's still liv turin son of hurin heir to the house of hador and a man whose destiny lion standing against morgoth for the sake of his people and his father for the curse laid upon hurin and his house followed turin everywhere he went now the land of valerian lay in peril for who knows now the councils of morgoth who can measure the reach of his thought who had been melkor mighty among the ainur of the great song and sat now a dark lord upon a dark throne in the north weighing in his malice all the tidings that came to him and perceiving more of the deeds and purposes of his enemies than even the wisest of them feared save only melian the queen to her often the thoughts of morgoth reached out and there was foiled and now again the might of angband was moved and as the long fingers of a groping hand the forerunners of his armies probed the ways into balearians through a knock they came and dimbar was taken and all the north marches of doriath down the ancient road they came that led through the long defile of syrian past the isle where ministerith of finrod had stood and sowed through the land between malduin and syrian and on through the eaves of brethiel to the crossings of taeglin thence the road went on into the guarded plane but the orcs did not go far upon it as yet for their dwelt now in the wild a terror that was hidden and upon the red hill were watchful eyes of which they had not been warned for turin put on again the helm of hador and far and wide and valerian the whisper went under wood and over stream and through the passes of the hills saying that the helm and bow that had fallen in dimbar had arisen again beyond hope then many who went leaderless dispossessed but undaunted took heart again and came to seek the two captains d'or quarthal the land of bowen helm was in that time named all the region between taeglin and the west march of doriath and turin named himself a new gorthol the dreadhelm and his heart was high again in menogroth and in the deep halls of nagathrond and even in the hidden realm of gondolin the fame of the deeds of the two captains was heard and in engband also they were known then morgoth laughed for now by the dragonhelm was hurin's son revealed to him again and air long amon rude was ringed with spies so began the effort of morgoth to assail nagathrond and reduce its power to ashes and in this labor he succeeded sending a band of orcs supported by glaurung and that realm was all but destroyed however turin fled from nargothrond at the behest of glaurung and taking along the way a naked and confused woman as his wife whom he named niniel turin once again battled with glaurung and cabin inaris slaying glaurung and becoming wounded by his poisonous blood and thereafter fell to slumber before the corpse of his dying foe niniel his wife then found turin seemingly lifeless corpse beside glaurung and with his dying breath glaurung gifted her the truth by lifting her amnesia that truth being that she was in fact turin's long-lost sister and in the madness of grief over what they had done she took her own life by throwing herself into the gorge of khabit and aris and turin upon waking and learning the truth from a companion of his randir whom he slew afterward in a rage and when mabalong the hunter an elf of the realm of ellu thingol came and corroborated brandier story turin took his own life upon his black sword girthang so ended the life of turin turinbar sufferer of the curse laid upon his father by morgoth boglier but the curse of hurin was not yet spent though it had done much damage to the realm of elves and men already a year following his son's death hurin was released from his bonds by morgoth and sent to wander the lands of belarian with the intended goal of hardening his heart against elves and men further as he would be inevitably shunned from their presence after returning from his 28-year long bondage in engband so hurin wandered the wilds in search of any respite but he would find none and upon coming to the encircling mountains wherein lay the hidden realm of gondolin hurin cried aloud as he looked upon its hiding place turgon turgon remember the fan of saric oh turgon will you not hear in your hidden halls but there was no sound save the wind in the dry grasses yet there were ears that heard the words that huron spoke and report of all came soon to the dark throne in the north and morgoth smiled for he knew now clearly in what region turgon dwelt though because of the eagles no spy of his could yet come within sight of the land behind the encircling mountains thereafter the thought of morgoth was bent on ceasing on the mountainous land between anak and the upper waters of syrian whither his servants had never passed yet still no spy or creature out of angband could come there because of the vigilance of the eagles and morgoth was thwarted in the fulfillment of his designs but idril kelebrindle was wise and far-seeing and her heart misgave her and foreboding crept upon her spirit as a cloud therefore in that time she let prepare a secret way that should lead down from the city and passing out between the surface of the plane issue far beyond the walls northward of ammongwarth and she contrived it that the work was known but to few and no whisper of it came to makelin's ears it was at this time that maeglin an elf who resided in gondolin was captured maeglin was no weakling or craven but the torment wherewith he was threatened cowed his spirit and he purchased his life and freedom by revealing to morgoth the very place of gondolin and the ways whereby it might be found and assailed great indeed was the joy of morgoth and to maeglen he promised the lordship of gondolin as his vassal and the possession of israel calabrindo when the city should be taken and indeed desire for israel and hatred for tour led mayglin the easier to his treachery most infamous in all the histories of the elder days but morgoth sent him back to gondolin lest any should suspect the betrayal and so that maglin should aid the assault from within when the hour came and he abode in the halls of the king with smiling face and evil in his heart while the darkness gathered ever deeper upon israel at last in the year when arendyal was seven years old morgoth was ready and he loosed upon gondolin his balrogs and his orcs and his wolves and with them came dragons of the brood of glaurung and they were become now many and terrible the host of morgoth came over the northern hills where the height was greatest and the watch least vigilant and it came at night upon a time of festival when all the people of gondolin were upon the walls to await the rising sun and sing their songs at its uplifting for the morrow was the great feast that they named the gates of summer but the red light mounted the hills in the north and not in the east and there was no stay in the advance of the foe until they were beneath the very walls of gondolin and the city was beleaguered without hope of the deeds of desperate valor there done by the chieftains of the noble houses and their warriors and not least by tour much is told in the fall of gondolin of the battle of etheleon of the fountain with gothmog lord of balrogs in the very square of the king where each slew the other and of the defense of the tower of turgon by the people of his household until the tower was overthrown and mighty was its fall and the fall of turgon in its ruin tour sought to rescue idril from the sack of the city but maeglin had laid hands on her and on erendil and tour fought with maegelin on the walls and cast him far out and his body as it fell smoth the rocky slopes of ammon gwyreth thrice are it pitched into the flames below then tour and idril led such remnants of the people of gondolin as they could gather in the confusion of the burning down the secret way which israel had prepared and of that passage the captains of angband knew nothing and thought not that any fugitives would take a path towards the north and the highest parts of the mountains and the nias to angband the fume of the burning and the steam of the fair fountains of gondolin withering in the flame of the dragons of the north fell upon the veil of tumladin in mournful mists and thus was the escape of tour and his company aided for there was still a long and open road to follow from the tunnel's mouth to the foothills of the mountains nonetheless they came thither and beyond hope they climbed in woe and misery for the high places were cold and terrible and they had among them many that were wounded and women and children there was a dreadful pass kirith thorinath it was named the eagles cleft where beneath the shadow of the highest peaks a narrow path wound its way on the right hand it was walled by a precipice and on the left a dreadful fall leapt into emptiness along that narrow way their march was strung when they were ambushed by orcs for morgoth had set watchers all about the encircling hills and the balrog was with them then dreadful was their plight and hardly would they have been saved by the valor of yellow-haired glorfendell chief of the house of the golden flower of gondolin had not thorondor come timely to their aid many are the songs that have been sung of the duel of glorfendel with a balrog upon a pinnacle of rock in that high place and both fell to ruin in the abyss but the eagles coming stooped upon the orcs and drove them shrieking back and all were slain or cast into the deeps so that rumor of the escape from gondolin came not until long after to morgoth's ears then thorondor bore up glorfendell's body out of the abyss and they buried him in a mound of stones beside the pass and a green turf came there and yellow flowers bloomed upon it amid the barrenness of stone until the world was changed thus led by tuore son of hur the remnant of gondolin passed over the mountains and came down into the veil of syrian and fleeing southward by weary and dangerous marches they came at length to non-tothran the land of willows for the power of umo yet ran in the greatest river and it was about them there they rested a while and were healed of their hurts and weariness but their sorrow could not be healed and they made a feast in memory of gondolin and of the elves that had perished there the maidens and the wives and the warriors of the king and for glorfendell the beloved many were the songs they sang under the willows of non-tathran in the waning of the year their tour made a song for irendil his son concerning the coming of umo the lord of waters to the shores of neverass to four time and the sea longing woke in his heart and in his sons also therefore idril and tour departed from nontathrin and went southwards down the river to the sea and they dwelt there by the mouths of syrian and joined their people to the company of elwing dior's daughter that had fled thither but a little while before and when the tidings came to balor of the fall of gondolin and the death of turgon iranian gilgalad son of fingon was named hiking of the noldor in middle-earth but morgoth thought that his triumph was fulfilled wrecking little of the sons of feanor and of their oath which had harmed him never and turned always to his mightiest aid and in his black thought he laughed regretting not the one silmaril that he had lost for by it as he deemed the last shred of the people of the eldar should vanish from middle-earth and trouble it no more if he knew of the dwelling by the waters of syrian he gave no sign biding his time and waiting upon the working of oath and lie yet by syrion and the sea there grew up in elven folk the gleanings of doriath and gondolin and from balar the mariners of kiridan came among them and they took to the waves and the building of ships dwelling ever nigh to the coasts of arvanian under the shadow of olmo's hand and it is said that in that time omo came to valinor out of the deep waters and spoke there to the valar of the need of the elves and he called on them to forgive them and rescue them from the overmastering might of morgoth and went back the silmarils wherein alone now bloomed the light of the days of bliss when the two trees still shone in valinor but monwe moved not and of the councils of his heart what tale shall tell the wise have said that the hour was not yet come and the only one speaking in person for the cause of both elves and men pleading for pardon on their misdeeds and pity on their woes might move the councils of the powers and the oath of feyenoor perhaps even monwe could not loose until it found its end and the sons of feyenoor relinquished the silmarils upon which they had laid their ruthless claim for the light which lit the silmarils the valar themselves had made but soon the hour did come when arendial and his wife elwing sailed upon vingalot into the west and became the first mortals to set foot in the lands of the valar and upon landing arendil came before the throne of monwe to plead that he ate the elves and men of middle-earth in dealing with morgoth once and for all for the hour had become dark and morgoth was poised to become lord of all middle earth at the expense of all who dwelt there monwe seeing that arendeal's plea was pure of heart and made solely for the sake of elves and men and not himself then decided that it was nigh time for the valar to move against their brother and darkest foe and out of the west came a great host of valar mayar and elves of the west to assault the stronghold of morgoth yet it is said that morgoth looked not for the assault that came upon him from the west for so great was his pride become that he deemed that none would ever again come with open war against him moreover he thought that he had forever estranged the noldor from the lords of the west and that content in their blissful realm the valar would heed no more his kingdom in the world without for to him that is pitiless the deeds of pity are ever strange and beyond reckoning but the host of the valar prepared for battle and beneath their white banners marched the vanyar the people of ingway and those also of the noldor who never departed from valinor whose leader was fenarfin the son of fenway few of the talari were willing to go forth to war for they remembered the slaying at the swan haven and the rape of their ships but they hearkened to elwing who was the daughter of dior and come of their own kindred and they sent mariners enough to sail the ships that bore the host of valinor east over the sea yet they stayed aboard their vessels and none of them set upon the hitherlands of the march of the host of the valar to the north of middle-earth little is said in any tale for among them went none of those elves who had dwelt and suffered in the hitherlands and who made the histories of those days that still are known and tidings of these things they only learned long afterwards from their kinsfolk in amman but at the last the might of valinor came up out of the west and the challenge of the trumpets of aonway filled the sky and belarianed was a blaze with the glory of their arms for the host of the valar were arrayed and forms young and fair and terrible and the mountains rang beneath their feet the meeting of the hosts of the west and of the north is named the great battle and the war of wrath there was marshalled the whole power of the throne of morgoth and it had become great beyond count so that infogleeth could not contain it and all the north was aflame with war but it availed him not the balrogs were destroyed save some few that fled and hid themselves in caverns inaccessible at the roots of the earth and the uncounted legions of the orcs perished like straw on a great fire or were swept like shriveled leaves before a burning wind few remained to trouble the world for long years after and such views were left of the three houses of the elf friends fathers of men fought upon the part of the valar and they were avenged in those days for baragund and barahir galdor and gundor huar and hurin and many others of their lords but a great part of the sons of men whether of the people of uldor or others who come out of the east marched with the enemy and the elves do not forget it then seeing that his hosts were overthrown and his power dispersed morgoth quailed and he dared not come forth himself but he loosed upon his foes the last desperate assault that he had prepared and out of the pits of angband there issued the winged dragons that had not before been seen and so sudden and ruinous was the onset of that dreadful fleet that the host of the valar was driven back for the coming of the dragons was with great thunder and lightning and a tempest of fire but a rendeal came shining with white flame and about vingalot were gathered all the great birds of heaven and thorindor was their captain and there was battle in the air all the day and through a dark night of doubt before the rising of the sun arendill slew and caligon the black the mightiest of the dragon host and cast him from the sky and he fell upon the towers of thang garadrim and they were broken in his ruin then the sun rose and the host of the valar prevailed and well nigh all the dragons were destroyed and all the pits of morgoth were broken and unroofed and the might of the valar descended into the deeps of the earth there morgoth stood at last at bay and yet on valiant he fled into the deepest of his minds and sued for peace and pardon but his feet were hewn from under him and he was hurled upon his face then he was bound with a chain and ganor which he had worn a four time and his iron crown they beat into a collar for his neck and his head was bowed upon his knees and the two silmarils which remained to morgoth were taken from his crown and they shone unsullied beneath the sky and aionway took them and guarded them thus an end was made of the power of angband in the north and the evil realm was brought to naught and out of the deep prisons a multitude of slaves came forth beyond all hope into the light of day and they looked upon a world that was changed for so great was the fury of these adversaries that the northern regions of the western world were rent asunder and the sea roared in through many chasms and there was confusion and great noise and rivers perished or found new paths and the valleys were upheaved and the hills trod down and syrian was no more but morgoth himself the valar thrust through the door of night beyond the walls of the world into the timeless void and a guard is set forever on those walls and derendiel watch upon the ramparts of the sky yet the lies that melkor the mighty and accursed morgoth boglier the power of terror and of hate sowed in the hearts of elves and men are a seed that does not die and cannot be destroyed and ever and and on it sprouts anew and will bear dark fruit even until the latest days and when the world ends at the end of time it is said that morgoth will at last find a way to break through the door of night with all his fallen host behind him and the last battle between good and evil shall be fought as time wears thin and it has been prophesied by mandos that turin turinbar shall join in this battle and bring along away to death to morgoth once and for all but until then the seeds morgoth had sown in the world indeed still bear fruit and his chief servant sauron had a heavy hand in shaping the course of events that would play out in a world bereft of morgoth but his exploits following his master's demise do not enter into this tale for his deeds are great and many and must be told elsewhere so after all that we've learned about morgoth what is there to say about this all-consuming malevolent force of darkness that is morgoth boglier well to put it lightly morgoth isn't just evil he is evil when morgoth began to covet that which wasn't his to possess envy overtook his entire being when he was denied the power and prestige that he so craved and he took on the attitude of i will be lord and master of everything and what i can't possess for myself i will corrupt and destroy for if i can't have it no one will morgoth would sooner rule over the ashes of an utterly desecrated world than allow even a single being to remain outside of his control and like so many real world religious baddies morgoth is the vessel from which all evil stems he isn't responsible for death as death is a creation of aru but he is responsible for wrongful death and every other evil act you can imagine murder rape torture war pestilence slavery strife all these things and more originate from morgoth he is the darkness to illuvatar's light the original source of corruption that lies within every evil act ever committed or that will be committed upon arda as described by tolkien in one of his many letters while sauron's power lay in the one ring and its corrupting influence morgoth's was inlaid into the very fabric of middle earth and because of this the very world can be considered morgoth's ring sauron balrogs orcs dragons werewolves vampires dark spirits fell beasts evil men all these beings would not exist were it not for morgoth and though all their deeds can ultimately be attributed to him he's not just an indirect source of evil throughout this video i've regaled you with examples of his own personal villainy the constant destruction of the valar's work at the dawn of time the destruction of the two lamps and then the two trees the theft of the silmarils and the murder of inway the slaying of feyenoor and fingolfin his implied desire to rape luthien the imprisonment of hurin and of course the many wars instigated directly by morgoth himself though were given many instances where valiant kings and heroes of old were slain on morgoth's orders or by morgoth himself the real tragedy lies within the thousands upon thousands of beings whose lives were either seriously harmed or ended due to his influence who knows the exact number of elves men dwarves plants and animals that perished as a result of morgoth's selfish desires but the number is likely astronomical and it will continue to grow so long as the world remains selfish craven brutal and entirely without mercy morgoth may have began his existence as melchor mightiest and most gifted of the inur but his descent into darkness would transform him into the very source of evil an umbra of darkness whose corruption will strangle the world of middle earth until the very end of days but evil at least in this world and perhaps even hours cannot last forever and when it is time for the dagger dagarath the world shall be remade and the memory of morgoth boglier forgotten but not entirely as the scars he created will forever burn on in the thoughts and bodies of those who still remain to recall his all-consuming evil thank you all for tuning in to this episode of analyzing evil and i hope you've enjoyed what are your thoughts on morgoth did i miss anything let me know down below and leave a suggestion for a villain you'd like to see featured while you're at it if you like this video hit that thumbs up button and make sure to subscribe if you haven't already a big thank you to all of my subscribers and to my patrons and a most vile thank you to those whose names you're seeing on screen now join the channel's discord server and reddit to interact with myself and the community and follow me on the social media platforms listed below to keep up with the channel and of course don't forget to check out the new merchandise that you're seeing on screen now by clicking the link down below as always thanks for watching and i'll be seeing you soon you

Channel: The Vile Eye

Views: 121,204

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Id: 11rytbbPOCw

Length: 81min 2sec (4862 seconds)

Published: Thu Jul 28 2022