Before the Numenoreans Came
© Michael Martinez
Things in Middle-earth changed radically as a result of the War of Wrath. The war lasted about 42 years, beginning in the year 545 of the First Age and ending in the year 587. During that time huge parts of Middle-earth -- Beleriand, the far northern lands, the inland sea of Helcar -- were ruined or reshaped. In Morgoth's Ring Christopher Tolkien presents a previously unpublished essay by his father which ponders the motives of the various forces in the Silmarillion.
In the first and second parts of the essay JRRT explains how Melkor diminished himself gradually by incarnating
himself (as Morgoth) permanently. He did this so as to control the hroa, the 'flesh' or physical matter, of Arda. He attempted to identify himself with it. A vaster, and more perilous, procedure, though of similar sort to the operations of Sauron with the Rings. Thus, outside the Blessed Realm, all 'matter' was likely to have a 'Melkor ingredient', and those who had bodies, nourished by the hroa of Arda, had as it were a tendency, small or great, towards Melkor: they were none of them wholly free of him in their incarnate form, and their bodies had an effect upon their spirits.This remarkable conclusion (itself but a proposition for further conclusions reached later in the essay) was decided or perhaps weighed by Tolkien in the late 1950s and/or early 1960s, less than ten years after the publication of The Lord of the Rings, and approximately contemporarily with the texts which formed the basis for much of the published Silmarillion. It is therefore reasonable to accept the explanation which follows the above citation as the motive behind the Valar's reluctance to act against Melkor in the published Silmarillion:
But in this way Morgoth lost (or exchanged, or transmuted) the greater part of his original 'angelic' powers, of mind and spirit, while gaining a terrible grip upon the physical world. For this reason he had to be fought, mainly by physical force, and enormous material ruin was a probable consequence of any direct combat with him, victorious or otherwise. This is the chief explanation of the constant reluctance of the Valar to come into open battle against Morgoth. Manwë's task and problem was much more difficult than Gandalf's. Sauron's, relatively smaller, power was concentrated; Morgoth's vast power was disseminated. The whole of 'Middle-earth' was Morgoth's Ring, though temporarily his attention was mainly upon the North-west. Unless swiftly successful, War against him might well end in reducing all Middle-earth to chaos, possibly even all Arda. It is easy to say: 'It was the task and function of the Elder King to govern Arda and make it possible for the Children of Eru to live in it unmolested.' But the dilemma of the Valar was this: Arda could only be liberated by a physical battle; but a probable result of such a battle was the irretrievable ruin of Arda....
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