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The Middle-Earth Prophecies - Page 3

© Michael Martinez

The Osanwe-kenta says that "the Valar entered into Time and Ea of free will, and they are now in Time, so long as it endures. They can perceive nothing outside of Time, save by memory of their existence before it began: they can recall the Song and the Vision." The first note attached to the commentary on "Athrabeth Finrod ah Andreth" elaborates on Iluvatar's freedom versus the Valar's constraints:

The Eldar held that Eru was and is free at all stages. This freedom was shown to in the Music by His introduction, after the arising of the discords of Melkor, of the two new themes, representing the coming of the Elves and Men, which were not in His first communication. He may therefore ... introduce things directly, which were not in the Music and so are not achieved through the Valar. It remains, nonetheless, true in general to regard Ea as achieved through their mediation.

The mediation of the Valar in creating (or sub-creating) Ea, and their memory of the Music and the Vision, provide them with the intricate knowledge of Ea and Time with which they forecast what may come. They also may foresee things yet unrevealed, but only if Iluvatar has imparted such knowledge to them. Their own mediation gives them fore-knowledge but not foresight. Iluvatar spoke to the Ainur as he showed them the Vision, and he told them many things not included in the Vision. Free will thus does not collide with the actions and intentions of the Valar, except for Melkor, who desired to compel all living things to obey him. He wanted to be worshipped by the Children as Iluvatar should have been. He wanted to be obeyed by the Ainur as Iluvatar should have been. Melkor attempted to engage in the type of compulsion which would eliminate or reduce free will. Tolkien struggled to explain this abridgement of Iluvatar's gift to all Rational Incarnates in the essays regarding the origin of Orcs. In his final essay on Orcs, Tolkien wrote: "It is true, of course, that Morgoth held the Orcs in dire thralldom; for in their corruption they had lost almost all possibility of resisting the domination of his will. So great indeed did its pressure upon them become ere Angband fell that, if he turned his thought towards them, they were conscious of his 'eye' wherever they might be; and when Morgoth was at last removed from Arda the Orcs that survived in the West were scattered, leaderless and almost witless, and were for a long time without control or purpose."

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