The Good, the Bad, and the Outlawed - Page 2
© Michael Martinez
Without Melkor as a member of their community, the Valar were bereft of his strength and his direct influence. They were diminished and the character of their society was altered by his absence. On the other hand, the Valar also summoned many Ainur to help them after the first conflict with Melkor. By enlarging their community the Valar established a new order which excluded Melkor. At the same time, Melkor established his own community, and with that his own order. The old order thus perished and two new, diametrically opposing, orders were estsblished.
Although there were two opposing regimes, the only legitimate one was Manwe's. Manwe was Iluvatar's representative, and Iluvatar's authority passed through Manwe to the other faithful Valar. But Melkor's followers surrendered their freedom of choice to him, subjecting themselves to his will. In this way, Melkor established a moral imperative for himself which carried the force of law. Iluvatar would not invalidate the choices made by the Ainur, even if those choices opposed his own designs.
Melkor's order thus obtained a sub-legitimacy relative to Manwe's order. Melkor's order could exist within Ea because the (fallen) Ainur had surrendered their right of choice to him. They became his servants. But, in one attempt to reconcile what must have happened with the natural order of the evolving cosmology, Tolkien realized that the act of subservience was insufficient. "In his thought which deceived him...he believed that over the Children [of Iluvatar] he might hold absolute sway and be unto them sole lord and master, as he could not be to spirits of his own kind, however subservient to himself" (Cf. "Myths Transformed: II", Morgoth's Ring).
Melkor's order would exist only so long as his Ainurian followers accepted him. He therefore set about enlarging that order by including within it other creatures who could not of their own free will become subservient to him. He sought to dominate the wills of other creatures, and ultimately to be to those creatures as if he were their true creator. He usurped not Manwe's authority but Iluvatar's. Melkor was the ultimate slaver, governing a society of both willing and unwilling slaves. His society possessed its own law and justice, even if it only seems twisted by comparison with Manwe's society.
Outlaw societies have indeed existed throughout history. Outlaws leave the greater community and flee into the wilds, and sometimes they band together either for mutual protection or for mutual gain. Historically, it was safer to be part of a group, even a villainous group, than to live on your own. And when the rulers of society are themselves cruel and evil, the outlaws are those people who cannot endure the cruelty without protest.
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